All hail my ultra-talented photographer friend Cat, who has answered ten million camera questions this past year and leant me her fantastic book, Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. (I will give it back, I swear!) Now I am finally at the point where I understand WTF to do with the ISO.

One of the things I really wanted to document properly was the #1 butterfly magnet in my yard, the climbing tropical mistflower, Chromolaena odorata, which I have on twin trellises flanking my shed window. I wait all year for it to bloom, usually timed to the monarch migration, and once in bloom, it’s completely covered in clouds of butterflies and other pollinators. One magical morning, I ignored my to-do list and spent some quality time half-hanging out the window with my camera:

2020 camera goal? Full manual, y’all! Fingers crossed.

Starting off our tour, here’s the entrance to the back garden as you come around the side of the house. The yucca rostrata peeking out in the background is new this year, replacing a variegated agave americana that didn’t make it through the winter. I really love the color echo with the agave ovatifolia in the foreground:

Continuing around the curve of the lawn, here’s what’s new this year– a stock tank pond! The weird-looking mesquite that used to be there with a climbing rose lost another major limb in a bad storm and was infested with carpenter ants, so out it came. Of course, it took nearly a year after removing the tree to get around to removing the *&*%&^ rock hard stump (breaking up & removing a rock would have probably been easier!) and then excavating for the pond. I always seem to end up working on my own big outdoor projects in the heat of summer, and this one was no exception. Since my soil is basically modeling clay and it was over a hundred degrees the entire time, it was exactly as miserable as you’d imagine. But worth it!

Here’s a better view of the pond from the back deck. I had to dig through pictures to find a picture of just the pond, so this is actually from late August, right after I finished planting around it and cutting & fitting the piece of limestone that the chair sits on.

Backing up a bit in our tour, I love that yucca rostrata. It was the most money I’ve ever spent on a single plant for my garden, and I love love love love it. It really pulls everything together, and I love the evergreen structure and the height and the way the light hits it. Plus I enjoy that unlike the previous agave in that planter, I won’t have to cover it every time a freeze threatens:

In the far left background of the last picture, I finally got around to making a cozy seating area on the back deck where there was previously a broken hot tub. The daybed was a free score from someone moving out of the neighborhood, and I love it. I’ve spent a ton of time back there reading and napping with Killer (the cat) since it’s cooled off. The mirrors were free from the curb during bulk items pickup, the shelf is a board and some cheap brackets, and lighting all of the lanterns and tea lights at night and seeing them reflected in the mirror is magical.

Stepping back off of the deck, here’s the view back towards the entrance to the back garden. I love that agave weberi and I wish it would slow down growing, because I’m going to have to remove when it gets much bigger (it’s blocking access to the outlet I have the fountain plugged into).

When the bottle tree is backlit every morning, that’s my cue that I’ve lingered too long with coffee in the back garden and need to get my ass in gear! The olive tree against the fence is also new this year. I have no idea what variety it is (I got it at a crazy clearance sale with no label), so fingers crossed that it’s one of the cold hardy ones. I love how it adds some evergreen height to that agave vignette and also echoes the other dusty blues going on in the garden.

Speaking of backlighting, here’s one of my favorite views across the backyard. I love how the colors and textures stack:

And now that the clock is about to strike noon, it’s time for me to conclude this tour & go make a pie. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

(Heck, if you need more enticement, you can go eat amazing burgers at Angel’s Icehouse on the way. Or go cool down with cocktails at a waterfront patio restaurant without having to deal with the long wait you’d suffer through at a similar spot in Austin. There’s even a fun cactus nursery five minutes away. Or you could just look at this small selection of pictures from the million different things to see, and decide that bribery would be overkill.)

Let’s just start with one of the big guns:

Nay, your eyes do not deceive you– that’s a motherfucking grand piano just sitting right there on the damn hillside. And it’s full of succulents. Yeah, just try that in your front yard and make sure to take hard cash bets on who in the HOA has palpitations first.

When I bought my house, I used to joke that I made sure to buy in a neighborhood with no HOA so I could line up a row of old toilets in the front yard like Easter Island moais and fill them with cactus without anyone being able to stop me, but I’ve gotta say that I like this better:

Then there’s the 1950’s Willis Jeep that’s been turned into a fountain, complete with fairies who clearly watched a lot of Labyrinth in their formative years. They creep me out a little and I love it. (If they came alive at night and partied with the gnomes and trash-talked and/or rode around on the neighborhood raccoons, it wouldn’t surprise me. It’s that kind of garden.)

And those headlights? They turn on at night. I am betting the brightness also goes up to eleven.

One thing I really love about this garden is that it’s designed to be used 24/7. Check out the party lights above the piano. You don’t notice it much during the day, but there are funky lights everywhere (no big box store landscape lighting for this garden!), and when dusk hits, the garden still welcomes.

