Happy Thanksgiving, my fellow Americans! I’m finding much to be thankful for today and hope you are too. I’m grateful for cooler weather, walks around Lady Bird Lake, and a vibrant hometown to enjoy.

Beauty all around me

Peaceful moments in nature

And of course family and friends and the online community of garden lovers. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Oh, and local readers, there are still spots available for my upcoming in-person Garden Spark event with designer Shaney Clemmons speaking. See details below, under Digging Deeper. I hope you’ll come on out for it!

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

Hey, Austin-area gardeners! Want to learn about growing a biodiverse hedge for screening your yard, adding wildlife habitat, and making a more ecological choice than a fence? Register for my next Garden Spark talk with Shaney Clemmons on December 7th at 7 pm. Come get ideas for what to plant that’ll withstand our Central Texas weather extremes. Plus it’s fun to hang out with fellow gardeners under the big live oak and string lights at beautiful Barton Springs Nursery! Hope to see you there!

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Thankful for today appeared first on Digging.

Picking up my tour of Paxson Hill Farm — from the Philadelphia Area Fling in September — where I left off yesterday, let’s keep exploring! After emerging from the hobbit house hideaway, I followed the path uphill through another weeping-tree arch. The romance! Am I right?

The Swamp

Ahead lay a swamp garden, marked by a quirky cordyline at the gateposts. A narrow boardwalk promises to keep your feet dry.

The marshy ground is obscured by lush foliage, but a weeping tree beckons in the distance.

Jim Charlier led the way along the zigzagging boardwalk.

You reach dry land under the willow and find yourself on an island with semi-spooky totems.

Are they friendly?

A swinging log bridge provides your escape, and of course you can have a little fun bouncing on it if you want.

Laughing as you exit the bouncing bridge, you spot — hello! — a hippo lounging in a low spot.

Amphitheater

At the rear of the garden, you find a large, grassy amphitheater. I wonder what kinds of performances they stage here?

On stage, a sculptural musician silently plays.

Fall color was starting to kick in in late September.

Found-object color is always there.

Temple Garden

A formal garden stretches along one side of Paxson Hill, with axis views, framed doorways, and lots of sculpture. There’s a wildlife pond just beyond, but I was running short on time and had to skip it this time. If you’re curious, you can see it in my post from a visit in 2021.

An Egyptian goddess, new since my last visit, marked the final focal point along the axis. Now let’s turn around and walk through the formal garden in reverse.

I soon found Layanee DeMerchant striking a mauve pose in a moon gate. She matches the gravel behind her!

A bosque enclosed by a hedge and lined with sculptural works offers a contemplative place to sit.

An Adam and Eve (she’s just out of view) are entwined in a metal arbor between garden rooms.

A pair of sphinxes marks the entrance to another garden room. You never know what you will find at Paxson Hill.

Off to the side, an abstract sculpture on the lawn stands out against burgundy foliage.

And an oversized pair of urns, each an explosion of rainbow-hued phormium, marks the entrance to the Temple Garden.

Satyr faces adorn the urns.

Naked Alien

The main crossroads of Paxson Hill’s garden is a circular lawn with paths radiating out on all sides. In the center stands a kinetic sculpture, Naked Alien.

Katsura Garden

I had time for a quick peek at the Katsura Garden, where I found a hunger-inducing sculpture of colorful macarons…

…and a giant chess board, abandoned mid-game. A king stands in the corner, watching the scene.

I adore Paxson Hill Farm’s creativity, fearlessness, and sense of adventure. It’s wonderful to see such a creative designer as owner Bruce Gangawer let loose across 30 acres to create a one-of-a-kind garden and open it to the public to enjoy.

Up next: The incomparable Chanticleer Garden, Part 1. (It may be a little while before I can edit all my photos of Chanticleer, since I’m working hard on my new book right now. But stayed tuned for them!) For a look back at Paxson Hill Farm, Part 1, including the pond garden and hobbit house hideaway, click here.

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Gardens for adventure, art, and games at Paxson Hill Farm appeared first on Digging.

On the final day of the Philadelphia Area Fling in late September, we stopped at Paxson Hill Farm in New Hope, Pennsylvania, to tour its marvelous garden behind the nursery. Even though Tropical Storm Ophelia had made garden-touring rather sodden (but still plenty fun!), I knew Paxson Hill was worth donning the poncho and exploring every nook and cranny. How? Because I’d visited before, in October 2021, on the recommendation of James Golden. I set off at once for the farthest path, which beckoned beyond spiky-hairdo containers of phormium.

Blackberry lily showing off its namesake fruits

Bridge Garden

Two paths diverge — which to take? You’re faced with this difficult choice throughout Paxson Hill’s gardens, with each path offering an equally appealing option. Just pick one!

Both times I’ve visited Paxson Hill in autumn, when tall grasses arch their feathery plumes over the paths.

Another choice to make as I neared the Asian-inspired pond garden

Such wonderful foliage texture and color, with rounded boulders as accents

Not to mention the inky trunks of trees in the rain

A pair of black, motel-style chairs on a small deck overlooks the pond, but you can’t see the water from here.

Pushing on through bent grasses

An arching bridge indicates water ahead.

Let’s walk across…

…and finally enjoy a view of the pond and a low waterfall spilling into it.

A beautiful reward for exploration

One more

From behind the waterfall, a view of the bridge is framed by grasses and trees.

I love the grassy textures and early fall color.

A mellow wind chime gently tolls under a tree.

Seedpods and yellowing foliage

Hobbit House

In the heart of the garden, a weeping tree hides a secret, subterranean room.

Arching stone gateposts mark the entrance to the space, where a cauldron-like vessel of water sits in the center of a stone patio. It all seems fit for a gathering of druids.

The door stands open, so let’s go inside.

Entrance to the hobbit house

Inside and down a few steps, and you find yourself in a round hideaway, with a skylight illuminating a crisscrossing arrangement of strings and a crystal over a well-like water feature. Hobbits might have made it all a bit cozier with overstuffed armchairs and piles of books, but it’s a whimsical space to discover.

Looking out, through the fringe of weeping foliage

Another weeping tree arches over the path ahead, inviting you onward.

Up next: Part 2 of my visit to Paxson Hill Farm, including a sculpture garden and fun and games. For a look back at Barbara Tiffany’s Mill Fleurs garden, click here.

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

Hey, Austin-area gardeners! Want to learn about growing a biodiverse hedge for screening your yard, adding wildlife habitat, and making a more ecological choice than a fence? Register for my next Garden Spark talk with Shaney Clemmons on December 7th at 7 pm. Come get ideas for what to plant that’ll withstand our Central Texas weather extremes. Plus it’s fun to hang out with fellow gardeners under the big live oak and string lights at beautiful Barton Springs Nursery! Hope to see you there!

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Paxson Hill garden still gorgeous in the rain appeared first on Digging.

The Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden at Dallas Arboretum opened 10 years ago, but somehow I’d never visited until last month. Why? I guess because my kids had outgrown children’s gardens by the time it opened, and so it wasn’t on my radar despite many visits over the years to the Arboretum. Also, the entrance to the Adventure Garden is waaaaay off to the side of the Arboretum, and unless you park over there, it’s easy to miss. That’s a mistake, because it’s a fun place for parents and kids to explore (you can also visit sans kids, as I did). Admission requires a separately purchased ticket, which you can buy at the main entrance to the Arboretum or at the gate into the Adventure Garden.

Treehouse

The Adventure Garden is huge, spread across 8 acres that slope down to White Rock Lake. Toward the center of the garden you find a gigantic, manmade tree trunk, with stairs leading up to a netted area for playing in the canopy.

For universal access, a skywalk bridge also leads to the canopy.

Kids were having a blast playing on the net around the tree trunk.

Bird’s nest classroom

Nearby, a giant bird’s nest contains benches and two large eggs for an outdoor classroom.

A bird’s-eye view

Bronze animal sculptures are placed naturalistically throughout the garden, making for fun discoveries.

Real animals live here too.

The Texas Skywalk

A canopy-level bridge, the Texas Skywalk, runs through the middle section of the garden…

…accessing not only the tree-net play space but a rooftop terrace…

…and a tower with an elevator down to the energy exhibits.

