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.

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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.

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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.

Banishing Frustration with the Design Process

There is nothing you will do in your garden, that has never been done before.

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Embrace the spirit of friends you didn't know you had.

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Their thoughts & choices are waiting for you to partake.

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Architecture, site, Nature, resources each play a role too.

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Resist any of the above, and I promise, you will not like the garden you create.

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Some of the people I like to work with?  Russell Page, Christopher Lloyd, Rosemary Verey,  Harold Nicholson/Vita Sackville-West, Arne Maynard, Deborah Silver, Arabella Lennox Boyd, Julia Trevelyan Oman/Sir Roy Strong, Cecil Beaton, Beatrix Farrand, Sir Edward Lutyens, Gertrude Jekyll, Alexander Pope, Jane Austen, Wendell Berry, Penelope Bianchi, William Morris, and more.

Especially endearing, and important, are gardens developed over time.  Perhaps a wheelbarrow path, above, evolved because the wheel of the wheelbarrow spoke !  Saw one in England, and have enjoyed designing several since then.

One impertinence I never commit, is to quickly, without thoughtful consideration & props, design any garden space.  None.  No matter how small or how many times I've done it before.
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The the left of the brick path, above, grass is dying due to shade,  In addition, with grown children & a flock of grandchildren, the entry to the path is too narrow.
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Flags were placed, then adjusted, looked at from myriad angles, adjusted again, conversation back/forth with client & stone mason, and lastly, agreed upon.
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Most often, an inch or two in a garden design will not matter.  Sometimes, an inch or two in a garden design is the difference between a beautiful functional delight or 'I can't stand this but it's paid for and I will put up with it for the next 2 decades.'
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Do not rush the process of designing/installing your garden.  Know that it is a process.  A pleasure to be partaken with your new friends, above.
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Don't want you to be frustrated trying to create your beautiful easy landscape.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pics taken yesterday on the job, top 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.

When It's Time to Enlarge Your Deck

Perfect newish home, below.

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Single flaw.

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Open deck, below, with grill, was too narrow for social gatherings.

Keeping the original steps, below, and reusing the rails, and adding 6 floor boards, is a small enlargement. Yet, huge difference.  'Work' space is transformed into a place to grill & chill with family, pets, friends.
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(Under the covered porch, above, # 89 granite gravel added and soon, lattice panels, for family storage of garden tools & kids yard toys.)
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A flagstone terrace, at the steps was enlarged too.
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Garden Design is not about plants 'first', it's form/function, then plants.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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pics taken last week.  Thought it would be helpful for you to see how 'little' needs to be added to transform a space.  See my handmade Amish basket on the steps?  Sat there and had a scrumptious BBQ sandwich, coleslaw & Brunswick stew with my team.  I was there to walk the existing tapestry hedge at the back property line and tell my GC which plants stay & go.  Notice how the guys were clothed on a fine December day !
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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.

The Best Design Adds Depth to Walls

Homes in subdivisions, at all price points & eras, commonly lack 'depth' with exterior walls.

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Another garden design fact/rule learned studying the best historic gardens across the globe for decades.

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A few examples from my Pinterest Board, Focal Points.

Garden Design: Adding Depth to Your Walls, should be my next book title.
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Never a dull moment designing your garden.  Layers of beauty, and epiphany.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.

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.

When it's Time to Change the Design

You'll know when it's time to round the corners.

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Time passes, trees grow, shade encroaches, turf dies.

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Freshly installed cobblestones, below.  What happens when there is even more shade?

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Forget grass, plant a groundcover.

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Sure, this is change.  Refinement too.

This progression is years in the making.
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And, a metaphor for 'life'.
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What corners does your life need to round?  What turf does your life need to let go?  Where does your life need you to invest in cobblestones installed by experienced hands?  How long did this chapter of life take?  Why didn't I realize, sooner, this corner always needed more space?
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Answers to these types of questions arrive in 3 places, for me: in my garden, walking in Nature, or in the shower.

From childhood, I've found gardens, and Nature, to be great conversationalists.
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But.  Have been stumped by a garden request since last week, a new lecture title.  Help me if you can, please.  What is 'new' in gardening?    
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 Gardening is an ancient craft, yet each garden I create is 'new'.  But.  What is 'new', to you, in gardening?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken at jobsite.
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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.

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.

What You Must Know About Creating Entry

Visiting a garden, below, in Jamaica last week I knew I had met a kindred spirit speaking Gardenese.

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Without words, saying, "Come this way." 

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Gardens are architecture.  Rooms, halls, foyers, parlors, mudrooms, and entry ways.

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Entry ways are potent in gardens.  Without this entry, above, do you really know you're invited in?  From a distance, would you know there is a path?

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Upon further inquiry, with entry ways in gardens, decades ago, while studying abroad and in books/magazines, I had the epiphany about the world's best gardens.  It's easy & obvious, but too often ignored, or worse, not realized.

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The more entry ways a garden has, the better a garden is.

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And, with richness you'll discover, gardens have entry ways, no exits.

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Not matter the direction, see above, you are entering.

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Lovely Gardenese.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Often, when hired to work an established garden, entry ways are the solution.  Plenty of plants but no entry ways, hence no, foyers, living rooms, parlors & etc.

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Another way to think of entry ways.  They are focal points with maximum subtlety.  Ironically, the rule about focal points, 'one focal point per area', is annihilated by the rule for entry ways, 'you cannot have too many entry ways.'  Love Gardenese quirks of language.  They will keep me in work, always!  Gardenese, easy yet counterintuitive, seemingly simple yet complex, straightforward yet leaving you doubting your perception of how to create what you see.

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Had to let go of my ego to learn Gardenese.  And that took years.

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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.