Simple Manipulations: How Many Do You See?

Do you see the manipulations, below?

Seating to create a gathering spot, figs for summer shade/winter sun over the benches, drystack stone wall cut into a slight slope forcing foot traffic into defined directions, formal boxwood framing pastoral views, tapering stone wall allowing only small machinery into the pasture from this direction, gravel terrace ready for men-trucks-heavy equipment, horses, or a catered soiree for 100.
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And, of course, it must all look a century old, be easy to maintain, and provide interest 24/7.
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When something appears simple, it rarely is.  Same is true of people.
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Garden & Be Well,       XO Tara
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Pic at a jobsite last week.
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Do you know the maximum pollinator habitat, above?  Seriously, can you verbalize what creates the best pollinator habitat above?  Answer at bottom.
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Being simple requires each of the decades I've been learning about gardens.  Better, being simple in a garden, takes me where Joseph Campbell says our eternity is.  Ironic, in this American life/era, to have found my bliss in work.
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1. Joseph Campbell - Wikiquote

   en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell‎

   Where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own .... And the experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life.
2. More, being simple connects me to the message/life work of Wendell Berry & E.M. Forster.  

3. Wendell Berry Earns Highest Humanities Award, Lectures on ...

   sojo.net/.../wendell-berry-earns-highest-humanities-award-lectures-econo...‎

   Apr 24, 2012 - On Monday evening, Wendell Berry delivered the 41st annual ... The title hinges on E.M. Forster's 1910 novel Howards End, which Berry said, ...
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5.  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.
6. Answer to question, above,  High density/low density, open meadow/dense woodland.

Refreshing: Interior Plants Do Not Look Store Bought

Notice something extraordinarily different about the plants styling the dining room, below?

They look as if they came from the conservatory on site.
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Quite rare to see this attention to detail, though saucers should be included with the coleus & orchid for a complete narrative.  (I have clients on tours, in magazines, TV, so, yes, I'm paid to be this particular!)
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And that doesn't begin to mention the delicious focal point on axis with the vanishing threshold.
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Nice, indeed.  Well done.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pic Architectural Digest.  Cote de Texas had the pic on a post about wall paper recently.
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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.

Daffodils: Ordering, Siting, Planting

Abiding in the Rustic Barn until the coyote roundup is complete, Jefferson, below, was totally enthralled with our entry for the daffodil bulbs.  

Thousands of bulbs, below.

Once sited thousands seemed like two, maybe three.

A century old the home had no daffodils.  I'm siting them to look as if they have been there longer than a century.  Great billowy drifts.
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These daffodil bulbs, above, will drift thru the fence as if the fence came later.
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Humbling to watch my team plant the bulbs.  On their knees, each bulb hand planted with a small miner's pick.

They start planting at the middle of the drifts, facing each other, on their knees, then moving outward.  All the while bantering amongst themselves.  Teamwork.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Bulbs ordered from Brent & Becky's Bulbs.  Mostly 'Carlton' daffodils.
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Pics this week at jobsite.  Isn't the top pic purrfectly catalicious?  Jefferson was not about to admit interest in our activities.
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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.

Stained Concrete

Technically this should be a 'cold' space.  Concrete, glass, iron.

Instead, with staining of the concrete, there is warmth & invitation.
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Pressure wash?  Never.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic via La Maison Fou.
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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.

Aerin Lauder: Color Choices

What is the most obvious fact, below?

Green-Brown-White is the top color trinity, again.
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Choose a color trinity for your garden, and it should flow from your interiors, then stay true.
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What is your color trinity?
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pic Aerin Lauder.
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Aerin Lauder must be an old soul.  She's kept, yet made her mother's garden/house her own.  Building upon good existing layers.  No ego about starting from scratch, just because she can.  The garden, above, is a garden design class in a single pic.  More than pretty, it didn't cost much to create nor will it cost much to maintain.  Aerin's Effortless Style is no sales gimmick in the garden.

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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.