The elevator/stair tower

Energy exhibits

Near the lake, several exhibits demonstrate ways of creating or harnessing energy.

I learned that a solar farm in San Antonio is one of the largest solar-energy producers in the U.S.

Where would you build a hydropower plant?, another sign asks.

The interactive exhibits show kids science in action.

Water blasters offer a little target-shooting fun too.

Solar energy exhibit

Living Cycles

In another section of the garden, kids learn about living cycles, like the seasons and plant and animal life cycles.

What plants offer food for wildlife? Berrying ones like juniper and beautyberry, for a start.

Compost bins and an old rotting log (faux) demonstrate how nature recycles.

Earth Cycles

Earth cycles — including erosion, the water cycle, weather, and planetary movements — are brought to life in another section of the garden. Kids can explore a cave…

…and learn how rainwater moves through waterways.

An analemmatic sundial uses a human shadow to show the time of day.

Edible garden

In the upper part of the garden, an edible garden teaches children where their food comes from…

…and what else crops may be used for.

Hedge maze

A secret garden with a hedge maze was a popular spot, with excited kids darting through it.

Lots of places to hide in here

And discoveries to make, like this spinning sphere floating on a vessel of water.

Plants

This is a garden too, of course, with flowering plants throughout, like morning glory…

…pomegranate…

…muhly grass…

…and salvia and yucca.

Not to mention gigantic flowerpot sculptures

The Adventure Garden must be a popular place for school groups and kids from tots to middle school-aged. Dallas parents are lucky to have this resource for outdoor play and learning.

For a look back at Dallas Arboretum during pumpkin season, click here.

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

Hey, Austin-area gardeners! Want to learn about growing a biodiverse hedge for screening your yard, adding wildlife habitat, and making a more ecological choice than a fence? Register for my next Garden Spark talk with Shaney Clemmons on December 7th at 7 pm. Come get ideas for what to plant that’ll withstand our Central Texas weather extremes. Plus it’s fun to hang out with fellow gardeners under the big live oak and string lights at beautiful Barton Springs Nursery! Hope to see you there!

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Children’s Adventure Garden at Dallas Arboretum appeared first on Digging.

One of my favorite contemporary artists, for over two decades, is Australian-born photographer Kate Breakey. I fell in love with her Small Deaths series when she was still living in Austin. She’s been in Tucson for many years now, but she still shows new work at Stephen L. Clark Gallery off W. 6th Street.

I went to see her new exhibition of hand-colored photographs a couple weeks ago, and I’m sharing a few of my favorites with you here.

Not only are the works themselves beautiful and tender, but they are gorgeously framed as well.

Breakey’s exhibition runs through December 16th. Go see it if you can.

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

Hey, Austin-area gardeners! Want to learn about growing a biodiverse hedge for screening your yard, adding wildlife habitat, and making a more ecological choice than a fence? Register for my next Garden Spark talk with Shaney Clemmons on December 7th at 7 pm. Come get ideas for what to plant that’ll withstand our Central Texas weather extremes. Plus it’s fun to hang out with fellow gardeners under the big live oak and string lights at beautiful Barton Springs Nursery! Hope to see you there!

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Nature subdued in new work by Kate Breakey appeared first on Digging.

Last night I headed downtown to Waller Creek to see this year’s Creek Show, an annual exhibition of light-art installations, put on by Waterloo Greenway. While the event is free, let me tell you, it’s worth it to pay $10 for a fast pass that allows you to skip the line to get in. When we arrived at 8:30 pm, that line stretched around the block and was hardly moving.

The first thing you see is Creek Show’s official mascot, the Creek monster. You enter the trail through his gaping mouth.

The Creek Keeper

Created by Jake Rosenberg, Clayton Lillard, Mateo Gutierrez, Chris Haddad, Chandler Goen, and Liza Fishbone

Once upon a time, The Creek Keeper emerged from the depths of Waller Creek to protect its folklore and remind us of the vital connection between environment and culture.

A towering snapping turtle-like monster made from recycled materials, the installation invites us to explore the creek’s unique identity and inspires us to take action in preserving our natural world. Join us on a journey of discovery and conservation, as we honor the stories of the past and light up the future of our planet.

We were instructed not to stop inside the monster and to take only videos, not still photos, as we walked through, in order to keep the line moving. Perfectly understandable, although that means you really miss seeing the details as you’re hustled through. Still, it was a fun entrance to the show.

Next up is Puzzle Grass, a curving line of glowing, color-changing posts planted in the middle of the flowing creek.

Puzzle Grass

Created by Barna Kantor, Kyle Evans, and Brandon Stargrave

Puzzle Grass (Equisetum) is a genus of plants considered “living fossils” as they predate the dinosaurs, yet examples can still be found today along Waller Creek. The tall plants, also called “horsetail,” resemble miniature bamboo stalks and thrive wherever they are planted. We evoke the nodal anatomy of puzzle grass through an installation of light poles that light up in various temporal waves visualizing the Creek’s flow. The installation stands in the midline and follows the natural curve of the Creek, both dividing and uniting the two banks.

A video installation comes next, with echoing screens of flowing water hung under a bridge along the creek.

Melting Mirrors

Created by Topher Sipes and Jasna Boudard

Melting Mirrors is a multi-layered video installation, featuring digitally manipulated slow-motion video of the flow and movement of the water surface of Waller Creek.

The installation features multiple parallel screens of translucent fabric as staggered surfaces for the video content, allowing the projected light to pass through each layer to the next and simulating slices of a holographic cone for viewers as they pass by. This 3-dimensional experience facilitates viewing depth above and beneath the creek’s surface through the interplay of water with light.

The 3-D, origami-like arches and wall hangings of Kaleidoscope Dreams reminds me of Austin paper artist Amanda Witucki‘s creations.

Kaleidoscope Dreams

Created by Ruben Esquivel, Heath Speakman, and Kat Talley

Kaleidoscope Dreams is an exploration of light and form, where UV-reactive archways create a dazzling display of illuminated diamonds, prisms, and colors. These radiant structures serve as pathways, inviting attendees to journey through an immersive spectacle. As you enter the installation, a cluster of glowing triangles extrudes from the wall, beckoning you to venture within. These luminous forms symbolize transformation and offer passage from one realm to another. They emphasize the profound power of art to transport us to new dimensions of understanding.

The installation explores the interplay of light, form, and imagination, where every visitor becomes an integral part of the narrative. It stands as a testament to the enduring power of art to evoke wonder, inspire contemplation, and forge connections within our vibrant community. Join us on this radiant journey as we embrace the beauty of Austin’s natural and cultural tapestry, woven together by art, imagination, and the luminous glow of our shared experience.

Crescendo, across from Symphony Square, was popular with the crowd, with panels of light changing color in time with piped-in music.

Crescendo

Created by Alex Martin and Max Hoffman

Crescendo represents the heartbeat of Austin and the Red River Cultural District—music.

The installation at Symphony Square is an array of repurposed sheet music stands with color-changing panels of light. Stop by for a song or two to enjoy an orchestrated light show!

Riot caught my interest with its visuals about the Battle of Waller Creek in 1969, which I’d never heard of. Ghostly red columns symbolizing long-destroyed tree trunks are suspended over the creek. Along the tunnel wall hang photos of the student protesters, who tried to save the trees. Reading about it now, I’m moved by the efforts of architecture students at the University of Texas in 1969 to save heritage live oaks and the creek, while officials forcibly yanked students out of the trees and went ahead and bulldozed them. Here’s an excerpt from The UT History Corner:

“By Thursday, the ‘Battle of Waller Creek’ was front page news across the state, covered from Los Angeles to New York, and images of students being forcibly removed from trees were published in newspapers as far away as Paris, France. Its effect was long lasting. Today, treasured live oaks on the campus are considered investments and relocated, rather than destroyed, when they sit in the path of campus construction. Waller Creek is also viewed as an asset, and efforts are underway, both on campus and through downtown Austin, to preserve the creek and take advantage of it architecturally.”

https://jimnicar.com/2013/11/11/the-battle-of-waller-creek/

And here we are today, with Waterloo Greenway working to restore Waller Creek as a place for nature within a very paved part of the city, creating space for people and wildlife — and for trees.

