When A Window Becomes A Door

The engraved invitation to Tea arrived last winter.  Didn't know her but you know I wasn't going to miss fresh tea & homemade cookies & sandwiches.  What's not to love about a crowd of ladies?

 I sat in her kitchen, above, and said the baywindow should become a French door and the deck should be extended to include it.  Of course I proceeded to point out why her existing backdoor did not work functionally or aesthetically.

.
You would have thought White Lightening was in my tea.  Horrified in hindsight, at my conversation, at the time it was normal Tara Talk.
.
Did I mention the bit about property value?  Flow?  Feng shui?  Removing her valences?  It would really open up the view.  You are wasting your lake view.
.
Upon leaving I said her frontdoor needed replacing; why & what should replace it and the color needed changing.
.
Cannot believe I'm telling you all of this.  Indeed it's a true story.
.
The new frontdoor has arrived, it's on its side in her garage.  Awaiting installation.  And we're changing the direction the door opens into the foyer along with the color.
.
She loves to cook & always sends me home with homemade delights.
.
Garden & Be Well,                XO Tara
.
Same garden as yesterday's post.  Can't wait to show you the perennial garden she created.  But, of course, the new deck must have steps leading from its side into her fabulous perennial garden room.

Faux Bois Bench: Well Sited

A lovely incident along the gravel path, below.
(Notice stone edged gravel, decrepit terra cotta, leaf litter mulch? Melts my heart.)
Same bench, same path, from opposite direction.

.

Thus, a good garden. It could be 2 different paths, 2 different benches or 2 different gardens.

.

How to create Double Axis. A class by itself.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pics taken last week in Susanne Hudson's garden.

How To Hide A Fence

Asked to hide a fence at the back of their garden in a tiny, dingy corner,

.

the MUSE said, "Put in an 'L' shaped Conservatory, gravel terrace, chandelier from the oak tree, a dining table underneath & build it from rescued parts."
It wasn't an option, below, to see the ugly fence from all these windows.
Recently completed, below, on a garden tour for Hay House, in Macon, GA. (These are smart people, create a BIG deadline!)
Artist in residence for the garden tour R. Scott Coleman, here, watercolors.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Since I designed this garden missives have been sent showing the progress. Many building parts are ca. 1870. Did you see the fence? Love my MUSE. Puppet Barbuda cringes thinking how Mr. Testosterone-On-Wheels-Mow-Blow-Go would have designed this dark little corner.

.

Pics from The Daily Landscape.

How To Place Beautiful Things

My beautiful pot on plinth, below, placed on axis with the middle window pane of my bay window at the drawing room. Thus sited, it's part of my drawing room. Not separate.How to place, below, a beautiful summer house?
On axis with a main pair of windows from the home, of course !

.

Oops. No pic of the view seen while in the summerhouse above. Ha, must get back to the Cotswolds for it.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Top pic in my sweet garden, in the Bay Terrace, aka front yard. I took the bottom pic in the Cotswolds at Sir Hardy Amies garden.

The Walls Of Your Rooms

Landscapes ARE architecture. Begin creating architecture in the landscape with ceilings, yesterday's post, then walls. (My Tea Olive Terrace, below, along the side of my home.)Landscape walls can be the side of your home, above, or all plantings, below. (Wall, below, is mine & hides the neighborhood from my tender sensibilities. What me not living in the Cotswolds?)
Espaliered woody shrubs & vines dramatize the walls of a home, fence, dependency & etc., below. (My Bay Terrace, below.)
Using wit, below, Susanne Hudson swags a window. Pow, Shazam, baby.
With more wit, intellect, & drama she created a garden room, raised on a dais (aka deck, but dais is ever so much nicer, yes?),
with old church windows.
Landscape Design: create walls.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Slow down, peruse again, Landscape Design IS this easy. Look at the 2nd pic again. Notice how much sky I own because of my walls? You would CRINGE knowing how many houses along the ubiquitous subdivision cul-de-sac lane (aka street) my garden obliterates in that 2nd pic. Who knew? Gardens are offense & defense. A moat of grace around home & life.

Landscape Design Perfection: Sir Hardy Amies

I took this pic in the Cotswolds in Sir Hardy Amies garden.A complete landscape design course, in one picture.

.

Looks easy, can you do it?

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Money is not a criteria. Rescued plants, rescued hardscape & etc..... Yes, you can do this.

Vanishing Threshold: Lunch & Learn

Vanishing Threshold is an original concept, an epiphany while studying historic landscapes in Italy. Landscapes begin inside your home. Place focal points on axis with key views. It's that simple.

.

