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garden tour 2015

Garden art, water features & sweet seating vignettes in this garden on Inside Austin Gardens tour

Be sure to put the popular Inside Austin Gardens Tour on your calendar – it’s a garden event you don’t want to miss.  Saturday’s tour provides a rare look inside six private gardens and one public experimental garden.  The gardens demonstrate the practical beauty, variety and stamina of native and well-adapted plants in Central Texas gardens.

I was invited to a preview tour with other local garden bloggers, and that means you get a sneak peek at the wonderful gardens that will be on the tour.  
Cottage garden in Crestview
1315 Cullen Ave 78757
This garden was a delightful, free-form space, full of garden art, seating areas and eclectic touches around every corner.  Multiple paths wind through plants and interesting features and focal points. 

If you’re looking for creative inspiration for gardening, water features or found garden art, don’t miss this garden.
By |2017-11-29T23:27:00-06:00October 14th, 2015|Blog, garden art, garden decor, garden tour 2015, Inside Austin Garden Tour, seating, Sharing Nature's Garden, water features|0 Comments
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Flashy natives garden can handle the heat on Inside Austin Gardens tour

Here is another one of the wonderful gardens that will be on the popular  Master Gardeners Inside Austin Gardens Tour 2015 on Saturday, October 17.  The tour provides a rare look inside six private gardens and a public experimental garden. 

The gardens demonstrate 7 unique styles.  This is my preview of the Flashy Natives Garden.  Enjoy this sneak peek and then see it in person on the tour next weekend.

401 Cloudview Dr Austin, TX 78745

This garden is very much a collector’s garden, with many different varieties of plants to create wonderful combinations of texture and color and form.



 This garden is a very Southwestern cottage style, incorporating yuccas and grasses one might not see in a cooler climate traditional cottage garden.


 Patio pots offer more focal points around the seating areas.

And no cottage garden would be complete without a little picket fence.

 Tickets for all 7 gardens are $19 in advance or $20 at any garden location on the day of the tour. Single garden tickets for $5 can also be purchased at each garden.  Purchase advance tickets here.

By |2017-11-29T23:27:00-06:00October 11th, 2015|Blog, contrast, cottage garden, firebush, garden art, garden tour 2015, Inside Austin Garden Tour, loropetalum, patio, pots, rock rose, seating, Sharing Nature's Garden, vertigo pennisetum, yucca|0 Comments
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Inside Austin Gardens Tour – Breathtaking garden with Lake Austin backdrop

Last week I got a preview of the wonderful gardens that will be on the popular  Master Gardeners Inside Austin Gardens Tour 2015 on Saturday, October 17.  The tour provides a rare look inside six private gardens and a public experimental garden. With the theme of For Gardeners, By Gardeners, the tour showcases 7 gardens with distinctly different garden styles.  Tickets for all 7 gardens are $19 in advance or $20 at any garden location on the day of the tour. Single garden tickets for $5 can also be purchased at each garden.  Purchase advance tickets here.

Sunbathing Natives1012 N Weston Lane 78733

The relationship between stone and plants creates an intricately woven tapestry as you enter this garden.  Beautiful yet unassuming in its simplicity, this garden entry and driveway area is lined with deer resistant, drought tolerant and heat-loving natives.  And they are all doing much more than holding their own.

This imposing lion stands guard at the front of the house.

And behind the glass these two imposing figures make up the secondary security team!

Step through a shade-lined rock path and the rest of the garden comes at you with an intensity that is palpable.  First, there is color.  A lot of color.  And plants.  Bright,  hot, tropical colors and plants.

And then there is this.


And suddenly, your eye isn’t quite sure what to look at.  The explosion of plant colors, the water right here, the water wayyyyyy down there…there is just so much to see.

The hot tub was crafted to replicate the water feature just inside the entrance to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

We had a special treat and were invited in to see the view from the owner’s wife’s painting studio upstairs.  I’m not sure I could ever take my eyes off of that view!

Not only was this a beautiful garden set on an amazing piece of property, but the garden design was wonderful, enhancing the space and adding to the wow factor with the composition of plants and stone.  You don’t want to miss this one!  Get your tickets now and get there early for some great photographs.

By |2016-04-14T02:38:50-05:00October 9th, 2015|Blog, drought-tolerant, garden tour 2015, hillside, Inside Austin Garden Tour, Kirk Walden, lake Austin, Master Gardener tour, natives, pool, seating, Sharing Nature's Garden, stone, sun, tropical color|0 Comments
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Inside Austin Gardens tour features delightful deer resistant garden…

Last week I got a preview of the wonderful gardens that will be on the popular  Master Gardeners Inside Austin Gardens Tour 2015 on Saturday, October 17.  The tour provides a rare look inside six private gardens and a public experimental garden. 

With the theme of For Gardeners, By Gardeners, the tour showcases 7 gardens with distinctly different garden styles.  Each garden focuses on practical beauty, plant variety, and native or well-adapted plants.

Tickets for all 7 gardens are $19 in advance or $20 at any garden location on the day of the tour. Single garden tickets for $5 can also be purchased at each garden.  Purchase advance tickets here.