Riot

Created by Maria Berrios and JuanRaymon Rubio

Riot is a memorial installation that showcases the Battle of Waller Creek and offers a reflection on the destruction of Austin’s natural landscape. The design gives viewers insight into the history of the protest and also considers the aftermath of a notable political and environmental fight.

Into the Wild is next, a visually appealing display of fluorescent pool noodles poking up like Avatar-world reeds from the creek bed.

Into the Wild

Created by Nolan Stone and Ryan Blair

In a rapidly urbanizing world, our few remaining wild places exist in the form of urban creeks and greenbelts.

Into the Wild is a plea for wilder cities that highlights the life that still exists within. The flora and fauna that reside in these spaces have existed here long before humans and the resilient remainders were required to adapt to human development. Once the daylight wanes and the moonlight illuminates the water, the creek comes alive reminding us of what once was and what could be.

Last is Babble, which may have been my favorite for sheer weirdness. Gigantic, corrugated-metal faces hang from the underside of a bridge on both sides, with speakers projecting multiple voices speaking softly in different languages as you walk through. I found myself trying to identify languages or pick out phrases, but mostly it washes over you like the sounds of a crowded street.

Babble

Created by Lucas Greco and Reeve Hunter

Babble is a light-hearted contemplation of our changing perceptions of Waller Creek. Together, the sights and sounds of the installation call visitors to break from the bustle of busy lives and experience anew and up close the burbling waterways pulsing calmly through our city.

Three types of corrugated roofing panels, sharing a common form but contrasting in color and character, come together to form illuminated heads of extraordinary size from ordinary construction materials. Speakers are installed among the faces producing muttering sounds of voices and babbling fading in and out while contrasting tones and melodies intermingle in unique ways depending on the viewer’s vantage point.

At the end, you emerge at street level, where officials encouraged us to go visit the amphitheater in Waterloo Park, where Pride Night performances were taking place. (Each night of Creek Show has a different theme for its live stage show.) Last year, Creek Show ended where you could walk straight into the amphitheater, delivering you directly to a laid-back party atmosphere of performances and vendors, with crowds sitting or standing on the lawn and kids playing. This year, we had to walk all the way around the park to enter from the uphill side on the east — all the while hearing the performances in the closed-off park and feeling like we just couldn’t get there. And heaven help you if you need a bathroom break after Creek Show, as I didn’t see any porta-potties, and you have to walk a long way and go through a slow security screening (new this year; sad but, I suppose, necessary) to get to the park’s restrooms.

Once we got in, we did enjoy a few drag performances before calling it a night and heading back to our car.

I snapped this view of the Texas Capitol dome and Waterloo Amphitheater’s glowing shade structure as I left. Creek Show weirdness and art, efforts to build a city-enhancing string of parks along Waller Creek, the beautiful capitol building, people out enjoying music and community, and a deep appreciation for nature, all under the big Texas sky — this is what I love about Austin.

Creek Show runs through Saturday, from 6 to 10 pm. It’s a free event, and you can walk in, but the line can be very long. I suggest you do what I did and get yourself a fast-pass ticket for $10. All proceeds benefit Waterloo Greenway, “a local nonprofit whose mission is to create and maintain a new 35-acre urban park system in partnership with the City of Austin.” 

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

Hey, Austin-area gardeners! Want to learn about growing a biodiverse hedge for screening your yard, adding wildlife habitat, and making a more ecological choice than a fence? Register for my next Garden Spark talk with Shaney Clemmons on December 7th at 7 pm. Come get ideas for what to plant that’ll withstand our Central Texas weather extremes. Plus it’s fun to hang out with fellow gardeners under the big live oak and string lights at beautiful Barton Springs Nursery! Hope to see you there!

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Creek Show art installations glow at Waterloo Greenway appeared first on Digging.

An Old Austin-style garden was featured on the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days tour two weekends ago: Colleen Belk’s 43-year-old garden. Yes, 43 years! What is Old Austin style, you may ask? I think of it as a lushly planted Austin garden with Deep South-meets-Southwest plant choices, sort of rugged, with winding paths, accents of natural limestone and shaggy cedar, and a collection of potted-up succulents. Check, check, and check!

Colleen worked at Barton Springs Nursery for many years, bringing plants home to try them out. Her garden has a wonderfully collected feel, with real beauties like this silver Mediterranean fan palm and Texas palmetto.

Pea gravel paths meander through dense plantings, with groundcovers filling in around everything.

Pretty pink chrysanthemums sprawl across a rock, adding fall color to the garden.

A bunch of Colleen’s potted succulents in vintage containers live on tiered shelving. A greenhouse is situated nearby, perfect for storing tender plants when it gets cold.

A terracotta duck totes a passel of agave pups on her back.

This cactus is one happy camper.

A galvanized tub and cylinder planter perch amid holey limestone to mark where two paths meet.

Colleen says this begonia, charmingly paired with pink guara in a stock-tank planter, comes back from the roots each spring.

I was smitten with her plume poppy (Macleaya cordata), which has self-sown throughout the shady areas of her garden. I know it can be terribly invasive in some parts of the country, but I wonder if in Austin it’s kept in check by our brutal summers?

Variegated Queen Victoria agave, with its lemon-lime stripes

Colleen’s garden perches on the edge of a canyon, and a large covered deck takes advantage of the view.

Beautiful canyon view

One more

As I was checking out this hanging succulent planter, Colleen came up and said it’s a vintage enema pot, which she collects. I’d never heard of such a thing, and it made me chuckle.

A wood-burning fire pit built into the deck has a substantial vent hood to move smoke out from under the roof.

An old red-and-blue patio set holds a big concrete bowl strikingly planted with a totem pole cactus and other succulents.

A cedar tree (native juniper) that the deck was built around has been lost to storm or other malady. I was charmed to see that Colleen kept a tall section of its trunk and is growing plants on it. In the core, she’s turned a hollow space into a planter for moss rose.

A little hiker frog wearing a backpack stands here, admiring the view.

The main part of the garden surrounds a fishpond outlined with limestone.

Grasses and flowering perennials like cowpen daisy that like full sun are planted here. In the background, two enormous, upright ‘Will Fleming’ yaupon hollies — which Colleen wisely spaced about 10 or 12 feet apart — make living gateposts into the garden.

A pea gravel path wanders off to the left of the pond…

…and overlooks the greenhouse below.

To the right of the pond, lots of fall-season color

Beautyberry in purple glory

Native cowpen daisy (Verbesina encelioides)

Bees were enjoying the cowpen.

An old pump spigot spills recirculating water onto a bowl-shaped limestone rock, making pleasant music. The slanted deck roof is visible in the background, floating over the eave of the house.

Texas sabal palm — its trunk is arrow-straight, but my pano shot gave it a distorting lean.

Fire-engine-red canna

The red canna pairs beautifully with purple smoke bush and ‘Fireworks’ gomphrena.

A mature Queen Victoria agave in all its bloomin’-onion symmetry

A wider view shows Queen Victoria agaves keeping company with a white-trunked Texas persimmon, more cowpen daisy, and Mexican feathergrass.

If you’d like to see more of Colleen’s garden, it was recently featured on Central Texas Gardener. Thank you, Colleen, for opening your garden to the public!

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

Hey, Austin-area gardeners! Want to learn about growing a biodiverse hedge for screening your yard, adding wildlife habitat, and making a more ecological choice than a fence? Register for my next Garden Spark talk with Shaney Clemmons on December 7th at 7 pm. Come get ideas for what to plant that’ll withstand our Central Texas weather extremes. Plus it’s fun to hang out with fellow gardeners under the big live oak and string lights at beautiful Barton Springs Nursery! Hope to see you there!

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Colleen Belk’s Old Austin garden appeared first on Digging.

Central Texas gardeners, join me on Thursday, December 7, for a Garden Spark talk by Austin landscape architect Shaney Clemmons, principal and founder of Shademaker Studio. She’ll tell us why biodiverse hedges are a greener choice than fences — in every sense — including which hedge-appropriate plants are performing best in Austin’s extreme weather. It’s shrub- and tree-planting season, so come learn about greener ways to screen your garden at Shaney’s talk!