An inner voice impels me to take Vanishing Threshold out of the garden realm. Are you an Interior Decorator? Landscape Designer? Come hear me speak about creating beautiful landscapes in Vanishing Threshold with your home.

.

AmericasMart, Lunch & Learn: Looking for inspiration and education between Markets? Join Tara Dillard for a demonstration on successfully incorporating outdoor living spaces into your designs - March 24, noon-1pm, at AmericasMart. RSVP to 404-220-2055 or nlyle@americasmart.com.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pot on plinth, above, on axis from my living room. Centered on window. Interior decorators, are you looking out the windows of your clients home? Interiors are not finished unless the window views are part of a home's interior. My landscape designs are not complete unless views into windows are fabulous.

.

Designer? What is original to you? What is your horse/pony show? Willing to get out of your comfort zone & let the world know?

Contrasts

Wildwood, mother nature's contrast of shapes, with a transition zone of pruned hedges, and another transition zone of tightly clipped lawn leading to a hardscaped yet watery focal point.

.

Add the man made contrasts of circles, ovals, rectangles, squares & spires.

.

Toss in multiple axis, changes of elevation, and canopy-understory-walls-floor.

.

Even a non-gardener knows, intuitively, the plant selections are CHOICE. Serenity of greens, low maintenance, no irrigation & perfect pollinator habitat.

.

Yes, this pic by Slim Aaron ca. 1960, is an exciting garden. Gardens are all CONTRASTS.

I doubt they thought about the garden at all. Their clothes, the gossip, & dry martinis, yes.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Change Of Color: Last Month & This Month

7 am last Tuesday, below, crape myrtles coloring; spreading to the walls of my office & casting their russet glow on my skin. Same view from my office last month, below.

Last Tuesday again, below.

And the same chair from above, 2 months ago, below.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Poppets wish I had more time to shoot my garden, but there is this little thing called a Day Job. Thankfully it is creating more of these views. Ha, many of my clients say I Tara'ize them. They're right.

Axis, Bench, Focal Point In Your Landscape

A note yesterday, "Should I buy a pair of these.....?" "Yes", in reply.$200 each. Don't know the name of the shop. Designed her Birmingham, AL landscape a year ago & know there is a perfect place.

.

Where? TBD !!!!

.

Why is To-Be-Determined so extraordinarily exciting, always, in a landscape? When, many parts of life To-Be-Determined contains a wariness, an acceptance, a sense of 'this too, shall pass'. (Trees are noble shedding their leaves. Enriched by what they shed. A metaphor to hang on to. Oh, no, I have to relearn it over-over.....)

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pic via Birmingham........ I'm partial to benches as focal points. You may never have time to sit on your bench but looking at a bench from inside your home gives the illusion of repose.

One Room Deep

You must see this parlor, one room deep. Below, a view from the frontyard. The warmth of draperies, and lamps glowing. (Poppets, from your frontyard, looking into your home, ask, "Are the views into my home so fabulously interesting intellectual-well-read-successful-talented-mentoring-civic minded-active-athletic-art-loving-appreciators-of-good-cooking-charity-giving-people curious? Face it we are voyeur's. And, don't you adore Tara Questions?)

Inside, below, the window from above.
Alas, the weather was nice, we never sat here, below, we used the patio for wine-canapes-conversation-dinner-breakfast-lunch.
Same room, below, views the back garden too.
I adore rooms scaled for comfort, beauty, conversation, reading, napping,
and viewing the garden.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Hope you enjoyed my client's home in Macon, GA. None of the pics were styled, they didn't know I would be taking pics. Remember, pics were taken quickly, early morning while still in my gown/robe. He was starting the coffee when I began & it finished brewing as my pics were done. Then, the 3 of us sat on the patio, with our coffee, and began talking gardening. Then, she served breakfast at the patio table. Loved the breakfast quiche and the little sourdough rolls with homemade fig preserves and peak of season fresh fruit salad & etc...

Landscape Design Solutions

Scored concrete & a roundabout of pavers in the parking court, below, diminish its 'nature'. Softens the impact.From their fabulous patio, below, a view into the garden via an enfilade with the parking court. Every landscape has its thorns. Mostly 2 cars, more with family/friends.
Another view from the fabulous patio, below.
The foyer between parking court & patio, above. I removed the turf & put in rosemary behind the bench, 1 Michelia figo behind that & etc. Both evergreen & fragrant. Views from the patio with the plantings will obscure views of the parking court & block neighbor's views into the gate of garden/patio/home. (Double Axis with little input AND no mowing, weedeating, yet adding privacy, fragrance, increased property value, & better curb appeal.)
More of the same foyer, above. Copied rosemary behind the bench, Abelia 'Rose Creek' behind that & etc. Mystery created! From the patio you'll see hints of the fabulous garden. From the garden you'll see hints of the fabulous patio. Of course, the parking court is diminished.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Turf, pic above, removed also. Used pairs of boxwood at the sidewalks leading from parking court into the parterre. Used repetition with the Abelia and existing Pittosporum. (Pittosporum, viewed from the parterre, will block views of the front of the cars.) Repetition, is a potent Landscape Design tool.

