Gardens: Flow First, then Plants

"What plant should I put there?", is the common question.

Choosing specific plants is the last thing I put into a Garden Design.
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Flow is the first.
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What is flow?
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What direction do most people approach your home from?  Where do you park?  Which door do you mostly enter your home from?  Where are your garbage cans?  What path do you traverse to the garbage cans?  Where do your guests park?  Where do your children park?  Do you have dogs needing to go outside?  Where are your garden tools & how do you access them?  Where is the compost pile and how often do you walk to it?  Do you gather firewood in winter to carry inside?  After a storm do you have branches to pick up and where do you place them?  Where are your outdoor lights?  Can you walk, without obstruction, around your entire home?  How do you get from your deck/patio to the back yard?  Raining, can you walk your property without getting your feet in puddles?  Do you have young children/grandchildren needing a safe place to play?  Where should you put a swing-set?  How should the swimming pool be placed?  Where should the new barn be sited?  Which door do you use to get the mail?  Which door do guests knock on first?  Do guests come to the door you want them to?  Where is the fire hydrant and is it a clear path in case of fire?  Where is the circuit breaker for the house & can it be turned off quickly by emergency personnel if you are not home?  How often do you need to walk to the Pole Barn?  Where should the Conservatory be placed & how often will you use it for meals?  And, etc.
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Yes, Flow before plants.
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Get the flow right and your property begins at the center of your home to the property lines.
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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

Drop-Leaf Table

More than interiors, drop-leaf tables

are perfect for covered porches & patios.
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Have often placed a drop-leaf table, cut in half, at each side of a front door.
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Primed, & painted with outdoor paint.
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Amazingly, vintage drop-leaf tables seem to always be low priced in metro Atlanta.
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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

Design: Cones & Balls

Cones & lollipops.  

A garden contrast working hard since before Christ's era.
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Every garden must have a cone shape.
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Cone shapes draw the eye.
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Serious gardener?  Every garden room must have a cone shape.
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Cone shapes in Italy live by a different law than the rest of the world.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Ignore garden design rules at your own peril !  I adore garden design rules, breaking them with intelligence creates magic.  Stringently following garden design rules creates magic.  Go it alone, you create a feckless mush.
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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

Enlarging Corners

Hired for the Garden Design I could not ignore the pool decking.

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Pool is Olympic in scale yet the decking was Liliputian.

The mortar isn't even dry, above.
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Will go back this spring for full photo shoot with more enlarged corners, rims and furnishings styled.
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Have enlarged corners for driveways too.  Perfecto!
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pic in client garden.  Love pics full of narrative or, like this one, a 'see it & do it', no explanation needed.  
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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

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.

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Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Garage/Atalier: Leverage Life & Garden

 Aside from the ubiquitously expected, your garage must leverage your life.  Beautifully.
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In my garage, below.

 Adore loading my so-ugly-it's-cute van for work, below.

Tools, chandeliers, speaking props & etc all awaiting to make life easier.

Vintage French garden chair made the move to the chicken coop.  And the ca. 1918 door is now a table in the office.

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How well does your garage leverage the caretaking of your garden?  Your life?

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Did you know this is an element of Garden Design?

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I didn't, until I went to Europe to study history's best gardens.  

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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara

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Pics in my atalier, aka garage.  

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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

Edna St. Vincent Millay: Burn Your Light

Light from the garden, below.

Interesting legs, garden light a few of my favorite things.
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Oh my the criticisms, for decades, for leaning inward, to seemingly insignificant small joys.
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Edna St. Vincent Millay, "My candle burns at both ends; / It will not last the night; / But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends — / It gives a lovely light!"
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I met Peter Pan yesterday, and he wasn't lost.  With a bigger life I doubt I would have known.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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My bedroom, above, renovation still needs yellow/white French check draperies a la Charles Faudree.   Walls, Benjamin Moore - Sundress.  Hence you won't see more till then!  Painting by, Christine Gholson.  Truly, the light in my home is enriched by the garden.
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A quote in NYTimes long ago, "The more you go inward the more you outwardly connect." Pure permission, be-who-you-are.
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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

  

Overdose your Theme: Wicker Weakness

Overflow wicker, above, yet they're used at least 1/month.

