Showing posts with label Design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Design. Show all posts

Monday, March 5, 2018

What Lucinda Chambers Can Teach Us About Garden Design

A few weeks ago, this, below.  What a garden !  Knew at once, great skill involved, more, the gardener put their entire being into it.  Oddly, at the front end of gardening professionally, horrendous USA degree in hand, I would have known the opposite.  Garden, below, no good, too bohemian, too wild, nothing 'done', certainly not a contender for entry in a Garden Show for spring in a large city.. 
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Twenty plus years later, traveling historic gardens across Europe, then a decade staying put, designing/installing historic gardens.  I knew I had to follow the paper trail for this garden, below.  Further, I knew the woman in the garden, was its owner/designer, from 1st glance.  Odd, yes?  She could easily be a model for shoes or pants or maybe fabrics.

Lucinda Chambers, Fashion Director of Vogue UK, photographed at her home in Shepherd's Bush
Pic, above, here.
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Didn't take a full minute of sleuthing to learn this is Lucinda Chambers, for 3 decades the stylist for Vogue UK.
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Style crush – Lucinda Chambers | designer fabrics australia
Pic, above, here.
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No wonder Lucinda has an incredible garden, art is art.  Styling a photo shoot, styling an entire clothing outfit, zero difference styling a garden.
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 Похожее изображение
Pic, above, here.
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I came late to thrift store shopping, had just joined a church, and needed a few outfits.  In my late 20's, never looked back.  Thrift stores entirely too much fun.  Clothes, patio furniture, dishes, sunglasses, etc.
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Женщина хочет выглядеть неотразимо вне зависимости от погоды и возраста. В зрелости гардероб женщины должен быть более сдержанным и классическим, сохраняя при этом индивидуальность и экстравагантность. В 40 лет женский гардероб слегка отличается от гардероба женщины за 50. Появляются нюансы, о которых не стоит забывать. Тепло и комфорт в одном флаконе Для дамы, которая и …
Pic, above, here.
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Seeing dozens of Lucinda Willams clothing choices, I knew.  Permission.
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SILVERTIME all, grown up.
Pic, above, here.

In my closet, what I had considered divine thrift store purchases, yet incoherent for combining/wearing, were suddenly Lucinda Chambers approved.  Lucinda gave me approval, for combining disparate clothing into pure joy to combine, and more importantly, to wear. 

Lucinda Chambers.
Pic, above, here.
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Historic Garden Design is permission.  Crazed, divine, permission.  Sure, there are historic Garden Design Rules.  Each one, knowingly, making your world better, more you, and the honor of stewardship with epiphany of permission.
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Fashion Styling and Image Making with Lucinda Chambers - a new Business of Fashion course
Watch Video.  WATCH video.  Watch Now, 1 min 54 seconds, WATCH.
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Lucinda Williams, above, in her own voice, about styling.  Zero separation in styling clothes, gardens, architecture, etc. 
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From Lucinda:
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"Educate your eye."
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"It's a craft."
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"Everything is information."
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"Nothing is off limits."
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"It's not beyond your reach."
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"Passionate about doing it."
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"It's only for you."
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"It's completely doable."

Lucinda Chambers, Fashion Director of Vogue UK, photographed at her home in Shepherd's Bush
Pic, above, here.
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"For 36 years, Lucinda Chambers has been at the forefront of magazine publishing as fashion director of British Elle and British Vogue, where she held the position for 25 years and established long-lasting relationships with some of the world’s leading photographers, including Patrick Demarchelier, Nick Knight and Paolo Roversi. Throughout her career, she has also worked closely with fashion houses such as Marni, Prada, Jil Sander and Chanel, consulting on collections and advertising. Most recently, she styled Pharrell Williams and Imaan Hammam for the December 2017 cover of US Vogue."  Business of Fashion.
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Moving from my 30 year home/garden 3 years ago, toted 18 loads furniture-clothes-books-etc in my tiny beloved van, to the thrift store.  Wish I had discovered Lucinda before all those loads.  Happily, I didn't give away all my crazed, divine clothing purchases.  Better, gave me permission to buy more.
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In all my searching for more of Lucinda Williams garden, found nothing.
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Lucinda's garden, photos above, has the classic color trinity, green-brown-white, with subsidiary color, pink.  Did her home photo shoot in the garden, need a bit of styling, hence the pink sheet?
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Lamp, lampshade, old chairs, old table, macrame plant hanger, each mimic Lucinda's clothing and professional styling.  First rule of Garden Design, copy.  Garden Design rule, written by me long ago, "Does this garden make me want to go inside?" 
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Vine at the window, above?  Curtains for garden views.
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Photo shoot in Lucinda's garden a classic of enfilade styling. 
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Saturday, March 3, 2018

