Showing posts with label Copy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Copy. Show all posts

Friday, January 16, 2015

Brave Enough to be this Simple?

Glen Ella, below, New Year's Eve.
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Still in use, their barn, more than a century later, its current garden design pulls deep admiration.
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Simplicity.
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Mostly, these barns are rotting/caving-in/gone across USA.
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Go off the grid?  These barns are original off the grid support.



Field gathered stones, below, still functioning.


Perhaps my favorite view of the barn, below.  Simplicity of garden design, and views into the guts of its architecture.  What is the narrative?  Was it added on to?  More than once?


Barn still in use, above, totally garden designed.  Yet, to most, it will seem derelict, dangerous, and they will think, "Why don't they do something, or tear it down?"  Without realizing the brain power creating this current narrative with form/function.  More than brain power, a relationship with Providence.
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Would you be this bold, above, as a garden designer?
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Simplicity is a hard/impossible task.
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Simplicity requires the ego to mask itself.
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No worries about that, once you realize your ego can shine via the simplicity.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Arrived with friends, for dinner, at Glen Ella near dusk, the later seating was booked.  Cold, little light, and everyone walked toward the entry, and warmth.  Not me.  I forgot they existed.  My behavior, whence a good garden appears, targeted on the hunt.  The garden, camera, me, a trinity & zone flying beyond time, social acceptance, whatever.  Poor unfortunate souls needing drugs to arrive in this zone.  
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Have met 1 other soul with this trinity to Nirvana, in Italy, a Delta pilot.  He/I were constantly in each other's way and beyond irritated, beyond the moon irritated.  A few days of this hell we knew some sort of 'arrangement' had to be discovered, some sort of 'friendship'.  Finally, we spoke.  Of course he had to let me know he was a Captain, and a bit about his lovely large home etc.  Woo-woo, let him know a friend's dad had been a Flying Tiger, and original pilot hire by Delta, and he lived around the corner from me growing up.  Told you we didn't like each other up front.  And by the way, someone had to train the astronauts how to fly their rockets, uh, that would be my dad in the simulator with them, former Air Force test pilot.  Isn't it rare the events bringing out our best 7 year old selves, in a snit?  Oh that archaic lizard brain.  You know exactly what happened next.   Talked our way to what is best for both of us, have been true friends since.   He's a wonderful pilot, and person, the best.  Adore his wife, she's a junker for antiques too.
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Grew up knowing the neighbor was a Flying Tiger.  Thought it was euphemism.  During college saw a movie with John Wayne, Flying Tigers.  Consistently, when I'm wrong, it's never a little.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Why Boring-is-Good is Your Best Design


"Build your own prison", he said at the start.
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She laughed.
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3 years later, pieces of the start have already been undone.
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She laughed then too, remembering his words.

Boring is Good
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I design gardens for a living, he of build-your-own-prison, installs gardens commercial/residential, for a living.
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We have 60+ years in our livelihoods.
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Take our words at the front end.
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If you don't, the epitaph is not propitious.
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Worse than money lost, you will have frittered time.
Money can be earned.
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No one can earn time.
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Build your own prison.  Boring is good.
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Keep it simple sweetie.
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Outside a client's hedge, below.
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It's packing a punch.


Inside the same corner of hedge, below.


Several cars park here, on view from every back window of the house.
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Boring is good, but includes intellect, wit, function, delight to the eye in every season, attractiveness to pollinators, easy to maintain, raises property value, lowers HVAC, & etc....
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Counterintuitively, wickedly boring gardens showcase your inner joy, laughter, intellect, and are more unique than any garden you could conjure with your lizard brain.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

This client now sees into the soul of person as they walk/talk with her in her garden.  What they see, or don't see, and spontaneously respond/react to informs reams about their heart.  

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Ralph Lauren Garden ca. 1988

Do you like this garden?
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For many years I could not abide these types of gardens.
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Clipped, formal, severe.
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Already laughing, because you know what is coming?
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I love adore honor & am humbled by this garden.
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Design them for clients.
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Evergreen, simple, easy to maintain, inexpensive, functional for games-parties-tents.
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Of course there is a garden room next to it with 'flowers', maybe a fruit tree orchard, or a 'shrubbery', perhaps a 'wild wood', a meadow with mown paths. 
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For many years I was clueless about the narrative of these gardens.
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Thought gardening was all about ME, what I liked, wanted, narrated.
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Garden Design, in USA, is too young, too righteous in proving, Tocqueville, without effort, correct.
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Slow down, did you smirk at the dry humor, above?
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It was ME, in the early years, "..too righteous in proving, Tocqueville, without effort, correct."
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What happened?
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Hungry to learn, I went back to college and got another degree, horticulture.  Knew at the conclusion, it was rotten.  Off to Europe to study historic gardens.
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A rule for Garden Design, pictures of your garden must not place its era or continent.
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 Don't think your garden has a narrative?  Wrong, every garden has a narrative.  Best to make sure it's a narrative enriching to your soul.
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That's enough to keep anyone happily occupied for life.
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Photo, above, 1988 Ralph Lauren.
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Saw the pic on Pinterest this week.  Had to know more about it.  Once I saw, Ralph Lauren ca 1988, I smelled the garden. 


