Blue magic in Lori Daul’s garden

Lori Daul’s South Austin garden is an oasis with numerous water features, beautiful plants, and a moody blue color scheme.… Read More

The post Blue magic in Lori Daul’s garden appeared first on Digging.

I returned to one of my favorite Austin gardens last weekend, the South Austin garden of designer Lori Daul. It’s an oasis with, by our count, ten water features including multiple stock-tank ponds, birdbaths, and ground-level saucers tucked into groundcovers. The color blue unites everything, adding to the cooling, watery effect.

Pond garden

Let’s start our tour in the backyard, where Lori’s biggest stock-tank pond, an 8-footer, draws you out into the garden.

A flaking, powder-blue chair by the pond sets the color tone and offers a spot to commune with the goldfish.

They come swimming over when you appear, their feathery tails swishing.

Moody blues and purples add drama to bright greens.

Behind the pond, a surprise — a rolling ridge of blue mountains studded with tiny circular mirrors that look like twinkling lights in the distance. It’s a mural Lori painted on a metal wall she built and welded herself. The theatricality and scale of it set her garden apart. Lori never does anything by half-measures.

Lori built it for privacy when she learned the property behind her house would be developed. Also, “maybe I was just daydreaming of a yard with a nice panoramic view,” she told me.

In the center of the yard, under a mesquite tree, an island bed jam-packed with plants frames a cream-colored fountain.

The fountain is ideal for birds, with a bubbler and a shallow bathing surface. Smoke tree and beaked yucca, among other plants, add contrasting foliage.

Lori just finished laying a new patio made from a patchwork of pavers, bricks, and stone. She spent a lot of time collecting materials and arranging and leveling them. The patio fills a U-shaped space between her house, an adjacent she-shed, and the mesquite-tree garden.

An oval stock-tank pond sits beside the she-shed, along with a blue wire chair cradling a potted prickly pear.

Velvety, light-catching colocasia is one of Lori’s favorite pond plants.

A chocolate mimosa echoes the colocasia’s smoky purple hue.

Globemallow adds creamsicle contrast.

A few edible plants grow in pots.

Shade garden

Along the painted wall, in a deep raised bed, a shade garden thrives under a line of crape myrtles. A decaying tree branch adds a forest vibe and insect habitat along the front edge.

The tiny mirrors sparkle in the background, and green leaves glow against blue paint.

One of Lori’s many water features

She recently planted a yellow-berried yaupon holly under the crape myrtles. Its golden berries will stand out against the blue come fall.

A plastic flamingo prances through burgundy cannas.

In a sunny spot, a bowl of prickly pear stands out in a froth of pink evening primrose and ‘Silver King’ artemisia.

Another cactus sprouts phallically from a head planter.

Side garden

Looking toward the side yard, you see an arch of blue bottles on a mesquite limb, which frames an enticing view. A large whale’s tongue agave rides high, elevated in a stock tank. Under a round mirror, a half-face planter looks back at you. The stained wooden fence carries th