More natural beauty in Moring Garden

At Austin Fling, we'll visit landscape architect Tait Moring's 20-year-old home garden, a sanctuary on the edge of a wild canyon. A unique modern-rustic style, with structural and creative stonework, makes this largely native-plant garden stand out.

Tait says, "To embrace the native landscape, one of my long-term goals is to plant at least one of every native plant that is unique to the region. In a sense, my property has become a 'test kitchen,' a way to actively test the best conditions for specific plant species."

By using native flora, Tait's garden has also become a haven for local wildlife. He commonly sees foxes, hawks, coyotes, roadrunners, owls, bobcats, deer, hummingbirds, wild turkeys, rock squirrels, and many other birds, reptiles and insects.

As you explore, you'll discover some wonderful surprises, including a rock wall that incorporates Tait's childhood rock collection and treasures from his grandfather's cattle ranch, a rare Texas madrone tree, and a vegetable garden of raised stone planters terraced along the edge of the canyon. 

Come join us at Austin Fling, May 3-6, and see this unique garden and many more! Registration info can be found here. 

Sharing Nature's Garden at Diana Kirby's garden

Photo: Diana Kirby

Diana Kirby, our fearless lead planner for the upcoming Austin Fling, shares her 1-acre suburban-country garden on her blog, Sharing Nature's Garden, and she'll be sharing it with us at Austin Fling too! 

As soon as you arrive you'll know you're at a gardener's garden. Diana is a true plant lover with design chops to boot. Ribbons of colorful salvia, society garlic, aster, and golden thryallis, anchored by stately, broad-leaved agave, act as welcoming committee. Along the curving walk to the front door, where tall trees provide shade, the bold foliage of sago palm, Persian shield, and root-beer plant offer rich color or texture.

Diana rocks tropical-style color and bold foliage in her back garden, which is designed for entertaining with a swimming pool, outdoor kitchen, and comfortably furnished cabana. She's recently added a rose parterre near her greenhouse and vegetable garden, and she's even claimed growing space outside of her fence for deer-resistant, drought-tolerant agaves, yuccas, and native flowering perennials.

We look forward to sharing Diana's garden with you at the Fling, which is happening May 3-6. Only a few spaces remain, so sign up today!

Wildflower meadow, garden haus, and a killer view

Someone with less vision might have chosen to let a breathtaking view of downtown Austin do all the talking. But Ruthie Burrus has vision. After her house was built -- in a style that references the simple stone houses German immigrants in the 1800s built in the Texas Hill Country -- she chose to enhance her backyard's stunning view with a frame of native blooming plants and succulents, mixed with some Texas favorites and a few roses.

"My garden," Ruthie says, "is all about pollinators, native plants, and taking advantage of views and natural surroundings. We live on top of a hill overlooking downtown Austin, the Texas Capitol Building, and the University of Texas tower. Our property is both a Certified Wildlife Habitat and a Monarch Way Station, so it's filled with sunflowers, salvias, lantanas, pavonia, Turk’s cap, and bee balm -- lots of food for pollinators! We also have a rainwater collection system that harvests rain off our roofs and gutters and stores it in a 10,000-gallon galvanized tank. It is wonderful to be able to water flowerbeds with rainwater instead of chemically treated city water."

Anchoring one end of the back garden is a charming garden "haus" designed by Ruthie and constructed of stone and antique doors, old windows, and recycled roofing material. It has been featured in Southern Living magazine, and if we're lucky with the timing, we'll see it smothered in pink 'Peggy Martin' roses.

Ruthie's garden "haus" in Southern Living, April 2017

Out front, a steep hillside has been planted as a wildflower meadow, showcasing native wildflower annuals and perennials in the spring, native lantana in the summer, and native grasses in the fall and winter. 

We look forward to sharing Ruthie's garden with you at Austin Fling! If you're a garden blogger and want to snag one of our remaining few spots on the tour -- a great value at only $275 USD -- click here for registration info.

Eat breakfast tacos in Digging garden

My former garden, toured at the first Garden Bloggers Fling in 2008

A decade ago (what?!), in April 2008, I opened my garden to bloggers at the very first Garden Bloggers Fling for a pre-dinner happy hour. This was my former garden, where a baby Moby (my beloved whale's tongue agave) was growing in the front yard and my rustic Green Hall shed anchored the back yard. With Mexican martinis in hand, 37 bloggers explored the garden, milled around in the kitchen, relaxed on the patio, and participated in two blogger-led roundtable discussions in the living room and out on the back porch. What fun it was to see bloggers I'd known only online enjoying themselves in my garden!

