Moved In: ca. 1900 Farmstead

Last week, below, feeding the chickens, an audience arrived.  How do animals this large appear at the fence within seconds, no sound?

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Our views of neighbor's dairy farm.  Soon, when more invasives are removed we'll have views of their lake and rolling Piedmont hills, the last, before the coastal plain.

Still moving in, over 3 days almost 50 boxes unpacked.  5 boxes refilled, heavily, and another Goodwill trip taken.

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How did I ever live without a front porch?  Boxes went to the dump each night.  Fear, not tidiness.  Did not want boxes sitting, and possibly finding a timber rattler in one.  

From the boxes, below.  Over 90% of china/ironstone unpacked.  Dining room has 2 built-in closets, this one, below, was for glass jars of fruit/vegetables.  At least that's what markings on the wood shelves report.

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The door, blessedly was not painted inside.  Made of pine, it has been faux painted, over a century ago, like an expensive wood.  Rest of the doors in the house were painted white.  Will never know if they had all been faux too.

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Shelves, below, go to 11' ceiling/wrap each side, and filled to overflow.

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This is solely colored china/ironstone.  Agreed, Houston we've got a problem.

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On the other side of the fireplace, below, blue/white china cabinet.

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White ironstone still in boxes.  Painting to be done before unpacking those.  Hardly near the top of our action list.

We've done nothing, below, to the garden, other than take what I brought from my last garden, a cottage garden, to Goodwill, or place on 8 pallets under a century old water oak.
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Driveway, below, a compacted meadow, and narrow.  Perfect for us, not our trucks.  Drama ahead.
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Soon, all foundation plantings, below, will be removed with the Caterpillar.  Excepting the camellias, at the end of the front porch, and 2 oleander at my office windows.
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Beloved & I wanted to get it done today, but finishing the pantry renovation beckons more loudly.

 A month living here, I braved my first nail.  House is ample, closet space not.  Basket on wheels is one of my longest & best employees when I lecture.  Files, shredder, printer etc in this closet too.

Mentioned above, drama, below.

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County permit department came, and we were approved to add another driveway.

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No trees will be cut.

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In a perfect world this would not be the new drive entry, it affects axis views, cross axis views, & enfilades of placing the new orchard, rose arbor, potager, smoke house.  For starters.

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What I know, for sure, after 3 decades of studying historic gardens, and designing them, issues in reality always make a garden better.

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Form & function.

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Beloved needs his driveway, and a barn at its end.

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Our new drive will curve, below, it has to, you read the list, above, for this new garden room.

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How long before our new curving drive looks like this, below ?

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More than a bit impatient.

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Life is good.

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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

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Top pics mine, bottom pic, Pinterest. 

Best Garden Design Rule for 'Eyesores'

Yesterday's surprise, below.

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We didn't know the wedding tent would have 2 sides filled with equipment.  Southern summer wedding, air conditioning happily wanted.  

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3 hay bales had been sourced for power box/satellite dish.  Those 'eyesores' no longer mattered, once a/c was set up.

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Game changer.

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Early in the day my contractor said there was no reason for me to stop by the jobsite, he could site the hay.  You know I was coming to the site.  Once there, I knew he wasn't about to let me leave, or site the hay himself.  Adore this type of horticultural humor.  180, not needing me to needing me, oh so rich.

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What you must know about eyesores in a landscape and focal points.  Easy garden design rule.  Basic.  One of the first I learned in college.

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If you have an eyesore, place a focal point nearby to draw the eye.

Every wedding guest will look at this view, above/below, walking from ceremony at the lake, to the barn.

Great serendipity, the hay bales are round, greater contrast with straight lines of tent/barn.

 More than hiding eyesore of a/c, I had the good fortune of pretending the hay bales had been left in the field, as they are across several counties at present.  Timing was good.

Seen from the barn, above, another axis for the hay bales to look 'natural'.

Contractor, above, leaving field after siting last hay bale, happily thinking, If mother of the bride is unhappy with hay placement, Tara gets-the-talkin'-to.  Better, he only had to site each bale once.
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Take away? If you have an eyesore in the garden, put a focal point nearby to draw the eye.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pics taken at jobsite yesterday.  Could not get out of the field fast enough, and it wasn't because of heat/humidity.  With each step, looking down, making sure no fire ants or timber rattler !

Nancy Lancaster: Finding a Library to Copy

Garden Design has several first-rules-of-design, one of my favorites, COPY.  Don't take this rule, as I did for too many years, as a crutch or not unique.  Each site is unique, and, how YOU copy is unique.  End of theorem?  Copying is unique.
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Moving house after 3 decades I've discovered how much my library is woven through most layers of my life.  New home has no library.  With manly help, I helped tote my boxed library to a shed behind the house.  A terrible activity.  Using Garden Design principles, the hunt has been on for types of library shelves to copy in our ca. 1900 American Farmhouse architecture home.
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Nancy Lancaster,  below, is my choice.  A touch rustique, exactly how I Garden Design.