Behind that turquoise dining table, there’s a diorama beneath a hollow log with a sign that says “Better Gnomes And Gardens.” Here’s a detail shot:

There are gnomes and fairies tucked away everywhere. Also statuary:

And here in the butterfly garden, the classic Virgin Mary grotto concept meets a vintage telephone booth concept, they high five, and it’s glorious:

Oh, and check out the gate to the butterfly garden. It’s a vintage gate that Shari found. I love it and want one of my own. If anyone knows where I can find one and still afford to eat, please let me know!

I ran into Shari at Barton Springs Nursery when she was buying supplies for this vintage dress form succulent project, and was dying to to see how it turned out. I have to say that when I visualized, I wasn’t expecting the jewelry…it looks like Shari somehow summoned my mom’s old jewelry stash that I played with as a kid. Except the nipple rings. I don’t remember those.

Moving on, a chandelier made of old silver and a (literal) framed view.

Across the driveway from the Jeep fountain, more vintage cars in a hollow log planter. It’s kinda cool how it looks like nature is taking over in both vignettes. Driftwood cedar hollowed out and used as planters is an ongoing theme in the garden, and I have got to somehow get my hands on a few logs of my own.

Anyway, if I showed you all of the cool planters, repurposed things, vignettes, scenes, the kickass view over the Pedernales River off the back deck…we would be here all night. And also possibly part of the morning. And it’s past my bedtime.

So wrapping this up, I have some thoughts about gardens and gardeners. There are lots of kinds of gardens and lots of kinds of gardeners. There are some broad and overlapping categories, like the plant people/hoarders, the gardeners who specialize in one kind of thing– edibles/succulents/cactus/things that don’t want to grow here and divide their gardens into areas showing those things off neatly, there are the designers where everything needs to be aesthetically balanced and spaces need to be functional and plant geekery is secondary, and then there are the gardens that are about creating or chasing a sense of place or a feeling more than anything, and plants and hardscape are just the tools to get there. And then there are the gardens that are about personal expression and experimentation, and they don’t really fit into a neat little box, and Shari’s garden is one of those. It’s just funny to me that I love it so much, because it’s not at all the kind of garden I would create. Maybe it’s just because it’s such a reflection of the garden owners and super-personal and you can tell it was created without giving a damn what other people would think, and the garden owners are pretty damn cool. (I remember having that same reaction to the Hutto Hippo garden.)

And since it’s past my bedtime, I will leave you with the soothing sounds of the Jeep waterfall. I’ll be working in Shari’s garden on Saturday afternoon, so come and say hi! And check out the rest of the awesome gardens on InsideAustinGardens.org!

A post shared by Lori Daul (@loridauldesign) on Apr 27, 2017 at 3:13pm PDT

Here’s the view of Gregory’s house from the street:

The area closest to the street is planted with tough, reseeding, and mostly-native plants. In the spring, it’s overflowing with the wildflowers that make Texas fields so iconic– bluebonnets, larkspur, Mexican hat, coreopsis, Indian Paintbrush, and Mexican feathergrass in all its spring glory.

In the fall, after one measly rain shower in five months, the flowers are much more subtle, like this Gregg’s dalea:

Keeping the pollinators happy, one flower at a time:

The delicate white flowers of native fleabane cheer up the front garden from spring until frost.

Salvia greggii marches along the curb to match the stop sign at the corner:

Xeric evergreen foliage plants also shine when water is scarce. This “Blue Glow” agave and chartreuse sedum make a complimentary pair.

To separate public and private spaces, Gregory had a low retaining wall built around his front entry area, which gives it the feel of a courtyard. The front lawn area is dedicated to low-water alternatives to the traditional St. Augustine or Bermudagrass lawn and works well as a negative space to rest the eye in contrast to the naturalism of the streetside plantings.

The sunny area to the right of the front door is a buffalo blue grama grass mix. The lawn to the left of the walk segues into a newly-planted sedge lawn as it reaches the shade of an oak. (You’ll be able to see what a mature sedge lawn looks like at Pam Penick’s “Oh, Deer!” garden on the tour.) Gregory doesn’t have a sprinkler system and isn’t a a fan of watering, so this lawn area is only watered when getting plants established and in times of extreme drought.

You can see the sedge area in the upper right corner:

I love how well the hefty blocks of native limestone enhance the Central Texas plant palette and add an element of formality.

I also really like the detail of these two squares of limestone bracketing the front walk. They mark the threshold between formal and informal, public and private, and make a great place to sit while chatting. And if I were a cat, I imagine this would be a primo spot for sunbathing and/or looking down upon lesser mortals.