My current garden, seen here with Moby, my dearly departed whale's tongue agave

Fast forward 10 years later, and Austin bloggers are hosting the Fling again -- this time for a full 3-1/2-day Fling experience, even better than the one-day meetup and tour that comprised our first experimental Fling. And I'm delighted to be opening my "new" garden (now almost 10 years old) to the bloggers -- this time with breakfast tacos! Hey, everything's better with a breakfast taco.

While Moby has passed on -- and I know some of you have Moby Jrs in your own gardens -- you'll see plenty of other agaves, plus some big yuccas and sotols. An 8-foot stock-tank pond sits at the heart of my garden, where you can say hello to the goldfish that's been wily enough to elude marauding herons and raccoons.

Dry shade and hordes of hungry deer have shaped my plant choices out front, where I rely on fragrant, toothy, and grassy foliage. In back, a steep slope has been tamed with terracing, and shade-tolerant perennials and succulents are elevated in upcycled containers, including culvert pipe remnants and concrete cinderblocks. You'll find multiple seating areas for enjoyment of the promised breakfast tacos, although of course breakfast tacos are portable for noshing while exploring, if you prefer.

I look forward to welcoming Austin Flingers to my garden. See you in May! 

And if you're a garden blogger and want to snag one of our remaining few spots on the tour -- a great value at only $275 USD -- click here for registration info.

Modern design and native plants at designer B. Jane's garden

When designer B. Jane created a garden for her own home, she faced some familiar challenges: a small lot with a need for privacy from the neighbors so she and her family could enjoy a resort-like back yard, complete with swimming pool, grilling station, fire pit, spa, and outdoor shower. After creating gardens for other people all day, her goal was to relax in her own garden, not slave over it. She also wanted a fun outdoor space for her daughter and friends to hang out. 

Choosing a contemporary style with an architectural approach to planting, she planted up the front yard with native and adapted plants -- i.e., water thrifty and Texas tough -- in linear arrangements to provide lots of curb appeal and to screen neighboring driveways. In back, she divided the garden into different "rooms" for various activities, making the small space live larger. 

She even managed to make the garden Brisket-proof -- that is, able to hold up to the wear and tear of their very active and swimming-pool-lovin' dog Brisket.

You'll visit this garden and more at Austin Fling this May 3rd-6th. If you haven't already signed up, here's the registration info!

You'll find plenty to adore in Mirador garden

At the Mirador Garden, which you'll see on the Austin Fling tour, a dramatic feature greets you as you enter the driveway: slim walls of rusty steel that terrace the contours of the sloping lot. Tiered planting beds bristle with yucca and agave, while billowing native grasses and cascading silver groundcovers do their part to soften the scene. Jerusalem thorn's lemon-yellow flowers stand out against unusual lime-green limbs and trunks. A meadow-like ecological lawn of Habiturf (developed by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center) subs for traditional, thirsty lawn.

Inside a steel-walled courtyard overlooked by the contemporary home, roses, iris, and zinnias give a cheery, casual vibe, but the garden steers clear of cottage style with an open layout and linear steel-edged beds. A trough-style water feature attracts birds and reflects the big Texas sky.

In back, heat-loving Yucca rostrata cluster together like a congregation of hedgehogs, and a vine-draped pergola offers shade. 

We hope you'll join us in early May to explore this garden and many others on our three days of garden touring. And if you're already signed up (click here to see the bloggers who have already registered), we'll see you in just a few months!

Registration is OPEN for the 2018 Garden Bloggers Fling in Austin

Update 4/4/18: Registration for Austin Fling is now closed. Thanks to everyone who registered, and we'll see you in Austin!

Join us as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Garden Bloggers Fling in Austin, Texas, on May 3-6, 2018.  Come see where it all began.  We'll give you a bigger-than-Texas welcome and show you a rockin' good time.  We’ll tour the city’s great gardens, eat fabulous Tex Mex and BBQ, and enjoy live entertainment.

