Cottagey flowers, spiky yuccas mingle in Margie McClurg's garden

A visit to Butchart Gardens in British Columbia, Canada, a few years ago inspired Austin homeowner Margie McClurg and her husband to create a garden in their own back yard.

They brought in landscape architect Jackson Broussard of Sprout, who planted a living arbor of pear trees to shelter a rustic table in the heart of the garden. Balancing a cottage-garden abundance of poppies, iris, salvia, and roses with an evergreen and architectural backbone of Yucca rostrata, prickly pear, and Italian cypress, he gave the garden year-round structure as well as seasonal color.

Paths thread through the garden to allow for exploration as flowers bloom and fade, and interesting sculptural pieces make focal points amid the flora.

Today the 12-year-old garden is a lovely retreat for the homeowners, who enjoy sitting under the arbor and taking in the sights, sounds, and scents of the garden, which include aromatic plants like osmanthus, cinnamon ginger, garlic, fennel, hoja santa, and bay laurel. Margie especially appreciates how the flowering plants entice pollinators. 

You'll visit this beautiful garden and many others next May if you join us for the Austin Garden Bloggers Fling. Don't miss out -- spaces are going fast. Register for the Austin Fling today!

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!

Ready to Fling in Austin? Registration opens November 9th!

We've been tantalizing you with photos and posts about all the great gardens and fun activities we have planned for you at Austin Garden Bloggers Fling next spring, and now we can tell you how and when you can register to attend! Here are the details:

When does Austin Fling registration open?
Thursday, November 9th, 2017, at 10 a.m. CST.

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.)

How will registration work? 
When registration opens (11/9/17), we'll post an announcement here on the blog and on our Facebook page. We will ask you to email us your name, blog name, and URL, and once we've verified that you're an active garden blogger (see attendance eligibility) we'll send you a registration code and a link to our registration site. After you complete your registration, you'll be led to the reservation page for our official Fling hotel, where you can reserve a room at the special Fling rate.

What are the dates, and where is it held?
The 2018 Garden Bloggers Fling will be held in Austin, Texas, on May 3-6, 2018. This will be the Fling's 10th anniversary!

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 meet everyone before the tours begin and get your bearings. 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!

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.

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

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. Thanks!

That's all for now. Look for registration to go live next Thursday at 10 a.m. CST, with an announcement on this blog and on Facebook. We hope to see you in Austin next May!

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!