seating

Colorful cottage garden explodes with color and plants

One of my favorite Austin gardeners, Lucinda Hutson, welcomed busloads of Garden Bloggers Fling guests into her carefully crafted garden.  Surrounded by an explosion of color, gardeners wound through her sanctuary, taking in a rainbow of plants, benches, and ephemera designed to delight.

Lucinda’s garden reflects her love of the Mexican culture which permeates every corner of her garden and home.

 

Multiple seating areas offer welcoming areas for entertaining family and friends.

 

Her cat, Sancho, presides over his domain and took the time to pose for his guests.

Garden rooms are dedicated to different themes like the mermaid grotto.

 

Our gracious hostess joined us at the Fling closing BBQ Bash at Articulture, enjoying the live music and treating us to a dance.

 

Word can’t fully convey our appreciation for the Flingers and their kind words about the Austin Anniversary Fling.  We loved inviting them into our gardens and sharing some special pieces of Austin with them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course we needed a shot of tequila to start the Fling off right!

Tour of Austin Garden Bloggers Fling’s beautiful gardens

I’m not sure I could pick a garden favorite at last May’s Austin Garden Bloggers Fling.  The itinerary included a taste of unique ecclectic, xeric, formal, contemporary, and cottage style gardens — a smorgasbord of landscaping styles to delight the senses.

My favorite shot, this picturesque view of the Austin skyline served as the backdrop of a bed running along the back of the Burrus garden.

This rustic stone water trough at the front of the house is surrounded by lush shade plantings.

 

 

 

A quaint cottage-style garden house was built using rock from the property, incorporating vintage windows, and serving as home to beautiful climbing roses.

This sweet dog quietly sat guard throughout our tour.

Flanked by a long driveway peppered with structural agaves and native trees, visitors get a glimpse into the xeric garden that awaits them above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Jamison garden, with its cottage ambiance, provided a winding path along the sides and the back of the garden. Filled with ephemera, water features, seating areas, and secret spaces, it’s charm was enchanting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After running out of room in her own garden, Burrus began beautifying the land that divides her street that runs by an elementary school.  With no means of irrigation, she filled it with xeric plants and provided seating areas for neighbors and school children to enjoy.

When we arrived at this garden, the torrential rain that drenched everyone at the Wildflower Center and at my garden had abated and slowed to a light sprinkling. Special thanks to Laura Wills , Austin Fling co-planner, for the insight to order colorful ponchos for this rainy day.

The weather didn’t slow the tour as bloggers walked toward  the contemporary xeric garden filled with sculptural yuccas and agaves and Cor-ten steel elements.

Stay tuned for more Austin Garden Bloggers Fling garden tour highlights.

 

The spring garden…pots, pots and more pots!

Spring is usually pretty warm here in Central Texas, and this year is no exception.  A few spring bloomers actually had a shorter lifespan because it got hot pretty quickly, but it’s been delightful to see Jerusalem sage, salvias and black foot daisies in bloom.

I’ve spent the last week or so working on clean-up chores and some planting.  We had company for dinner outside last night and so Friday and Saturday were spent planting the pots on the back patio and scrubbing the oak pollen and blowing leaves. (It’s all back this morning – with a vengeance – but it’s a rite of passage and I know it won’t last forever.)

I had a great idea as I was trying to be efficient in crafting combinations for the outside pots — take a picture of each pot so I could see what was missing or what was already in a pot nearby so I could coordinate colors, textures, forms, etc.  Wow.  What a smart idea.  And then I forgot to do it and  I still found myself at the nursery buying annuals trying to remember and guess and buy enough.  I always think of it like Thanksgiving dinner – you have to finish with that perfect combo of food on your last forkful, or you need more potatoes, or gravy…  I need another filler, or another spiller…  If you’re addicted to pots like I am, you get it.

And, yes, every year — EVERY year — I say …less pots, less pots…and then plants just jump into my nursery cart.

They’re all so pretty and bright.

I love all the hot, tropical color combinations.

Of course the dogs have to help!

It looks so inviting.  I wanted to sit down, I really did, but there was pollen to blow!

This is my favorite spot.  I’ll get to sit there soon — maybe tomorrow morning with a quick cup of tea before the week hits in full force.

Design, plant collections and spectacular, larger-than-life sculptures dominate fabulous Fling garden

It’s always interesting to poll Garden Bloggers Fling attendees about their favorite gardens. Some like gardens that showcase collections, some like gardens that highlight design. Personally, I had several favorite gardens at last week’s Fling in Minneapolis. But this one stood out above the rest, filled with beautiful plant selections, gorgeous design and the heart and soul of the artist and gardener who calls this stunning collection home.

Just across the border into the luscious, rolling hills of Wisconsin farmland, Wouterina De Raad’s Concrete Mosaic Sculpture Garden brought it all to the game. Chicken-lover, gardener, artist, and sculptor extraordinaire, De Raad, a self-taught artist, began creating life-size concrete and mosaic sculptures 27 years ago.

Of Dutch heritage, De Raad grew up on her family’s coffee and rubber plantation in Indonesia. She brings life to her sculpture garden by drawing on her upbringing in the Indonesian jungle. Her collection includes statues of jaguars, pythons, and other exotic and mythical creatures. Leading the tour through garden, she regaled us with the folk tales of her childhood, and the stories from her own life that inspired her unique creations.

Welcome to the garden — come on in!

Her love of the garden and all its inhabitants is evident in this oversized Monarch caterpillar bench, complete with the jungle-inspired monkey on its back. And, don’t miss the exotic bird on the monkey’s head.

The intriguing sculpture vignettes of the garden are bound together by pretty pathways and endless beds filled with beautiful blooms, stitched together like a life-sized garden quilt.

The perfect dog breed for the serious gardener. This one won’t dig up bulbs, eat tomatoes or chase chickens! You’d better watch out, Fletcher and Dakota, you could be replaced!

On one end of the charming clothesline, Momma and her young-un try coaxing a chicken off of the pole.

On the other end, Mr. America holds everything in line.

The garden also sports a seemingly endless array of little cottages, sheds, workshops and other quaint buildings, each its own palette for yet another display of De Raad’s artistic talent.

She wove a spell-binding tale about the jaguars in Indonesia as we passed by this building, closely guarded by her sculptural tribute to the fierce cats.

Sadly, my iPhone notes simply read, “jaguar story,” and I can’t remember the details.

I marveled at every turn at her innate ability to transform the most meaningful impressions of her life’s experiences into beauty and art.

The charming chicken coop, complete with its own namesake statues, was full of reused and recycled decor and several beautiful chickens.

I couldn’t really get any good pics of the chicks, and after all, the garden was calling…

But even the quaint bed in front of the chicken run was an art display. I can’ resist – De Raad left no stone unturned in bringing character into this part of the garden. Each of the border stones were given unique expressions, most of them smiling up at garden visitors.

And then, the chicken chair. Who wouldn’t feel like the queen of poultry sitting atop this perch?

With so much to see in this 3-acre garden, visitors can stop and rest at many lovely seating areas. This perennial border dotted with lilies frames the man and dog sculpture in the background. I didn’t catch the story of the body-less head the man is holding, but I’m sure it’s a doozy!

This seating vignette transports me to Alice in Wonderland…

Most of the sculptures in the garden are also lighted. I would have loved to seen this magical place in the evening, with all of De Raad’s concrete family members shining beacons across the garden.

After hours of editing and prepping, this post only skirts the beginning of this amazing garden. So, stay tuned, another post is yet to come!

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.

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.

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