The Biggest Landscape Mistake You Don't Know You're Making

Garden Design thought, as incentive, "I want an outdoor dining & living room."
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Pic, above, here.
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Garden Design thought, as punishment, "I need to do something with my backyard."
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Image result for ugly backyard
Pic, above, here.
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Change your thoughts, change your garden, and life.
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 Hamptons patio dining & entertaining - via Tom Samet
Pic, above, here.
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Awaiting Garden funds?  Looking at, above, put it into a different price point.  Concrete squares from hardware store & field gathered patio furniture all painted the same color.  Martha Washington used long wood planks atop saw-horses, with a plain cotton tablecloth, to host their many guests.
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Do you need to do something with your backyard?  Do you want a backyard dining & living room?
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Beware the questions and statements you make for your Garden.  Those questions will make, or degrade, your garden.  More, your life.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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The Power of Incentives: Inside The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior

“Never, ever, think about something else when you 
  should be thinking about the power of incentives.”
— Charlie Munger
According to Charlie Munger, there are only a few forces more powerful than incentives. In his speech “The Psychology of Human Misjudgment,” he reflects on how the power of incentives never disappoints him:
"Well, I think I’ve been in the top 5% of my age cohort all my life in understanding the power of incentives, and all my life I’ve underestimated it. And never a year passes but I get some surprise that pushes my limit a little farther."  Charlie Munger

Entire article, here.  

Thursday, March 1, 2018

Does Your Neighborhood Make This Landscaping Mistake & Why It's Costing You Money

Creating a Garden Design for an entire starter home subdivision is quite simple.  Last week, I was in a neighborhood similar to, below.
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Built ca. late 1990's, the neighborhood ran into 2008.  Little to nothing done with homes/neighborhood landscaping into 2018.   
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Penny wise, dollar foolish.
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Why?
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With minimal thought, proper Garden Design thought, property values can be increased with each homeowner, fewer even, maybe 50% of homeowners, no, lower, 30% of homeowners, increasing property value for all the homes in the neighborhood.  People believe what they see.
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How?
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Ask homeowners to plant 3 bushes.  Away from the home preferably for little to no pruning, ever.  For our zone, tall holly, tall juniper, magnolia.
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Image result for starter home subdivision
Pic, above, here.
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As those plants grow, they create beauty, natural habitat, and, most importantly, breaking of site lines between homes.  Instead of a panorama of garages/drives, airconditioners, back patios/decks, etc.  Now, the neighborhood is a Norman Rockwell painting in its setting.  Properly matted & framed.
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But wait, there is more money, $$$, on the table, than mere property value.
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Already know where that money is?
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Real money.  Monthly, into homeowner pockets.  More, this money-into-pockets increases Earthly sustainability.  Eco.

Image result for homes with big conifers
Pic, above, here.
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Siting those minimum 3 evergreen tall plants properly to block summer's sun, and winter's winds, decreases HVAC expense.  10% and higher.  Do the math.
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Baking sun on a side of your home from 10am to sunset?  You're saving real money.
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Take my Garden Design proposal a step further, and closer to your home, if you have sun issues, choose a deciduous tree to block summer sun, and let winter sun stream in.
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What's on the other side of those conifers, above?  Perhaps the neighbor's deck with a John boat underneath.
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What is privacy worth to you?  More, while creating the privacy, gaining beauty.
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Basic.  Basic Garden Design.
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Greater, stewardship.  No matter where you start, your own Garden Design or helping your neighborhood Garden Design, stewardship arrives in macro.  What does that mean?  Living amongst a proper Garden Design is about far more than money.  Grace.  Living a life in grace.  Rich in resources.  Resources as E.M. Forster spoke of resources in, Where Angels Fear to Tread.  Joseph Campbell said, If you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere.  Pity anyone would accept that.
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Garden & Be Well,    XOT