Vintage wicker, above/below, glass topper for the sagging table top, below.  Adore the chipping paint.

Small wicker baskets, below, perfect for quick trips with keys, sunglasses, cell phone.

White willow English wicker basket, above, for Laskett.  Yes, he is moody.  What can I do, we're in love.

Tucked in the bedroom, above.  Mahogany Sheraton buffet arrived this color, & marked down 2x at the antique shop.
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Tool Bouquet over my fireplace.....
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Overdose Your Theme is merely an excuse for,  Wicker Weakness.
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At Lowe's this week the cashier asked, "Can I feel your basket?".  Girlfriend has Wicker Weakness too.  Along with great taste, it was a handmade Amish basket that day.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Most of the wicker came from Thift Stores or yard sales.
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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

Little Input, Big Impact

A bit of meadow, stretch of wild wood, bench.  Done.

In the depths of winter, still, one of the best invitations.
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Pictorial definition, LITTLE INPUT, BIG IMPACT.
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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

Front Porch: Color Choices for Views & Guests

Built in the late 50's for the Queen's sister, Mount Corbett has a few original pieces remaining, below.

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This table wasn't designed for meals, propping feet, or bridge.

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This table leveraged conversation, cocktails, cigarettes (I can hear, & smell, the Zippo lighters shutting), & considering the era, 'stuff'.

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More than views, colors were mutedly chosen to show case people.

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How I would love to go back to the early years and see the clothes, hair, jewels.

Instead,

alone on the veranda, I was the color.
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My Ken Doll did  construction & landscaping at Mount Corbett a few years ago, hence my afternoon lolling in the pool & enjoying views while he gabbed with friends at the estate.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pics taken this month in Jamaica.  We both wanted to prune the hedge blocking the views.  Alas, or maybe good for you, Mount Corbett is for sale.
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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

Ackee Tree: Fruit in Design

We are provisioned for as well as birds of the field.

This ackee tree made her message known.

I've gained a primal sense of gratitude to Providence, in a rich new vein.
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And, wonder why my horticulture degree did not teach inclusion of fruit bearing trees/bushes as a fundamental.
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If not for pollinators alone, or enjoyment of the crop, then at the minimum a nod of thanks from our spirit to the spirit of Nature which is beyond measure.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics from Jamaica last week, this ackee tree was just-in-a-dirt-parking-lot.  Remember, when trees drop their leaves they are enriched by what they let go of.  Yes, trees pack the epiphanies.
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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.

Focal Point: Don't Compete

If you have an eyesore place a focal point nearby.

If Providence gives you a focal point, don't compete.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken at lunch yesterday.  Jamaica.
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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.

John Dickinson: Design

John Dickinson said, 

"Taste is a word I avoid. Good or bad, it's all so nebulous. The more you're dealing with taste, the more you're on shaky ground. Vulgarity to me is another matter. Vulgarity has great vitality."

"There's no cop-out in using pairs of things in a room. Matching chairs, sofas, lamps or tables can bring discipline, strength and balance to a scheme."

"You cannot do a lasting room design based on a current fad or novelty. There's a fine line between being amusing and being eccentric. A whole room based on amusing things would not be a laugh."

"There are many places in a house that do not warrant expensive furnishings. It's really not essential to spend everywhere. Muslin curtains can be the prettiest things in the world if they're sewn beautifully. You just don't have to make a big production of everything in a room."

"Some of the easiest things to use as inexpensive accessories are natural objects. Seashells are heaven. The bigger the better. Coral's marvellous if you can get big pieces of it. It must be large—little pieces don't mean anything."

"I have long thought that if one has a fireplace, to feel one must out of necessity and total obligation hang something over it is absolute nonsense. I think a blank space over a mantel is very interesting. "

"I don't like viewing my designs as sculpture. It's too pretentious. This is not art, it's decorating. It's not fine art, it's decorative art and there's a world of difference."
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Garden Design writing is traditionally, as Anne of Green Gables said, "A perfect graveyard of buried hope."  Instead, I mine ALL the arts and apply to Garden Design.
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The Style Saloniste has  pics with the quotes above.  I remember most of the pics when they first appeared in magazines.  
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Dickinson's last quote, above is not applicable to Garden Design.  When working with Nature it would be the greatest failure not to apply the elements of pollinator habitat.  And the work of Nature is the purest ART.
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Pic above lost provenance.
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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.

