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 panor