Inside Austin Garden Tour...2017...

Last week, a few members of our Austin Area Garden Bloggers

got the chance to do a preview tour of this year's

Travis County Master Gardeners'

Inside Austin Garden Tour.

First up, was Peggy Hart's beautiful, hillside

garden, in west Austin.

The front is designed with lots of shade loving, deer resistant plants.

The back deck offers a comfortable place to enjoy a beautiful view.

And, below is a vegetable garden and an iconic Austin symbol.

Next, we visited Daphne Jeffers cottage/zen garden.

The front cottage garden is a riot of color.  Lots of beautiful spring blooms

Daphne explained how she turned a grassy yard, into a garden beauty.

In back, they've turned this area into a calm, zen-like garden.

Lots of bamboo and a quiet rock fountain.

Also, this clever re-purposing of a play area.

A fenced in bird feeding station.

Keep out those pesky squirrels and larger birds.

We moved on to the garden of Velia Sanchez-Ruiz.

Velia's front garden is chock full of beautiful daylilies.

 The back is cool and lush, with lots of shade plants.

Then, we headed out west, to Dorothy Thering's garden.

Dorothy has a lot of room to garden.  Twenty-five acres.

Of course, they haven't made the whole place gardens.

But, they have done a lot.

Look at this fabulous vegetable garden.

And, on the other side of the house...

..this wonderful garden shed/green house.

With paths for a stroll in back.

I really liked this place.

Last, but certainly not least, was Shari Bauer's whimsical garden.

Shari has taken re-purposing to the ultimate.

Something to see, everywhere you looked.

Shari's house overlooks the Pedernales River.

Her comfortable porch is a good place to rest.

On the other side of the house, Shari has terraced the steep hill and planted

a lush, shady garden.  

She's placed a shady dining table...

...under a teapot chandelier.

My favorite thing is this pond, with the grill of an old jeep as the waterfall.

The lights work.  

In fact, this whole garden has lots of lights.

How often do you find a piano, all planted up, in a garden?

More found objects.

Over the bridge,

...to the lavender garden.

Pause for a moment, under an up-ended sailboat.

And, back down to the house, through the lavender.

Some of us (where are the rest?),

paused for a group photo with Shari,

in her lovely greenhouse.

It is an amazing garden.

We had a wonderful day.  Gardeners in gardens.

Always fun.

Inside Austin Garden Tour is

Saturday, May 6.

Follow the link for more info.

You won't be disappointed.

Happy Gardening...

~~Linda~~

Catching Up....

Wow!  May, already.

Time flies....well..when you're busy.

This year, my Blog anniversary fell on Easter.

And, you didn't hear a peep....har, har...

This is anniversary #5!

I have to say, I'm impressed that I've kept this up this long.

Things have changed here, over the years.

I'll do an update sometime soon.  Been too busy with MORE

clean-up.  This year seems worse than ever.

Blogging has let me meet so many nice people...online and in person.

Some of the Austin garden bloggers, got together recently for a preview tour

of the Travis County Master Gardeners' 

Inside Austin Garden Tour.

(Thanks Pam Penick, for the group photo)

Without blogging, I would never have met all these great people.

I've learned a lot, from the bloggers I've met.

About gardening in Central Texas, photography, and just life in general.

So, I'll keep on reading.

And, try to keep up with posting.

Thanks to all of you who have welcomed me into your blogs.

You're welcome here, any time.

So, here's to more years of blogging.

Now...I need to get out there and do more clean-up.

Have a great weekend...

~~Linda~~

Another Desert Garden...

We recently were in the Palm Springs area, for an annual golf tournament.

We've been there many times, but this was the first time we visited

Sunnylands.

Sunnylands is the 200 acre desert estate of
Walter and Leonore Annenberg.
Walter Annenberg was a wealthy publisher, from the East Coast.
Both Walter and Leonore were U.S. ambassadors, at one time or another.

They came to the area in the 1960s and purchased 200 acres of this desert land, and created their
Winter Desert Retreat.

across the street from the estate.

The estate includes:
 the main house...described on the website as 'a casual family home'...
25,000 square feet of family home.
a nine-hole golf course,
eleven lakes,
a tennis court,
swimming pools,
a mausoleum, where the Annenbergs are interred.

Several Presidents and many foreign dignitaries, the British Royal Family, and many Hollywood stars, have been visitors to Sunnylands.

The estate is still used for special retreats.

Before her death, in 2009, Mrs. Annenberg set aside 15 acres for a Center and Gardens, for public use.

The Estate and the Center and Gardens opened this year to the public.

This is what we came to see.

view out the front

The 17,000 square foot center is used for meetings, and social events.

The views from inside this almost all glass building, are amazing.

The gardens were designed with the impressionist paintings the Annenbergs collected in mind.

There are 1.5 miles of paths and over 50 species of plants... mostly desert plants.
Lots of cactus and agaves!

I'll just show you some of what we saw.

 gotta have some of these Red Barrel Cacti

To my agave and aloe loving friends out there....this was truly stunning!

Some of the cacti were blooming....

And, I loved the Palo Verde trees...look at that green bark.

The Annenbergs funded a trust, for the upkeep of the Estate.

The Center and Gardens are open to the public free, Thursday through Sunday, most months of the year.

A tour of the main house requires advance reservations and a fee.
We had a tight schedule, so we didn't tour the house.  But, the garden was worth the trip.

If you go, Sunnylands is on Bob Hope Dr., in Rancho Mirage.

Hope you enjoyed the tour.

Happy Gardening...
~~Linda~~