- Howdy, I'm John Hart Asher.

This week on "Central Texas Gardener," we're pulling from our archives to bring you a special look at the art of gardening.

Turn drab into dazzle at the Fowler family's creative co-op in Hutto.

Get inspired by nature with painter Valerie Fowler, and learn how to make a living work of art with Monique Capanelli of Articulture Designs.

So let's get growing right here, right now.

- [Announcer] Central Texas Gardener's 30th season is made possible by Lisa and Desi Rhoden.

Supporting a love of gardening and nature for all communities.

- [Announcer] Want to know what happens to your recycled plastic?

Since 2004, H-E-B has turned 58 million pounds of recycled plastic into things like composite decking and Field & Future by H-E-B trash bags.

You can learn more at ourtexasourfuture.com.

(upbeat music) (music fades) - Gardening is an art unto itself, but many of us love to amplify our outdoor spaces with artistic additions.

None more so than the Fowlers, who toured us through their family's creative co-op back in Season 23.

(relaxing music) - [Narrator] Fun.

Art.

Drought-tough.

Creativity.

Organic food.

In this Hutto garden, it's a creative co-op for Donna and Mike Fowler and children Emily and Luke.

Donna and Mike keep an eye on things from her queenly perch.

Since Hutto's home of the hippos, you'll spot a few on patrol.

Their house, built in the 1880s by Mike's great-grandparents was once a Lutheran parsonage.

Since Donna and Mike began its restoration in 1978, they've replaced the weedy grounds with destination gardens, advised along the way by Mike's mother, Vee Fowler, a renowned Austin gardener.

Everyone can choose their mingling mood, hang out in the open corral, and check out the artwork.

(relaxing music continues) Or sit back a spell in a conversation area.

- [Donna] I wanted a lot of drought-tolerant plants, but still a lot of color.

And so I called it the desert garden.

And then the rocks in the area are a coral, salmon color.

And so they picked up the color of the coral yucca and the aloe vera when it blooms.

- [Narrator] To embellish, they handcraft whimsical sculptures from foundling objects.

- [Mike] And it's a takeoff on my niece when she was pregnant with her twins, Luke and Liam.

And I found a glass, blue head at Goodwill for $5.

So from that point, I felt like I ought to do something with it.

- [Donna] And then I wanted to create palettes of color in different areas.

- [Narrator] After work and on weekends, they plotted garden after garden, each with a story.

(relaxing music continues) Donna designed drought-tough clusters in seasonal color wheels that appeal to wildlife.

- [Donna] Because I love attracting the bees and the butterflies and the hummingbirds to the garden.

And I want them to feel safe and happy and have lots of nectar and water and everything.

- [Narrator] Then they add the final touches, details big and small that give it the special Fowler distinction.

- [Donna] There are so many beautiful plants and everything, but they just need something to like all tie them together.

- [Narrator] From the backside driveway, travel left to open gardens.

Travel right through a gate to a narrow thoroughfare.

But keep an eye out for the unexpected since we're now in Hippo Valley.

(ethereal music) - [Donna] You can meander through Hippo Valley and see the hippos in the Hippo Universe.

That area is covered up right now with wildflowers.

The Indian blanket has pretty much taken over.

- [Mike] In fact, we've got some lost hippos in the Hippo Universe.

The hippos in Hutto are iconic.

The Texas legislature made us the official Hippo Capital of Texas.

- [Narrator] The latest project is an organic vegetable garden on the lot next door.

Once a jungle of overgrown weeds and hackberry trees, slowly they hacked it back and renewed the soil.

Of course, this isn't your average vegetable garden where Donna planted flowers to invite pollinators to her crops.

From low and high, it's got the Fowler touch.

- And we needed to trim our cypress tree.

So Mike decided to save the wood from our biggest cypress tree and then build this big chair.

You kind of feel like the queen of the garden when you're up there.

It's so big.

(Donna laughs) And it's fun to photograph children that come over, and they're sitting in this giant chair.

It makes them look even smaller, like they're Alice in Wonderland.

I made the vegetable garden into sort of a cross design with the little side beds.

And so when I was dragging the hose around trying to water it, it was crossing over my beds and tearing up my plants.

