Rock Rose in the Rain (Garden Bloggers' Fling)

The 2018 Garden Bloggers' Fling in Austin, Texas kicked off on Friday, May 4th, under ominously cloudy skies.  At our first stop, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, the skies opened up and it commenced to pour.  Now, I usually run around like a crazy person in the rain collecting rainwater in areas missed by my collection tanks but this rain gave me pause.  Accompanied by thunder and lightening, my phone registered a flash flood warning, and sodden clothes, if not common sense, caused me to take shelter.  I did take some photos at our first 3 stops that day and I'll feature them in a future post but I thought I'd kick off my Fling coverage with Jenny Stocker's garden, which we saw in the afternoon when the rain had abated a bit.

I took a LOT of photos of Jenny's garden, which she blogs about at Rock Rose.  The light was dull and her lovely wildflowers were largely flattened by the rain but I've pulled out the best of what I have to offer to share here.

The front garden is dominated by oak trees, agaves, and grasses.

Gravel holds the soil in place and rock helps to direct the rainwater during the periodic downpours characteristic of the climate in Central Texas

 

This is a view of the same general area from the other direction

I spotted a lounge chair in the front garden under the trees, a perfect place to rest a while on a sunnier day

The entrance to the main areas of Jenny's garden sits next to the garage.

You can just make out the garden entrance under the overhang of the trees

This is the view looking back the way we came in

This lovely courtyard welcomes you into the garden.  There's a message above the door but I failed to register it during our tour and my photo isn't clear enough to show it.

Although the courtyard was relatively small, it contained lots of interesting details, including a pond created using a small stock tank and potted plants

The doorway shown above leads one into a gravel garden featuring a wet weather creek.

View from the doorway looking across the space toward another set of stairs

View looking back in the direction from whence we entered

This is a closer look at the same area

These are some of the details I captured on camera.  The steps lead to another doorway.  The shelves containing a small collection of cactus and other succulents charmed me.

Walking up the steps past the bench and the pots takes one into what Jenny calls her secret garden.  I didn't get a good shot of the space as a whole but I do have photos of 2 wonderful wall plaques that gazed at us as we passed through the area.

They were perfectly framed by creeping fig

We entered Jenny's English garden next.

The space featured circular beds centered around a birdbath.  Birdhouses were scattered along the outer walls.

A circular patio occupied the area next to the house

  

These adjustable wooden window doors reminded me of the barn doors so popular with home decorators now.  They're also a clever way to protect the patio beyond during storms.  If you look back to the photos of the garden's entrance area, you'll see that Jenny repeated this element there.

Looking back across the English garden from another angle highlights another portal, which Jenny calls her sun and moon archway

Exiting the English garden through the sun and moon archway, brings us into Jenny's sunken garden, which is full of wildflowers and backed by a pool.

Note the message at the top of the archway

The walls on each side of the arch are mounted with terracotta sun, moon and weather-related plaques Jenny's collected

This is the covered patio on the other side of the archway

These aren't great photos but the first shows the view through a window in the covered patio looking back into the English garden.  The wood piece is mounted inside the patio and, according to David, he found it at a pub that sold a "Rock Rose"  ale and brought it home because it also refers to Jenny and her garden.

This is the view looking across the sunken garden from the steps of the patio

 

A view of the pool

A view of the pool from another angle

There's still more garden on the other side of the wall on the far side of the pool!  It's an herb and vegetable garden.

A small courtyard next to the house features a pedestal planter with an agave preparing to flower

The wildflowers have moved in here too, to rub elbows with the vegetables.  Verbena bonariensis seems happier in Austin than in my area of Southern California.

Another view of the same area with a better view of the stock tank pond.  There was a small greenhouse in this area too (not shown).

A gate in the vegetable garden takes the visitor beyond the walls into an area that's unprotected from the deer that plague many Texas gardens.

Opuntia and Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha)

Pipes and stock tanks to capture rainwater were also in evidence in a couple of locations

My photos aren't of the quality that her garden deserves but Jenny recently posted photos of it on a sunny day, which you can see here.  I was happy to see Jenny's garden in person after years of following her blog, even if it was on a rainy day.  Thanks for the opportunity, Jenny!


All material © 2012-2018 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party