On a recent trip to Encinitas, California, I took a walk around the neighborhood and spotted this front yard landscape: There’s no grass anywhere–which I think is a sign of the times. In my area of central Texas, we’re experiencing unprecedented drought and heat, and it doesn’t look like it’s letting up anytime soon. I [...]
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I’ve got an awesome short list of subcontractors, and I needed them for this little courtyard makeover! Although the area was small (about 300 square feet), we had a lot to accomplish in tight quarters. We started with a blank slate–it’s a sunny courtyard with saltillo tile flooring in one area and a small bare [...]
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In the summer of 2006, I took a trip to Washington DC and was roaming around all manner of museums, galleries and bookstores when I found this book: This book beautifully covers the legacy of Brazilian artist/naturalist/landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx (1909-1994)–I won’t go over his life and achievements here, but he introduced modernist landscape design [...]
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I’ve posted before (like here) about taking lessons from public plantings, and this is a lesson in reverse. As in, don’t do this! I’m just going to list the things that are wrong with this so you can avoid the same pitfalls. The red mulch: Oh, ick. This one might be just a personal preference, [...]
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It’s time for a little Friday Link Love! Vertical gardening has been explosively popular in the last couple of years–and this is not just a fad that will go away. More and more people have less and less space, so it makes sense to take advantage of every piece of real estate you have, both [...]
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We all know that fall is the best time to plant perennials, right? So if you’re an Austin gardener and you’ve suffered through the Summer of Hell ’11 (we should have T-shirts made), you might be reconsidering what plants to put in the ground now. They’ve gotta be tough, drought tolerant, relatively pest-and-disease free, and [...]
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It’s time for a little Friday link love! A few writing colleagues recently debuted their new online outdoor living magazine, Leaf: The first issue was stunningly stylish–exactly what I’d expect from co-founders and editors Susan Cohan and Rochelle Greayer! These two successful garden designers/bloggers/social media whiz kids had a great idea and ran with it, [...]
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There’s nothing like having guests to get you to clean up your act, right? This past weekend, I was treated to a 4-day visit from The Hunky Foreman’s parents from California. Of course, the inside of the apartment was (nearly) spotless, but I also wanted to replant my balcony garden so they’d have a cozy [...]
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Just in time for Halloween, the Roundtable is offering up insights on “Darkness” in the garden! Creepy darkness, sinister darkness? No! Shady areas in the garden! Dark gardens can be brooding, gothic, cool or soothing. They can also be dank, inhospitable growing areas for many plants. Get some insight on your shady garden by reading [...]
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