- [Narrator] With rebar and recycled dishware, Mike made function funky.

- And then when he was finished, he said, "You know, these look a lot like busts of people.

So I think it would be a good idea if you would paint faces on these."

And then after that, I thought, "Well, I think they need some jewelry because they look like ladies."

I always wanted a garden club in Hutto, so now they're ladies of the garden club.

- [Narrator] Son Luke is adding the ultimate structural feature.

- [Mike] Luke wanted to do that as a tribute to his American Indian heritage.

- [Narrator] Everyone joined the family project of Fish Sticks.

- And what I do is whimsical, and it's usually yard art.

I call it yart.

And the whole purpose is keeping stuff out of the landfill and recycling and upcycling materials.

We don't need to buy a lot of stuff to have nice things in our yard.

- [Donna] I've told Mike I feel like I live in the creative co-op here, because every day I come home and it's like something new or somebody has an idea.

- [Narrator] These days, they're inspired too by the sculptures inherited from Mike's father, Mel Fowler, placed with care.

- [Mike] What my father did, he was a professional sculptor in his second life.

He did true art.

And just the connect and beauty of plants and sculpture, art whimsy, make such a statement to me.

And we totally love it when people come out and enjoy it.

We have people drop by constantly.

Can we look through your garden?

Would you like a garden tour?

(Mike laughs) And we've met some wonderful people that way.

- Sadly, Donna passed away in 2024.

But her beloved garden is still going strong today thanks to her family, who continue to enhance it with new statues and sculptures as they introduce it to the next generation.

From Claude Monet to Vincent van Gogh, some of our most celebrated painters have found inspiration in the garden.

Back in 2019, we brought you the story of Valerie Fowler, an Austin artist who continues that age-old tradition by letting nature be her muse.

- [Valerie] I always wanted to be a painter, which was really unrealistic, but I've always done it.

I worked a whole lot of odd jobs for the first 11 or 12 years after graduating.

- [Narrator] What led her back to painting and a switch to botanical interpretation?

- That came sort of indirectly because I became a mom.

I was sort of homebound and got into gardening, and I had toddlers.

And I wanted to get back into painting, but I didn't even have a studio.

My husband built me a studio.

When I went back to painting, I dropped drawing the figure or painting the figure because all around me was this gardening.

- When she was gardening and when the kids were very young, that's about the point where she started to be able to look at a plant that's just burst up out of the ground when it's this tiniest, tiniest baby.

And she started to be able to recognize what it was going to be as a mature plant when the kids were young.

So that's probably something to do with getting down on your hands and knees.

- Staying close to the earth.

I've never really gone back to the figure.

Botanical stuff still feeds me.

It's also a good allegory for a lot of the themes, human themes.

So I like to use plants and trees, and rocks and flowers, as metaphors for all kinds of human things that are going on in my head.

I got the idea for this painting because I was driving through the Texas Hill Country.

It was early spring, and it was a peach orchard.

And I looked at my daughter, who was I think 9 or maybe even 11 at the time, and she was sitting next to me in my truck, and she was so beautiful.

And I thought the trees are speaking to me about the beauty of youth and how brief it is, because we all know, of course, that these peach blossoms that look like clouds will be gone very quickly.

That's what that gray tree is all about, the beauty of youth and how brief it is.

One of the pines from the Lost Pines area of Bastrop, it was another drive-by.

I was going to Houston on 71.

It was a year after the fires in the Bastrop area.

And there was one tree that was struggling to survive, and it looked sort of like it was on fire because the leaves were red.

- [Narrator] Closer to home, Valerie's influenced by radical changes in neighborhood landscapes.

- I started with watercolor.

I'm trying to loosen up because I'm really tight.

When I paint with oil, I tighten up, tighten up, tighten up till it's just crisp.

I'm trying to loosen up.

So I think watercolor will help me sort of loosen.

And it does.

And it did.

But I still am going in with colored pencils, and I'm tightening all my watercolors.

You know, it's just my own psychosis.

- [Narrator] Valerie's original works are also available as prints made to size.

Blunn Creek inspired oil on canvas to depict the essence behind precious water resources.

