January 24, 2022
My good friend Lori Daul‘s backyard in South Austin has developed, over the numerous years I’ve visited, from a sunny, romantic house full of roses to a shadier but nonetheless lush paradise the place daring blue agaves and black elephant ears get equal billing, the place dry gardens meet water gardens. It’s a magical combo. I counted 8 water fountains, ponds, vessels, and birdbaths throughout an early November go to final fall. I wouldn’t be shocked to study I missed a number of amongst all the attractive vignettes she’s created.
Lori at all times has a venture happening. At present she’s constructing a customized fence for her yard. She’s probably the most can-do, hardest working gardener I do know, and that’s saying lots. She additionally has a superb eye for artistic shows, just like the arching row of blue bottles on a wavy limb, framed by one other arching limb, on a mesquite tree in her yard.
The mesquite is, sadly, dying. As Lori has advised me, it doesn’t recognize having a lush backyard at its ft. Although she mourns its loss, I’m positive she’ll give you one thing great right here to supply gentle shade and vertical curiosity. Or one thing altogether totally different!
One in every of her uncommon planters — she loves face pots — holds a squid agave and trio of furry cacti.
An enormous stock-tank pond attracts the attention from the again patio.
The goldfish got here a-swimming once they noticed her with the fish meals jar.
Raccoons maintain all-night raves in her backyard regularly, and she or he’s realized methods to thwart their pond-wrecking shenanigans, like stringing rows of wire round it.
Queen’s wreath vine (Antigonon leptopus), rambling within the mesquite, was in frilly pink bloom.
A lime-green chair by the pond contrasts together with her blue-stained fence. Pink Turk’s cap, orange shrimp plant, purple oxalis, purple coronary heart, and different shade lovers fill a deep mattress that curves alongside the again fence.
As she carved out ever-deeper planting beds, the remaining garden turned a de facto path.
I like how she’s embedded her stock-tank pond into the backyard mattress.
‘Brilliant Edge’ yucca spikes up one facet of the pond, with a pink-flowering oxalis sneaking its means among the many leaves.
On the again patio, a smaller stock-tank pond shows extra of her beloved colocasias.
A lush combo of shade lovers consists of tradescantia, manfreda, sedge, black-and-blue salvia, and a silvery palmetto.
A wider view that reveals off that purple-speckled Manfreda maculosa, a Texas native. Doesn’t it look nice with the purple oxalis and tradescantia? I don’t know that number of tradescantia (purple coronary heart). Possibly Lori will inform us within the feedback.
Replace: Lori shared this concerning the tradescantia: “I’ve no ID. It’s from a shopper’s backyard, who received it from her mother’s backyard. I choose it to the common purple coronary heart. It drapes actually properly in containers, is simple to maintain “tight” wanting, has very nice texture distinction. The closest one I’ve discovered on the market is the ‘Pale Puma’ selection that Far South Wholesale Nursery grows. Theirs has a brighter lime-green spot on the rising tip, however apart from that, virtually similar.”
An enormous tree limb provides nurse-log curiosity within the shade backyard.
On the sunnier facet, stock-tank planters elevate agaves and different spiky crops, together with an infinite whale’s tongue agave.
It suffered some injury within the freezepocalypse final February, however like most whale’s tongues it pulled by means of. A champ for chilly climate!
A half-face planter holds ‘Macho Mocha’ mangave and ghost plant.
And right here’s one other face planter with child ‘Quadricolor’ agaves, foxtail fern, and jewels of Opar. I like this combo, particularly with the spherical mirror surrounded by a climbing rose on the blue fence.
Yet one more stock-tank planter (foreground) holds what seems like a younger Yucca rostrata, backed by purple-flowering ‘Amistad’ salvia and black colocasia in a bathroom planter.
A slim facet yard isn’t missed as a planting alternative. A brugmansia dangles its aromatic blossoms by the gate. And reverse a financial institution of home windows, a protracted stock-tank pond with a trickling fountain makes a fantastic focus from inside the home, particularly when home windows are open to listen to it.
Crinum and colocasia bookend the fountain, with water lily pads and silver balls floating on the floor.
Gentle-catching leaves
On the gate, a conical planter of cactus and crimson dyckia (or hechtia?) burgundy billbergia hangs on the fence — a passalong reward from Rock Rose’s Jenny Stocker earlier than she moved away. Replace from Lori concerning the billbergia: “I’m shocked this plant is just not extra fashionable right here. It’s not chilly hardy, however you probably have it in a container you could usher in, man, is it onerous to kill. Finest colour in full solar, nevertheless it grows simply fantastic partially shade too.”
Out entrance, a sunny backyard presents up its delights for neighbors and passersby, together with ‘Amistad’ salvia…
…and loopy massive annuals like castor bean.
A curved copper pipe trickles water right into a fern-nestled water bowl.
‘Fireworks’ gomphrena, one other prolific annual
Lori’s humorousness is at all times evident in her gardens, by no means extra so than her South Austin-proud embrace of a flock of plastic pink flamingos. A rose the identical shade of pink grows alongside powder-blue whale’s tongue agave and purple ‘Vertigo’ or ‘Princess Caroline’ pennisetum.
One other take a look at that beautiful whale’s tongue agave, virtually exploding out of a stock-tank planter
At its ft sits a fairly dish planter of prickly pear — and a grinning cranium warning folks away from touching it? The glochids!
Entrance backyard vignette: palmetto, shrimp plant, purple coronary heart, possibly ‘Arizona Star’ agave?
Yellow bells blossoms have been attracting bees.
And naturally there was one other stock-tank pond out entrance, as a result of extra is extra!
Thanks for sharing your backyard with me once more, Lori! Readers, if you happen to’d wish to see extra, try a springtime publish about her backyard from 2019.
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Want design assist along with your yard? Rent me as your private backyard coach! Possibly you want alternative plant concepts after the large freeze. Or possibly your landscaping has grown drained, and also you need contemporary curb attraction. Or maybe you’re able to eliminate some garden and create a pollinator backyard, fowl habitat, or hangout house for you and your pals. I’m right here to assist! Contact me to let me know what’s happening, and let’s determine it out collectively. My vary is Austin and suburbs inside a 25-min. drive of NW Austin, however I’m versatile and may journey farther with a surcharge, so let me know the place you’re. Weekday morning appts. solely.
Attend the John Fairey Backyard’s annual Budding Out Plant Sale & Competition on Saturday, March 19 in Hempstead. Uncommon and distinctive crops from the backyard’s nursery and different distributors might be out there, plus artwork, ceramics, jewellery, meals, music, and leisure for the entire household. Open 10 am to 4 pm. Members get first dibs on the plant sale with 9 am entry (memberships out there on the gate). Test the webpage for a regularly up to date vendor listing.
Be part of the mailing listing for Backyard Spark! Hungry to find out about backyard design from the consultants? I’m internet hosting a sequence of talks by inspiring backyard designers, panorama architects, and authors a number of occasions a yr in Austin. Take a look at the 2021-22 schedule. These are limited-attendance occasions that promote out shortly, so be part of the Backyard Spark electronic mail listing to be notified upfront. Merely click on this hyperlink and ask to be added.
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