One of the highlights of the Gardenblogger Spring Fling in Austin was getting to meet the one and only Lucinda Hutson, gardener and food writer extraordinaire (How's Tequila for a book title, Amy?) and experiencing her hospitality.
Of course when your house and front garden look like THIS, visitors feel instantly drawn in. Then Lucinda appears - just as colorful as the house and garden - to greet us and begin our tour. Outdoors and indoors, we see not just plants at their peak but Mexican art and design to die for. To this Easterner it was all so lush and exotic.
But my favorite detail? That Lucinda approached each item she wanted to show us and beamed: "Isn't this FUN?" And damn right, everything about our visit WAS fun, even before her special Sunday morning picker-upper was served.
So I thank the delightful Lucinda for sharing her world with us and on this holiday weekend I ask readers: Is there any fun in YOUR garden?
More photos from our visit can be found over at Pam Penick's blog.
I LOVE it! Thanks for sharing. I'm working on fun in my own garden, just not quite there yet. I have tiny little bits of fun, but no big fun. But soon!
Posted by: Kim | July 05, 2008 at 07:34 AM
Wow! Great photos! Thanks for sharing.
Whimsey is a great garden element- I like a bit of fantasy/mystery as well- a sense of place to explore, to hide, to find... Bright colors help also - I see Lucinda extends the fun to her bedroom...(!!)
Posted by: DJ Monet | July 05, 2008 at 08:00 AM
Now there's someone who knows her own style and doesn't give a damn about what the fashionistas say about gardening or decorating. I love it! She has a whole house done in my favorite color!
Posted by: Reading Dirt | July 05, 2008 at 08:26 AM
Great photos! I loved the one with the little painted chairs!
Posted by: Mrs. Greenhands | July 05, 2008 at 09:05 AM
Ahhhh! Another gardener infected with the colorful exuberence of Mexico! For me, gardening has always been about fun. I can appreciate a serene garden, but it would be next to impossible for me to create one. I'm about jamming in as much fun as possible into my gardens and as much as my tasteful editor tries to get thru to my feeble brain, she's squelched at every turn. If I wasn't cursed with dry shade out front, my garden would be screaming with color right up to the sidewalk, but alas, it can't, especially during our current drought. The love affair with Mexico began for me when our oldest child chose to go to college in San Diego. Visits became as much about seeing the gardens as seeing my daughter! Then a trip across the border, deep into the tropics, cinched it. I came home and started painting the rooms of my home in wild energetic colors, similar to Lucinda's bedroom. I tell ya, it's contageous, but I can't think of a more fun disease!
Posted by: wooly sunflower | July 05, 2008 at 10:16 AM
P.S. Holy Guacamole! I just took a tour of Lucinda's garden on her site. My garden may be fun, but it sure can't compete with the likes of her tropical fiesta deck or tequila cantina garden! That takes the word fun to a whole new level! I'll take some salt on the rim, por favor....
Posted by: wooly sunflower | July 05, 2008 at 10:41 AM
funky..............but chic!
Posted by: greg draiss | July 05, 2008 at 02:08 PM
An uninhibited exuberant use of bold color !
Looks like a fun home and garden.
! que casa mas preciosa !
I have a little fun in my garden too.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28279490@N02/sets/72157605991753750/show/
Posted by: Michelle Derviss | July 05, 2008 at 03:45 PM
I just received that copy of The Herb Companion. A woman with a house that color and a garden that exhuberant must always be smiling!
Posted by: Layanee | July 05, 2008 at 05:06 PM
Didn't you feel like one of the lucky ones, Susan---the ones who didn't have to go home straight after the Fling and so got to see Lucinda's home and garden the next day?
I felt lucky to see it too and am so glad she permitted us to visit. She is amazingly creative, as your photos attest, and generous---plucking fragrant leaves for visitors to smell, inviting us into her home (with our cameras!), and serving Mexican sweets and punch. What fun!
I'm definitely having fun in my garden too, though Lucinda reminds me that there's more to be had.
Posted by: Pam/Digging | July 05, 2008 at 09:31 PM
Thank you so much for sharing my wild purple casita with readers. Despite our drought, it still looks like a vibrant tropical Mexican garden around here. I have more photos posted on my website and will get more up in the next month: www. lucindahutson.com that showcase my "outside rooms".
I loved having yall here and hope you return. Who knows what I will be up to next?! A treehouse? Fine Gardening was just here shooting...that was fun!
thanks again! good cheer!!!!!
Posted by: Lucinda Hutson | July 06, 2008 at 09:54 AM
As another of the lucky ones I'll just say that even wonderful photos can't capture how magical this home and garden are. At one point Lucinda handed me a scented leaf from one of her herbs and for a couple of days just a sniff would send me back to the purple casita.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Posted by: Annie in Austin | July 06, 2008 at 10:00 PM
Lucinda's garden is absolutely fun ... pretty, and practical, too. Check out The Herb Companion's May 2008 cover story about her garden, complete with tips, favorite plant list and sensational sangria recipe at www.HerbCompanion.com. (Access through "search.")
Posted by: Vicki Mattern | July 07, 2008 at 06:41 AM
Love that purple house!!! Purple is a fantabulous color in a garden. That's why even in my prim and New England-y vegetable garden, I have a purple shed.
Posted by: Michele Owens | July 07, 2008 at 07:21 AM