Friday, February 20, 2015

Garden Design: How to Handle the Car/Driveway

Beloved accuses me of being too wildly appreciative of the simplest elements of life.  Therein lies my wealth, is my response.
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Since the chicken coop massacre, a month ago, the pair of profoundly wounded hens are healing well. But, cannot get to their roost at dark.  Every evening I lift my girls to their roost.  This task enriches my soul beyond measure.  Merely thinking, 'I need to go lift my girls', as the chiaroscuro of dusk goes entirely black, makes my day.
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I keep a journal of pairs of words, and have begun noticing pictures insert themselves as pairs.  The latter due to Pinterest, for sure.  Favorite Pinteresting spot?  Claw foot tub, glass of wine, Pinteresting on my large galaxy note, cat sleeping nearby.  Ridiculous, my bad, told myself when the tub was put in a few years ago, 'no technology - only books.'  Lost the battle, joined the winner.


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New landscape, above, with an old soul.  Adored, immediately, eyes locked/loaded, the car entry.  A lot of challenges in this landscape, myriad.  Each solution, a winner.  Why the car entry, so much?  Its location, scale, needs, necessities are each diminished, in abeyance to greater drama/importance, the front door.  Owner/designer got every layer right, including the 1st layer, William Morris's, "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."   "The true secret of happiness lies in the taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life."
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I must know who you are at the curb.  Want to see, above, their interiors, art, books on the shelves, colors....  Garden design, above, is as beautiful in winter as summer/spring/fall.  Low maintenance & eco.

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This garden, above, honors the car gods, and slab-of-concrete-god.  Parking court reigns supreme.  Front door?  Welcome, ye car.  Welcome, people?  When the annuals die, shrubs stop blooming, what's left?  
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There is power in awakening to,  "...genuine interest in all the details of daily life."  Aside from increasing property value, decreasing HVAC costs, above, this homeowner will have less stress/frustration with caretaking their landscape and increased pleasure/calm/peace/atonement once the epiphany arrives, my garden needs to be ME.
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An afternoon Garden Design class, using only these two pics, is enough.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Top pic, Cote de Texas.  Bottom pic, here.
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Bottom pic is common USA landscape story.  House built, builder landscape, keep for decades, done.

7 comments:

Kathy said...

freezing here on the riviera......getting great joy out of 3 times daily checking on my bird feeders and more importantly, the bird bath.....my reward?...dozens of beauties congregating just outside the window...
great post (as usual)...k

Kathy said...

freezing here on the riviera......getting great joy out of 3 times daily checking on my bird feeders and more importantly, the bird bath.....my reward?...dozens of beauties congregating just outside the window...
great post (as usual)...k

Things That Inspire said...

My architect likes to place the entrance so that it is prominent and so that people will enter through the front door (guests, in particular).

I am a fan of the porte cochere, if possible. It provides an interesting feature on the house, a covered place to alight, a side entrance or friends entrance for easy access to the heart of the house.

Interestingly, I am also a fan of the wing garage, even in front. But best of all is a garage that is tucked into the back, if space and land allow.

Anonymous said...

I love this post; (I love all of your posts!)

I totally relate to the chickens; (we just hatched 4 baby chicks....the hen did). Somehow I missed the coop tragedy. Now going to search!!!

Anonymous said...

the second picture......YUCK; car gods...inside everything pointing at televisions in every single room. Leather sofas....I can see it now. Cars, tv's YUCK. Hardscape....no birds, bees, butterflies....

So sad. We need suburban "yards" connecting wildlife corridors. Not accomplished by criticising!

HELP!!!!

We need milkweed planted in every garden across the country! We need no more "Roundup"; poisoning the bees and butterflies!

You can help!

Anonymous said...

OH! Porte cocheres are the most civilized of all inventions! Takes the garage off the front of the house...gives a lovely drop-off in the rain...(we are praying for more);

and it is a beautiful way to make the front of the house look lovely and not so massive!

Our daughter's was designed in 1920 something with a wonderful porte cochere.... and I have written about it!

DavidH said...

Thank you for the compliment you offered on a project our landscape architectural firm completed in Houston. It takes skill, knowledge and aesthetic awareness to pull off a functional yet beautiful entry point.
Regards,
David
McDugald-steele