Tickets are on sale now, but seats are limited. Grab yours today at https://garden-spark.ticketleap.com/garden-spark-shaney-clemmons/

And join my email list if you’d like to be notified about future talks! Simply send me an email with “Subscribe” in the subject line.

Hedge Fun: How Hedges Beat Fences for Wildlife Habitat and a Healthier Ecosystem and Why You Need One

Instead of spending your landscaping budget on a fence, learn why planting a hedge is the greener choice — in every sense. Biodiverse hedges provide shelter and food for urban wildlife, create and connect wildlife corridors, and reduce impervious cover, creating a healthier ecosystem and more comfortable climate while also mitigating stormwater runoff. Landscape architect Shaney Clemmons explains why her firm, Shademaker Studio, started the Hedge Pledge three years ago and how planting hedges has improved her clients’ gardens. Learn why climate-resilient plant design is important, how to increase plant diversity in an existing garden, and which plants are performing best in Austin’s extreme temperatures of recent years. 

Speaker Bio

Shaney Clemmons is the principal and founder of Shademaker Studio, a small landscape architecture studio in East Austin. A licensed landscape architect with over 25 years of experience, Shaney takes on projects ranging from single-family residential gardens to hundreds of miles of scenic byways.

Shaney spent her childhood spelunking the lava flow caves of southern Idaho and working the fields of the family farm, cutting and baling alfalfa on the Camas Prairie. These early experiences shaped how she spends her time as an adult, both professionally and personally, and have made her a passionate observer and advocate for the outdoors. Since moving to Austin in 2013, Shaney has become an advocate for improving soil health, reducing impervious cover and stormwater runoff, and increasing biodiversity within our urban gardens. Follow Shademaker Studio on Instagram.

When/Where

Shaney will speak on Thursday, December 7th at 7 pm. The approximately 1-hour talk with Q&A will be held at Barton Springs Nursery: 3601 Bee Cave Road, Austin 78746. Seating will be outdoors under the big live oak. In the event of rain, seating will be in the event barn.

Tickets

Ticket price is $35.50, plus a small fee that goes to the ticket-processing website. 40 seats will be available initially. I’ll open additional seats the week of the talk if the weather forecast looks good (more seating is available outside than inside). If you find the first round of tickets is sold out, please email me to be added to the waitlist. There’s a chance additional seats will open later.

Refund Policy

Tickets are nonrefundable. Your attendance helps cover a fair speaking fee for our presenters and other expenses, and collectively we’re able to bring talented design thinkers to speak to us!

Thank You to Our Sponsor!

The 2023-24 season of Garden Spark is sponsored by Barton Springs Nursery, which has been serving the needs of Central Texas gardeners since 1986 by offering one of the best selections of native and well-adapted plants for this area.

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Come learn about biodiverse hedges for Central Texas appeared first on Digging.

A few weeks ago in Dallas, I met up with Jay of NewTexasGardens at his home garden. It was great to meet a fellow Instagrammer whose photos I admire and who posts interesting content, like measuring the temperature of artificial turf on a hot summer day and comparing it to concrete, mulch, black gravel, and St. Augustine grass. (Surprise! The faux turf measured hotter than all of them.) Jay isn’t a purist about it, but he believes in the intrinsic value of growing native plants. He’s challenged himself to plant his front yard in a central Dallas neighborhood “almost exclusively with natives…but to maintain a tidy, almost minimal look.”

And it looks great! Along the sunny side of the yard, ‘Shenandoah’ switchgrass, coneflowers (gone to seed), and ‘Raydon’s Favorite’ fall aster add color and movement, as well as food for pollinators and seed-eating birds.

Yucca pallida stays small while providing evergreen structure and a starburst shape that contrasts with billowing grasses and asters.

‘Raydon’s Favorite’ fall aster in full bloom

By the front porch, Webberville sedge (Carex perdentata, also called meadow sedge) makes a soft groundcover that can handle bright shade. Twin potted Agave scabra frame the front steps.

The agaves are not winter hardy in Dallas, Jay points out. He says he meant to buy Agave americana but picked these up by mistake. Since both species are cold tender in pots, I wonder if it might work to pull a few pups during the summer and over-winter those for replanting each spring. That would keep them at a reasonable size too. Alternatively, a small yucca like pallida, rupicola, or ‘Bright Edge’ would be an option, having a better cold tolerance than agaves. I’ll be interested to see what Jay decides, come winter.

A gentle S-curve path defines the shady foundation bed. Here, Jay is growing coralberry (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus) as a low hedge — an inspired choice! — with a few Turk’s caps, flowering bulbs (I think), and Webberville sedge.

In the challenging, skinny strip between the driveway and fence, Jay has a mini-meadow of little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), pale purple coneflower (Echinacea pallida), paleleaf yucca (Yucca pallida), pitcher sage (Salvia azurea), and tall liatris (Liatris aspera).

The bees were going for the sky-blue pitcher sage.

Liatris aspera

Muscling it out for space

In back, Jay is pondering a redesign using more natives, but I had to admire this nonnative shade combo of prostrate Japanese plum yew and purple oxalis.

One last look at the fizzy flower spikes of ‘Shenandoah’ switchgrass. Thanks for the tour, Jay!

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Jay’s front-yard garden of native plants in Dallas appeared first on Digging.

I love a good play on words, and the garden of Barbara and Robert Tiffany employs two in its name. Mill Fleurs occupies the site where two old mills — from the 1700s! — perch along Tohickon Creek. Thirty years ago, the couple purchased the derelict structures, one a gristmill, the other a lumber mill, and turned their combined 10,000 square feet into their home, offices, and (I think) a furniture-building workshop. Mill Fleurs is also a tongue-in-cheek play on millefleur, a style of art that means “thousand flowers.”

Today Barbara’s extensive gardens on 10 acres in Point Pleasant, Pennsylvania, are a showplace for her skills as a designer and a collector of rare and variegated plants, and as an example of how to tame an extremely steep property. I toured it on a rainy afternoon in late September during the Philadelphia Area Fling.

Barbara, clad head to toe in purple, greeted her visitors with a big smile and lots of energy, despite the rain still pattering down after Tropical Storm Ophelia had blustered through.

I was a little surprised to see three variegated American agaves right off the bat, although I shouldn’t have been. Gardeners in the Philadelphia area grow lots of tropical (or otherwise not cold-tolerant) plants, and are apparently willing to move even big ones under cover for winter. These are parked at Barbara’s rare-plant nursery, where she holds on-site sales during the growing season.

Barbara led us down her sloping driveway, past a sheer and cracked wall of granite. Japanese maples cascade their bronze leaves across the stone — a contrast of feathers and iron.

A border of red and bronze plants — there’s one of those Philly-area bananas again — leads you toward the house.

The old stone gristmill, circa 1742, sits on the left. The 1790s lumber mill sits alongside on the right (hidden from view here).

Before we explore around the house, let’s turn and take in the small front lawn and sunken bog garden. A bench of the couple’s own design perches above, offering a view of the house and garden.

A closer look

This curvy wooden bench — wow! I believe this is part of Robert and Barbara’s Spirit Collection, which they “design, manufacture, and offer privately.”

Clematis

I noticed a tree of graceful tendrils, a weeping katsura. What was it hiding beneath its skirts? I had to find out. I parted the festooning branches…

…and with an exclamation of delight entered a secret hideaway. Can you imagine lounging under this green umbrella with a book on a clear summer day?

Magical!

Japanese anemones

A contemporary deck juts from the end of the lumber-mill side of the house.

Variegated trailing ivy softens stacked stone.

Barbara invited us up to her covered patio atop the old ice house, where ice was once cut from the creek in winter and stored here all summer in sawdust from the mill. We enjoyed cookies and tea and a little respite from the rain.

And then we divided into two groups and followed our guides into the lower garden. I’m not very good about sticking with a tour group, so I lagged and missed a lot of the info that was shared with us. But I do remember Barbara — or Karl quoting her — saying something like, put all your variegated plants together. Mass them! I’ve been thinking about that since.

Millstones galore decorate the garden, including this one standing on edge…

…with lavender, thistle-y flowers harmonizing with the putty-pink stone.

Frilly flowers of double purple datura

A moss garden with a solitary boulder — and Ophelia puddles

I liked this oval lawn encircled with Barbara and Robert’s benches so much that I had to sit and enjoy it, even in the rain. Kim Woods Rabbidge of Our Australian Gardens snapped this photo of me, happily sittin’ in the rain.

