It’s official, we have a WINNER!
Our first TWO drawing’s winners never contacted me, so I drew again, using my 8-year old as the random number picker and the winner is Bonnie of Kiss of Sun, who posted a comment to enter the giveaway and is the lucky one who will be the recipient of a generous $50 gift certificate for a shopping spree at Emerald Garden Nursery and Water Garden.
Thanks to all who entered our Support Your Independent Nursery Giveaway.
Again, congratulations to Bonnie!
It’s official, we have a WINNER!
Our first drawing’s winner never contacted me, so I drew again and the winner is Marjie, who posted a comment to enter the giveaway and is the lucky one who will be the recipient of a generous $50 gift certificate for a shopping spree at Emerald Garden Nursery and Water Garden.
Thanks to all who entered our Support Your Independent Nursery Giveaway.
And thanks to the 8 wonderful local nurseries who donated the prizes for our awesome readers.
Cooler night-time temperatures and warm (but not baking) soil mean it’s time to get back into the garden.
It’s the perfect time to replace plants that didn’t make it through the summer, make some changes to a more drought-tolerant garden or plan a new garden project to get plants established over the winter.
Even if the Custom Random Number Generator didn’t pick your post, I hope you will venture out and visit one of these local nurseries and see what great new plants they have to offer right now.
And while the giveaways are over, if you didn’t read about the other local nurseries, check them out on these blogs and then make time to take your own personal fall tour.
You’ll be glad you did!
J Peterson Garden Design — higlights The Great Outdoors
Go Away, I’m Gardening — highlights Sunshine Landscape and Garden Center
Great Stems — highlights Hill Country Water Gardens & Nursery
The Whimsical Gardener — highlights It’s About Thyme
Rock Rose — highlights Shoal Creek Nursery
Digging — highlights Barton Springs Nursery.
Growing Optimism — highlights Natural Gardener
Again, congratulations to Marjie!
It’s official, we have a WINNER!
jjgardens posted a comment to enter the giveaway and is the lucky one who will be the recipient of a generous $50 gift certificate for a shopping spree at Emerald Garden Nursery and Water Garden.
Thanks to all who entered our Support Your Independent Nursery Giveaway.
And thanks to the 8 wonderful local nurseries who donated the prizes for our awesome readers.
Cooler night-time temperatures and warm (but not baking) soil mean it’s time to get back into the garden. It’s the perfect time to replace plants that didn’t make it through the summer, make some changes to a more drought-tolerant garden or plan a new garden project to get plants established over the winter.
Even if the Custom Random Number Generator didn’t pick your post, I hope you will venture out and visit one of these local nurseries and see what great new plants they have to offer right now.
And while the giveaways are over, if you didn’t read about the other local nurseries, check them out on these blogs and then make time to take your own personal fall tour.
You’ll be glad you did!
J Peterson Garden Design — higlights The Great Outdoors
Go Away, I’m Gardening — highlights Sunshine Landscape and Garden Center
Great Stems — highlights Hill Country Water Gardens & Nursery
The Whimsical Gardener — highlights It’s About Thyme
Rock Rose — highlights Shoal Creek Nursery
Digging — highlights Barton Springs Nursery.
Growing Optimism — highlights Natural Gardener
After a great lunch at Jack Allen’s past the “Y” in Oak Hill, Jenny of Rock Rose, Pam of Digging, and Jenny of J Peterson Garden Design and I ventured over to visit our friend Kathy Cain at Vivero Growers Nursery. A few miles past the “Y” on Hwy. 290, Vivero is a plant lovers delight.
As part of Support your Independent Garden Center month, several Austin bloggers are posting about local nurseries every Wednesday in October. Today is also the last day that eight Austin bloggers, including me, are offering 8 exciting giveaways as part of this effort. Visit my previous post here to enter for a chance to win great prizes from participating nurseries.
Today I’m highlighting Vivero as my idependent nursery of the week. Kathy and her husband Mike run Vivero Growers Nursery. They sell retail and wholesale to the trade and, unlike some nurseries, they also grow much of their own stock.
The nursery is filled with little vignettes of plantings, pairing just the right things with each other for color, texture, contrast, size and overall WOW factor. This planter by the office door is a perfect example. 
They had not one, but two different varieties of one of my favorite plants in stock — Leonotis leonurus, or Lion’s Tail. The beautiful plants grow tall stalks with bright orange blooms at intervals up the stalk. The almost-round blooms look remarkably like the tuft of fur at the end of a lion’s tail, hence the name. I posted about mine about 3 posts back here, if you want to see one close up.
All the plants were healthy specimens, clearly well-cared for. Everywhere I turned there was a sea of color.
Around every corner, I found some plant treasure — many new varieties of plants that I’d never seen before like salmon-colored salvias and pink and white Mexican bush sages. From trees to perennials to annuals and succulents, Vivero is one of my favorite local nurseries.
Click back to my previous post here to enter for a chance to win in the Support your independent nursery month giveaways. Contest ends at 11:59 tonight!
Isn’t this a beautiful fountain?
The birds love to perch on the pineapple and drink from the bubbling water.
I love to listen to the sound of moving water in the garden as I garden or just sit outside. (The gardening part is often, the sitting part, rare!)
This fountain is from the great folks at Emerald Garden.
They helped me find the right water feature for my landscape, they came out and set it up and got it all running and told me everything I needed to know.
They answered my questions about caring for it.
If you haven’t already left me a comment to enter the Austin Nurseries Giveaway for the Emerald Garden Gift certificate, read on down for your chance to win!
If you have entered, I just wanted to add this to my post and show off my fabulous fountain so you can see firsthand what great water features they have to offer.
