June 01, 2015 Once a month the Austin garden bloggers gather at one of our gardens to socialize, talk plants and design, and do a plant swap. Last Saturday we met up in Rock Rose/Jenny Stocker’s garden, which despite a … Read More
May 17, 2016 Last week, while cruising around north-central Austin’s Shoalwood and south Allandale neighborhoods, I noticed a trend: contemporary curb appeal with gravel and concrete-paver paths, low walls and fences to separate public and private areas, and turf reduction … Read More
March 08, 2016 The weather’s not yet hot, but the flowers are. I’m embracing orange and reveling in the saturation. Thanks to an unusual, freeze-free winter, the garden has a jump-start on lush growth. Mexican honeysuckle (Justicia spicigera) is smothered … Read More
April 18, 2016 Rooftop view of the walled courtyard and front garden. Not a blade of lawn grass anywhere, nor is it missed. Seeing one of my new favorite gardens requires an hour-and-a-half road trip to San Antonio, but it’s … Read More
April 21, 2014 The second garden I visited with Phoenix landscape architect Steve Martino was familiar to me from a magazine or garden book I’d read. Peer recognition, including an ASLA design award in 2006, has also been bestowed on … Read More
November 16, 2014 What won’t block the windows and grows no taller than 3 feet? What remains evergreen? What can live in shade? What won’t the deer eat? These are the foundation-planting questions that haunt generations of gardeners (or me … Read More
April 12, 2016 Last Saturday I joined Jenny of Rock Rose for a road trip to San Antonio. We rumbled down there in her pickup truck, making a quick detour to a San Marcos stoneyard, where she picked up a … Read More
October 26, 2015 If gravel accented with a few lonely cacti and a cow skull is all that comes to mind when you think of a dry garden, it’s time to update this dusty Old West vision. Drought across the … Read More
May 20, 2015 A grand limestone staircase bisected by a rill leads from the back of the house to a large pond in the lower garden. Yesterday I showed you around the upper level of James David’s magnificent garden, which … Read More
August 14, 2014 After the barely controlled excess of Floramagoria, the next garden we toured on the Portland Garden Bloggers Fling seemed, at first glance, restrained, even austere. No seating was visible aside from garden walls and steps. With the … Read More
April 04, 2015 Our state flower, the Texas bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis), is turning roadsides and open fields blue all over Austin. Many Austinites get into the spirit in their own front or back yards, scattering bluebonnet seeds in sunny gravel … Read More
October 16, 2014 Earlier this month I visited the East Austin garden of Lee Clippard, blogger at The Grackle, and his partner, John. The first fall rains had just arrived, following a relatively mild summer, so their foliage-centric garden of … Read More
Every year native spiderwort seeds itself into rocky nooks and crannies and pops up in new places in the garden. We're both happy about it.
Sunset-hued boulders stacked into low walls hold gravelly soil for dry-loving plants at Houston Botanic Garden's cactus garden.
May 14, 2014 Here’s a garden I’ve shown you twice before, but I never get tired of touring it. Beautifully designed, inviting, with whimsical and personal vignettes, landscape architect Tait Moring‘s personal garden on Bee Caves Road has been previously … Read More
June 25, 2015 Tell me this doesn’t look like a Thomas Kinkade painting, but in the best sense — light gleaming in the window of a picturesque cottage — without the kitsch. With rain clouds darkening the sky, this was … Read More
In Linda Peterson's San Antonio garden, the artistry of her plant combinations, skillful pruning, and integration of garden art always delights.