Back up at the house, another bench overlooks Tohickon Creek below.

And boy was it raging! It looked almost up to the lower terrace.

Another millstone set in a path

And yet another — a massive one — leaning against the wall by the front door.

Check out the porch light — another creation of Barbara and Robert’s? I’d love to see it illuminated.

I was also intrigued by this one-of-a-kind handrail made from gears and chains.

What a unique garden! One last look at the weeping katsura with the secret hideaway, and it was time to go.

Up next: Inventive garden rooms to explore at Paxson Hill Farm. For a look back at Jenny Rose Carey’s playful Northview Garden, Part 2, click here.

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post From mill to Mill Fleurs, a garden of rare plants appeared first on Digging.

In my last post I showed you half of Jenny Rose Carey’s garden, Northview, which I toured during the Philadelphia Area Fling in September. Today I’ll show you the rest. Let’s start with her Fruits and Flowers Garden, where this Tin Man sculpture greeted me with open arms.

Stock-tank flower garden

A garden after my own heart — filled with stock-tank planters! The galvanized raised beds are packed with flowers for cutting, like cosmos, gomphrena, amaranth, and dahlias.

Every space in Jenny’s 4.5-acre garden is welcoming with tables and chairs. This pink table was even dressed up with a little bouquet of pink flowers.

Tropical Storm Ophelia had bent the plants, but they still held their flowers.

Outside that fenced garden, a circular lawn with a wheelbarrow planter (and old corncrib in the background) makes for a calm palette cleanser.

This scene captured my imagination — twin golden shrubs smothering a garage door on the carriage house. It’s like a hidden keep with golden sentries.

Rain Garden

Nearby there’s a rain garden of native plants, which had its work cut out for it this day, to sop up all the runoff from the storm.

Lake garden

Next I ambled down Jenny’s long driveway toward her lake garden, passing this twisty-trunked Japanese maple along the way. It had already shed its leaves for fall, revealing its calligraphic shape.

A semicircular mound built up with stacked stone…

…creates the perfect conditions for a rocky dry garden on top, with plants like guara and dianthus.

A waterfall spills from the mound into a large pond — designated as a lake on Jenny’s garden map, perhaps to distinguish it from her pond; see Part 1 — with patio seating along one side.

Water-level stone slabs lead across the pond to the round patio with gothic chairs. It’s beautifully designed. And you can see from the water’s dimpled surface how much rain was coming down! Picture me huddled under an umbrella, poncho, and raincoat, trying to keep my camera dry. But there was still much to see, so onward!

Stumpery

From the sunny pond, the garden enters a shady woodland, where logs from fallen trees are stacked into a garden wall.

And where smaller logs have been anthropomorphized into Northview Logheads, as a sign dubs them.

Fun!

Walking along the log wall, I noticed some of them are hollow, and one frames a view…

Magical! The biggest hollow log frames a peekaboo view of a teapot fountain and stump table and chairs. Let’s go find them.

Shade Garden with teapot fountain

This may have been my favorite moment in all of Northview. The fountain is charming, and the whole space encourages a sense of childlike wonder, set in a mossy glade enclosed with Japanese maples just starting to turn.

Glass beads around the teapot and teacup probably hide the mechanics of the disappearing fountain while looking like spilled liquid.

Nearby, set for a child’s tea party with a little bouquet and even a brass lamp (does it light at night?), a stump table and stools adds to the whimsy.

The stools appear to be manmade but blend perfectly with the old stump table.

So charming!

Jenny’s grandkids are very lucky to have such delightful garden rooms to play in. Farther along the tea party path, I came across a small playset (not pictured) and this ball-balancing elephant sculpture. A frilly gazebo in the background…

…shelters a small table and chairs, brightly painted…

…where fairy magic happens.

View from the gazebo

There’s also a little caboose playhouse here, and an oversized pencil reading “Jenny’s Garden Designs.”

Kids are clearly encouraged to play in this garden. I spotted this crow’s-nest treehouse built atop a massive tree stump in the Dry Garden (which unfortunately I didn’t get good pics of).

And adults are made welcome too, with lots of creative garden rooms to explore and places to sit and take it all in.

Another old tree stump that Jenny turned into a face bears a sign with the garden’s name.

Gathering Circle

Lastly I’ll show you Jenny’s house, which was built in 1887 and is surrounded by large trees planted in that era. Other old trees have been lost to age and to a tornado spawned by Hurricane Ida in 2021 — hence the collection of trunks in the stumpery and lining some of her garden beds.

In front of the house, a low curved wall encloses a “gathering circle,” where I imagine Jenny begins tours of her garden on sunnier days.

Jenny has been gardening at Northview for 25 years, and it’s a charming place indeed after so many years of her plantsmanship and creativity applied to it. Check out Jenny’s website and her books, Glorious Shade and The Ultimate Flower Gardener’s Guide, if you’d like to learn more.

Up next: Barbara Tiffany’s hillside Mill Fleurs garden. For a look back at Part 1 of Jenny Rose Carey’s Northview Garden, click here.

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Jenny Rose Carey’s playful garden rooms at Northview, part 2 appeared first on Digging.

It was a soggy late-September midday at the Philadelphia Area Fling when we visited author and horticulturist Jenny Rose Carey‘s garden, Northview Gardens, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. My bus of 50 (garden bloggers, Instagrammers, and YouTubers) was invited first to have a sit-down lunch in the carriage house before setting out to explore the 4-1/2-acre garden.

Herb Garden

I was smitten by Jenny’s colorful, playful garden, where I wandered for an hour and still managed to miss an entire section behind her house. Dang it — next time! But I found so much to enchant me elsewhere that I didn’t realize I was overlooking anything.

Near the house, a long straight path runs through a fenced herb garden. In the center, four columnar evergreens surround a mossy table with a green umbrella for sunnier days.

Castor bean’s starfish-shaped leaves

Mossy chairs tucked into the garden

A rustic gate has a sign proclaiming Jenny’s Garden…

…and a trowel pull handle. Such details are fun to discover.

Pond Garden

After the herb garden, I found myself in a sunny (well, if not rainy), open space set up for a crowd, with several yellow tables and chairs on a stone patio…

…overlooking a pond and blue-trimmed garden shed.

A waterfall trickles into the pond from a rocky shelf half-hidden by a weeping conifer.

A charming view

“Frog parking only. All others will be toad,” reads a punny sign.

It was a good day for froggy fun.

Potted pansies in terracotta pots find a sympatico companion in a terracotta rooster.

The wide view

Goldenrod, rudbeckia, and asters were in full flower in Jenny’s early fall garden.

Rose Cottage garden shed

The garden shed, which Jenny calls Rose Cottage, is far more than a workaday shed…

…starting with its porch, where hanging conical planters and other potted plants and a cushioned chair invite you in.

Inside, it’s clear this is a she-shed, with comfy chairs for sitting and watching the pond garden through windows.

Green glass — are these bulb vases? — line the windowsill, along with dahlia posies and pretty collected objects.

Like iron mice and rabbits

And brass and ceramic birds

And gnomes, roosters, and gourds!

Outside, a stone sink with a glass-bead mosaic spelling out Northview stands ready for watering pots or washing up.

Rose Gate potting area

Behind Rose Cottage, a picket fence with carved and painted roses encloses a greenhouse…

…and a tidy potting area adorned with a collection of potted plants…

…and a metal bird’s-nest chair.

Shady path

A path shaded by tall trees and shrubs, adorned with a copper mirror and bucket…

…leads past a collection of fir cones…

…to stone gateposts.

Castle Garden

This is the Castle Garden, enclosed by a crenellated evergreen hedge…

…with a stone table and benches inviting you in for a quiet moment between colorful flower gardens.

A mossy arbor beckons you onward.

Cutting Garden

A fenced cutting garden of cleome, cosmos, sunflowers, black-eyed Susans, and dahlias is made more colorful with purple-painted flower stakes.

A yellow-and-blue birdhouse on axis with the path draws you forward.

White cosmos

And lots of pretty dahlias

Blackberry lily fruits

Jenny has a knack for finding charming metal garden chairs.

