May 02, 2025
In mid-April I popped over to my friend Lori Daul‘s garden in South Austin, bringing with me a small posse of visiting garden writers and editors. Any excuse for another visit to Lori’s pond-a-licious garden!
Her front-yard stock-tank pond was abloom with starry pink and yellow waterlilies.
‘Arizona Star’ agave — eye-catching with matte leaves striped moonlight yellow and sage green
Variegated canna was just coming up behind it, unfurling paddle-shaped leaves.
Poppies added neon pink and purple, as well as seafoam green seedheads.
Gulf penstemon and bronze fennel make a pretty combo.
Lori squeezes in a surprising number of water features, big and small, throughout her compact garden.
A long, oval stock-tank pond runs along the side-yard fence, making a garden room out of this frequently overlooked space. Lori’s kitchen window looks out on this view — so much better than just a boring fence!
A shapely prickly pear in a dish planter gains stature atop a glazed pot, which itself is elevated on concrete pavers.
A leaning back-of-door mirror doubles the beauty.
In the back garden, one of Lori’s many face planters holds ‘Quadricolor’ agaves, ‘Evergold’ sedge, and foxtail fern.
Beyond, a gigantic whale’s tongue agave, elevated in a stock tank, reins over a sunny border. Its powder-blue foliage shines against a blue wall in the background.
Smoke tree foliage and whale’s tongue agave
A mesquite tree makes a living garden arch inviting you onto the patio. Blue bottles give the mesquite a little Southern flair.
The patio overlooks Lori’s biggest stock-tank pond, an 8-footer.
Lori ground out this rock herself to hold water, an offering for birds and lizards.
Another fountain bubbles away next to a smoke tree and beaked yucca.
‘Silver King’ artemisia, Old Man prickly pear, and ‘Blue Chill’ salvia make a frosty combo — good for hot summer days to come.
A rubber ducky bobs in yet another stock-tank pond by the patio.
That big-daddy pond, though, draws everyone near. This time it wore a cloak of green, some sort of floater plant. Purple-leaved colocasia and crinum also thrive in the water.
Side view
Behind the pond, shade lovers grow under a row of cinnamon-trunked crape myrtles.
Back around to that massive whale’s tongue agave
Check out those shark-fin teeth!
And cheers to these ladies for traveling all the way to Austin — from Seattle, Iowa, and Boise — to visit gardens, see wildflowers, and meet up with friends: Lorene Edwards Forkner, garden-owner Lori Daul (in sunglasses), Susan Appleget Hurst, Debra Prinzing, Mary Ann Newcomer, and me.
Thanks for sharing your garden with us, Lori!
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Digging Deeper
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