How will registration work? 
To register for the fling, please email your name, blog name, and URL, to austingardenbloggersfling@gmail.com and once we've verified that you're an active garden blogger (see attendance eligibility) we'll email you a secure registration code and a link to our registration site. 

How much will it cost?
The registration fee is $275 USD, plus a $6.50 PayPal fee (USD). Registration includes entry to all the gardens, bus transportation for three days, a banquet dinner on Saturday night, lunches on all three garden-touring days, an opening reception on Thursday evening, a BBQ Bash on Sunday afternoon, and 3-1/2 days of fun and gardens with your fellow bloggers. (We thank our generous sponsors -- listed in the sidebar -- for their support, which helps us keep the registration cost as low as possible.) When you register, the cost appears on the first page of the registration website - it won't appear again on the site.  Please note, you do not need to have a PayPal account or pay by PayPal.  The payment button on the checkout page will read PayPal, click on it and you will be taken to another  page where you will have the choice to login to PayPal, or just scroll down to enter your credit card without using PayPal.  Just pass the login button and go on to fill out the credit card details and submit.

Make your hotel reservation

After you complete your registration, you'll be led to the confirmation page which includes the link to our official Fling hotel, where you can reserve a room at the special Fling rate of $189 [current rates apply, as our hotel block at the Fling rate has sold out]. Please note:  The hotel link appears on the last page after you have completed registration.  The hotel logo is very small - wear your readers and click on the link that reads   Limited Availability   below the hotel logo and it will take you our hotel website to book your reservation.

We expect it to fill fast, so be sure to make your reservation now. There may be a slight delay between when you send your email and when we respond.  As you know, we’ll be fielding lots of emails and questions, and Pam Penick, Laura Wills, and I will all be on call to answer questions as soon as we can.  We appreciate your patience and understanding.  We are eager to get everyone registered as quickly and seamlessly as possible.  Rest assured, once we receive your email, we will respond on a first-come, first-served basis according to the time we receive your email. 

When should I plan to arrive and depart?
The Fling kicks off on Thursday, May 3rd, with a 6 to 7:30 p.m. opening reception (appetizers included) just a 17-minute stroll from the hotel. We encourage you to arrive early enough to attend, as it's a fun opportunity to get your bearings and meet everyone before the tours begin. We'll meet up in the lobby at 5:30 pm and walk over to the reception as a group.

The Fling ends on the evening of Sunday, May 6th, with a BBQ Bash -- an Austin-style back-yard party with live music, BBQ and sides, and drinks at Articulture. The buses will take us there directly from garden touring and then deliver us back to the hotel around 7:30 pm. Plan to depart later that evening or, preferably, on Monday in order to attend this fun event!

What will the Austin Fling include?
Here's a link to our working itinerary (subject to change). We're excited to share Austin and its gardens with you!

Not only will you see the best that Austin has to offer, attendees at the Austin Fling will receive a free, commemorative souvenir booklet, highlighting 10 years of Flings.  For those who can't join us, the booklet will be available to previous Fling attendees for purchase by mail after the event.

Who can attend, and how many spaces will there be?
Garden Bloggers Fling is an event for active garden bloggers; please see the Fling attendance guidelines for full details. We have 92 spots available, and we do expect it to fill up quickly.

In the event something happens and you can't make it -- here's the cancellation policy:
100% -- Today through January 3, 2018

  75%  -- January 4 through February 3, 2018

  50%  -- February 4 through March 3, 2018

  25%  -- March 4 through April 3, 2018

    0%  -- April 4 through May 3, 2018

I have a burning question. How should I contact the planning team?

Please email the Austin Fling planners directly rather than asking questions here or on the Facebook page. We'll be monitoring our email carefully. 

Who's planning this event?

The Austin Fling planning team is:

Diana Kirby of Sharing Nature's Garden

Pam Penick of Digging

Laura Wills of Wills Family Acres

We hope to see you at our anniversary shindig in Austin next May! Ready, set, go!

Kirk Walden's colorful xeric garden with a commanding view

With an enviable view of Lake Austin and the rolling green hills where the Texas Hill Country begins, it would have been easy just to let the view do all the talking. But Kirk Walden and his wife wanted a garden to complement the amazing view and worked with designer Annie Gillespie of Botanical Concerns to create a beautiful, hilltop retreat. Pollinator-friendly and colorful perennials and evergreens like rosemary and agave create a tapestry of mounding plants that are tough enough to thrive in the harsh, exposed conditions of the site. 