Just outside the front wall, the mood is more casual. Doesn’t this vignette remind you of the rope swings of childhood? I also enjoy the texture of the weathered adirondack against the limestone wall.

More textures:

Taking a turn around to the gate into the private back garden, here we find Gracie, World’s Sweetest Dog, keeping an eye on the world through the doggie-sized porthole in the back fence.

Look at that face!

Through the gate, here’s a long shot across the back garden:

The garden is built around a sunny circular zoysia lawn. The clean lines of the lawn help temper the tumble of tough plantings around it. I asked Gregory about his plant philosophy, and he described it as “the most amount of flowers with the least amount of effort, hence my love of roses and wildflowers.” There are lots of tough flowers and trees tucked into this suburban yard, among them plumbago, inland sea oats, mistflower, loquat, coppery canyon daisy, and heartleaf skullcap. There are rectangular vegetable and herb beds in the sunny spots, and a cheery lawn gnome on an elevated dish planter watches over it all.

Earlier, I had been amused to discover another tiny gnome keeping an eye on the front lawn from a front door flowerpot:

Gregory’s garden is a Certified Wildlife Habitat. So there’s water for the birds…

…and for the dog!

This shady corner used to be the home of a trampoline. Now the garden’s central circular seating area is echoed by a shady firepit setup.

A view next to the playhouse looking back across the garden. Every bit of space in the back garden has a purpose.

Gregory’s garden is a great illustration of how to design for low water in Central Texas when you don’t have a drip or sprinkler system. He picks tough plants to start with, and then puts the ones that need more water closer to the house and the hose.

My favorite thing about Gregory’s garden is how it perfectly encapsulates design elements that I think make for great gardens for people who don’t want to spend all their time doing maintenance: enough formality to balance a naturalistic or exuberant planting style, and a thoughtfully-designed, properly-scaled hardscape constructed well out of durable materials.  As long as the designated ‘negative spaces’ stay neat and the hardscape is structurally sound, that strong design backbone will balance out a jungle or a less-than-perfect growing season and will keep the garden looking good year-round. And that means more time to actually enjoy the view through the window or from the hammock (or from the top of a sun-warmed limestone pedestal, working on your cat impression).

This concludes our tour! I leave you with Gracie’s smiling face in feathergrass camouflage.

You can read more about Gregory’s garden here or see more pictures on the Inside Austin Gardens Tour website.

The Inside Austin Gardens Tour is October 17th from 9 AM to 4 PM. Tickets are $20 for all 7 gardens or $5 per garden. You can also buy your ticket to all of the gardens for $19 here. More information can be found on the Inside Austin Gardens Tour website.

See you on tour day!

Here’s a shot looking east from the vegetable garden. The shade structure on the left is still in the construction phase and will be part of a rainwater collection system.

Here you can see the turf and vegetable beds. It’s quite a contrast with the starkly industrial neighborhood surrounding the garden!

On a rustic trellis along the sidewalk, rose ‘Red Cascade’ lived up to its name.

A sea of gomphrena against a backdrop of burgundy amaranth:

Shrimp plant, a great tough plant for shade, demonstrates how it got its common name:

The exotic flowers of Passionflower cover a chain link fence between a sidewalk and parking area. In my experience, it tends to spread like crazy, so this is the perfect spot to keep it in bounds! This is the host plant for the gulf fritillary butterfly.

Also a hit with butterflies is Mexican Flame Vine.

Backlit by the late afternoon sun, it really did look like it was alight!

It was an ideal plant for butterfly camouflage. Perfect timing for the monarch migration!

Also popular with the butterflies was native Gregg’s Mistflower.

Waterwise annual gomphrena was popular with skipperling moths:

Down at the curb, tough native four-nerve daisies and a softleaf yucca add evergreen interest. You can see the Mexican Flame Vine in the background.

While the Demonstration Garden is free and open to the public, there will be Master Gardeners on hand to answer questions during the tour. Read more about the Demo Garden here and check out a photo gallery here.

The Inside Austin Gardens Tour is October 17th from 9 AM to 4 PM. Tickets are $20 for all 7 gardens or $5 per garden. You can also buy your ticket to all of the gardens for $19 here. More information can be found on the Inside Austin Gardens Tour website.

See you on tour day!

Here’s a view from the driveway. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but this is a fairly steep slope. This whole area is open to deer, so the plants have been chosen with that in mind. What makes this planting so successful is the high levels of contrast between the plants– soft, shaggy sedge paired with the wide strappy leaves of the yucca, the fuzzy arching arms of foxtail fern grounded by heavy blue pots and glazed ceramic spheres.

One of the few sunny spots borders the curb, so Sue has planted up her hellstrip with sun-loving plants. Here a yellow-flowering verbascum arches over a carpet of four nerve and blackfoot daisies:

Here’s a wider shot of the curbside garden. Potted agaves add drama and height to the back of the border.