Until painting my house, about 5 years ago, my library looked like this, below.  Chaos was organized because it evolved over decades.  Once painters put things as they wished, I never again found a book easily.



When a library lover says all their books are boxed, you know what it means.  A few books, for life to continue breathing at bare necessity, are in my office, below.
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Table & lamp, below, in my new office, had been in my Conservatory.

Book shelves, below, were bought for my previous office.  They had been organized.

Chaos reigns.  Little did I know, packing the books from my prior office, they would become my sole library.  Probably for a year.
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New library will be in the central hall, totally Nancy Lancaster, with sconces added.
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Cannot wait to get the Gardening section back in order.  Until then, my feathers are not quite smooth.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Top pic, here, 2nd pic, here.  Bottom pics, my office this morning.

Garden: Foot Swing

This is the swing, below, I thought was hanging from our old pecan tree.



The wood seat on our swing, below, rotted long ago.

Wise teachers arrived yesterday, below.

 Their inner narrative was one of use, above/below.

My narrative, wildly wrong.

This is a foot swing.  Never had a 'seat'.  Paying attention to the knot, and height, it never had the intention of being a sitting swing.

This morning, above, Laskett's tail truly is this magnificent.  

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We think the pecan tree, above, in the sunbeam, is as old as the house, 115 years.  Maybe older.  

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Friends came to lunch yesterday.  Rather, friends brought a feast for lunch.  Homemade, the bounty arrived in baskets, including fresh tea, my 1st watermelon of the season, breads, cheeses, chicken, pimiento cheese, more/more/more, cotton table cloth & linen napkins.  How did they know, even my linen napkins are safely hid in a box amongst stacks of boxes?

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Our kitchen not functioning until painting and renovations completed in the pantry.

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Their arrival a great deadline to get many things done.  Their first time seeing our farmhouse, its land, and walking the grounds where the orchard will be, the new conservatory, where the gravel drives will curve, property pins, views, and dreams.

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And the girls on the swing.  Many clients, thru the years, with children even younger, I've drawn their children's gardens once they graduated college, married, bought their 1st home. 

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Seeing these girls on the swing, I'm excited for the right time, and drawing their 1st gardens.  Knowing, when I do, it will feel like 15 minutes ago they were teaching me about my own foot swing.

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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

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Top pic, Ben Pentreath.  Bottom pics mine.

What Makes a Good Guest Room ?

Quirkiest delight of my career has been lecturing out-of-state for Garden venues.  Mostly, they have little money to spend, and I'm given the choice of a hotel or some one's home.
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Is there a better way to know a place than staying in a private home, and help a non-profit save money?
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On this path I've learned what I want/need in a guest room, host, and activities offered.
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The room?  Plenty of cleared surfaces, a chair, lamp by the bed, books/magazines, something to set my glass of water on at nite, easy access to electrical outlet.
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Because it's work, I need quality time alone to run thru my powerpoint & handout, one last time, ahead of a presentation that may be some one's one-and-only Garden presentation, or even more difficult, some one's 42nd and I must delight/educate their inner spirit to see their own garden new again.
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Inherent to the visit there is a walk with my host, thru their garden.  Adore seeing plants in new soils & zones.  Garden groups help the host, and there is a tour of several other local gardens, usually 1/2 day with lunch at a delightful cafe. Pride in their location, I feel as if my garden ladies are chamber of commerce emissaries.
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Then, dinner.  Now we get the husbands, and open bar.  Dinner is most often at someone's home.  Cocktails before dinner never disappoint, ever.  If it's Make Way For Lucia, hightum-tightum-scrub, E.F. Benson, we are all tightum, by today's standards.
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And the husbands, why-did-I-let-her-drag-me-here-'tude, does a 180 after the first round.
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Beyond this point, I will leave laughter, conversations, stories, to your imagination, but I know it's not close to these evenings.  Something about strangers, kindred spirits, I'll be gone by morning, souls splayed, safety in sharing, they can't tell on you, because you could tell on them.  Basic kindergarten rules.

Still unpacking boxes for my new office, a dozen had engulfed the guest room, above, now the guest room is functional, though far from complete.  Office should be completed this afternoon.
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Hope I've hit every layer for my guest room.  Cannot wait to get the walls painted a creamy white, keeping the existing white trim.  Windows on 2 walls, am anticipating some power naps here too.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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Why would I stop lecturing for Garden venues?  They are my original base, truly have little money, and I learn so much seeing the private gardens.  Fun does have a price, it is Joseph Campbell's, 'Follow your bliss.'  
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It has been a privilege fiercely learning about Gardens traveling the globe for 2+ decades.  Gaining a heart's desire carries obligation.  Lecturing outside Garden venues, bringing Gardens to the People.  Corporate venues, women's wellness, trade shows, etc.  Places not normally associated with a garden, yet there is a hunger, a need to be filled, only a Garden answers.
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Secondary venues, not garden venues, pay well, I added a clause in my speaker's bureau contract 'allowing' me to continue with the Garden venue lectures.  They are content with the arrangement.  Happy this is true, but sad it is a truth about garden venues.
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Why are they so lacking in funds?  Partially, attitudes about Nature Wendell Berry writes much of.  Attitudes killing towns, supporting atrocious behavior toward livestock, annihilating soil, ourselves.  Further, our government is passing laws making elements of Nature commodities we no longer own upon our own property.  Each of these nuggets gleaned because I like to Garden !  Liking to Garden is political?        

