A visit to Cat's Austin garden

I first met Cat Jones at the 2017 DC area Garden Bloggers Fling, and got to know her even better during the Austin Fling in 2018. However, since you never really know a gardener until you visit their garden (am I right?), I jumped at the chance to visit Cat's garden while I was in Austin last October...

It was early when Pam and I pulled up at Cat's, the time stamp on my photos says 6:30am, but of course Austin is two hours ahead of Portland and my camera's Pacific Time. I blame the early hour on my inability to focus on much of anything in my photos; plus the light was really contrasty on a sunny October morning. Neither of these issues should take away from the garden or Cat's hospitality! Both were top-notch...

I have no memory of this vignette, but that doesn't stop me from loving this photo.

There were many pools of water in Cat's garden. This was the smallest I photographed, but isn't it spectacular?

The private side-garden features a strategic—and gorgeous—dry creek bed designed to deal with Austin's fast and furious downpours.

Embedded with in it is a large stock tank pond...

While I love stock tanks (and have 12 of them) there's something so perfect about seeing them in Austin, even in a fancy garden.

A look back at the entrance to the private side garden...

And the dry creek bed...

Orange fishes! How does she do it? In my garden the raccoon asshats would have these gone in no time and make a mess of the plants while they were at it.

Loquat! Aka Eriobotrya japonica against the fence.

I do love a little hardscape perfection.

Live-oak loveliness...

The dry-creek bed running off into the distance, down the slope...

How many hours could you spend here, just swinging the day away?

And there's Cat, showing how it's done.

Another pool of water.

Some spikes tucked in here and there...

The view from that swing up in the previous photos, out across a canyon.

There's an inviting patio down the slope a bit, and since it was October when I visited there's a friendly (?) pumpkin face visitor too...

The view back towards Cat's home...

And towards the large stock tank pond...

I am jealous of this great patio spot off the back of the house, oh how I wish we had a door off the back of our house into the garden (our second door leads off from the kitchen to the driveway).

This big chunky table was custom made from a deck that Cat and her family had removed from the back of their house. On-site reuse!

I imagine many a meal is enjoyed here...

Walking back around to the front of the garden...

And I'll end with a photo of Chrysanthemum pacificum/aka Ajania pacifica. I've wanted to grow this one in my garden, but have held off on doing so because of the annoying yellow blooms. It looked so wonderful here, about to burst into flower. I am reconsidering my stance. Thanks for sharing your fantastic garden Cat!

All material © 2009-2022 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.