- I want people to think about those things.

We all share the same finite amount of water on the whole entire earth.

- [Narrator] Although she may photograph scenes on her wanders or bike rides around Lady Bird Lake, Valerie interprets them through her signature rich colors.

- I guess when I'm out in nature or when I see a plant that I want to pull into a painting or use as a kernel of a starting point of a painting, I look for things that will work with my palette, with my colors.

Also, I look for ways to exaggerate and to emphasize.

I want to give something of me into it, and also I want to lead the audience.

I want some way, a segue into some meaning greater than documentation.

And I use them as storytelling elements.

I want to tell a little bit of a story.

I want to invite insight.

Right now, I'm sort of interested in the interaction between humans and nature.

I was taking a lot of photographs at night, going on night walks and seeing one light source off in the corner and how it plays off of the trees and all the plants in my neighborhood.

- [Narrator] Valerie returned to human figures when husband Brian Beattie, a musician, songwriter, and record producer, wrote, produced, and recorded "Ivy and the Wicker Suitcase."

A book, a record, and a movie for your ears.

Valerie and Brian have performed this family musical for delighted audiences across the country.

They collaborated again on the CD for a young musician they've known since birth.

- Her band is the Born Again Virgins.

Her name is Anna Roenigk.

And I met Anna when she was six days old.

So all these years later, Anna's grown up, and she asked if I would produce her record.

- I offered to do the cover, and it was really nice to be able to draw my best friend's daughter after all these years.

- Valerie continues to take her inspiration from the natural world and paints almost daily.

Currently, she's gearing up for a solo exhibition at Austin's Dougherty Arts Center, which is due to open in March of next year.

Monique Capanelli of Articulture Designs has appeared on CTG several times over the years to dole out tips on succulent care and design.

Here's a clip of her explaining what articulture is all about back in 2016.

- You have something absolutely unique that you're offering the people of Texas.

These are amazing creations using living plants, but you're creating works of art with them.

What gave you the inspiration to bring those two worlds together?

- Well, I think I've always believed in where preparation meets opportunity.

I grew up in a very creative, entrepreneurship kind of environment as a child and dabbled in a lot of different creative works, mosaics and dance and mobile making.

And just my love of gardening too.

My dad was an avid gardener.

And as I reached my late 20s, there was just a time where those two worlds kind of came together, and the word articulture was perfect for that because it was where horticulture and art comes together.

And I love the infusion of the creativity in gardening and the uniqueness of the opportunity that you can do with plants, you know?

- [Interviewer] Right.

Well, you've brought so many of your interests together in articulture.

You have living walls of garden art.

You have benches, tables.

You name it, right?

- Pretty much.

The sky's the limit to me.

I mean, I feel like once the possibility, the door opened, I just felt like it was limitless.

It's like all the things that you can do and create, it's just what the imagination holds.

And so to me, I feel challenged by my clients a lot of times, and inspired by nature itself on what can be done.

And putting plants on the wall is nothing that's new, but how could we make it new was where I approached it.

- [Interviewer] Well, spectacular creations.

When I saw the first images of these, literally, my jaw hit the table.

I was like, "This is really stunning."

So a lot of creativity involved here.

- We are joined now by Monique, who's here today to actually demonstrate how you can make a living work of art yourself.

Monique, welcome back.

- Thank you so much for having me.

It's a pleasure.

- I am excited to be here.

We've got a lot of great stuff, and you're going to try to show me how to do something amazing.

So where do we start?

- So I'll start by telling you a little bit what we have to work with in front of us, and then we'll kind of get creative together.

So we have a couple different varieties of succulents.

I brought just a specimen.

It's just so beautiful.

It's Euphorbia obesa.

There's some Echeverias, some Haworthias, some Sempervivums.

And really, this is going to be what we're going to create at the end of our piece, your mini-living wall here.

Your unique interpretation with all this material.

Then we have some dried elements.

We've got some straw flowers that you can incorporate at your artistic discretion.

This is all for you to pull on as much or as little as you want.

Different pods that are dried and natural just to kind of infuse these principles of design.

You want your orientation, composition, color, texture.

So you'll kind of find and lay in what you are attracted to.