Thursday, February 22, 2018

How to Move Your Foundation Plantings While You Gain Your Life

During a time of life turbulence a quote appeared, without seeking, reading a magazine, It's Safe to Let Go.
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Wow, what a concept !  I'm not in charge.  Instead of clinging to that fantasy, Let it go.  Afraid to let go?  Don't be, it's quite a flight.  The ride of your life.
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Realizing it was said, too, in a movie, Out of Africa, "Let it go, this water belongs in Mombasa anyway."
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Moving away from that particular personal era of life, and into the land of green meatball foundation plantings.  You must realize, they are connected.  Literally connected.  Have been hired by several women thru the years, not many, merely several wanting to get their landscapes to match their hearts.
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Amazingly, all of those women had a hedge at the front of their property.  Hedges that I designed to open, Welcome, come in.  More amazing, during those years, being hired by hedge women, never realized I was part of their tribe.
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First epiphany, for me, pull foundation plantings away from the house.  Rather obvious, having studied historic gardens across Europe.  Years, I had my hedge, without a gate, similar to, below.
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Happy, content, thriving, adored having that hedge moved, opened my home, gave breathing space, birds/butterflies more numerous.  Finally, enough of filling the spiritual well, notice I created that fertile ground for myself, my well overflowed, epiphany arrived, put a gate into my hedge.  Just as I had done for clients. 
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Heads-up, none of this stuff works unless the epiphanies are your own, and you'll know.  Not exactly burning-bush moments but you will have the knowledge downloaded into your heart/DNA, and understand.  Still doubting, still unsure?  No worries, it's safe to let go.

923 Likes, 6 Comments - Tom Samet (@tomsamet) on Instagram: “Good Morning "East Hampton!" repost @skaufman4050 Full Bloom!”
Pic, above, here.
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My front yard hedge, below, after putting the gate in.

 TARA DILLARD: GARDEN DESIGNERS BLOGLINK: TARA'S TRINITY OF THE SOUTHERN GARDEN
Pic, above, shot in my front garden.
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My front yard today.  Lawn?
Pic, above, shot just inside my front hedge.
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Not snow, above.  Better, Chinese snowball blossom petals.  Caressing my plants, gravel, furniture, home, LIFE.

Playing with my front hedge at the street/curb, below.  Adoring rustic, pastoral, my garden drips abundance, upon many layers.
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Tara Dillard's front gate!
Pic, above, shot in my front garden.
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Looking at my front hedge, below, from inside.
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TARA DILLARD: Garden Design Begins Inside Your Home
Pic, above, shot in my front bay window.
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Standing in my front yard, below, inside the gated hedge, looking into the same bay window from, above.
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TARA DILLARD: Looking into my living room from the garden, chinese snow ball, lamps on, blue + white
Pic, above, shot looking into my front bay window.
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It does take a lot to get here.  Where?  Vanishing Threshold.  What exactly does that entail?  Knowing it's safe to let go.  Your garden is not in your head.  Your garden is in your heart.  Waiting for you.
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About being safe to let go.  You'll have the privilege of relearning it many times.  Each time, more riches.
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It was good fortune, knowing to turn to my garden, letting go.  Deeper than good fortune, an action going back centuries with many, each learning themselves, taking their own action steps of facing the fear, letting go, discovering the abundance of Providence.
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"In building this horticultural paradise, Tradescant presented nature as a book that man might read like the Bible.  He understood the world in the same way as Johannes Kepler, the brilliant German mathematician and astronomer, who had described it as 'the very Book of Nature in which G*d as Creator has revealed and depicted His being and His Will with Man in a wordless tract'."  Andrea Wulf & Emma Gieben-Gamal.
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Imagine my surprise, reading those words, above, last week.  Letting go, too many times to count, tumbling into the best rabbit hole, ever.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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"Christopher Wren believed harmonious proportions came from mathematical laws underpinning Nature."  Wulf & Gieben-Gamal.
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Until reading, This Other Eden, by Wulf & Gieben-Gamal, didn't realize Christopher Wren, architect, was Garden Designer also.
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Foundation plantings are a holy grail of USA landscaping.  It's safe to let go.  Do you realize what I found, moving my foundation plantings?  What words would you use?  What does your intuition tell you from reading this post?   I know what I found.  My life.

