A Daily Fiesta at La Casita Moradita

It's not a "tiny house," it's real!  I'm standing in front of Lucinda Hutson's purple cottage on a bright Sunday morning on the last day of our Austin Garden Blogger's Fling earlier this year.   I've been a fan since reading Pam Penick's posts on Lucinda's garden in Digging.  Lucinda is also a blogger and wrote The Herb Garden Cookbook and Viva Tequila!  According to Lucinda's blog, Día de los Muertos is a favorite event at the little purple cottage, which is why I am featuring it now.  Posting about her garden is the best way I could think of to celebrate this event which runs from Halloween until November 2nd this year.

I'm out by the street to take this photo so you can see it's small but filled with colorful plants like purple Salvia Amistad and an abundance of pink flowers.  I'm reminded of writer Sandra Cisneros' former San Antonio home which garnered national attention when she painted it "periwinkle purple" and created controversy over the meaning of "historic" colors.

No such controversy in the Rosedale neighborhood of Austin where the neighbors also chose bright paint for their cottages.  Lucinda, dressed to match her house and garden, was there to greet us.  Even the hand-outs were printed on purple paper.  That's Jean McWeeney of Dig, Grow, Compost on the right.

I was thrilled to learn the house interior was open and available to tour but first we'll explore the garden.  Looking back to the street from the side garden.  Lucinda describes her gardens on her website if you would like to follow along.



Lucinda's cat Sancho posing in his sharp tuxedo on the herb garden wall built across the former driveway.  Her sense of humor is already showing and I'm still in the front garden.  Sancho is Spanish slang for "lover" and Lucinda enjoys calling "Sancho" much to the amusement of her neighbors.

Lucinda gardens right up to the house next door.

Looking back toward the street.  I feel like I know this garden so well from all the blog posts I've read.

Details like the purple hose to match the house make the garden special and personal.  A gardener always has a few plants in waiting.

Several of us commented that broken pot mulch looked like something we could pull off.

And now to follow the crowd of about 40 bloggers through the gate to the perpetual Fiesta that is Lucinda's garden.  Austinites Jenny Stocker and Fling organizer Diana Kirby pause for a chat with Lucinda.

My favorite gardens are always those which reflect the personality of the owner and Lucinda's garden is filled with personal details and vignettes.  According to her blog, Lucinda's father liked to fish and often spoke of catching a mermaid which inspired her mermaid garden.  Art in the garden was mostly created by friends of Lucinda.

Fish chairs for the sea-themed mermaid garden.  So many details to take in like the mosaic on the face of the step.  

Hand me a Raspa and Elote!  Back home in San Antonio my city is celebrating 300 years and we had just finished our Fiesta season which takes up most of April.

Even though we are definitely in Austin, the phrase "Puro San Antonio" comes to mind for "Our Lady of La Tina," a play on "tina" the Spanish word for bathtub.  Karst rocks evoke European catacombs and the grotto at Mission Concepción in San Antonio.  The heart-shaped rock is a perfect keystone. 

More herbs and flowers in a raised bed.  Mosaic stepping stones in the courtyard.  There are so many ideas in this garden I'll look back at my photos many times.

With all the details to take in, I did my best to keep track of fun ideas like this iron doll bed turned into a planter for marigolds.  

It is interesting how few patterned Talavera pots are in Lucinda's garden.  Most are bright, solid colors with patterned plates used as edging.  Every pot filled with colorful flowers and herbs.

The Enchanted Garden is open and ready to explore.

First, let's admire the artful Stairway to Heaven mosaic which leads to the kitchen.

A view through the window to her extensive and colorful folk art collections displayed on the porch with palapa style awning.  Another idea I would love to try somewhere in my own garden.

Loved the porch door with its Texas star.

A fun vignette with Mexican child's chairs on the wall.

Like a trip to Mexico without the travel.  The dining deck where many a fun dinner or party has been set.

Around the corner to La Lucinda Cantina.

Tequila bottle tree of course from the author of ¡Viva Tequila!.  "Mexico in a bottle" as she likes to call it.



Republic Tequila in Texas-shaped bottles is a must for local Tequila tastings.  Apparently wine is also popular at Lucinda's parties with plenty of corks for mulch at the base of the bottle tree.



The mermaid lounge with Salty Lady Beer cans.  So much thought goes into everything.



Lucinda's office at the back of her garden is outfitted with more subdued colors and filled with mementos and books.

Around to the front, we'll head inside for a tour.  The garden and the house flow together and I will happily admit to wanting to see the house almost as much as the garden.

Día de los Muertos celebrations are in full swing as I write this at the beginning of November so it's fun to post now.  (As bright as it was outside, the interior was dark so I had to use flash.)



Lucinda turns her tabletops into altars for Día de los Muertos.  She has written about her love for this celebration on her blog.



More mermaids inside.

Every room was open--brave lady!

The colors of Mexico throughout.

Painted chairs work together though each is different.

Lucinda, author of The Herb Garden Cookbook, actually cooks in a tiny kitchen.  Her friend stepped in to help out directing traffic and answer questions with so many visitors at once.

The real deal Tequila bar with not a "mixto" in sight.

I have a fascination with kitchen sink views so I had to catch this shot.  "La Sirena" means mermaid in Spanish.

Agave chandelier is a must for the author who wrote the book on Tequila.

Lucinda poses with her house.  I can't begin to describe how much fun it was to finally see her garden and home in person.

A big Thank You to Lucinda Hutson for opening her garden to the bloggers!

October 9th Before and After 2018

Exactly seven years ago on October 9th, 2011, just a few days after I began this blog, one of my first posts was a "Before and After" of our front garden and I've kept that theme as an annual feature to show my yearly progress.

