What the French Gave: Monocoloring

Credentials I have, yet my true Garden Design education spanned 2+ decades and several continents.

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Smiled when I saw this, below.

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France gave me 2 huge arenas of learning, 1 is below.  

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MonoColoring.

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Language is no barrier to studying the best historic gardens across the globe.  Gardens speak Gardenese.

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Applying a French Garden Design lesson, below.

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If you field gather garden chairs, no worries about style, beyond comfort of course, paint them all the same color. 

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This lesson holds true at every price point home, castle, gated community, farm, villa, pied a terre, section 8 apartment balcony, townhome, even in my little working class cluster home neighborhood.

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Chairs, below, have a choice of colors for monocoloring.  Use trim color from the house, or an interior color that is prominent in the best artwork owned or from the carpet, perhaps a wall color.

Of course more needs to be done, above, in this sweet garden room.

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Vine maintenance, above, is about a month overdue.  Bring a ladder to the French doors landing, with jackhammer drill, mortar screws, galvanized wire, install, finally, threading vine across top of French doors.

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Stay there, and hang the lantern, from the second step, centered above the French doors with the bottom of the lantern hanging 3 courses of bricks above the top of the French doors.

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Done with the ladder, put a level on the pot at the right of the French doors and get it level.

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Finally, use some spare bricks from home construction and raise the serving table, next to the house, 4 bricks high.

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All of these changes, are what my brain does, all of the time, driving or looking at Pinterest.  My brain 'fixes' gardens.  A well-honed skill.

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My brain can rest from this particular form of Garden Design OCD when camping at beach/mountains, and joyfully in my friends gardens.

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When a client garden is headed for Garden Tour it is amazing the to-do list we create for an already fabulous garden.  Pages long.

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If your garden is ready for a garden tour, but you've not done one yet, I strongly encourage you to do it.  Your garden will go to another level.

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You will never have been so driven in your life, promise.  Aside from weeks of exhaustion and hunting/gathering, your checkbook will provide, in a manner that feels like Zen but prior to the tour felt like fear.  It gets worse, you will begin new garden layers, to be finished prior to the tour, you never anticipated.  Providence, supplying epiphanies and inspirations, and you will be Peasant in Chief, happy to oblige. 

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Did you just smirk at this?

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Then YOU are the one that will do all described.  Promise.

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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

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Pic from HERE.  

Furniture in the Garden

'Bring those 2 pillows from the sunroom, and your book', this garden speaks. 

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At what point, in history, did this, below, become a status symbol?

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Does this speak to you?  Evocative of what?

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Every garden speaks.  Whether you think so or not. 

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Henry Ford, "Whether or not you think you can, or you think you can't --you're right."

I've thought meadows, for at least a decade, are the ultimate status symbol.

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Water, tree, meadow, each honored with this bench, more deeply, its invitation to partake.

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Benches have been a favorite focal point for decades.  You may have few opportunities to partake their invitation, but on axis from inside your home, viewing them you'll hear Mary Poppins, "Enough is as good as a feast."

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Picture from Pinterest, here.   Am fascinated with furniture in gardens, especially after a soiree.  Furniture in the Garden, pinterest board.  

Furniture in the Garden: Windsor

George Washington's Windsor chairs, below.  




Shopping with a client yesterday, Atlanta's Merchandise Mart, something new, below.


George Washington would have been thrilled at their material, cast aluminum.


Cocktail table, above, dinner table, below.



Available in several colors.  Scaled to historical perfection, comfortable, light weight.
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Designed, manufactured by Three Coins Cast.  Beyond this you are on your own resourcing them.
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Finally, a new (old) silhouette for the garden.
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At the start of my Garden Design career, 3 decades ago, I knew I had to get clients outside, into their landscape, to ensure they wanted to install their Garden Design plan.  Plans included furnishing the deck/patio.  Ironically, a garden zone NOT included in my horticulture degree.  Paint colors, light fixtures, pots, etc.....too.
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You might like my Furniture in the Garden Pinterest board.  
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara

Choosing Wallpaper

In the bay window, below, at the front of my home, facing the street, tiny front yard, and several houses.

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Landscape design begins inside your home.

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Your realm doesn't start outside.