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Garden Design: No Flowers

Designing a garden, now, with horrid views thru a pair of formal dining room windows.  Horrid.
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Pool pumps, rickety/collapsing/rotted potting table, spent/broken pots, stacked plastic bags potting soil, you have the vision.
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Luckily pool pumps are backed by another wall of the home, clad in lapboard.  Easy fix.  Carpenter will fence pool pumps, to proper height, in matching lapboard, each section removable for maintenance.  Have ridden this bull at rodeo before.
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Remaining disasters easy fix too.  The pair of windows are several feet apart on the same wall.  Carpenter will make custom potting table running full length of window-wall-window.  At each window, clustered, a collection of topiaries in her well chosen lead color pots.
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A flock of topiaries, plenty to swap inside her dining room, yet have rich amount for outside views too, on that new potting table.  This is Vanishing Threshold.  Notice, Garden Design goes inside.  More than the topiary arena, but that's beyond the scope of this missive.

463 Likes, 13 Comments - White Flower Farmhouse (@whiteflowerfarmhouse) on Instagram: “Topiaries in the shop #northfork #nofo #farmhousestyle #topiary #whiteflowerfarmhouse…”
Pic, above, here.

Garden Design begins inside your home, below.  Views to the garden, everything.

 7. Мой дом
Pic, above, here.
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Just wow, below.  Curtains take on a new meaning in this home.  Candle & vase of foliage pure homage to the work of Providence.

 The Autumn Window = happinessPic, above, here.
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How could I let my client look at pool pumps and a broken potting table?  Not in my realm.
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Gorgeous 30 Modern Dining Room Decoration Ideas https://bellezaroom.com/2017/09/03/30-modern-dining-room-decoration-ideas/
Pic, above, here.
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Another new layer for her Garden Design.  Replacing a wall of windows with this door, above.
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 Susanne Hudson's conservatory, with hydrangeas.  via Tara Dillard.
Shot pic, above, in Susanne Hudson's garden.
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She's also getting her Conservatory this layer.
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 Red Door Home: October RDH Blog of the Month – Belgian Pearls
Pic, above, here.
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Muse surprised me, above.  Client is also getting the open portion of this structure; client's scaled a bit longer.  It's on axis with the opposite end of her garden. 

This is phase 2, with my client.  Mentioned new clients to her, and their husband's mostly worried about the 'Garden Designer' spending money on flowers.  Her best laugh of the appointment.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Best Color Trinity

Towards the front end of your Garden Design, choose a color trinity for your exterior.  House, furniture, gates, light fixtures, pots, hardware, fencing, watering cans, door mats, knobs, etc.  In addition, choose a name for your home/garden.  Once you've done both, order note cards, name cards, using the color trinity.
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Green-Brown-White is the classic color trinity for over 2,000 years.  Chosen by the best minds across centuries, seemingly chosen by Providence.  Magic in Green-Brown-White ?  It's unique for all permutations.
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Where do I pull colors from for clients?  Inside the house.  Art, furniture, wallpaper, rugs, etc.  Uniformly, once colors suggested, "I love that !"  Of course.


Pic, above, here.
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In addition to Green-Brown-White, you get to choose a subsidiary color/s.  To be used as hints, and also pulled from interiors, especially your art.  Scrumptious Green-Brown-White, below.  Saved for colors but seems more a current USA political poster.

Padlet example of Medieval Mumblings, an introduction to Medieval History
Pic, above, here.
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Through many years of choosing exterior Green-Brown-White, something pops immediately.  At first painting, home/garden recede into their niche, radiating considered contentment, an air of inevitability, and timelessness.   

 Front yard inspiration-curving line to doorwY with bench along the path, plus arbor over front windows
Pic, above, here.
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Humbling, this moth, below.

 This Spanish moon moth is flaunting his good looks in the handful of days he has left to live. Unable to eat after emerging from his cocoon, the adult devotes all of his remaining time and energy to reproduction.
Pic, above, here.

 Charleston Single House-style home
Pic, above, here.

 'Austeja' (Lithuanian bee goddess) by illustrator Q. Cassetti. I think it would look great as a felted tapestry.
Pic, above, here.
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Aside from Green-Brown-White, above, all those subsidiary colors.  Be still my heart.
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There's little I encounter, not seen thru a Garden prism.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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An answer to my question, yesterday, about Lucinda Wharton:

"Curious about her parents, how they raised this old soul child."

Lady Rebecca Eildon Courtenay (b. 1969), is married to Jeremy Lloyd Wharton; they have three daughters: Alice Lucinda Wharton (b. 1998), Emilia Rose Wharton (b. 1999) and Tatiana Elizabeth Wharton (b. 2002).

