Showing posts with label Chickens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chickens. Show all posts

Monday, October 20, 2014

Sideways Learners Will Understand

If you are a sideways learner you will understand.
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I have college degrees, international studies for decades, landscape seminars attended for more decades, a garden that followed the complete template disaster-passable-magazines-tv.  Client gardens with the same trajectory.
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All of the above merely taught me amusements in/from a landscape/garden.

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Not considering learning anything, in the least, about landscaping/gardening, I got some chickens.
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Chickens were my front door to truly learning about gardening/landscaping.  Who knew?
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What was the big take away?
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Stewardship.
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Literal & metaphor.
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Decades of striving, and the hens taught by merely being themselves.
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Humbling.
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With great pride, I want you to see where I keep my egg basket, above.  At the back door.
Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

Thursday, July 17, 2014

New Science: Farms Help Prevent Allergies from Birth

Science Daily amalgamates headlines.  
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Recently....children raised on dairy farms have fewer allergies, even in the womb, than other children. 
 "A study by researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, monitored children until the age of three to examine maturation of the immune system in relation to allergic disease. All of the children lived in rural areas of the Västra Götaland Region, half of them on farms that produced milk."
Lower risk of allergy
The study found that children on dairy farms ran a much lower risk of developing allergies than the other children.
"Our study also demonstrated for the first time that delayed maturation of the immune system, specifically B-cells, is a risk factor for development of allergies," says Anna-Carin Lundell, one of the researchers.
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And.
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Children raised on farms with livestock are healthier, "It is extremely exciting that we can now see that not only allergic diseases, but also more classic inflammatory diseases appear to depend on the environment we are exposed to early in our lives," relates Vivi Schlünssen, Associate Professor in Public Health at Aarhus University.
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NYT article, so long ago I cut/pasted it into a file with real tape/paper, reported a study indicating plants emit wavelengths we absorb thru our skin and can increase white blood cell counts in those with cancer.  No ridiculous Nature blah-blah- is so pretty it makes me happy and healthy stuff.  Science, proving plants affect our health.




 LISTEN

Solitude

Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air
              In his own ground.

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire;
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
              In winter, fire.

Blest, who can unconcernedly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away
In health of body, peace of mind;
              Quiet by day.

Sound sleep by night; study and ease
Together mixed, sweet recreation,
And innocence, which most does please
              With meditation.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die,
Steal from the world, and not a stone
              Tell where I lie.
"Solitude" by Alexander Pope. Public Domain. (buy now)
The Poetry Foundation
National broadcasts of The Writer's Almanac are supported by The Poetry Foundation

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Native American Indian quote from a Joseph Campbell interview with Bill Moyers said the White man, once he strings his telephone lines across the lands will cease to live and merely survive.
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Headlines, with true science, backing up my ancestor, I have two great-great grandmothers who were 100% Cherokee.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken in Jamaica.  
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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.
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Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon
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Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.
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Construction by Award Winning
Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Trinity: Stewardship, Wendell Berry, Chickens

The chickens will bring eggs, I thought.  

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Instead, they've given stewardship.
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8 heirloom chics, 4 breeds.  Some cats others livestock in personality.
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Nothing from the kitchen is wasted, every restaurant meal ends with asking for a left-over container.  Girls go wild for pizza.
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Almost 3 decades in my garden, What would it be now with their poop the entire time?
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More, What would I be like?  Yes, the girls have taught that much.
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Ironically, seeing several clients over a spread of years showed how easy chics are to caretake.
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Sadly, the Stewardship was invisible.
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America was founded upon this Stewardship.  Culture bypassed its tenants.
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  A particular client educates me with every third sentence and every hour starts a sentence, Wendell Berry says.  How can I not pass Wendell Berry along to you?
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Founding Gardeners, is the resource for Stewardship.
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I found what I wasn't looking for, one of life's deepest veins of gold.  From chickens?
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.
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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Monday, December 9, 2013

Garden Gates are Meant to be Read

  Do you know why the gate, below, has its styling?
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 Think chickens.  
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This gate was designed to keep chickens from wandering away.
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Several times I've been hired to open a hedge at the front of a woman's garden.  In each instance a couple of plants were removed, a gate installed, a path added, creating a new entry to the front of the home.  Flow, open, welcome, beauty where there had been a hedge saying, 'Keep Away'.
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Welcome vs. Keep Away
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Most often, when I'm hired, the metaphors in the client's life/garden are dripping significance.  I'll say the obvious and get back, How did you know?
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You know exactly how I know.  Easy to see another's life metaphors.  It's our own dancing behind clouds.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.
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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.
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Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Choose a Theme then Overdose

 Choose a theme, Overdose on your Theme.
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Orchard House, (aka my starter home in a working class neighborhood of cluster homes ca. 1986, today.)


Feng shui has it right about gardens, better than any garden class, 'you must be able to flow easily around your property.'  Like Mrs. Wilcox I adore walking round my garden.  E. M. Forster knew women.  Coop, below,  is mostly rescued materials.  Why not boxwood, roses, itea, hydrangea, camellia, daphne?  The coop is worthy.


View across the drive, below, with front loading garage.  Some jurisdictions have outlawed my type of home.  Too unfriendly.  Garagecentric.  No worries, it is my starter home, here 5 years & off to something more worthy of my magnificence.


It's obvious I had to do more growing than the garden.


I'm particularly pleased with this bit at the side of my garage, above.  Though the white roses lost their graft and only the root stock is left.  Reminds me of an old vicarage wall .
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Did you see the neighbor's houses?  Why would you?  You've entered my world.  An old cottage......  and become lost in my theme.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken in my garden last week.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Chinoiserie Coop, Repurposed Materials


They wanted chickens, I suggested their small unused covered patio.


Old windows, door & lumber were reclaimed from a century old cabin at Lake Burton, GA.


Chicken wire, hinges, a few 2 x 4's were the only new materials.


Once the new wood is cured the entire Chinoiserie chicken coop will be stained BM-Alexandria Beige.
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Their garden is tiny Alexandria beige will make the coop recede.


Th girls fighting for grapes is greater drama than any football match.


Nesting boxes were repurposed from the same cabin.
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These 8 heirloom girls hatched 1st week of April & produce about 7 eggs/day. 
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Amazing how many clients have chickens.  Adore watching them walk, hear their noises, see cliches come true.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Bidding a job last month My Guy suggested they repurpose the child's swing-set fort as a chicken coop.  Love it when my team shines past me with creativity.  
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Girls are safe in their coop & run from hawks, dogs, cats.