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Winter's tilt of the Earth, light hurtling through space, wrapping wavelengths tenderly around my garden, shooting as particles through the window panes, returning to wavelengths of light & shadow, seen perhaps merely in walking past, better, when there is lunch here with a friend, light & shadow caressing all they touch.
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This is all about you.  Choices.  How do you want to live in your realm?
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Lighting from the garden & views into the garden are interior design choices along with paint colors & wallpaper.
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Sacred vs. profane.  If you aren't making active choices in either direction, the choice is still made.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic taken this week.   Set of chairs a great find at estate sale nearby years ago.  Tiger oak drop leaf gate leg table a  delightful find at local junk shop, now out of business.

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.
.

What do YOU want?

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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 Business of Nurturing Creativity

Most days I'm designing a landscape.  On site, in my head or in the office.

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Foundation plantings, lawn, annuals, a weekly mow-blow-go-testosterone-on-wheels-commodify-all-I-touch ?  No, hire someone else for that travesty.

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 Providence provided the template for gardens, le jardin rustique, for sure.  

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My gardens are like joy.  Always there for the taking.  

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Take joy.

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There is an action step before the joy.  Take.

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Knowing the Providential template for creating a garden, there is still the job of 'taking'.

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Creativity.

Creativity is honored, deeply, everyday of my life.  It is a tool to use.  I do not own the tool, merely allowed to partake of its precious gift.  Daily.  Honored.  This tool is kept working, with having pets, books, music, walking in Nature most days, having my own garden, colors/furnishings/art/comfort of my home, meals with the pleasure of choosing plates/silver/tray/linen napkin eating in the bay window or conservatory or potager, deep friendships with girlfriends, knowing to get out of my comfort zone every few months, travel/seeing new things, gratitude in Providence, and Beloved.
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Creativity.
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I lost it once, decades ago, not knowing it needed nurturing.  Remember, well, feeling its loss.  Not the loss of Providence, exactly, but the loss of a great gift from Providence I had not honored.  Never want to go there again.  It's not uncommon for issues to arise, needing attentions subtracting from honoring my creativity.  I don't go there, the answer will be, 'no'.

Seeing, deeply, the creativity of others delights my soul and feeds the muse.  In Jamaica, a few days ago, investigating the restaurant while our meal was cooking, above, I was given a gift.  Looking up from our table, below.

Better, below, walking on the beach were these 'chairs' and table.  The table was obvious, but I had to investigate the 'chairs'.

At waters edge, and going nowhere, these chairs are perfect, and they were free.  For the creativity.

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Are you faster than I was?  My brain was molasses for a few seconds, figuring out the 'chairs'.

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Bird bath pedestals buried in sand, with a ring of concrete added to the tops.

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Perfect joy, feeding my creativity, in Thanks at the gift of someone else's creativity.

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Hope their chairs have done the same for you.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Pics taken in Discovery Bay, Jamaica, WI, this month.

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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.

Lunch Ministry, "...now it is a person's table that atones for him.” Talmud, Chagiga 27a

"This notion that we repent through our tables suggests that the table not only be a place to eat and gather with friends and family but a place where repair is performed. We think about where we have fallen short and how we can make up for it by the way we treat others who we bring close to us, close enough to speak to across a table."

From my 20's I have been mentored into Lunch Ministry.

Women, mostly in their 70's, inviting me to lunch.  Women my age could not come out to play, they had babies/children.  Me?  Infertility.

Tables beautifully set, dishes/cloth napkins/silver/platters/center piece, a meal carefully chosen and lovingly made.

 Conversation.  Topics never ceasing, laughter, silence, time became obsolete, something for mortals, not our lunch table.

Never was a dish allowed to be cleared.  Time together was the focus.  Their lessons in Lunch Ministry, though many of those dear ladies are gone, continue.  Me, now, the lady-of-age.  Passing forward the gift, Lunch Ministry.

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Never mentioned at the time, I know now the best part of Lunch Ministry.   Once my guest has left, the lone clearing of table, cleaning dishes at the sink.  Musing over conversation, harboring myriad directions of prayer.

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"If an altar is like the Divine's table then when there is no altar our tables must serve in its place. "The verse began with 'altar' and ended with 'table,'" taught both Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish. These were noted sparring partners, but there was something that the two agreed upon: this teaching."

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Quotes from Jewish World Review article, here.
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Pics via my Pinterest board, Furniture in the Garden.  Second pic via Petersham Nurseries.

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.