At the entrance to the driveway, low voltage lighting doubles as garden art:

I spy…

Sue has a great eye for container plantings and likes to move containers around to fill visual holes in her beds and to add seasonal interest. The pots themselves add color too, as shade plants for this climate tend to have a very limited color palette. This blue pot of dianella flax lily and foxtail fern is a great combo for a shady spot:

I really wish I’d taken more pictures during my visit, as I am not doing this garden justice. Please check out this gallery and Sue’s profile on the Inside Austin Gardens Tour website for a more comprehensive tour of Sue’s excellent garden!

The Inside Austin Gardens Tour is October 17th from 9 AM to 4 PM. Tickets are $20 for all 7 gardens or $5 per garden. You can also buy your ticket to all of the gardens for $19 here. More information can be found on the Inside Austin Gardens Tour website.

See you on tour day!

Speaking of le chat, cats and front porches go well together, and this cat reminded me of my friend Robin, who loves cat garden art:

I also really love the combination of brick and limestone pavers that lead from the sidewalk to the front door. The sharp-edged limestone feels contemporary, but the brick kicks it back a notch to a softer, more casual style.

A striped aloe in a pot adds subtle color to the porch arrangement:

Some front porch art points the way to the rest of the garden:

The double lot has lots of mature trees and shade, but the sunny spots are filled with vegetables or flowers. Do you see the bee heading for the flowering basil?

Fungus on a stump in the veggie garden reminds me that I forgot to ask Martha whether she’s tried to inoculate stumps with edible mushrooms as I’ve read about permaculture practicioners doing.

There are birdbaths and fountains everywhere. Martha’s garden is a Certified Wildlife Habitat.

I was amused by the contrast of Zen-influenced garden art with pieces of classic Americana:

Martha has a few microclimates in her garden and uses them to her advantage to grow borderline hardy fruit trees. The giant banana in the picture above is by far the biggest I’ve seen in Austin. To the right are citrus trees in the ground. Martha also grows arbequina and manzanilla olives (olives require a pollinator) and recently harvested an impressive amount.

And what of flowers? The biggest show was in the full sun of the hellstrip, which is also planted up:

This concludes our tour! You can read more about Martha’s garden here and see more pictures here. The Austin-American Statesman also recently published an article about Martha’s garden as a wildlife habitat.

The Inside Austin Gardens Tour is October 17th from 9 AM to 4 PM. Tickets are $20 for all 7 gardens or $5 per garden. You can also buy your ticket to all of the gardens for $19 here. More information can be found on the Inside Austin Gardens Tour website.

See you on tour day!

First up is the south Austin garden of Lois Pesz, which wows with lush and colorful plantings starting right at the curb.

Lois favors a mixture of native plants and well-adapted ornamentals with dramatic foliage, most notably evergreen yucca, the dramatically-arching deep purple-hued “Princess Caroline” fountain grass, purple-burgundy spikes of dykia, and the glossy black-purple of ornamental peppers. The repetition of flower and foliage hues and forms unifies the front garden design.

The front lawn is a gently curving wide path that creates a quiet negative space that tames the exuberant plantings. The lawn is edged with nearly invisible root barrier edging. Round rocks are set inside that border as the visible edging, creating clean lines for the lawn and greatly reducing maintenance.

Certain color and form combinations echo each other throughout the front garden. Here the purple ornamental pepper and blue-green spikes of softleaf yucca echo the shape  and color of the dramatic Princess Caroline pennisetum purpureum behind it.

This arrangement is echoed in a shady spot with spiky-fountain shape of dianella flax lily contrasting with the dramatic purple foliage of Persian Shield.

And here in another part-sun nook, the spiky-purple theme continues with yucca, ornamental pepper, and Mystic Spires salvia:

Moving to the backyard, you’re greeted with the unexpectedly dramatic foliage of giant okra.

The okra provides privacy screen for one side of the back deck, which is arranged into conversation areas with comfortable furniture.

A collection of potted plants brings the garden right up to the house. This pot features an unusual combo of dianella flax lily and firecracker fern.

And who did I spy keeping a sharp eye on us bloggers? Meet Bernie, one of the garden cats.

Many thanks to Lois for opening her garden for us and for answering our many questions!

You can see more pictures and read more about Lois’s garden on the Inside Austin Gardens Tour website.

The Inside Austin Gardens Tour is October 17th from 9 AM to 4 PM. Tickets are $20 for all 7 gardens or $5 per garden. You can also buy your ticket to all of the gardens for $19 here. More information can be found on the Inside Austin Gardens Tour website.

See you on tour day!

ETA: I’m entering this picture in the Gardening Gone Wild Picture This Photo Contest.