2010 (before the blog)

Just a year into a complete revision of our landscape I took this photo to document how good it looked.  We had just finished putting rocks in the mailbox strip along the road.  The deep pink Salvia greggii had been in place about 15 years when we divided and replanted them to fit the new scheme.  Just a few months later those blooms were the highlight of our landscape.

The following year in 2011 we had the first of two severe drought years and everything looked terrible.  October 9th just happens to be a date for which I had a good "before" photo from 2010 that I could use to write about my disappointment here on my new blog.  Toasted grasses and under performing salvia were a step backwards in 2011.

Over time I expanded the view to include the driveway and front corner of the garage.

2018:  Today's view was taken yesterday between torrents of rain which have fallen on a near daily basis since early September (nearly 30 inches in four weeks).  Good thing since today turned out dark and rainy too.

The new Yucca rostrata has been in place nearly a year behind the big Agave ovatifolia and the smaller Yucca rostrata in the island bed is growing up nicely.  Native muhly grasses are beginning to bloom and a yellow blooms of Damianita, Skeleton-leaf Goldeneye, and gold Lantana make up for missing sunshine.  I am so impressed with how desert native Skeleton-leaf Goldeneye (Viguiera stenoloba) has weathered our rain that I'll feature it in a future post.  We've lost a few drought tolerant plants with all this rain but most of my favorite agaves and yuccas are mounded up with gravel for drainage for just such an event.  New to this area are the 'Blonde Ambition' grama grasses I featured in my Blogiversary post last week which are just visible behind the Texas Mountain Laurel to the left of the mailbox.

Here's last year's (2017) view for comparison.  This year in the spring I cut the salvias back to the ground again.  They have responded by growing greener and fuller.  Blooms might be sparse due to a lack of sunny days.  Wow, the small Yucca rostrata (center) has grown a lot with all this rain!

Back to 2018 this wider view photo taken earlier in October on a rare sunny day includes landscaping at the end of the driveway and gives a better view of the new yucca on the garage corner.

And now with seven years of blogging behind me this post would get quite long if I included all of the photos with changes over time.  You can see details of my previous October 9th posts and the changes I've made over the years at the links below.

October 9th 2011
October 9th 2012
October 9th 2013
October 9th 2014

October 9th 2015
October 9th 2016
October 9th 2017

Celebrating Seven Years of Blogging

I published my first blog post seven years ago today.  My garden was in its early stages and I thought regular posting would push me into gear to set goals for improvements while also sharing my progress (or setbacks) with other gardeners in San Antonio and beyond.  Just before hitting "publish" on that first post I wondered how long this blog would run.  Five years seemed like a good goal at the time.  I blew past five years and here I am at seven.  In honor of seven blogging years (is that the same as dog years?), I am sharing a fall tour of my garden.

With over 25 inches of rain last month it's a good time for a tour because the gardens have sprung to life after a tough summer.  Since I have a tradition of showing wider views on October 9th to compare progress year to year, I'll focus on closeups for this post.

We'll start up front by the street where last spring I was inspired by Christy Ten Eyck's local landscape installations to try a row of 'Blonde Ambition' grama grass in the front garden.  I moved some that had been scattered around the back garden and added a few new ones.  The seed heads start out chartreuse and turn tawny over time.

I like the effect and plan to move a few more from the back where they don't show up as well.

It takes a lot of space to mass them by the hundreds as in a professional landscape but I have found that five have a nice impact placed among spiky plants and salvia.  One of the golden barrels has bloomed for the first time this year.

Red barrel cactus bloomed for the first time this year with bright orange but quite inconspicuous flowers compared to other cactus blooms.

Native clammy-weed has found a place in the rock garden.  After seeding prolifically for several years it nearly died out but has returned in one of the hottest, driest spots.

A lack of rain over the summer led to a reduced crop of American Beautyberries (l) while the darker Mexican Beautyberries (r) seem to have weathered the summer drought much better.

Behind the Beautyberries I found this combination amusing.

Below you can see the face pot sits alone at the end of the path.  Two years ago I pulled out a ton of messy liriope and planted various sedges.  Various because it wasn't easy to find enough of a single variety.  That's Berkeley Sedge on the left of the path and locally native Webberville Sedge on the right.  They look very close in texture so it works.

The fountain still rocks.

There's been so much rain the Cenizo sage along the driveway blooms sporadically instead of all at once.   

Kitty enjoys rain lilies which have been spreading around the garden.

Keeping in mind that I have invited a group to tour the garden next May there seems to be work to do in the back garden as this area still lacks some definition and needs attention.

Flowers are overflowing the tank in the circle garden.

Pathways have been overrun.



Salvia farinacea has filled the tank to the point where I'll need to take some out in the spring.



Vignettes of all my collected stuff in the garden.



I reworked the flower "bed" last spring and it's looking a good deal better now.

Yes, we're still in Texas.

Loving the purple of Salvia Amistad which is the only Salvia guaranitica I can grow.  Hummingbirds also love it.

Brugmansia noid enhances my view from the kitchen sink and that Crinum to the left looks like a good candidate to divide and add some contrasting texture to the front fence garden I mentioned earlier.

Mexican Lime is almost ready for Key Lime pie.

Bougainvillea, gold lantana, cactus, and Yucca rigida in the back corner with Cow's tongue prickly pear.

My favorite view of bending oaks over the path we use most often.  Taking out the trash is actually kind of fun, especially walking back down this path.

That's the quick tour to celebrate my seventh anniversary of blogging at Rock-Oak-Deer.