October 6, 2025
This week, I’m honored to be on The Plantastic Podcast with Dr. Jared Barnes for a wide-ranging conversation. Jared’s curiosity about how I got into gardening and writing about gardens led me to talk about my free-range childhood, my first job at a rock ‘n’ roll magazine after college, and my pivot to gardening while a stay-at-home mom. My growing obsession with garden design and blogging led to a new career path as a garden designer and writer.
Oh yeah, I also talked about my new book, Gardens of Texas.
Jared is a professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, East Texas. His own charming country garden is featured in the chapter “Celebrating the Ephemeral” in Gardens of Texas. He and his wife Karen welcomed me and photographer Kenny Brown for a photo shoot in early April 2023.
Not surprisingly (extreme weather is the subtext of this book), we were hit by a late-night freeze a few weeks before our scheduled shoot. But as you’ll hear on the podcast, thanks to Jared’s heroic efforts using Container Store bins collected by Karen and a sturdy plant palette, his garden was blooming beautifully when we arrived.
So was Jared’s amazing floral shirt that day — see photo above.
While photographing, I was amazed at the number and variety of bees and butterflies that are attracted to phlox and other early spring perennials. It taught me the value of planting a variety of native flowering plants to help insects when food is scarce. Lawns can’t do that. There’s nothing wrong with having a lawn, but we need far more plant diversity in our gardens to create urban-suburban corridors for pollinators and other wildlife.
Here is Kenny taking photos of Jared and Karen’s log cabin porch and its cute planters and decorations.
And this is the idea I took from Jared’s garden that day. I hung pots of succulents on the porch pillars. Will it catch your eye? (Read Jared’s post to learn how he hangs pots.) You’ll see Jared’s garden scenes and much more in “Gardens of Texas,” which opens on October 14th.
First, I hope you’ll listen to The Plantastic Podcast. Two plant lovers explore what it means to be a gardener adapting to a changing climate and its extreme weather conditions, especially what it means to be a gardener in Texas. Hint: It involves a lot of sand and killing plants.
Jared, thank you for having me on the show! If you haven’t listened to The Plantastic Podcast yet, you should. Jared is both knowledgeable and curious, interviewing a wide range of interesting people in the field of horticulture and gardening.
Come see us in East Texas
If you live in the Nacogdoches area, be sure to visit Stephen F. Austin State University’s Fall Plant Fair on October 23rd, hosted by Dr. Jared Burns’ horticulture students. I will be attending a book signing from 5-6pm (books make great Christmas presents!) and will be giving a presentation on Gardens of Texas at 7pm. Details will be announced in the future, but both the plant sale and my presentation events are open to the public.
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Join us for the Jill Noonies Garden Spark Talk on October 9th
Austin area readers, we invite you to our next Garden Spark event on October 9th. Artist, gardener, and author Jill Nooney of Bedrock Gardens talks about her acclaimed New Hampshire gardens. I can’t wait to see her photos and be inspired by her gardening magic. You may be wondering what New England gardens can teach us here in Texas, and let me tell you. Like any garden created with passion and creativity, this garden teaches us to challenge and experiment, risk failure, and enjoy the beauty, humor, and life stories that result. Please join us!
Tickets can be purchased here
Garden Spark is open to the public. Tickets must be purchased in advance.
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My new book, Gardens of Texas: Visions of Resilience from the Lone Star State, will be released on October 14th. It is currently available for pre-order on Amazon and other online book retailers. If you would like to read it or give it as a holiday gift, please consider pre-ordering. (We’ll happily sign pre-ordered books at book events!) Ordering early can make a big difference in getting your new book noticed. Learn more about Gardens of Texas here. Thank you for your support.
Come see me on tour! I’m speaking in cities across Texas to celebrate the release of Gardens of Texas. October talks include: Planta Nativa in McAllen on Oct. 16; 10/18 Natural Gardener in Austin. SFA State University’s Fall Plant Fair will be held in Nacogdoches on October 23rd. Houston Botanical Garden on 10/25. and Tomball’s Arbor Gate on October 26th. Learn with me, be inspired, and get a signed copy of this book!
On Saturday, Nov. 8, the Garden Conservancy’s Travis County Open Day Tour will take you through five gardens in Austin. I’ll be at Belmont Parkway Gardens with a Texas Garden autograph table, so please come say hi. Garden tickets must be purchased online in advance and some gardens have limited admission, so book early. Click here for details and ticket link.
Learn about gardening and design with GardenSpark! Several times a year, I host in-person lectures in Austin by inspiring designers, landscape architects, authors, and gardeners. These are limited-attendance events, so join Garden Spark’s email list to be notified when tickets go on sale. Please click this link to subscribe. Check out the Season 9 lineup here.
All materials © 2025 by Pam Penick for Digging. All rights reserved.
