North Austin Funk...Numero Dos

I don't remember the dimensions of "The Wall" but the message is clear. Jean Graham is the Brentwood artist who had the idea and it was a long process. The wall runs along Woodrow Ave behind the neighborhood MiniMax (located in Crestview) one of the coolest places in the 'hood. The first meeting of minds happened at El Mercado years ago, Linda Anderson, the wonderful art teacher at Brentwood Elementary School, myself and Jean made the first sample pieces that sold the idea to the hood. It's a massive piece of historical art.

Hedrich Michaelson is a dedicated gardener with a beautiful yard and her husband Phil, a great sense of wonder. They have toys tucked in here and around the veggies and native flowers in their xeriscaped front yard. It's always fun to walk by and see what's new.
My friend Ellen's house is on the market (check it out here) one of the coolest, biggest houses in Crestview...but you can still see the shadow of an artist if you're paying attention to detail. She threatened to "shoot my ass" if she found me in her yard...hehe. I love the turquoise balls on the Redbud tree out front. Hi Ellen, ya missed!

Charming gas lamps painted by children, or someone with a childlike perspective. (Note to self: repaint your pathetic lamp!)


I had to hang over the fence to capture the wonderful metal art below.

Wabi-Sabi and I have been walking the 'hood all summer and I'm only showing a few of Michele's playful charms with permission of course!

Every time I try to write something, some bone-head has stolen the Sharpie!

Pan, the goat-god with breasties, sits beneath the Oak tree out front, playing an invisible flute. The story is a good one as to how she acquired it...but not necessary...it's a delightful, melancholic, blast from the past, on its own.

In order to present our neighborhood in full spectrum, I'd need a turret entry, a color entry, a this isn't art but trash entry and many more...There's a lot of new construction and many houses on the market. I think some may still consider this part of town "transitional" but then again, what isn't? Featuring my 'hood is hopefully a great way to draw artists to this part of town...we have a plethora of creatives, but I'm always open to meeting more cool people...it's all part of the dream. Stay cool and...

Bloom Where You're Planted, if you're not planted...transplant yourself here.

Happy Gardening!

Three For Thursday

I've been gathering images of original artwork in Crestview Neighborhood for an on-going blog posting series and decided to jump in on Cindy's of My Corner of Katy's 3 for Thursday idea.

Scarecrows of Crestview:

The Robot

The King

The Garden Head


I need a Scarecrow, well...actually I need a Scarestinkbug...something I'd like to figure out.

Have a great day,


Happy Gardening!

Beautifying Crestview...Firestation #16

8am Saturday and we're all up and ready to work on the Fire station! This is the best of possible ripple effect scenarios. Emily Wilson, my friend and neighbor, was my first client, ever. She lives on Cullen street and she wanted a "cottage garden like my grandma's." How fun is that? I drew it, she built it, it's in and she loves it but she didn't stop there.

That was just the start. Last year she coupled with another client, Hedrich Michaelsen to form FOBP, Friends of Brentwood Park, our neighborhood park. She pulled me in to help with the design, and I volunteer of course, but she and Hedrich do the grant writing, organization, newsletter writing and volunteer round-up.
She didn't stop there.

She lives a few houses down from Crestview Fire Station #16...our neighborhood Fire Station.

I've wanted to do something with the Fire Station since I moved here...but simply never got around to it. When she called a few months ago and asked if I would do the design, it wasn't even a whole second before I said, or rather shouted into the phone YES!

She's a fabulous organizer, I'm not and I get to do what I love...design. We're going to turn it into a Wild Life Habitat, but also install several beds for the guys to do square foot gardening!

We had a few meetings about the logistics, she did all the phone and foot work, and today was the day!

Volunteers from both Crestview and Brentwood neighborhoods showed up along with a few Habitat Stewards and CAMN members...around 15 folks in all!

We covered the hell strips with cardboard and layered about 4-5 inches of free mulch from Asplundh. The city dumped around 2 cubic yards of dillo dirt, and that was spread over the lawn and around the base of the existing trees, after we pulled up the grass.

I'd say we got about 1/2 of the hell strip done before we ran out of material but we still had an extra 20 minutes of our original 3 hour time slot.

Here are a few volunteers taking a break beneath one of the huge Pecan trees.

That's Emily on the rope there, when it was finished several folks took a turn climbing the rope for fun...one, two, three!

Go Mark!

This isn't the whole bunch 'cause a few folks had to cut out a little early but most of us stayed through 'til the end! I'm never sure what or why anyone gets a spark and runs with it, but image a world full of people who want to make it a better place....hmmmm.

If you would like to donate time, money or supplies to either FOBP or the Crestview Fire Station #16 Wild Life Habitat project you can e-mail me at greengardener@grandecom.net or Emily Wilson at pamelagrierrocks@yahoo.com

There will be several workdays before we plant in the fall and we'd love to have you come help!

Happy Gardening!

North Austin Funk...Crestwood/Brentview (numero uno)

Since I moved to Crestview 13 years ago next month, I've been told by dozens of people that "you belong in South Austin." I didn't know what that meant, but by the nature and timing of the comment, I took it as a compliment. Last year, when my North Austin property was put on the "Inside Austin Gardens Tour" hosted by the Travis County Master Gardeners, that idea got tossed around ever more and I was told by many a folk in my yard that day that the word had gotten out that my house was the "funky yard" destination and when Central Texas Gardener reviewed the tour, my house was again mistaken for "South Austin Charm" by the host.

(All photos taken in Crestview and Brentwood Neighborhood.)

I'm not from Austin, I'm a transplant who means to stay. I've never called anyplace on this blue ball "home" but here. Here's where I've lived the longest, reared my daughters, taught school, worked as a professional gardener on both sides of the river, learned to brew beer, where my first big public artwork is, started blogging, found the love of my life, married him barefoot in the backyard and well...it's just plain easy to stay where folks are just down to earth, environmentally conscious, liberal-minded, free and kind as all get up...most of 'em.
But South Austin, really doesn't have anything up on my hood. We've got trailer-food, Alamo Drafthouse, Threadgill's, Lala's Little Nugget, Poodle Dog, Shoal Creek Nursery, Toy Joy, Ruby's, Mann's, Mayfield Park, The Triangle, Brentwood Pool...which is still free, my favorite little Mexican restaurant La Casita, The upcoming BlackStar Coop, The Homebrew Store, and appropriately named Crestview Station, the center of "the Line." I'm sure if you're a North Austiner your mind is tallying up all I've left out, ohhh, Genuine Joe's, Spider House, all that cool stuff off North Loop and of course Sunshine Gardens, Patchwork Farms...so the list goes on...
A few years back, local artist Jean Graham applied for a KAB grant and her main point was that our neighborhood "78" didn't have a public work of art. Since then artists, musicians, story tellers, gardeners etc. have been crawling out of the woodwork en masse...a few of us in the hood are biting our nails waiting to see if this years KAB grant will shine on us...again.

Well, my idea is for a neighborhood sign art project and we'll see if we get the dollars to do it, if not...it'll happen some other way. But, until it does, I'm still walking the hood with my best gal, Dorothy Belle...you can see her sweet squished face in the lower right hand corner of the shot above...checking out what we think is just plain "cool."

You gotta love the Barbi-car. So, I'll be puttin' up shots from my walk occasionally, because we've just got some real funky treasures here in the hood, and I'm all about sharing. Take a drive through our hood sometime...stop by the Minimax for a 6 pack of micro-brew and grab a pie at the Little Deli...this is home.

Happy Gardening, and keep it cool folks!