Happy news! The American Horticultural Society @ahs_gardening just announced its 2026 Book Award winners, and Gardens of Texas received an Honorable Mention. ✨
The AHS awards are among the highest honors for garden books in North America. Of the 40+ nominated books for this year’s awards, only 2 winners were selected, plus 2 honorable mentions. So I’m truly delighted to see Gardens of Texas get a nod among the deserving winners. Thank you to the AHS Book Awards Committee!
I wrote this book to shine a spotlight on Texas gardeners and all the creative, gorgeous, resilient gardening they’re doing in a challenging, changing climate. I wanted to tell their stories, inspire my fellow Texans, and show how we can all learn from their designs, plant choices, and practical approaches. It’s gratifying to see those efforts recognized at a national level.
A huge thank you to photographer @kennybraun for capturing the gardens so beautifully for @gardensoftexasbook . His gorgeous work is featured in this reel. Thanks also to my editors and the whole team at @timberpress for their support in bringing my book idea to life so beautifully. 🙏🏻
Gardens of Texas wouldn’t exist without the gardeners and designers who so generously shared their gardens and stories with me — thank you to each one of them.
And finally, a giant thank you to the book’s readers, cheerleaders, booksellers, and event organizers. Your support of the book has meant the world to me. 💚📚🌻
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#ahsbookawards #gardenbook #texasgardening #texasgarden #climateresilience
My blog Digging just turned 20 years old (!), and I dropped a big announcement there today. After 17 years in my current home and garden and 32 years in Austin, I’m moving.🚚
My husband and I are relocating to Denver, Colorado, to be closer to our two grown children and to live near the mountains, where our family has long enjoyed vacationing.🏔️ I realize this announcement may be surprising or even sad for those who’ve followed my gardening journey in Texas. You may be wondering how I feel about leaving my garden, which I’ve documented for so many years, and about leaving Austin.
The truth is, uprooting from a place I love is hard. 🥺 Leaving friends and family is emotionally wrenching. I will miss them. I will miss Austin. I will miss Texas. I’ll miss the community that has nurtured me for three decades.
But moving is also exciting. I’m looking forward to having my kids over for family dinners again! I’m eager to explore a new region, experience four seasons, settle into a new home, start a new garden, and learn about different plants. Denver’s climate is far more arid than Austin’s, and at a mile above sea level, it’ll have a whole new set of challenges to adapt to. I look forward to that journey. I also look forward to reconnecting with Colorado gardeners I’ve met and learning from them.
I hope you’ll follow along as I start over with a new, smaller garden in a place that gets about 14 inches of precipitation a year (compared to Austin’s 34) and that has a real winter and (gulp) a hail season. There are challenges ahead.
👉Read all the details on the blog today (link in bio), including answers to what I anticipate regular readers may be wondering.🌻
Thanks for journeying with me. Onward!
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#startingover #moving #leavinghome #newchapters #relocation
Y’all, I am holding my new book for the very first time! Let me give you a sneak peek of Gardens of Texas, which comes out on October 14th. 🫣🤩🥳
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#gardensoftexas #texasgarden #texasgardens #gardeningintexas #gardenbook #newbook #booksofinstagram #comingsoon #bookstagrammer
Generously, @denverbotanic stays open until 8 pm every day in summer. Thank you to the staff for making early evening visits possible! The light was so beautiful yesterday evening. I captured this scene in the Rock Alpine Garden overseen by @kintgen4 — so gorgeous! ✨
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#rockgarden #denverbotanicgardens #coloradogarden #denvergarden #waterwisegarden
In Washington Park, a prairie restoration is in progress under the direction of @skysmith303 . I look forward to seeing it fill in by this fall and getting better each year. 🌾
Baptisia and flax are flowering in the Big Garden right now, part of Wash Park’s “pollinator corridor” that neighbors — and everyone in Denver — can be part of by planting pollinator-friendly plants in their yard or in a pot on the patio/balcony.
Here are a few of the beautiful plants that caught my eye during a walk around the park this week. 🌸
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#washingtonparkdenver #denverplants #denvergarden #coloradogarden #prairiegardens
At my second stop, in Centennial, CO, on the @thegardenconservancy Open Day Tour, I saw “Not Arizona,” an unwatered xeriscape created by the horticulturist owner, John. He told me he hadn’t watered established parts of his garden in 9 years! This is all from the front, but I’ll have more pics from the backyard garden in a future blog post.
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#coloradogarden #drygarden #gcopendays #rockgarden #waterwisegarden
I saw two suburban Denver gardens on a @thegardenconservancy Open Day tour today. At my first stop in Littleton, I met owner Rod Haenni @maihuenia1 , who flattered me tremendously by bringing out his copy of @gardensoftexasbook ! ⭐️ He also helpfully identified plant names for me, which I mostly immediately forgot, and gave a tour of his remarkable rock garden with beautiful cacti and succulents, xeric shrubs and trees, and quite a few rare plants. The tour is open until 4 pm, Denver gardeners!
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#coloradogarden #drygarden #gcopendays #crevicegarden #rockgarden
I spotted this charmingly rustic green gate and had to stop the car for a photo. The arched green gate in a white stucco wall, with a pop of red geranium — homey perfection! I’m also taking notes on how they used metal studs in the wood planks to make a geometric pattern that enhances the gate without adding much cost. 📝
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#gardengate #denvergarden #gate #gardenentrance
After house-hunting this afternoon, we went downtown to Denver’s 16th Street to see “Aspen Light.” Created by @poetickinetics for @denverarts , it’s a kinetic sculpture of three aspen trees with trunks of stainless steel. Colorful, translucent leaves spin like whirligigs in the breeze, evoking the shimmer of aspens in autumn. I need to go again on a windier, blue-sky day for the full spectacle, but it was lovely even on a rather still, cloudy day. 🍂
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#aspenlight #denverpublicart #treesculpture #poetickinetics #aspentrees
What even is this? I spotted this cascading, flowering shrub in Denver’s City Park and was like, is this a lilac? 🤷♀️ It isn’t super fragrant, so I think not, but I am learning all new plants after 32 years gardening in Austin, plus being a lifelong Southerner. Help me out, somebody. Update: it’s weeping butterfly bush!
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#floweringshrub #cityparkdenver #spring #denverplants