Copy from those at the Peak of their Game

You do a thing in the garden with your full IQ, passion, energy, wallet, time.  Influenced by era.

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At my front door, above, if you know the 80's, you're seeing Horticulture magazine, covers of Smith & Hawken catalog, and articles, pages long, from House & Garden magazine.

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So, where do you think I'm going with this?

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History.

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That trinity of resources, above, was from the best brains at the peak of their game.

  Drenched in the poverty cycle of the Great Depression & rusticities of turn-of-the-century Lutyens/Jekyll with generous splashes remaining of the Belle Epoque.

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So, when asked what plant should go in a certain spot or what is wrong with their lawn.  I pause, long.

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Themistocles comes to mind, " "I cannot fiddle, but I can make a great state from a little city."

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So, when I'm told, "I want a garden but I don't have a lot of money."

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Winston Churchill comes to mind, "....when he was asked to cut arts funding in favor of the war effort, he simply replied, "Then what are we fighting for?"

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The best thing I've ever done in my life was to say, Yes, when my soul told me to have a garden. 

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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.

Element of Ranchburger Vile

Iron panels grace ranchburgers across USA.

Reading the English  Telegraph I see, above.
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And I think, Come on USA you can do so much better.  We have the same iron panels to work with yet they are vile.
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Adore getting every new ranchburger client.  Too easy to create charm from vile.  Toss in the builder's ranchburger landscaping & I can barely drive without carefully wearing my imaginary Ranchburger Blinders.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Ranchburger?  Me?  I live in a Guppy ca. 1985.  You know, gaping garage + drive facing the street with a teensy front door.  So bad, some neighborhoods were built with deed restrictions against them.  Go team !
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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.

Phoebe Howard: Bedroom Views

Birdhouse view, below.

Thru the years about 30% of my clients have had views into the tree tops.
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Good fortune, indeed.  Hardly possible to 'fake' a tree top view from level ground & zero trees.
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If the chair, above, is the only seating in the room I would have Howard back to fix its direction !
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic Phoebe Howard.
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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.

Garden Design: Creating Shadows

Do you have a shadow-on-the-walls fetish?

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They are my catnip.  Especially their ephemerality.

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In particular, the shadows of mature crape myrtles on walls or blossoms running along cherry tree branches in spring.  Maybe Chinese snowball blossom shadows are my favorite.

                                                                     
                                                             Details from creator here.

Adore paradigm shifts.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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pics Hilden Diaz.   And I thought designing tree shadows across lawns was fun.  Seems lame now.
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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.

Historic Gardens Are Best: Reason #5

Reason #5 to create a historic templated garden design.

Impromptu quick pics.
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Go Deborah Silver, above.  A chaos of joy, beauty, love.  Which is the focal point here: snow, lit tree, garden, dog?
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This pic is almost a complete garden design course, by itself.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic Dirt Simple.  Do you want to create your own world, a moat of grace around your life, a place so rich in energy you are able to give more to all your endeavors?    Then, yes, you want a Historic garden.
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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.

Garden Design Lesson: In a Single Pic

Come this way, enter, welcome.

Miraculously, from the opposite direction the columns say the same thing.
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No matter the size or budget of a garden, there are no exits.  Only entries.  And, the more entries a garden has the better the garden.  With one of the most potent garden design tools in your quiver, contrasting formal-informal.   Ceiling-walls-floors are also beautifully done, above, with great drama at the enfilade.
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No, this is not a simple entry.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Of course I want the dimensions of how far apart the columns are,  heights, etc....
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Pic I Love Your Style.
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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.

Hotel Perfect Bedroom + Pretty Privacy

Aside from 'Hotel Perfect' design, below, the garden view drew my eye for its ubiquity in Atlanta.