And then also we've got some really good pieces of crystal, some selenite here, that add some unique structure and kind of some architectural element to your piece.

And then we've got some air plant varieties.

This really cool Bulbosa Belize.

Very interesting.

Very wow, out-of-the-box kind of frame thing we could do.

And then also we've got some of these dried elements, some dried straw flowers.

Some cute little dried grasses.

Some unique pods.

Some dry little mushrooms.

There's some shells.

And then we also have some preserved moss varieties.

We've got a couple different colors of greens, some mood moss, that's some sheet moss.

We've got some reindeer moss too.

And then most importantly, our frame.

And I figured I would give you a choice on which frame you would like to choose from and make with today.

- I think I'm going to go with white.

- Okay, you got it.

- Thank you.

- I will do the gold.

The goal is, like the sample piece here, is to cover all of this mechanics.

And you can stay within your frame.

You can go outside of your frame.

You can glue on your frame.

So whatever you kind of feel that you like.

The two different glues that we have are purposeful.

The hot glue is for everything non-living.

Our cold glue is for all things living.

Our air plants and any of our succulents that we want.

- Good to know.

- So what I like to do is kind of just start building.

And again, there's no really wrong way to do this.

It's going to come out gorgeous.

But I would start by choosing what you want to see in your wall.

Let's start to choose the plants that you're really attracted to, and the little elements, and we'll make a little pile.

And then we'll start to bare-root some of these succulents so we can actually get them on our wall.

- Okay.

I like this... - And if you already have... Yeah.

It's a cute little Echeveria.

This is so beautiful, like a little rose.

I'm going to take one of those too.

These Sempervivums are also a nice little complement.

- You know what, I'm going to try... - That's a tiny air plant.

- That's a tiny air plant.

- I love those.

So cute.

Haworthia is a nice... And then I'm going to use a Bulbosa so I'm going to pull that.

- I want to use this guy too, why not?

- I love these eucalyptus pods.

I mean, you could just find a lot of this stuff just laying around, honestly.

A little pop of color is nice, so I'm going to pull that.

That's a beautiful little dried flower.

So from here, we're going to start by putting in a little bit of our moss.

I would suggest you using some of the sheet moss, which is the thinner one.

- The sheet moss.

- And just kind of rip a little bit off.

And there's kind of a back, bottom and a front.

So we're going to use hot glue because this is non-living.

So to not burn ourselves, we can kind of just shoot right onto the frame a little bit.

And I'm just going to start anchoring a little bit of that at my corner, just to kind of give me a start point.

Next, I'm going to pick my biggest focal plant, which I'm going to use this guy.

And I really am starting already because I've chosen this.

My mind is already thinking I want to make an asymmetrical frame.

I really want my frame to kind of go up and then down.

- I'm trying not to copy you.

- Yeah, you can copy.

It's fine.

(both laugh) So I'm going to anchor this in first.

I'm going to build off of that.

Now, not hot glue.

We're going to use our cold glue.

And the cool thing about air plants and Tillandsias is that this is a great specimen, because these aren't really roots.

These are anchoring systems.

So it doesn't eat and drink through here.

It eats and drinks through its leaves.

So with our cold glue, it's fine to put that on here.

We're going to get a good quarter.

- What about my guy?

- Same.

If you want to do that, same.

You're going to do about a quarter all the way around.

Keep on going.

And then you're going to just put where you want it.

And you're going to push pretty good down in there.

It's not going to dry as fast as our hot glue, but by the time that we're done, we're going to be able to lift our piece vertically, and it's going to be fine.

So I'll just kind of sit it there, you know?

Hold it for a couple seconds.

We don't necessarily need to hold it the whole time.

I'm going to use a little bit of moss just to kind of backfill mine up until she gets a little bit anchored in there.

Just kind of forcing it to the orientation that I want it.

- I'm letting the plants speak to me.

- I think that's great.

- There you go.

Go with the flow.

(John laughs) - And then just keep on building.

I'm going to add my piece of Haworthia here right next to that because this wants to lean.

So I'm just going to kind of build it like that.

With the moss, you're going to use hot glue on that.

- Yeah.

