Technology In Personal Space

Home is newly wireless.  Do I want personal space used, below, for work?

 Spring arrived quickly/unexpectedly, 5 windowed walls surround the harvest table,  below.

 Mornings in my gown making calls (clients, contractors, vendors), emailing, blogging, birdsong, blooms, beloved Laskett in the chair beside me.

 Hours pass.

Need to leave for jobsites, administrative errands.  Putting away every bit of technology/work.
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Technology has changed but not how I take, for 26 years,  joy-grace-energy from being in this spot.
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The moat of grace I've surrounded home & life with, the garden, supports me emotionally & creatively.  So far it's working, honoring this new spot, clearing it afterward & using the Conservatory & other areas for work when I return from jobsites.
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Scoping new phones.  Make the switch from 3 ring binder, pics above, to connect calendars with my guys.
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Wish all this were 'done', want to think about & work in gardens.
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Garden & Be Well,             XO Tara   
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Not a Luddite but if it weren't for gardening I would be slower updating technology.  Perhaps I'll have time to get pics from all 5 of those walls mentioned above.  Need to hurry, azaleas, camellias, kerria, hellebore, akebia, viburnum, rosemary.....all abloom. 
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Notice the gorgeous English antique ironstone soup toureen?  Found at a shop in Augusta, GA when I lectured there several years ago.  Alas, no lid.  The chandelier is ca. 1950's Italian, 1/2 of a pair, bought at an estate sale in Nassau Bay, Texas a couple of years before hurricane Ike.  Oddly, I was shopping with my Dad.  He hated that kind of stuff.  Lots of good memories.....

Formalities & Rusticities

A woodland entry was added to their property, alleviating traffic issues at the family entry.  Formal aspects abound elsewhere.  Keeping RUSTICITIES balances the whole.  Don't know about Formalities & Rusticities?  Read your Jane Austen again, she certainly understood.  Her sanctimonious characters were certainly of the formalities-only-school.

 I used cedars, enlarging a natural drift.  Stone from the site & fallen tree debris, above.

 What you won't see along the lovely Woodland Entry, below,

is what I've hidden.  Modern necessities: satellite, power box & etc. 
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Since we've created this entry & completed the Landscape Design, amplifying Rusticities, she told me it's now her favorite way to enter her property.  A new way of seeing her home.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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pics taken last month.  This is a large area and I adore using the potency of Rusticities in a manner learned from my mentor Mary Kistner, who said, "It's what we do with what we have."  And thankful for a client trusting me with a few rocks, tree debris & her own wild cedar trees.  Rumpelstiltskin was conjuring the wrong form of gold.  This is the gold.

Historically Siting Bulbs

Hillary Clinton had 'intellectual exercise' conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt.  Remember those headlines? 

 Oddly, I got it.  Even then.

Last month I sited thousands of bulbs after "consulting the genius of the place."  I've spoken with landscapes for decades.  
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This garden, above pics, has a historic home with little but its pecan orchard intact.
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Next year anyone seeing the drifts of daffodils will think they've been there a century.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Many of you have this skill, "consulting the genius of the place", but don't trust it.  It's why I listen so hard to landscape questions.  The answers are already in the question. 
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Yes, Alexander Pope...Consult the genius of the place......

Are You Attractive?

"Perhaps it was strange for a young boy to have as his best friend an aging spinster, but neither of us had an ordinary outlook or background, and so it was inevitable, in our separate loneliness, that we should come to share a friendship apart. Except for the hours I spent at school, the three of us, me and old Queenie, our feisty little rat terrier, and Miss Sook, as everyone called my friend, were almost always together. We hunted herbs in the woods, went fishing on remote creeks (with dried sugarcane stalks for fishing poles) and gathered curious ferns and greeneries that we transplanted and grew with trailing flourish in tin pails and chamber pots." Truman Capote Capote goes on to describe, "Miss Sook, sensitive as shy-lady fern..."
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Are you attractive to children?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Taa
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Gardening for children? Futile in my opinion. Garden, fully, for yourself & Be-Who-You-Are. Children know the great characters.
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Pic taken in Susanne Hudson's conservatory.
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Truman Capote quote taken from, The Complete Stories of Truman Capote, copyright 2004, Random House, http://www.atrandom.com/. Thought it would have Breakfast at Tiffany's but only had his short stories, "literary fiction".

Foundation Plantings are Ridiculous

Why a stupid row of evergreen meatballs when you, below, can have this? Why give away your real estate? Foundation plantings are a tired concept.

One espaliered shrub adds a lushness legions of sheared green meatballs will never approach.

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In your mind, at this moment, take away your foundation plantings. Good, have fun destroying a landscape and creating your garden. One matching your interiors, architecture, intellect & spirit.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken when I was in England. Got rid of my foundation plantings over 15 years ago, la-ti-da.

DO IT YOURSELF & WOMEN

Often I will look deeply into my client's eyes, and say, "YOU do this, don't let the crew do it."

Picking up acorns, pulling branches together after a storm to use in a wattle, planting a pot or a few perennials & etc.

