Austin Gardens on Tour 2014: Rockcliff Road Garden

Way back in May of 2014 I joined in with the Austin bloggers for the Gardens on Tour event sponsored by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.  You can read about the first two garden stops on our tour here and here.  With more wintry weather still ahead in February, it's fun to look back at warmer, sunnier days in a garden.

The Rockcliff Road garden, just west of Austin, is very naturalistic--making it fun to explore but not quite easy to translate to the blog.  A live oak shaded path greeted us just inside the garden walls.  Native plants have filled in the understory spaces in striking contrast to the typical oak-studded lawns of our area.

Austin Gardens on Tour 2014: Stratford Drive Garden

In early May friends from San Antonio and I met up with a group of Austin garden bloggers for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Gardens on Tour event in Austin.  We had so much fun touring gardens together and I posted on Tait Moring's wonderful garden the following week.  We had great weather all through May and June so I focused on garden projects, but with the summer heat upon us it's about time I get caught up with blogging and posting more garden adventures.

The Stratford Drive garden was our second stop on the tour.  Like a number of gardens on the tour, this garden was very natural in its planting style.  From the hillside in front of the house we get a glimpse of the view across the canyon behind the house and an idea of how steep this garden is.

Gardens on Tour 2014: Tait Moring's Garden

A week or so ago on Saturday I headed up to Austin with Heather of Xericstyle along with my friend and garden designer Linda Higby to meet up with the Austin bloggers for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Gardens on Tour event.  Our first stop was Landscape Architect Tait Moring's south Austin garden.  Pam Penick had arranged early entry so we could get our photos ahead of the crowds and before the death star turned on full blast.  So thank Pam for the good light in these photos.

This was a great way to start off our tour.  I remembered this garden from Pam's previous posts and reread them in advance, yet I was still surprised by how wonderful it was to visit this garden.  The property is 22 acres along a busy road which fades away at first sight of garden spaces like this circular lawn visible from the driveway and bounded by bamboo to screen the traffic.