August 25, 2024
Seeing Windcliff, the private garden of plantsman Dan Hinkley and architect Robert Jones, was a huge draw on the Puget Sound Fling tour. I read and reviewed Dan’s book Windcliff a couple years ago and hoped I might be able to visit the garden one day. And now I have!
I entered Windcliff from the next-door neighbor’s garden via this rustic-contemporary gate. I love that the two gardens have such a welcoming connection. Metal mesh makes a low fence and tops the slender arbor.
The lower half of the gate is adorned with glass marbles clasped within metal rings. Dangling from the top rail, wavy-stemmed metal circles add a touch of whimsy.
On a fence post, an Audrey-esque ceramic plant stands guard.
You pass through a woodland garden, where a contemporary totem sculpture rises amid the trees.
I like this totem even better, and it looks great with the white variegated tree behind it.
Clumps of bamboo — each one like a cresting green wave — make a leafy, rustling tunnel.
Peekaboo
Alstroemeria
I did a double-take seeing pomegranate flowering in July, rather than May like in Austin.
As I reached the house, I found Dan talking with tour-goers eager to chat with him. He’s a superstar in the world of plant geeks.
An arrangement of fiber planters — like a 3D Mondrian — lines the driveway. I read on Janet Davis’s The Paintbox Garden blog that Dan and Robert bought inexpensive fiber pots, knocked the bottoms out of them, stained them a unifying color, and planted them with “woodland treasures,” elevated so as to be dog-proof. Clever!
At the front door, a sausage vine swags around porch posts, dangling chunky lavender fruits that echo the purple shake siding of the house. I was fascinated by this plant but wasn’t entirely sure if the sausage fruits were real or lifelike ceramic art.
I mean, look at this! Real or not?
A water-filled stone basin — one of many in the garden — makes a dog-sized drinking bowl here. A cascading Japanese maple in an elevated pot offers a lovely accent.
Cute pup
A grove of ceramic bamboo — by Marcia Donahue, I believe — mingles with living plants along the house.
A tile mosaic floor dresses up a utilitarian outdoor shower.
And then I reached the sunny back garden, which (like its neighbor, the Brindley Garden) sits high on a bluff overlooking Puget Sound. Palm trees stand tall, creating verticality without shading the understory. In the foreground, a chorus of pitcher plants, yellow-green and blood red, crowd around a rock basin.
That held my attention for a while. I wonder how many bugs these carnivorous plants can eat in a year.
Lots of great texture here, with yuccas, palms, pitcher plants, and more.
A waterlily pond opens up below the pitchers.
Along the back of the house, metal ants march across a table-sized boulder. Abutilon and potted plants add greenery.
Playful garden art
A handsome manzanita with crooked trunks and flaking bark grows at the patio’s edge. Are those concrete cushions scattered across the paving? I should have nudged one with a toe to be sure.
Sure looks like it
A rill slices through the paving…
…and curves around to the pond. Step over the stream and you find a table crafted by local artists Little and Lewis.
An ammonite floral design graces the tabletop.
A starfish-like plant — a nolina? — drapes across a rock.
More palms and pitchers
Birds must love these rock water basins.
The larger garden beckons, but I’m saving that for part 2 of my Windcliff visit.
For now let’s meander along the back patio, where a collection of fir cones offers a sense of place…
…even as West Texas beaked yuccas show that gardeners can grow almost anything — cool climate and hot climate plants — in the Pacific Northwest.
I spotted a couple of Leggy Log planters by Dustin Gimbel on a table. I love these funny, wood-grain ceramic pots and have one myself.
A ceramic rendition of an agave “planted” in a pot. Now I’m wondering about those sausage vine fruits again!
The Flingers were enjoying being at Windcliff, surrounded by rare and unusual plants Dan has collected on plant-hunting expeditions all over the world. What a place.
Up next: The bluff garden and more at Windcliff (part 2). For a look back at the beautiful Brindley garden, Windcliff’s next-door neighbor, click here.
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Explore the world of succulents and cacti at the Austin Cactus and Succulent Society’s Fall Sale on 8/31 and 9/1, from 10 am to 5 pm. Held at the Austin Area Garden Center in Zilker Botanical Garden, it includes a plant show with specimen cacti and succulents, handcrafted pottery, daily silent auction and hourly plant raffles, and expert advice. Entry included with the cost of admission at Zilker Botanical Garden: Adults $6 to $8, Seniors $5 to $7, Youths $3 to $4, Children under 2 free.
Come learn about gardening and design at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, authors, and gardeners a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. Season 8 kicks off in fall 2024. Stay tuned for more info!
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