Neighbors houses, tiny lot lines.  Yet wanting privacy.  Pretty privacy !
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Fence, understory trees, tall espalier shrubs.  Amazing the privacy, softness, warmth & beauty a few plantings provide.  And, keep it few.  Who wants to look at views full of garden chores to be done !
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In addition, from these doors, fragrances of akebia, tea olive, gardenia, daphne.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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pic BHG.  What is this style of decorating called?  Have done it in my own bedroom after le divorce, calm-serene-pretty.
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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.

Creating Lush

Vertical lawn, below.

Don't have a stone villa?  Espalier a woody shrub.  No wires or trellis needed.

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Oddly, the perfection above is undone without the  rattan chair.  Then it becomes an ad for patio furniture.

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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara

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Those white cushions?  Not in my garden, crape myrtle tree debris would win in a day!

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How lush can a garden be and have very little?  That is the best gardening question.  This garden, above, wins.

Pic Veranda magazine.

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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.

Team Elements to Touchdown

Urn on plinth.

If Garden Design were parsed like football stats, urn/plinth stats are touchdowns.
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I adore the team  formations for every touchdown urn/plinth.  Above, backdrop hedge, lollipop standard sentinels, lawn line defense at a 90% run, contrasted textures/colors, zone coverage for heights, even the fake out play drawing eyes to the sky.
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This urn is a Heisman Trophy.  Once & done.  No maintenance, planting, watering......beautiful 24/7 for decades.
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Mostly, the touchdown urn/plinth is partially executed.  The teamwork backing urn/plinth isn't played.
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In metaphor, urn/plinth stories can be told thru: music, ballet, the bible, race car driving.....they're all teamwork.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pic Faux Fuchsia.
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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.

Why Ugly is a Good Start

 Already degreed in horticulture & engineering before studying historic landscapes across Europe there was a major potent element to be learned, Nothing is unconsidered in a garden, nothing.

Subsidiary parking court, below, is behind the garden, above.

What are you leaving unconsidered in your garden?
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pic at jobsite.  Garden Design is mostly not about plants.  I adore ugly problems.
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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.

How to Design the Best Landscape is Not What You Think: It's Easier

Design your garden for winter, it will be pretty all year.

Spring, roses, hydrangeas, foxgloves & etc. get all the calendar shots, yet the true test remains, winter.
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Rosemary Verey's, The Garden in Winter, is the garden design book you want.  Garden design facts are counterintuitive.
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Another counterintuitive garden design rule?  Copy.  If it's beautiful in another garden it will be beautiful in yours, and original.  
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic Belgian Pearls.  A wonderful resource taken from Belgian Pearls, here.
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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.

Double Axis: Consider Both Directions

Outside, at the tiered fountain looking into the window, I wonder if the wreath is double sided.

Double Axis, if a view is pretty in 1 direction it must be pretty in the opposite direction.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Pic Habitually Chic.

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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.

How to Arrange Furniture 101: Outside

Interior furniture arrangements tell me exactly how to arrange exterior furniture.

And the colors to choose, style range, flow, forms, ambiance.
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Aside from liking this room, above, it takes my mind into overdrive thinking of resources available to recreate it outside.
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Not a problem if budget isn't a problem.
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If time is not an issue even a tight budget can get this room, outside.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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A few years ago a client with an amoeba shaped sofa LOVED how I designed her front lawn.  Yes, it was exactly her sofa shape.  And she thought I was brilliant.  Now, go be brilliant for yourself !
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Pic Cote de Texas.
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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.

Layers of Green are Best in Garden Design

Layers of green always work.

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Flowers.  Give-me-flowers-or-give-me-ugly seems to be the starter gardener mindset.
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Layers of green are pretty all year vs. a season.  Layers of green emit ion exchanges of serenity.
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I can assure you choosing layers of green vs. flowers is, "The spreading wide of narrow Hands To gather Paradise—", "I dwell in Possibility..." by Emily Dickinson.

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Odd how most of Garden Design is counterintuitive.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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How do I know these things?  Queen of the flower method of garden design 12-step program.  No, I will not enable you.  My goal is to help you get rid of those pink elephants in your landscape.

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pic via Pinterest.

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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.

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.