Tower Garden

About

I dream in flight. During his waking hours, from a wooden observation tower in my backyard, I enjoy a bird's-eye view across the rooftops of the Houston neighborhood toward downtown's high-rises. It's a place for me to get up and away. The 116-year-old home is protected by large trees, reminds me of a summer-camp cabin-a leafy escape from the city. It's an urban woodland garden because I wanted a lot of shade and privacy. I wanted to be enveloped by vegetation. Sycamore, pine, Montezuma cypress and bald cypress, a row of river birches, and a Texas palmetto. Hedges of magnolia and holly. Below the trees, a dense understory of native dwarf palmettos, sedges, shade-loving grasses, and woodland perennials like spiderwort, oxalis, and Turk's cap adds more greenery and seasonal color. A small lawn of horseherb. I mow maybe once a month in summer. A low, concrete pond with a fountain and mossy, focal-point container of dwarf elephant ear and maidenhair fern anchors the courtyard-like space, surrounded by porches on three sides. "A sago palm I bought it around 1985 as a five-gallon plant and kept it in a container while living in an apartment," says Mark. "Planted it in this garden and cultivated it as an upright, single-trunk specimen. It has survived hurricanes, freezes, and droughts." The garden is a part of the home's interiors, connected to the outdoors by aligning views through doors and windows with the garden, enlarging his living spaces both visually and physically. Covered porches provide a generous amount of outdoor living space. I had sixteen people last Easter at a very long table on the porch. From any of the porches, I enjoy the sight and sound of the trough water feature. "It's a recirculating fountain," he explains. "The water flows up through the pot with aquatic plants in it, and those plants filter the water. I have water clarity year-round even with fish in the pond."

This garden’s estimated size is 6,000 sq feet.

2025 Open Day:  Saturday, April 26

Hours:10-4