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One client's husband refuses to let her garden in the frontyard. He thinks it looks, "low class."
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How could society create such a man? Gardening is luxury. For women wanting to garden.

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Manly help is hired, above, for things I cannot do.

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Why is gardening potent to gardeners? Oxytocin & endorphins.

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Yesterday I stained a pair of cedar adirondack chairs bought at the Smith/Hawken going-out-of-business sale last fall. Several hours on a sunny, warm winter's day.

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Ha, got my oxytocin & endorphins along with a pair of newly stained adirondacks.

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This is exactly why I tell my women clients, new to gardening, DO IT YOURSELF. Not an admonishment, A GIFT.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Top pic, taken in January while hammering, with a spot of tea, the tile around my old tub. Theories about what was behind the tile wall & under the tub were discarded once I began hammering. Yes, called a man. Bottom pic, taken in December when my frontyard became a gravel terrace.

GARDEN DESIGNERS BLOGLINK: TARA'S TRINITY OF THE SOUTHERN GARDEN

With, Tara's Trinity of the Southern Garden: Azaleas, Camellias, Hydrangeas, you'll have blooms everyday in your garden. Oakleaf hydrangea bloom late spring, mophead hydrangea bloom early summer & summer, 'Anna Belle' hydrangea bloom summer, 'Tardiva' & 'Pee Gee' hydrangea bloom late summer to frost. Above, lacecap hydrangea.

Southern Indica Azaleas, 'George Tabor', above, bloom in spring. They stand up to drought, bugs, cold. Use Exbury azaleas too, they bloom before 'George Tabor'.

Camellia sasanqua, above, bloom in fall. Camellia japonica bloom in winter.

Landscapes designed with evergreen hedges & entries, cultivate the eye, songbirds, & increase property value. Chinese snowball, above. Pathways should flow around your entire property, no dead ends. 'Tardiva' hydrangea blooming, above.

Use wit & whimsy in your landscape, above. Beware, CUTE, it's treacherous.

Start your landscape design from inside your home, Vanishing Threshold. Patio, above, viewed from my kitchen sink.

Design your landscape for February. It will be gorgeous all year. View, above, from my living room.

Site deciduous understory trees, crape myrtle, above, to shade your home from summer sun. Window, above, views stone terrace, below. Summer's blanket of rudbeckia gives way to smooth Tennessee gray flagstone the rest of the year.

If you're new to gardening in the South you'll adore, A Southern Garden by Elizabeth Lawrence, and, Hudson's Southern Gardening by Charles Hudson. Use your local Extension Service for specific advice to your county/state. The Garden In Winter, by Rosemary Verey is an incredible garden design book. My 5 books ( 3 on garden design, 2 on plants) are at the right, scroll down.

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Tara's Trinity Of The Southern Garden is gorgeous, low maintenance & a workhorse of your Southern garden design.

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Today is GARDEN DESIGNERS BLOGLINK across America. 12 garden designers sharing what's unique to their region. ENJOY !!!!!

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Jocelyn Chilvers (The Art Garden) – Wheat Ridge, CO
Susan Cohan (Miss Rumphius’ Rules) - Chatham, NJ
Michelle Derviss (Garden Porn) – Novato, CA
Dan Eskelson (Clearwater Landscapes Garden Journal) – Priest River, ID
Laura Livengood Schaub (Interleafings) – San Jose CA
Susan Morrison (Blue Planet Garden Blog) – East Bay, CA
Pam Penick (Digging) – Austin, TX
Susan Schlenger (Landscape Design Viewpoint) – Charlottesville, VA
Genevieve Schmidt (North Coast Gardening) – Arcata, CA
Ivette Soler (The Germinatrix) – Los Angeles, CA
Rebecca Sweet (Gossip in the Garden) – Los Altos, CA
Become a Fan of Blue Heron Landscape Design on Face book – http://bit.ly/yq1XT
Read the Blue Heron Landscapes Blog: http://www.bhld.wordpress.com/
Become a Fan of Blue Heron Landscape Design on Face book - www.bit.ly/yq1XT
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ScottHokunson
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/scotthokunson

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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All pics my garden except hedge with window. Took that pic while writing one of my books.

PRAY, LOVE, GARDEN

Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert was fascinating. A page turner to the end. Reading was what I imagine watching a slow motion train wreck to look like. 1995 had me Gardening & Praying, fiercely, for 2 dear friends & a mother-in-law with cancer. 1996, all 3 gone. A humbling way to learn to pray for God's will, too.
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Christmas 1999, discovery of COLLEGE BOY's choices. Choices made without my knowledge. Choices draining every dime I ever earned or invested. Almost losing my house/garden.
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Into my garden I went. Already friend it became confidant, nurturer, comedian, storyteller, peacemaker, mirror, shaman, shock absorber, grief counselor, career coach, home & more.
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Oh my, the women I've connected with the past decade because of my garden. Women who have faced a violent husband/boyfriend, the murder of a child, an alcoholic spouse/child, solitude of raising children & more. They too turned to their gardens. What I love most about these friendships? We LAUGH.
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Talk about troubles? Ridiculous. We talk books, food, movies, gardens, design, careers, travel, and silly stuff from shoes to men.
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It's amazing how many find a path from survival to thriving in their garden.
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I travel local/national/international for work but I TRAVEL FARTHEST IN MY GARDEN.
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Eat, Pray, Love gave me awareness of a trinity in my life. PRAY, LOVE, GARDEN.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic from my front garden. Decided to move Christmas lights to the gate, they look fab, and keep them there all year. Fine, I'm hearing the lyric, "Like my girls a little on the tacky side." too!