-the above from Lucinda Wharton's grandfather's Wikipedia entry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Courtenay,_18th_Earl_of_Devon

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Thank you, The Hunting House, would not have known where to begin.  Lucinda's love for her home in the country, palpable. 

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Garden Design: Lucinda Wharton, Permission to Go Big

“A flowerless room is a soulless room, to my way of thinking; but even one solitary little vase of a living flower may redeem it.”
VitaSackville-West

At the curb, I must know who you are.  Your home/garden speaking, your language.  Garden Design is not about where to put a 'plant', instead, Garden Design is getting the language right.  More correctly, the language is opera, an intensification of reality.   
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Came across this garden, below, recently.  Immediately adored, understood.  A single photo.  Stop luxuriating in my words, go, now, to your garden/home, think, a single photo.  Do I know you, and understand?  Not necessary to 'adore', understand, yes.  Does your photo take me somewhere?  No?  Maybe you have been somewhere, but if you can't take it to show-and-tell, you've heard the language but don't understand it.



Plantings, above, beyond marvelous.  They frame the opera.

Image result for lucinda wharton

Felt strongly enough about the home/garden, top pic, to investigate further.  Discovered the owner of this home/garden.  Pure gold.  Large branches and stalks, above/below, are my favorite for inside.  Who is this person, liking them too? 

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Then, better, below.  The branches dropping their gold. 

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Playing with arrangements in the same spot through the seasons, above/below.
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 Image result for lucinda wharton
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During college I spent breaks/summers at my grandmother's home, incredibly happy years.  Myriad layers of happy.  With no training/classes/mentoring, farm raised, grandma always had a gorgeous Garden.  Abundant flowers, from the Earth she knew to enrich.  A Garden Whisperer, in hindsight. 

Image result for lucinda wharton

In my bedroom, during those years, there was always a huge antique leaded cut glass vase on my dresser, backed by a large mirror, stuffed with grandma's flowers.  Nothing else on the dresser.  The flowers my joy.  Changing the flowers, I would go into the dining room, and stand in front of the sideboard with grandma's collection of antique crystal vases.  Gazing.  Knowing what was in the garden, and which vase would be best, next.
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These years were my late teens to age 22, college graduation, marriage, real life begins. 

Image result for lucinda wharton

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Not a one-trick-pony, above/below.  More traditional.

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At the front door, above, again.  Time, has passed, the opera performs.  Understanding from first glance, top pic, now, above, understanding is sublime.  Garden & interior a well written & performed opera.  More, in the sharing, joy is given. 
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Most surprising part of the opera, and it shouldn't be?  The author is a young woman.  The ages I was living at grandma's.  Lucinda Wharton, below.  Looking forward to following her career.  Her life embracing garden, home, art, talent, history, architecture, and more.  In addition she's already famous for her art works, here.  Adore a good opera.
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LUCINDA WHARTON
All pics, above, here.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Collateral to Lucinda's story is life.  What it gives, takes away, teaches.  Wasn't too deep into my 20's, a second college degree, paid for wasband's master's degree, working dreg jobs in the Jimmy Carter 21% interest economy, blah, blah.  Infertility.  No friends my age, they had babies.  Instead, friends, incredible women 50's-90's.  Their mentoring, love, fun, life success/failures.  Life gives us all the same teachers, excepting at different times, with different sources.  Pay attention, or not. 
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I had to veer from that girl choosing vases & cutting flowers.  Had to.  They weren't mine, after all, were they?  G*d bless the child who has his own.
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Bless the path given, and taken.  Also 21% interest rates, a better economy and I would have never turned into the garden center parking lot, with a sign, Help Wanted.  At that point, working for a bank, soul crushing.  Knew I had to leave the bank when imagining, in great detail, my head exploding, brains dripping down the frosted glass of my bosses office door.  Yep, time to go. 
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Wish for a different life path?  No. 
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Looking forward to Miss Lucinda and all her doings.  How she nurtures her talent, what comes her way, and makes her path even better opera.  Zero sarcasm there, a lot of war, death and strife in opera too.  Anyway.  Move along.  Happy to be Lucinda's cheerleader.  Curious about her parents, how they raised this old soul child.