Freshmen year of college, ca 1977, this was the fragrance.  Dorm rooms, dorm halls, dorm lobbies, dorm elevators, dorm cafeterias, freshman mixers, classrooms, campus sidewalks, ALL, smelled of this.  Memory !
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Like the fragrance, it was just on too many girls.
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Perhaps, I should seek the fragrance, now.  Let it tell me more about myself.  Just as Ralph Lauren's garden, above, tells me, in great narrative, about a my life trajectory in  gardens.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

Monday, January 5, 2015

Best Place to Copy Front Porch Design?

Bed & Breakfasts speak to myriad layers of design.
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Their needs, specific.  They must be inviting, tidy, comfortable, safe, feed all your senses, and perform through all seasons.
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B&B's are on a budget of money & time.  
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Perfect, just like home.
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Glen Ella, below, has been welcoming guests for a century.  
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History, color, repetition, comfort, and welcome at Glen Ella's front porch, below.


One of the first rules of Garden Design, copy.
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Not your style, above?  Doesn't matter, the design rules apply.
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For 30+ years I've had the good fortune of having a family place nearby.  Better fortune, I've not been the one to buy the family place & pay upkeep !  Glen Ella is still beside a dirt road and its Smoky Mountain views not harmed by gentrification.  Throughout the years I've never had a bad meal here and know to make reservations.
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Now, whenever I go to Glen Ella a walk alone in the garden & meadows is deeply anticipated.  Enjoying the present, yet remembering other days/evenings/meals here with deeply loved friends, already gone.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Design: Defining Space with Paths


Garden paths are ahead of plantings in the garden design process.
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Lawns & Tara Turf are paths too.
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Paths are dictated by the house, function, patio, driveway, shade, trees, existing plantings, new features, etc.
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Shot yesterday, below, this new path follows a well trod dirt path my client created during 2+ decades in his home.
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Stepping stones, and edging stones were chosen to copy the type of stone put in by the builder originally.
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Gray cobblestone edging is more common, but not for this site.  I needed to flow with the history already created, aka keep it simple sweetie.
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This project should be completed by the end of the week.  Can't wait to do the walk thru with the owners.


Foot path location, below, used to create new formal stone path.  Many garden paths would be complete, with just stones in dirt, below.  This home is formal French architecture, the garden is not large, the entire garden is treated as a courtyard.


His original dirt path, below.


Stone edging piled, below, are called rubles.  By us !   I think they are correctly named stone rubble.
Brown/beige/white gravel was chosen, too, to copy the existing stone color on site.
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Owner enlarged the scope of the project once we began.  Always happens.  Always.  I think it's because owners 'see', once the paper design becomes 3-D.  Of course there is great humor in knowing a few days earlier only a certain amount of money was available.  Then, poof, voila, money landed from space to enlarge their garden project.


Paths are instant in a garden.  Compare top/bottom pics.  This project is incomplete but the changes are 180.
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Human nature, aka untrained garden design brain, thinks plants will create an instant landscape.  I think of this as job security.  
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Garden & Be Well,     XO T

For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon
.
Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.
.
Construction by Award Winning
Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.


NOTE to my gardening friends... look for changes to come. 
Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.'   Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.
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Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'.  Saved the article for a year before reading it.  Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.
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Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0.  A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life.  Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact.  Signed up  for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow
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Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method.  Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix.
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What do YOU want?
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Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.
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Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Just so you know... 

 I  welcome your input.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Historic Combination

Boxwoods in the ground, in little pots, in big pots, edging a bed, lining a path, sentinel at the gate, backbone of a classic color trinity, below.


Boxwoods in big pots, little pots, pot clusters, wrapping a patio, on multiple axis views from the house, backbone of a classic color trinity, below. 


Recently, a client was adamant an evergreen hedge at her potager be removed.  Elsewhere, terra cotta pots were empty, awaiting funding.  Of course I said, "Let's put the boxwood hedge in your empty pots."
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She loved it, has already done it, and told me I was, 'wonderful'.  Amusing, but I know where 'wonderful' truly resides, boxwoods in pots.
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When an idea has worked fabulously for centuries in other gardens, it will work in yours.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Top pic I shot in Susanne Hudson's garden earlier this year, bottom pic, Bunny Williams garden via Pinterest.  Client dug up the large boxwoods herself & potted them, Tawaaaaaaanda !  Never tire of seeing Susanne's boxwoods in pots, nor seeing her in a state- of- zen watering them.  
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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon
.
Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.
.
Construction by Award Winning
Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.
.
NOTE to my gardening friends... look for changes to come. 
Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.'   Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.
.
Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'.  Saved the article for a year before reading it.  Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.
.
Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0.  A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life.  Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact.  Signed up  for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow
.
Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method.  Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix.
.
What do YOU want?
.
Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.
.
Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Just so you know... 