December 11, 2015 “All the fun of a real armadillo family with no unpleasant aftertaste,” is how the artist at 20 Digit Design describes his steel creatures. I’ve rubbernecked at these fun armadillo sculptures many a time while driving down … Read More
September 16, 2015 Austin designer Mark Word (see my profile about him) designed this serene, green San Antonio garden that you can see on the upcoming Watersaver Landscape Tour on October 24. I got a preview last Friday thanks to … Read More
August 31, 2012 If you brave the West Nile-carrying mosquitoes at dusk, you can enjoy the unfurling of datura’s lightly scented trumpets. Under a full moon last evening, I took these images of one of my datura (Datura wrightii) in … Read More
March 06, 2015 Last weekend in Houston we popped into Thompson+Hanson, an elegant boutique nursery with a mouthful of a name, located on W. Alabama Street. It was late afternoon on a chilly, damp day, and the place was quiet, … Read More
September 15, 2015 My friend Shirley of Rock-Oak-Deer in San Antonio recently uttered the magic words: Come see a few gardens! So last Friday I hopped in my car, drove south to the Alamo City, and met Shirley to tour … Read More
Branch Park in the Mueller neighborhood opened recently, and a palo verde path by the volleyball courts is lovely in acid-yellow spring bloom.
September 01, 2014 Charlotte Warren, a photographer and former co-chair of the local Garden Conservancy tour, inherited a steeply sloping, west-facing zoysia lawn when she moved into her home in the hills of West Austin. Aside from requiring lots of … Read More
October 29, 2013 Whenever landscape architect Curt Arnette of Sitio Design invites me to see one of his gardens, I say, “I’ll be right there!” Last Saturday we toured a 1-year-old garden in the Lakewood neighborhood of West Austin that … Read More
May 04, 2015 Each time I visit the garden of landscape architect Curt Arnette in southwest Austin, I am absolutely agog over the front courtyard, which occupies a corner lot on a typical suburban street of nicely kept lawns and … Read More
November 24, 2014 This drive-by is really a walk-by. I was on South Congress Avenue on Sunday afternoon, the center of the funky-hip Austin universe, enjoying a blue-sky, 80-degree day with my family. Fall, winter, and spring days like this … Read More
September 10, 2013 Hot-climate gardens need a water feature to counteract summer’s heat with a feeling of cool wetness. My stock-tank pond serves that purpose in my garden, plus it gives me a chance to grow a few plants that … Read More
August 08, 2016 As the Death Star sizzles for weeks on end — 100 degrees F and no rain in sight — it might seem as if all the garden can do is endure. But no! Plants that put on … Read More
February 06, 2013 Does your central Texas garden need a boost in late winter? Then add a few flowering maples and enjoy colorful, lantern-like blossoms that either hang pendant or are held horizontally on short stems. Large, maple-shaped leaves are … Read More
October 02, 2012 Every time I arrive at home, slowing to pull into my driveway, I get to enjoy this. Yep, this is my neighbor Donna’s streetside garden that she let me design for her earlier this year. And now … Read More
When you’ve been gardening in a climate with four seasons and move to a hot, dry climate, gardening becomes a whole new experience. I’ve come across many people who have given up on gardening in our Arizona desert, because it wasn’t as easy as it was growing back in their home state. With some basic
June 25, 2013 A week ago I traveled to San Antonio to give a public Lawn Gone! talk at the invitation of the Gardening Volunteers of South Texas. Among the 100 or so people in attendance, two Alamo City bloggers … Read More
April 12, 2016 Last Saturday I joined Jenny of Rock Rose for a road trip to San Antonio. We rumbled down there in her pickup truck, making a quick detour to a San Marcos stoneyard, where she picked up a … Read More
Designer Carolyn Mullet's new book, Adventures in Eden, showcases 50 stunning private gardens across Europe.
June 30, 2015 On our last day of the Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling in early June, we visited a private garden described as a wildlife garden. I didn’t end up taking photos of its wildlife-attracting features, however. Instead I was … Read More
For every problem area in your landscape, you'll find perennials that not only survive but also thrive in the conditions available. Simply match the preferred growing conditions of each perennial to your site.
September 01, 2014 Charlotte Warren, a photographer and former co-chair of the local Garden Conservancy tour, inherited a steeply sloping, west-facing zoysia lawn when she moved into her home in the hills of West Austin. Aside from requiring lots of … Read More
The Heights neighborhood in Houston is free-spirited, as evidenced by this collection of culvert pipe scraps turned annual planters.