One more ruffled dahlia

And a bee-attracting cosmos. I have much more to share from Jenny’s garden, but it will take another post. Stay tuned for Part 2.

Up next: Part 2 of Jenny Rose Carey’s whimsical and colorful Northview Gardens. For a look back at Stoneleigh’s native-plant public garden, click here.

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Jenny Rose Carey’s charming Northview Gardens, part 1 appeared first on Digging.

Our banquet dinner at the Philadelphia Area Fling was held in the grand old Tudor Revival mansion at Stoneleigh: A Natural Garden, located in Villanova, Pennsylvania. Before dinner, we were set loose in the garden to explore for an hour.

Let’s start with the house garden, where a big dead London planetree, cabled for safety, has been left standing as a snag for wildlife. In the drizzle of a gray September afternoon, it added a gothic touch.

House garden

Stoneleigh has recently transitioned from private ownership to a public garden. The quick backstory: in 2016, the children of the late owners, John and Chara Haas, donated the 42-acre estate to Natural Lands, a land conservation nonprofit based in Media, PA. Stoneleigh opened to visitors in May 2018, free of charge, a park-like oasis that joins the many grand estate gardens in the Philadelphia region.

“Once a family home, now a public garden, Stoneleigh celebrates the beauty of native plants and the importance of biodiversity. We hope to inspire our guests to think about how gardening in concert with nature is essential to improving the health of our planet.”

https://stoneleighgarden.org/garden/home/

A weeping tree with purplish leaves harmonizes with the gray stone of the house.

A wine-red chair continues the color scheme.

Majestic trees tower around the house, adding a sense of history.

This may be another 150-year-old planetree?

A ‘Morioka Weeping’ katsura tree gracefully spreads its lower branches on the lawn like the hem of a green gown.

Behind the house, goldenrod sizzles under ‘Kintzley’s Ghost’ honeysuckle vine.

Another look

A mown meadow path leads toward more beautiful trees, but I didn’t explore very far, mindful of dinner starting soon.

Bog garden terrace

A stone terrace near the house flows around island beds, surprisingly planted with carnivorous pitcher plants. In back, a swooping clipped hedge encloses the space.

These are pocket rain gardens, sopping up runoff from the patio.

Colorful pitchers — like organ pipes!

Near the parking lot: sword-leaved yuccas under a tree with frilly, banana-like foliage

A mossy limb

A wider view

The trees really are something here.

One big trunk bears a deep carving of a heart and the initials M & N. I wish I knew what the story is here.

Pergola garden

A stone pergola swagged with vines backs a pretty border of shrubs and flowers.

And inside, the long view

Outer view

Long straight paths and axis views contrast with…

…casual, winding paths and naturalistic plantings.

Catalpa Court pond

One of the grandest trees at Stoneleigh is this ancient catalpa in the Catalpa Court garden.

It overlooks what once was a tennis court. Today there’s a contemporary pond with a waterfall edge and biofiltration through plants in the center.

Blocks of gray stone are staggered along the infinity edge of the pool — a striking design that harmonizes with a chunky stone arbor.

From another angle

Strawberry bush (Euonymous americanus) caught my eye with its clusters of red berries.

Raindrops on strawberry-esque seedpods

Flingers

As we wandered the gardens and awaited dinner, the Flingers had fun visiting with each other, including Barbara Wise (@crescentgarden) and Jean McWeeney (Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog).

Layanee DeMerchant (Ledge and Gardens) told a funny story that gathered a crowd.

Here she is reenacting a key part of the story with Jean. I’m cracking up just remembering her hang-gliding adventure!

After a nice dinner we heard an interesting presentation about Stoneleigh…

…and got a preview of next year’s Fling, which will be held in Puget Sound near Seattle!

Detour to Swarthmore College

The next morning, we made a stop at The Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College for our group photo.

I hung out on a Swarthmore porch for a while to stay dry and found David Stacey, Jim Charlier (Art of Gardening), Kimberley Protzman (Cosmos and Cleome), and Andy Young (CobraHead) doing the same.

Natasha Nicholes of We Sow We Grow braved the drizzle in her cute patterned overalls — one of many pairs of Duluth Trading Co. overalls in her collection, she told us.

And here we all are — at least those of us still hanging in there on the last day of a wet, chilly Fling. Still smiling! Hats off to our host, Karl Gercens, who’s crouched in front. I’m in the yellow raincoat, on the steps at middle-back. Onward!

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

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Digging Deeper

Tour several Austin gardens on Saturday, November 4, on the Garden Conservancy’s Open Day tour for Travis County. Tickets must be purchased online in advance and will be available beginning September 1st.

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Stoneleigh native-plant estate garden and Flingers appeared first on Digging.

One of my favorite private gardens at the Philadelphia Area Fling back in September was Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm. It’s not really a farm, so far as I could tell. The Hutton garden is sizeable, though, and its rural setting in West Chester, Pennsylvania, gives the owners plenty of room to play. I was wowed by a dramatic container garden of tropicals on the back terrace, which segues to flowery perennial gardens around the house and extends to a tall-grass meadow and large vegetable garden. Steve, a former nurseryman and retired CEO of Star Roses and Plants, knows how to create a moment with plants and color.

Terrace garden

The terrace garden extends out from the back door, like another living room. Generously sized, it’s outlined with artfully arranged containers showcasing tropical or subtropical foliage plants. Three vine-swagged, rectangular arbors offer framed doorway views to other parts of the garden, completing the feeling of enclosure.

The back steps of the house lead to a brick landing in a dry gravel garden. On either side, annual flowers and colocasias ka-pow with color and big leaves.

This is clearly the garden of someone who loves all different kinds of plants and finds a way to grow and display them. I did wonder where he crams all these pots come winter.

A panorama shot better conveys the scale of this showy space. The arrangement of pots and dramatic foliage reminded me a bit of Longwood Gardens — and that’s saying something!

There’s a red banana, which everyone in the Philadelphia area grows, seemingly. And no wonder. Those paddle-shaped leaves add such drama.

I adored the rectangular metal arbors at each of three doorways into this space. Even in winter they must add structure to the garden.

Another view, with a pedestal of guara and sedum in the foreground

A wider view

A sago palm — an old Texas standard — is given pride of place in a pretty arrangement of pots.

In another cluster, it’s Bismarck palm that’s the star of the show.

A pair of spring-green wire chairs accents another pot grouping.

The design of a 2-dimensional metal arbor is charming with rectangles and spirals.

More wire chairs add another dash of color and extra seating.

Outer garden

The arbor on axis with the back door leads to a lawn gently terraced with granite steps.

Twin urns with alliums are cleverly accented with garden-art alliums.

A wider view

A large bamboo arbor — like something out of King Kong — beckons from the lawn, leading to…

…deep mixed borders with conifers, dark-leaved shrubs, flowering perennials, and — hello! — another banana.

I love the banana with red dahlias and yellow sunflowers.

Dahlias are so beautiful in a late-season garden.

Steve and Ann feature several pieces of abstract ironwork in their garden, which I really liked.

A few cute frogs too

Big tropical pots and a tall birdhouse add verticality to a perennial bed.

Black-eyed Susans, sunflowers, and dahlias were stealing the show in late September.

Happy color

Love those red dahlias

A stripey grass adds a little zing to the mix.

One more

French doors on the side of the house open up to this wave of color.

A Zen frog amid silvery ferns

Meadow garden

The outer part of the property is devoted to a grassy meadow. Wire spheres in the lawn add a playful element, and colorful flags standing tall within the meadow urge you to explore.

This sphere-and-grasses vignette reminds me of Cornerstone Sonoma in California.

The grasses stood chest-high in late September, and I hoped it was no longer tick season, although the owner did suggest we do a tick check afterward. Pennsylvania is Lyme Disease country, after all, although folks who live here don’t seem to worry excessively about it. At any rate, it was lovely to explore the meadow along the mown path, with grasses gracefully leaning on either side.

Goldenrod and plants gone to seed add their own autumn beauty.

A snag left standing for wildlife

The flags draw you to a mown clearing with a metal arbor and seating — a hidden garden room!

Asters and grasses

Vegetable garden

A large fenced vegetable garden is closer to the house for easy access.

