March 21, 2024

A pleasant troll has taken up residence in Pease Park, and Austin goes troll loopy. Constructed by Danish recycle artist Thomas Dambo, who goals up and installs whimsical, picket trolls at websites all around the world, Malin is Dambo’s newest creation.

Commissioned by Pease Park Conservancy and funded by donors, 18-foot-tall Malin sits placidly in a glade alongside a wooded path, holding a shallow bowl and gazing down at her human guests.

Her bowl is an providing of water to wildlife, however she would possibly want our assist to maintain it crammed.

In keeping with KUT.org, Dambo “first visited Austin in August 2023 — throughout one of many hottest summers town has ever skilled….Dambo realized that Austinites put out bowls of water to assist squirrels and birds. That concept of human-animal cooperation shaped the idea for Malin’s design. ‘We’ve to do not forget that we coexist in our world along with the animals,’ he mentioned. ‘People take up an increasing number of and an increasing number of house of the world, so principally there’s solely the leftover house left for the animals. To allow them to solely exist if we enable them to.’”

A poem about Malin’s fountain (her bowl) is engraved on a close-by rock, seemingly quoting from the troll herself:

Typically the summer season occasions are dry

Typically the sky will cry

Typically the fountain is filled with rain

Typically an empty drain

Typically are good for summer season birds

Typically are cursed with thirst

So it all the time makes a distinction when

You fill the fountain up once more

Like all Dambo trolls, many of the wooden used to assemble Malin got here from recycled, repurposed, or discovered supplies, based on Pease Park Conservancy. Her shaggy, grey hair is produced from cedar tree roots!

Malin’s theme of water shortage and serving to wildlife matches proper in with Austin’s ethos. I hope she lives a protracted, completely satisfied life in Pease Park participating with guests.

Whereas we had been on the park, we stopped to play within the Treehouse, a Dying Star-looking metal sphere with a huge web suspended within the center.

A metal catwalk leads you inside.

My husband rigorously bounded round a number of children after which posed for a panorama shot that exhibits the rebar-walled structure of the Treehouse.

Heading again to our automobile, previous the WPA picnic tables and a candy-pink swath of pink night primrose

I’d learn that one other troll has come to reside close to Pease Park, and we went looking for him. Simply up the street from the park, a scarier however smaller troll is the creation of Gary Schumann, who tends a tiny planted space in a site visitors median dubbed BEPI Park. In keeping with KUT.org, “West Austin’s BEPI Park is a 50-square-foot site visitors median on the intersections of Baylor, Enfield and Parkway roads. After the Metropolis of Austin put in the median in entrance of Schumann’s home seven years in the past for pedestrian security, he took over its landscaping — and gave it a little bit of a cheeky character.”

Schumann apparently determined that Malin wanted a buddy and constructed his personal troll out of wine barrels, mop heads, and different repurposed objects. It’s hilarious.

Holding Austin bizarre — and troll pleasant!

By the way in which, for those who missed my pictures of Dambo’s trolls at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, click on right here for Half 1 and Half 2.

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Digging Deeper

March 30-31: Come see the Austin Cactus & Succulent Society Present at Zilker Botanical Backyard on 3/30 and three/31, from 10 am to five pm. Features a plant present with specimen cacti and succulents, handcrafted pottery, every day silent public sale and hourly plant raffles, and knowledgeable recommendation. Admission is included with paid admission to Zilker Backyard, $5 to $8 for adults, $3 to $4 for youngsters (underneath 2 free).

April 6: Come out to Austin’s Mayfield Park on 4/6 for the Mayfield Park Gardening Symposium & Fundraiser, 8:30 to 11 am. This annual profit for the park features a raffle, plant sale, and backyard audio system.

Could 4: Discover “good backyards, good swimming pools and pergolas, and out of doors rooms and gardens” on the ATX Outside Dwelling Tour on 5/4, 10 am to three pm. Panorama architects, designers, and builders might be readily available to reply questions. Tickets are $33.85 for adults, $17.85 for teenagers age 10-17.

Could 11: Save the date for Austin House’s Nice Open air Tour on 5/11.

June 1-2: Take a self-guided, 2-day tour of ponds and gardens in and round Austin on the annual Austin Pond and Backyard Tour, held 6/1 and 6/2, 9 am to five pm. Tickets are $20 to $25.

Come find out about gardening and design at Backyard Spark! I arrange in-person talks by inspiring designers, panorama architects, authors, and gardeners a number of occasions a 12 months in Austin. These are limited-attendance occasions that promote out shortly, so be a part of the Backyard Spark electronic mail record to be notified prematurely; merely click on this hyperlink and ask to be added. Season 8 kicks off in fall 2024. Keep tuned for more information!

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