England meets the Southwest in Jenny Stocker's garden

One of my favorite Austin gardens is the flower-licious gravel garden of blogger Jenny Stocker, aka Rock Rose. Along with her husband, David, Jenny has created a remarkable garden with a nowhere-else-but-Austin look.

It blends the sensibilities of an English cottage garden (Jenny and David are, after all, British) with more than a hint of the Desert Southwest thanks to sand-colored stucco walls, and it's all brought home to Texas via a diverse plant palette of native wildflowers, perennials, spiky yuccas and agaves, and shrubs mixed with cottage-garden favorites like roses, poppies, and tall verbena.

Every spring Jenny's garden blooms in a riot of color and flower power, held in check by the strong architecture of thick stucco walls. Doorways and windows in the walls frame enticing views and draw you through multiple garden rooms built around the contemporary home. 

 
Wildflowers and other self-sowers love the gravel mulch that carpets the garden, and many of the plants planted themselves, giving Jenny the job of editor-in-chief. She and David placed all the rock -- stones, boulders, and gravel -- used throughout the garden, creating dry creeks to channel runoff and making planting pockets and retaining walls. When they couldn't find any paving stones they liked, they made their own, pouring concrete in forms and texturing the surface to resemble natural stone. They do nothing by half-measures! 

Jenny's garden has appeared in Southern Living magazine (pictured above), and it's been on tour many times. You may have met Jenny at the Seattle Fling back in 2011 -- and if you come to the Austin Fling, you'll see her garden!  

In the meantime, be sure to visit her blog, Rock Rose, where you can enjoy her beautiful photos and get to know more about her and her garden.

P.S. Austin Fling registration announcement is coming soon, so stay tuned!