Beautiful Easy Landscape: Green, Brown, White

At her kitchen porch, below.  Her color theme is the beautiful landscape classic: green, brown, white.
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With 300+ acres everything must be simple.  No care.  More than pretty & easy, her landscape must leverage her life.  What does that mean?
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Your beautiful landscape must work for you.
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A large local nursery advertises it's- fun- to- play- in- the- dirt.  Really?  That is a landscape?
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Beautiful landscapes, in my realm, work for me.  How?  Increase property value, decrease HVAC, attractive to pollinators/guests/me, little time 'playing in the dirt'.  Instead, hours are spent in my garden reading or having meals in the Conservatory, cutting flowers to bring inside, having lunch in the potager on a sunny winter's day, awakening to the scent of tea olive, playing with my pets, or enjoying the harvest table on the patio as I've spread out materials and laptop to create a power point, and etc.
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Play in the dirt?  Sure, a part of my realm to enjoy, but merely a sliver of what beautiful landscapes provide.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pic shot at a client's home yesterday.  Would love a flower show display of 12 landscapes all with the green-brown-white theme set on a small terrace with 2 chairs + table.  Same story, new each time.

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.

The Best Garden Design Ideas

The best garden design ideas are simple.  And have been done for thousands of years.

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No worries, ever, about copying them.

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Each site is unique.

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Any garden design idea you choose to copy will be original and fresh in your garden.

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Focal point on axis with backdrop, below.

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With greater surprise as the garden is walked, there are more axis on this focal point, below.

Same table, above/below, as yesterday's post.

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Except shot from different axis.

Backdrop hedges are as important as the focal point and axis.

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Without the backdrop hedges you would see a mash-up of other garden rooms.

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Gardens must have mystery.

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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara

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I didn't want to copy pretty gardens when I got out of college.  I wanted to be unique.  Those unique efforts created cringe worthy gardens.  Aside from ugly, they cost money, and the worst loss, TIME.  No one can buy more time.

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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.

Place Focal Points Like Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst

You must see the table + 2 chairs the way I first saw them, below.  Hidden amongst the boxwood parterre.

Walking a bit further, along the front garden's main central axis, below, a hint.

Walking toward this wickedly sited subsidiary focal point, below.

  Walking toward the home and old millstone table, below.

 Walking away from the home, the impromptu trinity of furniture in the garden, below.

Here's the deal with well sited focal  focal points.

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The more axis a focal point has, the better the focal point.

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There is more detail about this in one of my books.

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This isn't something you learn in school or a symposium lecture.

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You learn it studying the best historic gardens across the globe.

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For decades.

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I have a favorite, easy, multiple axis design.

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Works every time.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken this week.  Same garden as previous post.   Remember, the more axis a focal point has the better the focal point.

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Sissinghurst has a naked man statue, on plinth, with 5 axis.

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Hello, I was awake & got the epiphany.

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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.

Pinterest: Furniture in the Garden

Still glowing & fragrant, Southern for sweaty-from-the-day, 48 hr whirlwind with Susanne Hudson in good gardens.

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Had to share at least 1 pic from our jaunts, below.

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Acreage, antebellum, private home of _____________.
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How have I not known/met this man, or heard his name?
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Unavailable, he gave us access to his gardens & barns.
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A garden design class is in this pic, above, but for now it is merely enough to know Furniture in the Garden.
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Pinterest, at present, is a joy to eye & intellect.  Adore intuitive learning from good pics.  Since childhood I've been attracted to British shows on PBS and furniture-in-the-garden.  OF COURSE I titled one of my Pinterest boards, Furniture in the Garden.  Click, here, to see it.
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Local interest, Martha Tate owner of HGTV's Gardener's Diary, and Liz Tedder, 19 times (so far) in Southern Living magazine were with Susanne/me.  Met Martha in my early 20's professionally and sadly only recently met Liz Tedder, she came to the Conservatory Susanne & I built for a Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival display 3 years ago, which is now fronting editor's letter of Better Home's Gardens magazine this month.  1st time in Tedder's garden.  How does that possibly happen, should have been 76th time.  Best news?  Liz is writing a book.  And, I was demanding of what it should have.  Don't you do that?  Why not ask for what you want to see pics of and know about?  This doesn't begin to cover spending the nite in Susanne's world famous garden, again.  Luff, luff Susanne's mom.  Asked her if I could call her, MiMi, today, she's 80's & I'm 50's.  Hugs & kisses in both directions.
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Drawing a garden for a Federal style home tomorrow.  Life is rushed, and good.
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Notice Tara Turf, above?  How could I not adore this 'new' friend?  Will post more pics, and his name/link once I meet him and get permission.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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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.