Saturday, April 26th Open Day at Tower Garden

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.

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

2025 Open Day:  Saturday, April 26

Hours:10-4