This is my sneak peek into the Oh Deer! – deer-resistant, not deer-proof garden at:
4503 Mountain Path Dr 78759

This is a garden I’ve had the pleasure of visiting many times.  It belongs to my good friend, Pam Penick, author of the garden blog, Digging, and the book, Lawn Gone. I’ve watched her transform this deer-resistant garden from a pedestrian suburban space when she and her husband bought this house, to the magical creation it is today.  She’s taken advantage of each of the garden’s unique spaces, adding interesting elements, a wonderful plant palette and a unique blend of styles.  Her recent addition of brightly colored stucco walls makes a dramatic impact in her garden.  Water features, eclectic art and a wonderful array of  plants await you at this delightful garden.  And the entire front garden frustrates Bambi and her family with its deer resistant variety of plants.  You don’t want to miss it.


By |2017-11-29T23:27:00-06:00October 5th, 2015|agaves, Blog, bottle tree, containers, garden art, garden tour 2015, Inside Austin Garden Tour, Pam Penick, planters, seating, Sharing Nature's Garden, water features, whales tongue agave|0 Comments
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Inside Austin Gardens tour showcases an oasis in Texas heat

Last week I got a preview of the wonderful gardens that will be on the popular  Master Gardeners Inside Austin Gardens Tour 2015 on Saturday, October 17.  The tour provides a rare look inside six private gardens and a public experimental garden.

With the theme of For Gardeners, By Gardeners, the tour showcases 7 gardens with distinctly different garden styles.  Each garden focuses on practical beauty, plant variety, and native or well-adapted plants.

Flashy Natives – bright and colorful
Sunbathing Natives – brutal, full sun
Shady Natives – shade and under trees
Death-Defying Natives – especially hardy, minimal water
Cottage Natives – Texas tough classics
Oh Deer! – deer-resistant, not deer-proof
Native Testing Ground – new varieties and proven winners

Tickets for all 7 gardens are $19 in advance or $20 at any garden location on the day of the tour. Single garden tickets for $5 can also be purchased at each garden.  Purchase advance tickets here.

Shady Natives at 4603 Palisade Drive
This lush garden feels like an oasis in our Texas heat.  With great garden bones and a hardy plant palette, a wide variety of plants play off one another, incorporating contrasting textures, forms and colors.  The garden is very colorful, but even when plants aren’t blooming, the array of interesting foliage makes this a beautiful garden year-round.  This garden was started in 1980, and the owners had their work cut out for them as the property was overrun with Asian jasmine ground cover and had to treat for oak wilt 3 times.  It’s a stunning garden – one of my favorites of the tour.  Don’t miss this one!

By |2016-04-14T02:38:50-05:00October 4th, 2015|Austin gardens, Blog, bottle tree, contrast, foliage, garden art, garden tour 2015, pots, shade, Sharing Nature's Garden, succulents, Sue Nazar, tropical|0 Comments
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Beautiful garden outshines the view on this LA hilltop home…

Last week I flew out to trendy Los Angeles with my garden travel friend, Pam Penick, of Digging, for the Garden Writers Symposium.  We started our trip to the Golden State with some visits to the gardens of fellow garden bloggers, writers and designers.

Our first stop was the garden of Kris Peterson, who blogs at Late to the Garden Party.  We were late arriving, due to a flight delay, and missed meeting several other bloggers who were gathering to have lunch with us.  We were sad to miss the other gardeners and another garden tour, and we were sad to miss lunch! (We followed my standard M.O. for travel:  eat at every opportunity – you never know when you’ll get your next meal!)

We blew in like the wind – dismayed at being late and in a hurry to get there and meet Kris in person.

We took one look outside and stopped dead in our tracks.

You were going to ask why, weren’t you?  But now there’s no need to ask, is there?

This is the backyard view from her garden.  It’s amazing.  And her garden is equally amazing.  I soon lost track of the view as she led us from one beautiful vignette to another.  Creatively composed and expertly woven, the garden is a collector’s garden that flows like the water in the distance.

Nestled in many parts of her garden, Kris has included a wide variety of containers with water-wise succulents like these.

These little lovelies caught my attention.  While the hot, unforgiving sunlight made photographing the garden difficult, I did the best I could with these Eustoma grandiflorum ‘Echo Pink’ flowers.

Through much of the side garden, hardy ground covers spread between the stones.

Entwined among the layers of the garden, these beautiful Pennisetum advena ‘rubrum’ blow in the breeze.

 I love this stunning color and texture combination.

This arbor frames the view of the harbor as the garden path transitions from the side to the back. Talk about a focal point!

Mimicking the arbor on the side (or vice versa, depending on which approach you’re taking), this is the entrance to the front door.

 Lovely wooden benches with colorful pillows and potted plants flank the entrance.

Along the street, Kris has created a wonderful succulent garden with a cornucopia of textures, colors and forms.


My garden touring pal, Pam, of Digging, stops to smile for the camera, and me, before we head out of the garden.

 This stunning and lovingly crafted garden was the perfect start to our adventures around L.A.  Thanks, again, Kris, for your hospitality.  Loved getting to share in your garden.

By |2017-11-29T23:27:00-06:00September 26th, 2015|Blog, containers, garden tour, garden tour 2015, grasses, GWA, Kris Peterson, LA, Pam Penick, paths, pergola, pots, Sharing Nature's Garden, succulents|0 Comments
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