April 27, 2024
I returned to certainly one of my favourite Austin gardens final weekend, the South Austin backyard of designer Lori Daul. It’s an oasis with, by our depend, ten water options together with a number of stock-tank ponds, birdbaths, and ground-level saucers tucked into groundcovers. The colour blue unites every part, including to the cooling, watery impact.
Pond backyard
Let’s begin our tour within the yard, the place Lori’s largest stock-tank pond, an 8-footer, attracts you out into the backyard.
A flaking, powder-blue chair by the pond units the colour tone and gives a spot to commune with the goldfish.
They arrive swimming over if you seem, their feathery tails swishing.
Moody blues and purples add drama to shiny greens.
Behind the pond, a shock — a rolling ridge of blue mountains studded with tiny round mirrors that seem like twinkling lights within the distance. It’s a mural Lori painted on a metallic wall she constructed and welded herself. The theatricality and scale of it set her backyard aside. Lori by no means does something by half-measures.
Lori constructed it for privateness when she realized the property behind her home can be developed. Additionally, “perhaps I used to be simply daydreaming of a yard with a pleasant panoramic view,” she informed me.
Within the heart of the yard, underneath a mesquite tree, an island mattress jam-packed with vegetation frames a cream-colored fountain.
The fountain is good for birds, with a bubbler and a shallow bathing floor. Smoke tree and beaked yucca, amongst different vegetation, add contrasting foliage.
Lori simply completed laying a brand new patio produced from a patchwork of pavers, bricks, and stone. She spent quite a lot of time amassing supplies and arranging and leveling them. The patio fills a U-shaped area between her home, an adjoining she-shed, and the mesquite-tree backyard.
An oval stock-tank pond sits beside the she-shed, together with a blue wire chair cradling a potted prickly pear.
Velvety, light-catching colocasia is certainly one of Lori’s favourite pond vegetation.
A chocolate mimosa echoes the colocasia’s smoky purple hue.
Globemallow provides creamsicle distinction.
A couple of edible vegetation develop in pots.
Shade backyard
Alongside the painted wall, in a deep raised mattress, a shade backyard thrives underneath a line of crape myrtles. A decaying tree department provides a forest vibe and bug habitat alongside the entrance edge.
The tiny mirrors sparkle within the background, and inexperienced leaves glow in opposition to blue paint.
One in every of Lori’s many water options
She lately planted a yellow-berried yaupon holly underneath the crape myrtles. Its golden berries will stand out in opposition to the blue come fall.
A plastic flamingo prances by burgundy cannas.
In a sunny spot, a bowl of prickly pear stands out in a froth of pink night primrose and ‘Silver King’ artemisia.
One other cactus sprouts phallically from a head planter.
Aspect backyard
Trying towards the facet yard, you see an arch of blue bottles on a mesquite limb, which frames an attractive view. A big whale’s tongue agave rides excessive, elevated in a inventory tank. Below a spherical mirror, a half-face planter seems again at you. The stained picket fence carries the blue theme alongside.
The whale’s tongue agave is so powdery blue, it’s nearly white.
How I really like the blue-rose form of this agave, plus these mahogany enamel alongside the leaves. Beautiful!
That is maybe my favourite planter in Lori’s backyard: a half-face pot with hypnotic eyes of ‘Quadricolor’ agave, a graceful of ‘Evergold’ sedge on the facet, and a foxtail fern hairdo. Peach-apricot ‘Star of the Republic’ rose encircles the porthole-like mirror.
I want I may convey the perfumed perfume of ‘Star of the Republic’ rose. Divine!
‘Quicksilver’ rose unfurls luscious mauve blossoms as properly.
Alongside the slender facet path towards the entrance yard, one other stock-tank pond attracts the attention.
Lori positioned it on axis together with her kitchen desk window so she will be able to benefit from the pond throughout meals or espresso.
‘Ann Chowning’ Louisiana iris reveals off wine-red flowers, and a fountain offers trickling water music.
‘Tangerine Magnificence’ crossvine and burgundy canna add extra heat in opposition to the blue fence.
By the gate, a little bit kumquat in a pot dangles orange fruit. It’s paired with purple oxalis and the trailing, spiny stems of huernia, a passalong from Jenny Stocker of Rock Rose.
A red-veined sorrel in entrance echoes the purple of close by cannas.
Entrance backyard
Within the entrance backyard, an enormous whale’s tongue agave in a stock-tank planter is sending up a tree-like bloom spike. Lori is fretting about how she’ll excavate it from the tank as soon as it collapses and dies (agaves die after flowering). However for now, it’s a thrill to see it going out with a bang.
The dramatic starting of the tip
Pink night primrose and pink roses tumble over terracing partitions.
And pink flamingos stalk by ‘Silver King’ artemisia — “flamingos within the mist,” as Lori jokes.
‘Amistad’ salvia stakes out a shady spot.
Heartleaf skullcap is beginning to open lavender flower spires.
Inventory tanks are positioned liberally all through the small entrance backyard, elevating agaves as focal factors and making one other container pond.
‘Arizona Star’ agave potted up amid sedge and heartleaf skullcap
Our good friend Diana Kirby stopped right here to admire the pond. Her blue outfit is on-point in Lori’s blue backyard.
Metal balls float within the stock-tank pond, including a little bit shine. Bronze fennel seems to stare upon its personal reflection, like Narcissus.
Rose campion finds a gravelly area of interest between steps to the porch.
African hosta thrives within the shade, elevated in a sq. planter beside holly fern.
A grinning, marble-eyed cranium greets guests on the door — proof of Lori’s eager sense of black humor, which all the time retains me laughing. Thanks, Lori, for the beautiful backyard go to this spring!
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