July 20, 2025
When a friend came to town a few weeks ago, I took them to a natural gardener in South Austin. The beautiful exhibition gardens are a great place to take plant-loving visitors.
The Butterfly Garden was shown in mid-June with orange canna and tall sunflowers.
Hot summer colours
Butterfly benches can be a fun place to photograph and sit and enjoy the garden.
Sunflowers and Zinnia were popping out in bright colors.
The pride of Barbados and Sharon’s rose
Sharon Rose – Possibly a columnar variety “Purple Pillar”
Black swallow butterfly silences the pride of Barbados
I’m working that
Sunflowers and Red Salvia – Salvia Darcyi, I think
Salvia and the Glory of the Morning
I draw a blank on this plant and admire its velvety silver-green leaves.
labyrinth
Just beyond the Butterfly Garden is a large maze for meditative walking.
The river rocks outline the swirl path leading to the central tree.
Guitar Garden
Beyond that, there is a guitar garden. Will it become more Austin?
Welcome Wagon
At the back door to the nursery there is a fence made from upcycled wagons.
Rawrs (get it?) Rawrs are on top of the shade structure.
A juicy garden
I usually admire Mangaeve and head straight to a juicy garden to see which new things are available.
“Lavender Lady” Mangave is her mauve freckled beauty.
Hesperaloes, Agaves, Yuccas and Cacti are also available here.
Leopoldagore – Beautiful!
I’ve always liked the door to this shed with a bath relief owl and a thorny pear.
Framed by sunflowers
Microbial Brewery
Compost tea is made with a slowly named Microbe Brewery.
Edible Garden
Compost is cooked in the vegetable garden.
A creative screen made of cedar branches, limbs of the sections, slats, scrap metal…
… Surround the small patio and invite visitors to sit and enjoy the scene.
Another screen of the steel framed cedar pole evacuates the blue Adirondack.
The third screen has a colorful graphic design…
…and a chalkboard hoping visitors for a happy Father’s Day (this is back in mid-June).
Plants, gardens, helpful staff – nature gardeners are still pleased after all these years. We Austin gardeners are fortunate to have this resource.
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My new book, Gardens in Texas: A vision of resilience from Lone Star State, is coming on October 14th! You can now pre-order on Amazon and other online book sellers. If you think you’d read it or want to give it as a holiday gift, consider pre-ordering. (I’m glad I signed a pre-order copy at my book event!) Early ordering makes a huge difference in helping new books get attention. For more information about Texas Gardens, click here – Thank you for your support.
Come and see me on the tour! I will be talking about book events in Texas this fall and next spring, and celebrating the release of Texas Gardens. Join me, learn, inspire, and say hello!
Learn about gardening and design at Garden Sparks! I organize face-to-face talks in Austin several times a year, inspire designers, landscape architects, authors and gardeners to inspire and inspire designers, landscape architects. These are events with limited attendance that sold out quickly, so join our Garden Spark Mealment List and notify us in advance. Simply click on this link and ask them to add it. Find out all about the Season 8 lineup here!
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