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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.

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!

How to use color, texture and movement to add depth to your landscape…

Our beautiful fall weather makes it the perfect time to visit your local independent garden centers and do some fall planting.

This Sunday, October 27 at 2:00 p.m., I hope you’ll join me for my upcoming appearance at It’s About Thyme Garden Center 11726 Manchaca Rd. (512) 282-1192, for my presentation on:

Jazzing Up The Garden with Color, Texture and Movement

I’ll be talking about using fundamental elements of design to unify your landscape.  Learn how the addition of color, contrast, texture and repetition can add interest and harmony to your garden.  


With just a few strategic additions, you can enhance your landscape with depth and dimension.  Learn how to brighten up a shady garden or how to add texture to show off your prized plants.

If you’re interested in taking your garden to the next level, or if you’ve been reading my Austin American Statesman gardening columns, I hope you’ll come join me in person on Sunday.

Hope to see you there!

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