A naturally shaped swimming pool and upper pond, connected by a gently dropping stream, evoke spring-fed swimming holes in the Hill Country. The water echoes the view of Lake Austin and keeps the garden -- and gardener -- feeling cool even on the hottest summer days. Kirk himself is an avid gardener and takes pleasure in maintaining his garden of native and well-adapted perennials and other plants, with help from Julie Clark of Stronger Than Dirt.

Limestone boulders and stonework terrace the sloping lot, and a naturalistic dry creek out front keeps Texas gullywashers from tearing up the garden beds. "The terrain appears naturally terraced, defined by berms, outcroppings, dry river beds and stone paths," Kirk says. "It was all man-made, shaped and limited by the severe slope of the property."

We'll be visiting Kirk's garden on our final day of Fling touring, and we know you'll be as wowed by it as we are. 

Remember, registration opens THIS THURSDAY, November 9th, at 10 a.m. CST. We look forward to sharing this garden and many others with our fellow garden bloggers and hope you'll sign up early!

...and the kitchen sink

This is a space for any post that doesn't quite fit in to any one garden, whether it be travel-related, about multiple gardens, or just general Fling musings.

Portland Fling Round-Up!!!

The Fling is over now and all of us on the planning committee had a great time...we hope you did too!

As in the past, please put links for your own posts about each garden in the corresponding post on this site. To make things a little easier, we've implemented the same linking system used by several Memes...if you've participated in Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, it will be very familiar. At the bottom of each post, you'll see the graphic below followed by a simple form for submitting your own links...hopefully this will be easier than posting in the comments section.



Also, to make it easier to navigate, here's a list of all the gardens, just click on the name to go directly to that page, we can't wait to see all your posts!!!

Pre-Fling Event
Pomarius Nursery

Day 1 - Friday, July 11
Timber Press
Lan Su Chinese Garden
Cistus Nursery
Joy Creek Nursery
Old Germantown Gardens
Westwind Farm Studio

Day 2 - Saturday, July 12
Portland Japanese Garden
McMenamins Kennedy School
Danger Garden
JJ De Sousa Garden
Chickadee Gardens

Day 3 - Sunday, July 13
Ernst/Fuller Gardens
Rhone Street Gardens
Floramagoria
John Kuzma Garden
Bella Madrona

And a spot for any other miscellaneous post that doesn't quite fit into these categories
Miscellaneous Posts

Also, just an FYI...the linking widget used is sometimes almost instant, other times, it might be a few minutes before your link shows up.

Fling Preview: Bella Madrona

Bella Madrona began forming in 1980, at an 1892 farmstead. It was named for the madrones growing naturally here, in gravelly soil formed by the ice age floods. Over the years, garden rooms were added, surrounded by hedges. We began having large parties and benefits, which required that crowds could move easily from room to room, and that large open spaces be included.


The plant material, though special from the beginning, was chosen to complement the overall space. Now that the garden is 34, and the gardener is 64, the prime focus is keeping towering hedges sheared, pruning trees and shrubs to allow some semblance of light in, and repairing crumbling infrastructure. The garden has directed its own maturation, with some editing help from the aging gardener.


As a result it has taken on a personality and possesses a sense of place that is to many visitors alluring, eccentric and magical. The lower area, essentially a bog, with its metasequoia grove and large bald cypresses, is a world apart, belying its proximity to the urban growth boundary. It is, along with the garden as a whole, home to a great variety of wildlife, and, indeed, the place is as much for them as it is for the humans who live here and who visit.

Fling Preview: John Kuzma Garden

This half-acre garden designed by Sean Hogan of Cistus Design Nursery is entering its fourth year and emphasizes Mediterranean acclimated plants. The front entry garden, with nolina, agave, arbutus, arctostaphylos, Dickonsonia antarctica, and several large Quercus suber, surrounds a decomposed granite courtyard.


The back garden has a reflecting pool facing a broad, graveled courtyard flanked by trachycarpus and several Jubaea chilensis. Wide gravel paths lead to broad leaved evergreen trees and shrubs, several tropical areas; and several large succulent beds with a rock crevice section. The green roofed garden shed is adjacent to various eucalyptus varieties and several beds of bamboo.