Even its entrance is given a flourish with a pedestal planter and decorative arbor.

And an excited bamboo fellow waving a flag!

Up next: Exploring new public garden Stoneleigh: A Natural Garden. For a look back at the Asian garden and ponds at WynEden, click here.

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

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Digging Deeper

Tour several Austin gardens on Saturday, November 4, on the Garden Conservancy’s Open Day tour for Travis County. Tickets must be purchased online in advance and will be available beginning September 1st.

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Tropical terraces, color, and meadow at Owl Creek Farm appeared first on Digging.

While in Dallas last week I visited the Dallas Arboretum to see their annual pumpkin extravaganza. The last time I’d seen it was pre-Covid.

Autumn at the Arboretum

I was surprised to find that Autumn at the Arboretum has been relocated from a shady grove near the front of the garden to a sunny space in a far back corner. As in 2019 (the last time I visited), the 2023 theme features the Peanuts gang: “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”

There were the usual pumpkin houses…

…and gourd houses. And I spotted a few topiary Peanuts characters…

…and a pumpkin patch for photos. But to be honest, I didn’t think it was as creative and pumpkin-glorious as in years past. I missed the shade of the trees, it felt too sunny and hot, and the pumpkin displays were good but not amazing. The magic wasn’t there. After an extraordinarily hot and droughty summer, maybe there just weren’t enough pumpkins or the energy to go all out? I don’t know.

Main gardens

I took a spin through the Arboretum’s gardens too, of course, stopping to admire bronze tadpoles “swimming” around a little pumpkin near the frog fountains.

Pumpkins and fuchsia mums make a colorful edging along a border of grasses and bananas.

Picnickers enjoying the big lawn and lake views

The waterfall grotto giving Costa Rica vibes

Red Maple Rill

At the Red Maple Rill, the first Japanese maples were turning — or maybe certain trees are red-leaved all year? Late October is early for fall color in Dallas.

The rocky stream

Beautiful color, whether typical or autumnal

I spotted a spider in a web built overhead, catching flies over the path without getting in anyone’s way.

One of the Arboretum’s many little plazas with a fountain

A sculpture of a young couple doing a little crossed-leg pose is one of my favorites at the Arboretum. It’s called Chico y Chica de la Playa, or Beach Boy and Girl.

This one, of a young woman gingerly sticking a toe into the water, unfortunately is lacking the water that gives it meaning.

The Kiss features lovers locked in a passionate embrace amid salvia, canna, and pennisetum.

Native border

Near the Charlie Brown pumpkin display, a native border wows with masses of fall aster in full bloom.

Bees were busy at the flowers, gathering pollen.

American beautyberry and a red salvia make a pretty combo too.

A Woman’s Garden

The geometric planes of A Woman’s Garden always catches my eye. A bronze nude stands within a carved-limestone frame at the edge of a rectangular, edgeless pool, which seems to flow into White Rock Lake.

Pensive

Her rounded features are echoed in the monumental limestone frame.

Another frame across the pool draws your eye, begging for a living figure to pose there and look this way.

Up next: An exploration of the popular Children’s Adventure Garden at Dallas Arboretum.

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

Tour several Austin gardens on Saturday, November 4, on the Garden Conservancy’s Open Day tour for Travis County. Tickets must be purchased online in advance and will be available beginning September 1st.

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Pumpkin season at the Dallas Arboretum appeared first on Digging.

During the Philadelphia-Area Fling in late September, we toured Wayne Guymon’s WynEden in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. WynEden is an enormous private garden at 9.5 acres, “with 4,000 different plants and cultivars, 15,000 hostas, 7,000 Rhododendrons & Azaleas, 3 ponds, 3 streams and 5 acres of edited woodland,” according to Guymon’s website.

I headed down a sloping path to the lower garden, where a large pond — complete with a bridge-accessible island — offers a picturesque view.

The day was soggy for bench-sitting, but this lichen-wallpapered bench with rain-flattened cochicums still makes a pretty picture.

Nearby, a romantic weeping willow frames a blue shed.

Its roots luxuriate in another, smaller pond made muddy by Tropical Storm Ophelia’s deluge.

Cattails don’t mind a little rain.

Neither do willows.

And neither did I, really. The garden (and the Fling) was a welcome escape from the heat and drought of a searing Austin summer.

Another spot to sit on a drier day

A stone lantern leans out over the water, as an orange-leaved cotinus (I think) echoes its posture.

A little bit of fall

A little bit more

A small dock on the other side offers access for feeding fish, perhaps, or launching a rowboat for a pond picnic? My romantic imaginings are going now.

Behind the pond, a towering, wave-crested stand of bamboo seems to threaten to swamp visitors. I read that Wayne re-trenches around it every year to keep the bamboo from spreading where he doesn’t want it. What a job that must be!

Paths lead into the rustling bamboo forest, where a small round pond — a mirror in the earth — reflects the tall, arching culms. It’s a magical space.

A circle of stumps offers a conversation spot.

Emerging from the bamboo you see an Asian-style zigzag bridge across the weeping willow pond.

Garden art plays up the Asian theme.

The bridge and bamboo frame a romantic scene.

Reflections in the water

The zigzag bridge

There was much more to see at WynEden, but I spent all my time in the Asian pond garden. I did stop to admire this flowering shrub on the way back to the bus. On to the next garden!

Up next: The colorful home garden and meadow at Owl Creek Farm. For a look back at a shopping trip at Terrain home/garden shop near Philadelphia, click here.

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

Tour several Austin gardens on Saturday, November 4, on the Garden Conservancy’s Open Day tour for Travis County. Tickets must be purchased online in advance and will be available beginning September 1st.

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Bamboo forest and pond gardens at WynEden appeared first on Digging.

It’s good for my wallet that we don’t have a Terrain in Austin, or even in Texas. I know, I know, Terrain has an online store. But my infatuation with this beautiful garden shop stems from its immersive, gorgeous, creative store displays and merchandising.

Especially when it’s all decked out for autumn, my favorite season.

Walking into the big flagship Terrain in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, I kind of wanted…everything. Or at least to look at everything. Luckily, when I visited with friends the day before the Philadelphia Area Fling, and again during the Fling tour, I was constrained by the knowledge of very limited space in my suitcase.

I just window-shopped. Mostly.

A Gothic mood was evoked with Spanish moss swagged from chandeliers. Matte black pots and tables displayed witchy arrangements of dried florals, stacked pumpkins, and harvest-hued tapers.

Theatrical Haunted Mansion vibes?

Grapevine toadstools, black iron lanterns, flowering grasses, and garlands of dead branches — I think I was delirious from too much Texas summer and was falling in love with fall all over again.

I lingered over succulent-and-dried-floral pumpkins — so easy to hot-glue one yourself (but will you?).

Hot-pink dried florals zinged this one up.

A tiny, turquoise glass skull was stuffed with coir or something and topped with a tillandsia hairdo.

A little concrete pumpkin in a bed of moss was tucked in a concrete toadstool, with acid-green and black living plants adding witchy color.

A beachier take on fall

A cute mushroom pot

A haunted house terrarium with teeny-tiny pumpkins!

Another pretty terrarium built up on a saucer of gravel

And an outer-space-ish cactus orb

A velvet floral ribbon dresses up a lavender glass vase.

Mushroom plates and tea towels for the fun guy

A wall of pumpkins at the back of the store — because more is more

Pumpkin love

Bristle pumpkins too

Really, can there be too many? No, there cannot.

A warty pumpkin is made sweet with pastel dried hydrangeas and moss.

Another one wearing a lotus-seedpod fascinator

OK, let’s tear ourselves away from the store and visit the nursery yard, where the fall theme continues in window-box displays…

…a silver-and-gray mushroom house (what is this?)…

…and Terrain’s much-photographed green wall on the old Styer’s outbuilding.

The plants change seasonally — this year they look like jellyfish, right? — but the galvanized funnel planters remain.

How do they keep them all watered, I wonder?

Great color and texture

One more

A colorful pumpkin wagon offered a preview of all the pumpkins Terrain was selling in late September.

Like a bag of Skittles

There were pumpkins of all colors and textures.

Including a cheddar-yellow

Mottled greenish-gray

There were pumpkins like corn on the cob and a handsome pale-terracotta pumpkin called Long Island Cheese.

