April 14, 2024 After Texas mountain laurels and plums have dropped their fragrant blossoms, after bluebonnets and other early wildflowers have gone to messy seed, but before heat-loving salvias and skullcap and Turk’s cap get going, we enter what I call middle spring in Central Texas. It’s lush and flowery, still fresh and bright green, and abundant with roses, irises, and yucca flowers. Case in point, the ‘Peggy Martin’ climbing rose is awash in hot-pink blossoms dangling from the coyote fence along the back garden. Fragrance may be lacking, but color and quantity are not. It’s a great rose ..read more

April 12, 2024 Next time you’re in the checkout line at the grocery store or browsing magazines at your favorite newsstand, look for Outdoor Living magazine and my article “Jump Right In,” featuring Lorie and Michael Kinler‘s relaxing Fort Worth garden. Outdoor Living is a special publication by Better Homes & Gardens, and they’ve picked up and expanded my article about the Kinler garden that originally appeared in BHG last summer. I’m so happy for Lorie and Michael to see their garden getting more press! Their garden will appear in my forthcoming book about Texas gardens too. Outdoor Li ..read more

April 06, 2024 Yellow sulphur butterflies flitted among zexmenia (Wedelia hispida) flowers last evening in this curbside garden in Austin’s Tarrytown neighborhood. Yellow on yellow! Honeybees joined the pollinator party too. Behind all the activity, an architectural whale’s tongue agave (Agave ovatifolia) made a powder-blue backdrop. What a beauty of a whale! And wow, isn’t that zexmenia blooming early? Another sulphur And then there’s this: starbursts of big blue nolinas (Nolina nelsonii). How did these bad boys survive our past few winters, which melted mine to mush? I’m so jealous. T ..read more

April 04, 2024 While on a neighborhood stroll last week, I spotted a bodacious bevy of bluebonnets at a Bevo-loving neighbor’s house. Ka-pow! A few pink bluebonnets mingled with the standard blues. A glorious sight — thanks, neighbor! I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox! ________________ ..read more

April 03, 2024 What a great time of year this is in a Central Texas garden. The days have been comfortable but not hot. The humidity is low. We’ve had a little rain but also plenty of sun. And the plants are racing with new growth and flowers. They’re feeling the pressure, like the gardener, to do it all now before the plunge into summer. ‘Rooguchi’ clematis has scrambled up the pleated pot of squid agave and tangled itself among the squid’s arms. After a strong breeze yesterday broke one of the vine’s stems, I lightly tied it to the agave to help it hold on. This bell-shaped flower looks l ..read more

April 01, 2024 On my wildflower drive out to Willow City Loop last week, I stopped at Wildseed Farms in Fredericksburg, Texas, to check out their planted wildflower fields. The corn poppies were popping! If lightning hadn’t been flashing and thunder rumbling, I’d have stayed longer to take more pics. But just then I got a call from my husband at home in Austin, telling me lightning had just struck a live oak in our yard — boom! — blasting a landscape light in the canopy out of the tree, lifting low-voltage wiring out of the ground and shredding its plastic coating, and blowing the transforme ..read more

March 29, 2024 I headed west to the Hill Country on Wednesday on a THIRD wildflower safari, cruising the Willow City Loop between Fredericksburg and Llano. This famously scenic, 13-mile ranch road winds through rugged canyons and over rocky hilltops offering spectacular views, with low-water crossings and free-range cattle to watch out for. Bluebonnets, white prickly poppies, and other native Texas wildflowers puddle thickly along the roadside and in pastures. If you go, I recommend avoiding Easter weekend if you can and waiting until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Otherwise you’ll likely ..read more

March 26, 2024 Bluebonnets are popping off in Texas this spring, so much so that I made time for a second wildflower safari last Friday, heading east through farm country toward Independence. I shared Part 1 of that drive yesterday. Today, here’s Part 2. The rolling fields, farms, and ranches between Giddings and Independence make up some of the prettiest country in all of Texas. These two horses were smack in the middle of it, enjoying their bluebonnet field of dreams. I thought they might saunter over to say hello as I photographed the flowers. But the horse on the right was wary, and the ..read more

March 25, 2024 A couple weeks ago, I went on wildflower safari south of Austin, east of San Antonio, and saw some good flower fields. But this above-average wildflower year called for a second safari. On Friday, my husband and I hit the back roads east of Austin, near tiny Independence, Texas. And wowza, what a bonanza of bluebonnets and other wildflowers we saw! I like to head out in mid-afternoon and stay through sunset to get lower, more golden light for photos. One of our first good sightings was a yellow field of golden groundsel, glowing in late afternoon. A crazy quilt of wildflowers ..read more

March 23, 2024 I was happy to visit the new garden of a new gardening friend a few days ago. Located in Austin’s Windsor Hills neighborhood, the garden represents a new beginning for its creator, Nancy Fortner (@gardeningwhileold). In 2021, to be near their daughter, Nancy and her late husband, Bob, proprietors of Sweetlife Farm, relocated to Austin from Bainbridge Island, a beautiful, moist, gardening paradise west of Seattle. What a life change! Over the past year, Nancy has laid the groundwork for her new garden, ripping out half-dead front and back lawns, laying paths and patios, building ..read more