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Design Your Garden for Winter (not spring): Beauty All Year

Best epiphany about the garden in winter?  Designing the garden for winter is superior to other seasons.  A garden beautiful in February is beautiful all year.
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Rosemary Verey's book, The Garden in Winter, is your source for this epiphany if you're in a bit of doubt.
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In addition to winter being the best season to create a Garden Design, another realm is included, simplicity.  Into those realms, considered micro, is the full blown macro garden in winter.  Your life. 
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Winter's pace is meant to be.  Winter's events in the garden are meant to be.  Pining for the glories of spring in winter?  Not me, never have.  Winter is deep strength in the garden.  A season controlling how we dress, our circadian cycle, our activity levels, and what the activities are, and more.


West garden | Tom Stuart-Smith
Pic, above, here.

At the front end, I knew Garden Design, below, was not for me, my station in life.  Middle class, subdivision, working for a living.  Ten good staff, but they are all on my own hands.  Could not have been more wrong.  Instead of seeing the Garden Design, below, I saw station-in-life.  Guess what else I didn't see, below, at the front end?  Yep, the garden in winter, how to design her. 
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 How to use Frost in Garden Design
Pic, above, here.
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Now, this is what I know, below.  Garden Design does not vary for station in life, it varies by your intensity of perception, whispering the details, taking them for your own.  In the taking, lives are born.

 Landskap Idaman Rekaan Paul Bangay: Tertutup Dan Berprivasi ~ EKSPRESIRUANG
Pic, above, here.
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Garden design, both pics, above, are the same.  Both pics are a complete garden design class for the garden in winter.

 Scotland calling - Ben Pentreath Inspiration
Pic, above, here.
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Studying historic gardens across the globe for decades, I've been into many art museums in different countries too.  Having the art of Providence, above, in my own garden?  Priceless.  Finding these scenes upon a winter's day, a casual walk/perusal, makes time disappear.  Timelessness of other realms become the reality, the unconscious begins its serious work of creativity, grace, joy, peace, putting connections together. 
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 The full summer bloom of gardens in Colonial Williamsburg, VA www.VisitWilliamsburg.com #WilliamsburgVA #ColonialWilliamsburg
Pic, above, here.

If you don't have a garden work area yet, put thought to it in winter.

 The Mellon's Oak Spring Farm in Upperville, Virginia - 2000 acres, four residences, and over twenty cottages. Former home of philanthropist and gardening doyenne Bunny Mellon, who passed away this ...
Pic, above, here.
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The garden in winter is inside your home too.  Mainly from the views looking out, which is where every garden begins.  Bring the garden inside physically, all year, especially in winter.

 
Pic, above, here.
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What shrubs for your zone with bare stems in winter will bud/open when cut & brought inside?  Don't know?  Contact your local Extension Service, etc.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Bulbs usually go on sale in winter, cheap/easy to pot.  Adore this grow box, below, never seen one before.

 In this mountable glass-and-brass growhouse, your indoor plants and herbs can thrive without a wink of sunlight (and a less-than-green thumb). #indoor #greenhouse #giftguide #plants
Pic, above, here.
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Bringing a few plants inside for winter, below.  Finally, have done this for myself this year.  Take heart, I'm 30 years into it.  Life was never conducive to interior plants, took the plunge in December.
Discovered a trick, not pleasant at first, about a winter's interior plant table.
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Found at local thrift store for a song, that table, when I moved into my house 2.5 years ago, was stowed with the cats in a back room.  A few fur balls later, the table had a bad side.  No problem, brought table out and put that side next to a wall.
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Life conspired further, work travel.  My pet sitter, cats/chickens, is the best.  But adding topiaries to her duties did not seem polite.  Pulled a leaf up on the mahogany table, placed copper trays filled with water, from Smith/Hawken, for humidity, watered pots/foliage, left for over a week. 
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All was great with chicks/cats and topiaries.  Alas the mahogany dropleaf table.  Unpleasant to be honest, but I've ruined the table.  Took a couple of days to get over the fact of ruining a good piece of furniture.  Get over it I did !
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Whoever gets the table after me, has the choice to keep using it roughly, or refinish.  It's solid, no veneer.  Until then, I have a fabulous interior winter plant table.  Then I noticed other winter plant tables, below, and they are spotted just the same as mine.  On trend, go me.         

 Look We Love: How To Create Cozy English Cottage Style — Look We Love
Pic, above, here.
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Bringing plants inside for winter, below, pay attention to their containers.  I found almost the exact wood container, below, about 3 years ago.  Bought it as a gift for a friend, she brings plants inside.  Then I moved, who knew where that planter went.  Once my topiary order arrived last December I rummaged through the basement.  Found that container, below.  Now it's mine, no thought of giving it away.  Found a classic antique plant stand for it at an estate sale last month too.

