On this chilly April afternoon, the ingenues enter at stage left, their delicate blooms glistening in weak winter sunlight. These are the spring flowers which herald warmer temperatures, green grass and blue skies. Catch them now before summer fades them until their beauty is merely a memory. This woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata) was a passalong from Wanda. She had both the purple and blue varieties growing in the wooded garden behind her home. Hers were planted in drifts, and I'm working on a similar effect in my shade garden. They spread by seed. Next, for your viewing pleasure, is double-flowering Japanese kerria (Kerria japonica 'Pleniflora'.) Bright green stems grow well in dappled shade, and kerria maintains its bright green color throughout winter. It blooms prolifically in spring and sporadically throughout summer. Mine started flowering about one week ago. In the rear garden, I have the single flowering form, which hasn't...

After lunch, we went to the Natural Gardener nursery, which was one busy place on Saturday. If only I'd had an extra suitcase . . . . Austinites were tucking plants into wagons and waiting cheerfully in long lines. I saw bloggers from other locales trying to figure out how to convince the airlines to allow them one more carry-on. Tell me, how did that work for ya? Then we headed to the James David-Gary Peese garden. I don't know if words can describe what these two men have done with their landscape, but I'll try. Later. Right now, I'm going to have to take a pass. Because, if I hopped on a plane headed south to Austin today, I would want to head back to Pam/Digging's place. I didn't get to stay there long enough, you see. Below is Pam's welcoming front courtyard. (Sorry about the crooked orientation). When...

After our morning of wildflower sightseeing, we had lunch at Nuevo Leon, which was good, but the best part was Tom Spencer from Soul of the Garden. His talk, "Gathered Stones, Garden Memories," quickly drew me in when he asked if we'd had a treasure box as a child. I saw my own cigar box, which resided under my bed for most of my childhood. What were those treasures? He suggested perhaps a feather, stones, a small piece of bone, or the remnant shells of a broken bird egg. All around the room, heads nodded in agreement. He quoted from Last Child in the Woods, Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv and Ordinarily Sacred by Linda Sexson. He said our sense of awe and wonder doesn't seem to matter much anymore, and that we and our children are always looking for the next new thing. He...

I want to thank, once again, my new, dear friends in Austin. Specifically, Pam/Digging, MSS/Zanthan Gardens, Diana/Sharing Nature's Garden and Bonnie/Kiss of Sun, for puttin' on the dog for us in their wonderful city. I've decided the Spring Fling was so exciting and full of things to do that I'm going to devote several posts to it. It is cloudy outside at the Red Dirt Haciendo, so until it warms a little in anticipation of this afternoon's thunderstorms, I will be indoors writing. I don't like to garden when it's chilly. That's right my northern friends. I'm a cold weather wimp. Our first stop on the Spring Fling Tour was the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, which resides on 284 acres in the southern part of Austin. Lady Bird Johnson and actress, Helen Hayes, founded the original organization in 1982. For me, it was an opportunity to visit the work...