This winter, with an arctic event in early December (I estimate 10-12 degrees low in my garden, at 600 ft elevation) was challenging. I lost some zone 7 plants that had not hardened off due to a mild fall. Many thanks to the Portland Garden Bloggers Fling Committee for including me in your tour and I look forward to meeting you all.


Here are Blogger posts about this garden!

Tangly Cottage •	13 July: John Kuzma Garden
Chickadee Gardens •	Garden Blogger's Fling, Portland: Kuzma Garden
Succulents & More •	#GBFling14: John Kuzma Garden
Descubriendo hojas •	El jardín de John Kuzma en Portland, Oregon (parte I) #gbfling14
Descubriendo hojas •	El jardín de John Kuzma en Portland, Oregon (parte II) #gbfling14
Digging •	Rocking a gravel garden in the Kuzma Garden: Portland Garden Bloggers Fling

Submit your link to Scott Weber at scottweberpdx@gmail.com

Fling Preview: Floramagoria

Three years ago, we removed our beloved 10-year-old garden to make way for new hardscape and outdoor living opportunities. Concrete walkways lead to the covered bamboo dining pavilion, fire pit, gunner fountain and bogs.


Painted concrete walls frame the garden beds filled with unusual plantings with a tropical flair. The part of the garden nestled under the giant sequoia is filled with a unique collection of shade plants celebrating the diversity of foliage. A blue concrete wall and raised pond separate the shade bed from the other textural elements at play in the Mediterranean and cactus/succulent beds.


This year, we also added a partially enclosed structure over our deck allowing for another area to rest and enjoy the garden. Throughout the garden, you will find interesting artwork, a custom metal fire pit, a one-of-a-kind floral chandelier in the dining area and an amazing colorful insect tile mosaic.

Fling Preview: Rhone Street Gardens

We moved into this house 5 years ago because we loved the close-in neighborhood with its tree-lined streets. While I dream of a cottage in the country with acres to plant, learning to garden on this 50’ x 50’ lot (half the size of a typical Portland lot) has been a fun and rewarding challenge.


While I’m not attempting to mimic nature, I’m inspired by natural plant communities, and I’m always working to emulate the same feeling of lushness, abundance and spontaneity. This garden is short on style, heavy on heart.


I sort of imagine my garden as a stylized meadow of sorts, which fits our location, being a clearing amongst tall trees. I’m a lover of plants that are fairly close to their natural state, closer to the look of the species, rather than extreme and over-bred hybrids.


Of course, my greatest love is of grasses. Late summer and fall are the highlights of the year in my garden with winter interest provided by the bleached, structural sheaths of grasses and black, graphic stems and seed heads of various perennials.


This past winter we endured repeated flooding, so the garden isn’t quite as lush as it was in the past...but it’s slowly recovering...and, of course, always changing!

Fling Preview: Joanne Fuller & Linda Ernst Gardens

Linda Ernst: My lot-and-a-half city garden hosts several garden ‘rooms’ and a variety of garden art, with a bit emphasis on fused garden glass, which I craft in my garage-turned-studio.


The front garden features plants for winter fragrance and hydrangeas for summer interest, anchored by a huge swath of Hakenenchloa macra. The side yard features a patio and fire pit; mixed borders; a small dry garden; clipped euonymous, berberis, taxus and juniper; and a small raised-bed kitchen garden with interesting solutions to the problems of hiding the less attractive bits of garden reality.


The backyard is a gravel dining courtyard with stainless steel fountain and stacked stone seating wall, and a stucco wall sparkling with a colorful window of fused glass tiles. Bends are a mixture of crisp hedging and billowing prairie plants. A bluestone and steel mantel is adjacent to a new steel and glass gate leading to Joanne Fuller’s garden next door.


Joanne Fuller: This small urban garden continues to evolve. I love big bold leaves, strong colors and quirky plants. These passions create a retreat filled with texture and form in a small garden where thereis something interesting at every turn.


Sit under the Japanese Maple and take in the newest arrangement of shade plants, or lounge in the tropical corner under the banana. Art continues to be a theme with glass, metal and stone artwork throughout the garden. Down the street, a whole different low-water, high-impact scene is emerging.


This garden is a great place to come learn about how you can have high impact with a regular city lot. Come, relax a while and enjoy.