 #tbt Mark's watercolor of the entrance hall of John Fowler's "Hunting Lodge" in Odiham near Windsor is an illustration from Mark's book, "Legendary Decorators of the 20th Century" that was edited by Jacqueline Onassis and published by Doubleday in 1992. Fowler found the house in the 1940s and added this entrance and a kitchen to what was essentially a "hunting box" in the Royal Forest. Today the house is owned by another stellar decorator, Nicky Haslam. #markhampton #legendarydecoratorsofthe2...
Pic, above, here.
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Your interior plants don't need to be repotted if you have a variety of soup tureens, clay pots, baskets, other weird containers, to slip them into, below. 
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Soup tureens with a crack or chip are easy to find, and cheap.  Perfect for interior plants.

 Nicholas Haslam:
Pic, above, here.
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Bunny Mellon is famous for her topiary use inside, below, all year.  Discovered recently she liked the idea of topiaries after seeing them in ancient Roman artwork.  I've copied her, topiaries, below, are a copy of her, and next maybe you.


Pic, above, here.
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The garden in winter, at its best, below.  How many years have I done these, but outside on my winter patio?  Decades.  Better, branches are easy to procure, free.

♡♡♡
Pic, above, here.
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The garden in winter, below.  The pot could be black plastic from the nursery.  Doesn't matter.  Wicker goes with everything. 

 Portfolio | Nicky Haslam Design
Pic, above, here.
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Have found several of these containers, below, at thrift stores thru the years.  Line with plastic, add soil, poke a few holes, plant the bulbs.  Done.  Stagger planting times, leave outside, bring inside when started to grow, or skip the outside part.  Don't overthink. 

 Carolyne Roehm of course….I love the French steel wicker basket this is in…also the wreath of lower flowers surrounding the daffodils!
Pic, above, here.
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Perhaps the least understood garden design, for me, at the front end, below.  Glad through-a-glass-darkly became clear.  It's about all year beauty, ease of management, living life in the garden, not living life having to work in the garden. 

 My Fotolog
Pic, above, here.
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Giving a Garden in Winter talk tomorrow, handout, below.  Pay no attention to the plants, it's for our zone 8a.  Plants are first on the handout, yet the most important Garden in Winter facts are at the bottom.  It's all about the Garden Design.
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Have a lovely powerpoint to go with it. 
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It's in a historic church 1 county over.  A large group, and active.  More than gardening, this group is proactive politically, historically, conservation, agriculturally, planning/zoning, and etc.  It's amazing what you learn at Garden Club.  If you think it's all about gardening, it's not.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T

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                THE GARDEN IN WINTER
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COPYRIGHT 2018  BY TARA DILLARD

PERENNIALS
Carex                                Vinca minor
Rosemary                          Thrift
Thyme                                Dianthus ‘Bath Pink’
Saxifraga stolonifera         Helleborus
Liriope                               Mondo
Christmas Fern

TREES
Prunus mume
Contorted Filbert                     Cryptomeria
Chimonanthus praecox           Crape myrtle
Acer griseum                           Magnolia
Corylopsis glabrescens             Holly
Hamamelis                               Conifers
Tea Olive

SHRUBS
Camellia             Sarcoccoca      Aspidistra       Lonicera fragrantissima
Daphne               Pieris               Skimmia         Boxwood
Quince                Edgeworthia   Anise                Aucuba
Holly                   Kerria             Hydrangea       Azalea
Scotch broom      Plum Yew      Yew                                    

VINES                                 BULBS
Carolina jessamine               Crocus             Winter aconite    Colchicum luteum   Snowdrops
Evergreen clematis               Scilla sibirica     Grape hyacinth     Iris reticulata     Anemone blanda
Jasmine ‘Madison’

DESIGN:  Know What’s Important
Axis                    Trees                    Color             Texture      Photograph/Feb    
Focal Points        Hedges                 Silhouettes   Fragrance   Ruined Table
Paths                   Groundcovers      Line               Rooms       Vanishing Threshold

The Garden In Winter, by Rosemary Verey,  Beautiful By Design, by Tara Dillard
A Southern Garden, by Elizabeth Lawrence ,  The Garden View, by Tara Dillard