Inside Austin Garden Tour Archives | Diana's Designs Austin

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 Diana C. Kirby|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

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 Diana C. Kirby|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

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 Diana C. Kirby|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

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.