 I  welcome your input.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Details of Design


Home for shelter, pastures for livestock, hedgerows/ornamentals for pollinators, walled gardens for fruit/vegetables, aesthetics for spirit.
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A living, given from the land.  


Touring a similar garden in France many years ago I had to ask the head gardener what he meant, "At times there were only subsistence gardeners here."
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Portions of history, so dire, laborers were paid in food.  Living the best they could in the woods.
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Approaching this type of garden, above, from a 'fat' country, and time, in the T.E. Lawrence sense of the word, I did not see its lessons.
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Walled gardens produce earlier & later than Nature allows, keeps wildlife/livestock out, and thieves.
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Box hedging outside the garden walls keeps chickens out.
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Pretty flowers?  Sure, planted to be pretty, yet this reason is from a 'fat' intellect.  Which was mine, until epiphany.  
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Those pretty flowers increase crop/fruit yields by 80%.  
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Suddenly, what had been merely, 'pretty', is seen as truth, 'survival'.
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And, imagine all the lovely compost, produced on site, returning into the land.
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Providence, creator of the 1st organic machine.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic via Pinterest.
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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon
.
Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.
.
Construction by Award Winning
Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.
.
NOTE to my gardening friends... look for changes to come. 
Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.'   Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.
.
Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'.  Saved the article for a year before reading it.  Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.
.
Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0.  A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life.  Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact.  Signed up  for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow
.
Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method.  Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix.
.
What do YOU want?
.
Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.
.
Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Just so you know... 

 I  welcome your input.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Chickens Designed the Classic Potager

Originally designed without the low hedges, below, merely four corners accented with boxwood & a gravel path.
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A small patch to grow cut flowers.
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What went wrong?
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Chickens.
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Centuries of gardens with low evergreen hedges, especially in the potager.
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Not a design conceit, a design function, to keep the chickens out.
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Decades spent thinking the little hedges were there to be 'cute'.
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No.  And there arrived another lesson in humility with Garden Design.

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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pic taken in client garden.  We learned this lesson together.
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Providence was well pleased with us to teach a lesson in humility so humbly.
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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon
.
Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.
.
NOTE to my gardening friends... look for changes to come. 
Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.'   Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.
.
Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'.  Saved the article for a year before reading it.  Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.
.
Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0.  A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life.  Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact.  Signed up  for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow
.
Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method.  Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix.
.
What do YOU want?
.
Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.
.
Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Just so you know... 

 I  welcome your input.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Chris Evert + Ralph Lauren: Copy the best in your Landscape

Before & during teen years, I copied everything Chris Evert.  This dress, below, hangs in my guest closet. today.  Amazingly, its metaphor, now, 180 to the winning reasons for saving it.  
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Copy.
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It's that simple.
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 Graduating college with engineering & horticulture I could not design a beautiful landscape to save my soul.  Off to Europe, 2+ decades, studying the best historic beautiful landscapes the world has experienced.  


 # 1 Beautiful Landscape design idea, COPY.  Copy the best landscapes.  You will not recreate the wheel.  Better, it's already created for you.  Trust this concept.
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Why did I forget copying Chris Evert?  Never a talented tennis player I retired a 2 time district 4-A singles champion amongst other titles won.  Seriously, I was not a gifted tennis player.


Habitually Chic posted Ralph Lauren's new coffee shop recently, and it had me laughing at all he COPIED so well.
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Fern in a terra cotta pot, above, is the same concept I add to client's homes.  Bring life to a room with something ALIVE.  Look at all the best interior decorators of the past century.  Plants brought inside, as if, just from the conservatory.  COPY.
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Don't just copy, Copy the Best.
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Green-Brown-White is the best and most used beautiful landscape design color trinity of the past few centuries.  Which green is for you?  Personally, I'm using Ralph's coffee shop green.

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Harvest table with a pair of urns?  This pic had me laughing AND dialing Susanne Hudson, the interior decorator on my team.  She taught me this idea decades ago, and have copied the concept since.
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Huge secret about copying the best ideas and talents.  
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When you copy the best, for yourself, it will be unique to YOU.
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Be brave, 'copy', is guaranteed to work for you.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Notice Chris Evert's lace panties & ribbon in her hair?  Totally what I did too.
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Ralph Lauren's pics by Habitually Chic.

For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon
.
Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.
.
Construction by Award Winning
Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.