.

Same Macon, GA garden as the past few posts.

Why Was I Hired?

A beautiful garden, below. Why was I hired? Above, is EXACTLY why I was hired. Mystery & Surprise & Anticipation are missing.
From the garden, above, looking into the patio, it's the same story. Mystery & Surprise & Anticipation are missing.

.

Do you know how to create Mystery & Surprise & Anticipation here?

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

They thought they hired me for a backhand corner of their landscape. Ha, that was easy. I put in a conservatory, gravel & a table under the pecan tree with a pair of chandeliers hanging from a large branch. Materials are already being sourced from a ca. 1830 home recently condemned. And I didn't mention a huge THORN in the pictures above. For today, I'll let you be the Garden Designer. My Garden Design solution tomorrow.

A Garden View

Upstairs, below, at the landing, an axis view to the garden cottage. Originally a 1-car garage plus tiny apartment. Did you notice, above, the charming angle of the rail at the landing?
Standing on the steps, above, and below, a closer look at the garden & garden cottage. Iron railing is original to the ca. 1920 home.
From the garden cottage, below, a view
into the upstairs window at the landing.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Woke up about 7:30am and got these pics; wearing gown & robe. No time to dress, couldn't afford to lose the perfect lite. A woman must have priorities. Yes, same home as yesterday's post.

Double Axis: House & Landscape

On the patio, below, looking into the backyard.
On the patio, without moving my feet, below, looking into the house. A room overlooking: frontyard, sideyard, backyard. 3 walls of windows & a fireplace wall with 2 doors. I doubt there is a smaller, more delicious room.
Incredibly exciting Double Axis. Do you have a Double Axis point like this? Get one. Then, get more!

.

Tara Questions to answer about Double Axis at your home & garden. 2 pictures taken from 1 spot. Does this picture make me want to see the garden? Does this picture make me want to see inside the home?

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

More pics from my jobsite in Macon, Ga last weekend.

Working With The Earth

An allee of trees with triple axis, below, do you see? The Wild Wood remains, but with several paths entering. (Alert Poppets: This is perfect pollinator habitat with low density-high density & canopy-understory-groundcover, plus multiple seasons of bloom/berry/seed.)But first, below, an oval of turf. What's left, red clay, will become meadow (clover, fescue, bulbs, English daisy, ageratum, rudbeckia fulgida x fulgida, what the wind blows in & etc.)
Broad dry stone steps, below, taming the slope. Meadow, mown at 3 heights
will carpet these steps.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Will keep you posted on this garden, it's phasing in over the next year. I adore each process of creating a beautiful landscape. Wish you could smell what it's like. Churning up the soil, laying sod, placing stone & etc. Love how the earth releases it's myriad aromas during this phase, exotic-musky-ancient-clean, accepts what we do then calms itself. Leaving only memories of its exciting scent.

Desert Dweller

At the edge of the Chihuahuan Desert are axis views of landscapes & gardens. Vanishing Threshold, seen-lived-designed-photographed by landscape architect, David Cristiani. Above & below, same line, 2 views, Double Axis.

Creating Double Axis, AND, the still life, below. David expands the world in each detail.

Walls, arbor, vine, sidewalks, neighbors, plant combinations, pots, colors, below, made me laugh in joy. Why? How often do you see SO much look so simple?

We know it's beyond simple. It's MAGIC.

From his laptop, above, another axis & more than magic. Grace.

A bedroom view, treated as a painting on the wall.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

All pics taken by David Cristiani.

David, I really do laugh out loud, & learn, seeing your landscapes & gardens. You are ANAL about Vanishing Threshold, Axis, Double Axis. Providence smiles in simplicity & grace within your work. Thank you for sharing your talents.

Shotgun Lot

Only a few feet from this window, below, are the neighbors, below.

From a front room view, below, see the brick chimney? It's where this antebellum home was 1st located. As family fortune increased they built a new antebellum home on the same site, moving this home to its current location.

In the same room, as above, another view, below, on a different wall.

With a smile & sparkle she proclaimed her home the "first mobile home in Athens, GA."

.

Yes, poppets, this is the same home as in the previous post.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pics taken last month in Athens, GA. Stay tuned for more interior shots. Beautiful views from shotgun lots are among the hardest achieved.