Elements of a Focal Point: Sandra Jonas

Focal point, double plinthed, on axis, Tara Turf, contrasting colors. contrasting textures, contrasting formal/informal, high density/low density, pollinator habitat, Getrude Jekyll delightful, Jane Austen narrative, and best of all 

this is my beloved friend's garden, Sandra Jonas.  We've been across Europe & USA together studying Garden Design.
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Wonder what she thinks I see here?
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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.

Design Elements: Macro, Micro

Freshman year of college an elective course in economics gave me macro/micro.

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Garden design elements fall into those 2 realms.

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Both equally important.

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Both waltzing thru time.

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The snow that stopped Atlanta, above.

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Dots of poetry.  Ephemeral.

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Sure, the wall is a macro Garden Design element.

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But not for this moment.

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You're looking at the ephemeral micro element trumping the macro.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic at jobsite last week.

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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.

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That economics course?  Tough.  The professor barely spoke English his accent so strong I heard, at most, every 12th word correctly.  One word in particular scared my IQ, could not figure out what the mar-ghaa-reene was.  Especially with his corresponding gesticulations and hi pitch solely upon that word.  Mar-ghaa-reene really got the sweet little man going.  Me too, what was it?  Finally asked my seat mate what he was saying.  She said, 'margin'.

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From that point I ignored the dear little man and solely learned from the book.  

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30+ years later I can still hear/see Mar-ghaa-reene being performed.

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Yes, macro/micro elements amuse me greatly.

How to Know it's the Muse Speaking

A client in an older subdivision in Athens, Ga has a bit of vintage woodland at the margin.

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Their home is Connecticut farmhouse vernacular ca. 1894.

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Not large, not small, not grand, pure elegant.

We will make a slight clearing in the vintage woods for a cabin.
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EXACTLY the cabin in imagination, above.
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A folly to be discovered.  A folly that can be used as many things thru the years.
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Let the rescue operation begin: windows, stone, brick, door, wood.....
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Hired to design the garden it's amazing what the Muse thinks of.  Perhaps your Muse speaks and you think you're having 'crazy thoughts'.  How to know it's the Muse speaking?  The idea scares you a bit, stretches you out of your comfort zone, yet from 1st thought the idea is thrilling, delightful in the way joy was when you were 8 years old.  Here lies your spirit.  Wabi sabi, feng shui.  Not listening is perilous.  Letting others steer you away from your Muse?  They are in your life why?  
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Too often it's the one we love saying, What?  Here's what to say if the one you love hinders the path to your Muse's bidding, "Your words are harmful to my spirit.", or simply, "It makes me happy."
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Over 50 and a woman?  Either statement could empty a stadium full of men spoken with the right tone/body language.  But you already know that.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pic via  Content in a Cottage.
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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.

A Wabi Sabi Plinth

If you find the perfect pair of urns do not worry about their height.

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Use a plinth if they must be higher.

Old urns, new to the site, with the perfect plinth, above.
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The Long Barn, above, was made of terra cotta squares decades ago.  A few were found.
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Sure, new plinths could have been bought or custom made for this site.  However, using the terra cotta squares is superior.  The best gardens have elements of the Poverty Cycle.  Put another way, wabi sabi must be included in every garden design.
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Then there is Mary Kistner's, "It's what we do with what we have.", life motto.  Whenever I include Mary I know I'm doing the right thing, and I'm getting a little visit from her.  Sometimes I go so far as to ask, "What would Mary do?"
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pic taken at jobsite last month.
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Mary, an artist,  was childless & died a widow in her 80's.  Her memorial service was at a museum in the main, huge, gallery.  Standing room only.

Every Garden Needs the Tall Cone Shape

Every garden needs a tall cone shape to draw eyes to the sky.

Can't remember which symposium lecturer said this but knew immediately it was true.  And, more, how do you know WHERE to put this tall cone shape?

For years I asked other garden designers how they knew where to put this piece of magic.

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None could put it into words.

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Ironically, I do know where to put tall cone shapes now.

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Yet have no words to describe the process.

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Intuitive.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics at jobsite this month.  Italian cypress framing the Long Barn and pastures.

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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.