Design: Use What You Have

In our office/guest cottage, Yellow Belle, below.  She had cast offs from my home/garden and Beloved's.
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Ca. 1945, on an acre, she is an elegant simple home, the type to leverage a life better.  Wise architecture seeps into a soul.
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In the front parlor, below, capturing light, yet total privacy.  Sourced the shutters, perched not attached, at a favorite junking haunt.  A light blue, and dirty from being stored in a garage for decades, I always meant to clean/paint, never did.  But you knew that.



In our new home, ca. 1900 American Farmhouse, below, for less than a week, boxes/chaos reign.  Had to create a pocket of calm, somewhere.  Guest bath, below.  Grab & place design.  The bathroom retains its Skyland Camp for Girls-shower-ca. 1944, and window looking onto the second kitchen. (Wicked humor having 2 kitchens, I can't operate one.)

Good to see my old friends, supporting our new lives.

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Cannot believe I'm still needing the shutters, and they're still dirty years later.  I should clear coat them, say they are faux and call it a day.

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Soon the window, above, will become a door, creating a Jack/Jill bathroom.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Keeping the 2nd kitchen at the back of the house, turning another window into a door, creating a garden entry with our filthy clothes/boots.  The 'kitchen' will have the laundry, household supplies, and flower arranging island.  A dream to strip by the laundry and walk into the shower.  For the price of 2 windows into doors.  

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2nd kitchen?  Added decades ago for a grown son/his wife to live in the house & caretake his mother.

Creating Flow: Garden Design Equation

With an engineering degree, and horticulture, you know I've invented a Garden Design Equation, moons ago.  Yes, good gardens are math.
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Will do a long post about the Garden Design Equation, but not today.  Promise, you will love the Garden Design Equation, and totally 'get' it.  Have taught it in my college classes and seminars losing no one yet.
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Living in our new American Farmhouse Architecture home, ca. 1900, for a total of 3 nites, the Garden Design Equation beckons.
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Blessedly no gardening has been done here for decades, Poverty is a Great Preserver, indeed.  Why is this good?  Not a lot to 'undo'.
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Focal point on axis, below.  Vanishing Threshold.



Focal points must be sited as focal points from more than a single direction.  This type of focal point, urn above, is one of the best.  Do you know why?  Needs no planting.  Low maintenance.  Let your garden leverage your life.  Your garden works for you, not the reverse.
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From the outside, below, first impression, your garden must tell me who you are, this garden does.
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But my narrative, above, has skipped some of the 1st elements of the Garden Design Formula.
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Focal point siting is often 'obvious' but must wait until 'flow' around the property is managed.  Flow for cars, and walking, maintenance, and larger spaces, a gator/golf cart.
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Do you see what else is obvious when creating flow?  Turf is included in 'flow' equal to a gravel path-drive-terrace.
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This garden, below, is designed for low maintenance too.  Did you already spot that?  The tractor can easily do its job, and the evergreens need once/year attention, no irrigation needed, no chemicals, no fertilizers.
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Had to laugh when I saw this pic, it's exactly where my Garden Design Equation is percolating at our new home.  Flow.
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Drive & Parking Court, below.
 


Had already told Beloved I will design a gravel drive, gravel parking court, gravel paths, with boxwoods and Tara Turf.
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The Garden Design Equation formula at work.  Historic too.  In the greatest of ironies, I studied historic gardens across Europe for 2+ decades learning how to design a garden with 'plants'.   What was truly learned is flow, repetition, rooms, axis, max pollinator habitat......etc.




Oddly, too, I've had this idea, below, in mind for the area with my above ground propane tank.  Cannot wait for the before/after shots of my propane tank.  Who knew such delights could be had?  Adore taking the worst a garden offers and turning it into use and beauty.



Big effect, below, little input.  Been done thousands of times across the centuries, and will be done again at our new home.  Copy.  NEVER worry about copying.  Each site is unique, making each iteration new/fresh.  Again, the Garden Design Equation, and why it works.  Your garden is unique, and the brain cells you apply enhance every effect.



Gratuitous, below, if you know anything about Historic Garden Design.
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And, of course, I will copy it too.  Daffodils
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Notice something else about all these pics?  Deer proof.



Luckily my new bathroom needs a 'tweak'.  And, there is a window overlooking the new orchard/rose arbor.  This is exactly how my tub will site, at its window.





Single story, our American Farmhouse, is quite long.  3 days here, I know for sure, both front/back doors will have their own set of work shoes/shovels/pruners/wheelbarrow/hats.
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A garden must leverage your time.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics via Cote De Texas, from Elle Decor.