It is with great sadness that we announce that Laurin Lindsey of Ravenscourt Landscaping has recently passed away. Laurin has been an integral member of the steering committee and a generous supporter of the Heights Garden Club for many years. We will miss her social media savvy, her tremendous gardening knowledge, and most of all, we will miss her friendship. Happy Eternal Gardening, Laurin.

This month's tour takes us to the Historic Old Sixth Ward. Bob and Cynthia Card have lived here for 25 years, the garden evolving along with the house's interior. The cottage garden now envelopes both the 1893 bungalow and artist studio in the back. This mix of flowering plants and herbs attracts a steady stream of pollinators to the garden enhancing the historic feel of the neighborhood. Cynthia treats her plants with tough love and says that if a plant needs special attention, it is on its own. Notable 'tough' plants are Esperanza, Duranta (Sweet Memory), various mallows, Esperanza, Lantana, A Blue Butterfly Clerodendrum, a bay tree, Mexican Mint Marigold, Rosemary, and Vinca that have re-seeded themselves freely amongst the other plants. There is also a large Roselle Hibiscus, from which they make tea. A few years ago, the Cards bought the small bungalow next door offering it as a visiting artist residence and also for art exhibits. The fence between them was removed and the garden expanded. Old bricks, collected from the neighborhood, make vintage paths throughout the garden. The Cards have also installed several rain barrels that collect water for the garden.

Parking may be challenging as the streets are narrow, but parking on the side streets and a short walk will give you an opportunity to observe the historic neighborhood and all the original houses still on this block. The houses are very close together which seems to have brought the neighbors closer together as well.

2410 Keene St is a native plant and kitchen garden in Near Northside. Cory Saul, a horticulturist at Houston Botanic Garden, and his partner bought the house with a good-sized lot about 3 years ago and set about transforming the long-neglected space into a resilient and biodiverse garden by identifying and responding to microclimates, improving the soil, and of course, planting natives. Notable spaces include the streetside drainage ditch, which has been re-wilded with Gulf Coast Prairie plants, the greenscreen thicket on the south side of the lot, the live oak canopy with epiphytes, and the cactus mounds. The gravel path borders are made of broken concrete and bricks sourced from the site itself.

This tour should prove educational as well as entertaining. For example, Cory planted daikon radishes early on as a method of improving the heavy clay soils. While the green tops were mulched in place, the radishes themselves burrowed deep into the soil to allow pathways for water to penetrate the hard packed soil also adding organic matter as they decomposed in place. This treatment ,as well as adding native plants later, have made the drainage ditch a water sink, drawing excess water into the ground. The cactus mounds were built starting with piles of concrete rubble supplying the necessary drainage the cactus require. There are many lessons to be learned from this challenging landscape.