WINDOW SCREENS ARE UGLY

As landscape backdrop your house has zero small details. Studying historic landscapes abroad I realized window screens have no presence. Off they went. Once done I realized it was a, "Let Your House (Life) Out Of Jail" card. Why? LIGHT !!

I removed window screens for the aesthetics of my landscape. Instead, removing window screens increased my quality of life.

House, garden & lifestyle are combined. Who knew?

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Insects? I place screen inserts into windows when the weather is fine & leave the windows open. No bugs & cats can't go out. No alarm, cats are never unattended.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Top pic, Jack. Bottom pics, Mister, who lived to age 22 & loved me devotedly.

GARDEN TUB FANTASY

Promotional pic, below, for my first book, The Garden View. Taken in my garden tub. Plumbing fixtures from Vintage Tub arrived this week.
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The tub is moving inside. Virginia Woolf gave herself a new bathroom with the proceeds from a book. To The Lighthouse is my favorite.
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FANTASY: Long, dirty, bruising, bloody happy day of gardening. Drawing warm water, pouring wine, situating Laskett my cat on his stool next to the tub, Edith Piaff & Nina Simone on the cheap radio I adore, & a threadbare To The Lighthouse.
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If you aren't bruised & bloody is it gardening? Discovering cuts & bruises, after gardening, is a thrill. I'm so happy gardening I never feel them when they happen.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

LANDSCAPE AWAKENING

Augusta, Georgia, 1968, summer, the home & garden of the late author of adventure novels, Edison Marshall. A pair of Indian tigers he shot, flanking a fireplace, did attract my eye. Lunch, served by 'staff' did too. A tour of the house included a true ghost story.

In the garden a pair of huge Galapagos turtles Mr. Marshall brought home from an adventure. Fountains, paths, meadow, urns, statues, fragrance, heat, humidity, butterflies. Never had I seen such a place. I awoke.
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It is said we try to recreate the rooms that first awakened us.
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In Mr. Marshall's garden I learned my parents were not to be taken seriously. Afterward, they spoke only of the house, staff, antiques. If they were 'real' people they would have spoken of the garden. Those moments, circa 1968, in the garden made my blood fizz.

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Still fizzing.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic, garden circa 1910, from Smithsonian Archive.

SHE LAUGHS

Fifty weeks each year, this planter is THE FOCAL POINT. Until, Mother Nature laughs, saying, "ANYTHING YOU CAN DO, I CAN DO BETTER."

Waltz with MOTHER NATURE. Let her lead. It's not a bad deal. YOU get the credit.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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In reality these pics are a Good-Garden-Accident. Client & I placed 4 of these planters around her pool recently. THEN the Japanese maple began to color. Good-Garden-Accident's tell you, "You've done the right thing dahling."

FRONT PORCH

Wreaths on doors are difficult. Scale, color, quality. Oh no, The 'Cute' Factor. CUTE KILLS. Ha, another Tara rule. Wit, whimsy, humor. YES. Last week BOOK GIRL's door had it right.

Looking to the right of the door, above. Reality garden photography, I styled nothing.

Looking to the left of the front door, above, more reality garden photography. Nothing styled for the pics. BOOK GIRL does her own decorating.

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Landscapes should be designed and decorated for the impromptu photo shoot.

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Think of your landscape as it is, this moment, can I meander and take several shots to steal your heart?

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When you look out the windows of your home, at your garden (Vanishing Threshold), does it steal your heart?

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When your garden melts your heart you've got an endless stream of energy, joy, beauty, wit, serenity, peace to draw from for daily living.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

KITCHEN COUNTER BLOCKING FENG SHUI OF LANDSCAPE

For my landscape ( & sanity) the Feng Shui of the kitchen must change. Kitchen counters form an 'L' blocking easy access to the backdoor & garden. Disliked, strongly, for years it's now unbearable. Changing the kitchen will change my life. Bold? No. Energy must flow easily, vanishing threshold.
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The stupid kitchen counter can't block me from my garden anymore. How's that for a mission statement?
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It's ridiculous what's involved removing 4.5' of kitchen counter:
* Replacing the floor
* Replacing old appliances
* New counter tops
* New sink (I like the one above)
* Reconfiguring the ceiling
* Painting
* New light fixtures
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Timeline for action is winter. I've begun getting quotes & sourcing materials.
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Garden clubs, occasionally, meet in my garden for a lecture, tour & box lunch. But I haven't sought greater numbers. Why? The ridiculous kitchen.
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It's time to live my vanishing threshold; house, garden, life.
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Sink, above, from House Beautiful magazine, I think.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara