2009 Inside Austin Garden Tour

Maximillian Sunflower along the street.

Saturday was one of those glorious fall days...sunny and cool.  My daughter-in-law, Alice, and I took advantage of it by taking the Travis County Master Gardeners Association's Inside Austin Garden Tour. 

There were six gardens.  This year's theme was Sustainable Gardening for Urban Wildlife.  All of these gardens are packed with native plants, bird baths, feeders and other ways to welcome wildlife into the garden.  All were notable for having their gardens start right at the curb.  Most grass lawns have been removed to make room for more water saving plantings.

There was great structure, like the Winslow garden, in a woodsy setting, with a contemporary home as backdrop.

Lots of native plantings in Lindy McGinnis' garden. 

I loved this Fairy Duster, Calliandra eriophylla.

Eleanor Pratt's garden is full of color.  Eleanor blogs at Garden of E.

This Chinese Ground Orchid was a beauty.

And the Pigeonberry at the base of this beautiful red rose

was inspiring.

This Golden Showers Thryallis at Gail Sapp's garden really caught my eye.

This evergreen shrub is drought tolerant, blooms all summer AND the deer don't like it.  What's not to love here?

This Mona Lavendar, Plectranthus mona..was nestled into Gail's amazingly lush garden.  Giant stands of Timber Bamboo make a backdrop of plantings of palms and ferns and roses. 

This Brugmansia, Angel's Trumpet along the front walk was a stunner....

with it's fancy, ruffled skirt.

And, I fell in love with the Coral Vine.

Randy Case's garden meets you right at the street.  Randy's blog is Horselip's Horse Sense

His garden is packed with lots of different plants, but they all work together.  This Cat's Whiskers,  Orthosiphon aristatus, was one I'll be looking for.

This Datura metal, Double Purple was stunning.

His Castor Beans are another plant I want to try.  I don't think deer like them.

Randy has done a lot of work making his back garden into a show place.

Tables were set up at each garden, with information on the plantings and wildlife gardening.

More Coral Vine, as a backdrop to this great Candle Bush, Senna alata...another gotta have.

And, what is this goreous thing?  I'll have to do some research, to see if I can find it's name.

All of these gardens were really great.  Lots of good ideas and beautiful plants...lots of hard work.

But, Alice and I both decided our favorite of the day was Cheryl Goveia's whimsical, art filled garden.
Cheryl blogs at Concious Gardening.

From your first view, you can see how this artist has used her skills to make this a pleasing place to be.

Cheryl has turned an ordinary house, into a show place.

Arbors and fanciful fences, lead you from one garden 'room' to the next.  This leads into the vegetable garden.

Cheryl's take on a bottle tree was one we really liked..

She's given a whole new meaning to 'working with wood'.  There are tree trunks used throughout the garden.

Here in the veggie garden, she's used one as a nesting place for this chicken planter.  A touch of paint makes it an art piece.

Bright colors and paint cans used as planters, make this tree house stand out.

Speaking of standing out...take a look at this chicken palace.

Vines climb along fences, and up into trees.  We loved this tree climbing Desert Willow Vine.

Flowers painted on the fence and ones made with paint can lid petals...what imagination.

More tree stumps, outside the colorful garage, turned shed.  Even the bubbling fountain has a pop of color.

We were all enthralled by the color and beauty of this amazing place.  This is a garden you could visit time and time again, and maybe not see everything. 

Good work everyone.

And, a big thank you to all these talented gardeners for allowing us to tramp through their beautiful gardens.  So much to see, so much inspiration.

OK....now I need to go put some of that inspiration to work.

Hope you had as nice a day as we did.

If you want to see more pictures, visit these garden blogger's sites.
Pam at Digging
Jenny at Rock Rose
Meredith at Great Stems
MSS at Zanthan Gardens