As part of Support your Independent Garden Center month, several Austin bloggers are posting about local nurseries every Wednesday in October. Today, eight Austin bloggers are offering 8 exciting giveaways as part of this effort. Visit the blogs listed below to enter and win great prizes from participating nurseries. Visit all 8 to maximize your chances to win.
Leave a comment on my blog here today, and you’ll be entered to win a $50 gift certificate from Emerald Garden Nursery & Water Garden.
Contest rules are listed at the end of this blog post.
As we ease into fall we want to give back to the wonderful local nurseries that have helped us enjoy our gardens over the years. We know nurseries have weathered tough times lately, with the downturn in the economy and the drought, so we’re encouraging other gardeners to support them with their gardening dollars.
Cooler night-time temperatures and warm (but not baking) soil mean it’s time to get back into the garden. It’s the perfect time to replace plants that didn’t make it through the summer, make some changes to a more drought-tolerant garden or plan a new garden project to get plants established over the winter.
One of my favorite Austin nurseries is Emerald Garden Nursery and Water Garden. Owned by Trey Wyatt and Luke Hogan and managed by Jeff Yarbrough, Emerald Garden is located at 5700 Highway 290 West, just before the “Y” in Oak Hill.
For many years, I have enjoyed their plants in my garden and one of their fountains in my back yard. The birds love the fresh bubbling water (when it’s not restricted) and the sound of water in the garden is so peaceful.
The demonstration water features are woven all through the nursery, designed to inspire creativity. Water lilies and a wide range of other water plants fill the ponds and fountains.
They also have an excellent supply of disappearing fountains in every style, shape and size.
Need help? These friendly staff members will be happy to befriend you and show you around.
Their extensive statuary collection covers every style imaginable, from Zen to formal to whimsical. If you’ve lost some plants during this drought, am interesting piece of garden art might be just the thing for that empty spot.
Sometimes I wonder if the decor is there to accent the plants or the plants are there to accent the decor.
Either way, Emerald Garden has what you’re looking for.
And if you don’t want to plant anything else in the ground right now, they have a broad selection of glazed and terra cotta pottery.
Healthy specimens of trees, shrubs, vines, agaves, cacti, succulents, perennials and annuals await you around every corner. No matter what’s on your list, you’re sure to find it at Emerald Garden. And you’ll enjoy a magical tour through their delightful nursery. You can learn more about Emerald Garden here.
1. You must leave a comment on this post to enter.
2. Each participating blog will hold its own random drawing, so leave a comment on each blog to enter all the giveaways.
3. Only one comment per person per giveaway.
4. Participating bloggers and their families are ineligible to win.
5. Giveaway ends at 11:59 pm on 10/26.
6. Winners will be announced on each blog on 10/27.
7. Winners must go to the nursery with a photo ID and pick up their prize in person within two weeks of winning. Prizes will not be mailed.
J Peterson Garden Design — $50 gift certificate from The Great Outdoors
Go Away, I’m Gardening — $100 gift certificate from Sunshine Landscape and Garden Center
Great Stems — $50 gift certificate from Hill Country Water Gardens & Nursery
The Whimsical Gardener — $25 gift certificate from It’s About Thyme
Rock Rose — $50 gift certificate from Shoal Creek Nursery
Digging — $100 gift certificate & a Fall Power Package (valued at $50) from Barton Springs Nursery.
Growing Optimism — $25 gift certificate from the Natural Gardener.
Visit the other blogs for more chances to win and visit the nurseries for a great local gardening experience.
Leave your comment below for your chance to win the $50 gift certificate from Emerald Garden Nursery & Water Garden.
The gardening business isn’t an easy one. Local nurseries regularly face problems with weather, pests, disease and supply. This year, not only have they been faced with a rough economy, the current drought has taken an even greater toll on our local independent nurseries.
In spite of those challenges, we are fortunate to have many successful and thriving local nurseries that carry fresh, healthy plants, beautiful decor, excellent gardening products and — as important as all the tangible things — great advice. We are fortunate to have many great places for all things ‘plant’, so our fellow Austin blogger, Pam, of Digging has invited local bloggers to recognize October as “Support your Independent Nursery Month.”
This inspired idea has all of us singing the praises of our favorite haunts. I’m probably the closest blogger to the Natural Gardener – a local icon and a full family adventure located at 8648 Old Bee Cave Road, just past the “Y” in Oak Hill. Let’s just say I’m there a lot.
I always find something I want at the Natural Gardener. Their supply of native and adapted plants seems limitless and the stock always looks great. They carry only environmentally friendly organic products and excellent tools. The staff’s sense of design is insightful and selections of plants are always tucked in with shiny new pottery and garden art.
The Herb Garden, designed by garden author Lucinda Hutson, is one of my favorite destinations in the nursery, which is surrounded by large and creative demonstration gardens. They also have a butterfly garden, a stream garden, a tipi, a vegetable garden, a vineyard and orchard, a xeric garden and a compost tea brew house.
The Natural Gardener staff is always knowledgeable and friendly, recently helping me with an interview for one of my articles for the Austin American Statesman. They regularly host classes about every possible gardening subject. And the owner, John Dromgoole, one of the founders of the organic gardening movement, has long been a local superstar, appearing weekly on Central Texas Gardener on KLRU and on Saturday and Sunday morning radio shows on KLBJ (which I never miss – I get it live on my iPhone now and carry it with me in my pocket out in the garden).
But my very favorite way to enjoy the Natural Gardener is with my 8-year old daughter. We marvel over the butterfly garden, we bray back at the two resident donkeys, we cluck at the chickens and peer at the goats. Filling my cart with the nature’s beautiful specimens is wonderful. And the resident cats always say thank you from the counter as we check out. But ambling through nursery at a leisurely pace, enjoying this native Texas paradise of plants and animals (and insects), is one of my favorite ways to spend a day.