- And the material that we have, this grow cloth on the back, is kind of this felt cloth that is a good kind of anchor medium for the roots to grow into.

And then we're also adding all this kind of organic material coming in here that, even though we're bare-rooting it, we're leaving the roots and we're leaving a good bit.

They're going to really anchor.

And they're going to really grow in here.

- [John] Would we glue to any moss?

- Yes, you can if you want to.

Absolutely.

And that's a way to kind of build some undulation and some depth.

You know, so you have some moments of sinking and then you can have some moments that kind of build up on it.

These pretty little air plants.

I love that.

- So will these get larger?

- The varieties that we're using today are not going to really get larger.

They're going to kind of stay that size.

And also, we're kind of forcing them to stay young too.

We're not giving them a lot of opportunity to get huge.

But the air plant in particular, that's just the kind of variety.

It's tiny.

Care and watering.

People are always like, "Oh, how do I keep it alive?"

That's definitely, just like any other plant, I'm always like, just good airflow, good light.

A room that you go in.

And this is so little soil in here that it's not going to take a lot of frequent watering.

The lighting and the airflow is really the most important thing.

And spritz it with a little spritz bottle once every month.

Sometimes I just like to put it outside on a really rainy day.

Just on my porch.

Not in the rain.

But just so it kind of gets that nice airflow.

I mean, it's kind of endless on what you can incorporate, honestly.

- I can see that.

- I think of these tiny pieces like this when you have little plants that are growing at home and they just kind of drop a little nugget like that.

Like, "Oh, perfect.

That's going to go right in my wall."

- That's a good thought.

- Easy to add to, easy to repair.

And you could go bigger.

- So they don't really break.

- They don't break.

Exactly.

They're so minimal care and attention that it's really just meant to enjoy.

It really is a mini living piece of art.

You just walk by, and you're like, "Oh, hello."

- I try to tell my wife I'm exactly like that.

Very minimal and easy to take care of.

- That's what you say or that's what she says?

- That's what I say.

(Monique laughs) - [Monique] This is beautiful.

I love your colors.

- Oh, well, thank you.

I feel like I've got glue all over me.

- Not too dirty.

(both laugh) It's for a good cause.

- [John] Yes, absolutely.

- There's no wrong art, you know?

- [John] No, no.

Not at all.

- I believe everybody's creative.

Everybody has a voice.

- Well, I think that's the thing, too, that's really cool about this.

Formal arts, either you're good at drawing or not, or whatever, but this really lends itself to just unleashing the inner artist, right?

- Yeah, totally.

And you'll know when the stopping point is.

You'll know when you feel like, okay, this is... boom, we got it, you know?

- So I'm feeling fairly full on mine, I think.

- Great.

- Yours is looking amazing.

- I'm kind of with you on feeling like I'm done.

I feel balanced out.

- I feel kind of balanced, I guess.

(both laugh) - Well there you go.

That's your living art right here.

- Wonderful!

- Hang it anywhere.

- Well, thank you so much for coming by and showing us this today.

- Well done.

You're welcome.

- If people want to go further down the rabbit hole to learn more about this, where should they go?

- They can check out our website at articulturedesigns.com.

And we've got lots of ideas, inspirations.

They can also work on scheduling a private tutorial and class like this, actually.

Great team building, great birthday party experience.

- Oh, that's a wonderful idea.

That's great.

Monique, thank you so much for coming here today.

This has been great.

You've helped me make something I feel fairly proud of.

- [Monique] I'm very proud of it too.

- [John] I appreciate that so much.

- Well done.

Thank you for having me.

- Well, that's our show.

Be sure to check out centraltexasgardener.org for tips, resources, and to watch online.

Until next time, adopt the pace of nature.

Her secret is patience.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (music fades) - [Announcer] Central Texas Gardener's 30th season is made possible by Lisa and Desi Rhoden.

Supporting a love of gardening and nature for all communities.

- [Announcer] Want to know what happens to your recycled plastic?

Since 2004, H-E-B has turned 58 million pounds of recycled plastic into things like composite decking and Field & Future by H-E-B trash bags.

You can learn more at ourtexasourfuture.com.

(bright flute music)