Snazzy striped pumpkins

And orange-and-green Cinderella-style pumpkins

A flat white pumpkin called Moon Stacker

And a warty, peanut-butter-colored pumpkin called Baby Bumps. I would pile up my front porch with all of these if I didn’t live where the heat rots them and deer eat them.

Fall containers were available too.

I love this combo of pink agastache and steel-blue cabbage.

Black millet too

Rudbeckia and dark-leaved peppers

More millet!

Finally it was time for our dinner reservation at Terrain’s Garden Cafe, which was beautifully decorated for fall too — and tasty.

Up next: A fantasy bamboo garden at WynEden. For a look back at homey Brandywine Cottage garden, click here.

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

Tour several Austin gardens on Saturday, November 4, on the Garden Conservancy’s Open Day tour for Travis County. Tickets must be purchased online in advance and will be available beginning September 1st.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Fall florals to fall for at Terrain garden shop appeared first on Digging.

I spotted this pruned-up prickly pear at a friend’s place, framed by Texas sotols, with a bench in front to sit and enjoy it. Simple pleasures!

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

Tour several Austin gardens on Saturday, November 4, on the Garden Conservancy’s Open Day tour for Travis County. Tickets must be purchased online in advance and will be available beginning September 1st.

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Pruned-up prickly pear is living sculpture appeared first on Digging.

Tropical Storm Ophelia swept across the Philadelphia region during late September’s Philly Area Fling. But Flingers shall not be deterred! On we Flung in raincoats, ponchos, umbrellas, and waterproof shoes — or in sopping wet pants and socks. Our group arrived at plantsman and designer David L. Culp’s well-known Brandywine Cottage in Downingtown, PA, one soggy morning. From the bus parking on a nearby street, David led us carefully downhill along a muddy, slippery trail and into his garden, where a marvelous tree-trunk bench marks the entrance. The garden was a little windblown but glowing and autumnal.

David’s white farmhouse — built in the late 1700s! — draws your eye first. Notice the blue smoke wafting from the chimney. I mean, I’d just left Texas’s eternal summer, so this cozy autumn scene hit me hard. Fall! In September!

The entry stairs are marked by pots featuring red flowers or foliage and a few pumpkins charmingly scattered along its length.

I swear it’s a scene right out of Hobbiton, that fictional Tolkien land bordered by the Brandywine River.

Small lanterns light the way, past rain-wet foliage, pumpkins, and an old millstone.

David said something about his home and garden being intentionally simple, in keeping with its rural, late-18th-century vernacular. By the front porch stands a rock-rimmed well, on which David displays a collection of potted plants. The lighted, multi-paned cellar doors open to basement steps, where he keeps tender plants in the winter.

Rocking chairs on the brick porch make an inviting scene.

The old well serves as a plant display table.

On this chilly, wet day, David’s glowing fall decor was a welcome sight.

Another porch detail

David’s porch game is strong. I loved its lack of pretension and homey charm.

A warty pumpkin adds seasonal color to the hillside bed above the house.

Succulents and ‘Fireworks’ gomphrena thrive in the reflected heat of a stone wall.

More pots and pumpkins

On the other side of the house, a shade garden patio is bordered with potted plants staggered at varying heights. Knobby tree roots surface in the gravel path like gator backs in a swamp.

I really like this space under the trees — just gravel, relaxed seating, and lots of green foliage.

Table decor and leaves scattered by Tropical Storm Ophelia

A peacock-blue etagere displaying fire-engine-red peppers provides a jolt of color.

Lichen-encrusted Adirondacks add a proper sense of age to the 30-year-old garden.

In the main garden behind the house, a shady border stretches along one side.

I admired this bronze vessel of water set amid lush foliage.

In the sunnier borders, bananas add tropical color and form amid flowering perennials.

Right in the center of the garden, a white picket fence and arbor draw you in.

Inside the gate…

…is the Veg, a traditionally laid-out vegetable garden accented by vertical bamboo trellises.

A chunky, square birdbath makes a rustic focal point.

Country charm

Outside the Veg, the garden had taken a pummeling from the storm, but aside from one blown-over banana, everything was still standing.

Late-season color

Potted tropicals like this black colocasia add drama.

There’s always an agave, as Loree/Danger Garden reminds us.

A bench under a graceful tree — one of many quiet spots to sit and admire the garden on a less soggy day

Looking across the garden toward the house, you can appreciate the property’s towering trees.

Flowering sedum

On the uphill side you get an overlook of the main garden.

A shady space near the house is planted with ferns and other shade lovers, and accented with a staddle stone.

Colchicum, one of many we saw blooming throughout the Philly area

A saucer of rosy pitcher plants is given a woody touch with crisscrossed sticks bejeweled with turquoise-colored lichen.

A petal-strewn begonia path leads into a tunnel of foliage…

…where a picturesque bench awaits anyone wishing to commune with the trees.

If you’d like to see more of David’s garden and learn from his design expertise, check out his books, The Layered Garden…

…and A Year at Brandywine Cottage.

I also recommend this wonderful article in the New York Times by Margaret Roach from October 2021 (it’s a gift link, so it shouldn’t be behind a paywall) and this article by Adrian Higgins in the Washington Post Magazine from June 2020.

Up next: A shopping detour and fall decor at the beautiful shop Terrain. For a look back at a moon gate and other celebrations of stone at Boulder Haven, click here.

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

Leander Garden Tour this Saturday, October 21, from 10 am to 3 pm. Visit 6 private home gardens in the Cedar Park/Leander, TX, area on a tour sponsored by the Hill Country Bloomers Garden Club. Tickets are $15; children 12 and under are free.

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

Tour several Austin gardens on Saturday, November 4, on the Garden Conservancy’s Open Day tour for Travis County. Tickets must be purchased online in advance and will be available beginning September 1st.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Homey fall garden at Brandywine Cottage appeared first on Digging.

After the tour of the Ten Eyck garden last Saturday, I visited my friend Linda Peterson’s garden, one of my favorites in all of Texas. Her garden is home to several charismatic live oaks, including this one with octopus-like arms stretching through a porthole cutout in a courtyard wall.

The trees embrace the garden — and you — as you walk through it, or you can choose among several patios to sit and commune with them.

The inner courtyard garden is shaded by a grand old tree whose gnarled limbs support a hammock for napping.

An outdoor fireplace offers a cozy spot for the chilly season.

Linda makes these charming flower sculptures out of flexible copper tubing. She bends them into abstract floral shapes and secures them atop copper pipe stems.

I also enjoy her metal and stone animal menagerie, like this rusty porcupine alongside a faux bois birdbath fountain.

Sage green and a dusty turquoise make a consistent color scheme throughout Linda’s garden, harmonizing with the olive green leaves and charcoal trunks of the live oaks.

A stumpery garden contains this big tree stump with a fern planted in it. A wire bird’s nest with a single turquoise egg makes a charming accent.

Linda brightens up the shade with bottle shrubs made out of green glass bottles and painted rebar.

A spiral staircase on the back deck leads up to the flat roof, where Linda can enjoy a bird’s-eye view of the garden.

Everywhere, Linda creates artful arrangements of her exquisitely maintained potted plants, seating, and her menagerie. You just want to sit and LOOK.

Succulent pots under a window with a beaded curtain

A careful color scheme, little pedestals to elevate pots, and creative top-dressing materials — colored stones, frosted glass chips, broken tile, etc. — make each one a thing of beauty, but the full effect is unified.

And look — after I just said that I never see anyone growing bananas in this part of Texas! Linda said that this summer’s extreme heat put a damper on the banana’s growth. It was only when temperatures cooled that the banana unfurled new leaves. Just in time for my visit — yay!

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

Leander Garden Tour this Saturday, October 21, from 10 am to 3 pm. Visit 6 private home gardens in the Cedar Park/Leander, TX, area on a tour sponsored by the Hill Country Bloomers Garden Club. Tickets are $15; children 12 and under are free.

Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.

Tour several Austin gardens on Saturday, November 4, on the Garden Conservancy’s Open Day tour for Travis County. Tickets must be purchased online in advance and will be available beginning September 1st.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Linda’s live oak courtyard garden in San Antonio appeared first on Digging.