Incipient Calm

A petty bourgeois comfort. I know. Hydrangeas & Blue/White China say, "Keep Calm & Carry On", ha, without words.
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Exterior painting, 5 weeks, completed. You know how they left my garden.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken in my garden earlier this week. H. macrophylla 'Penny Mac' shown. Dug from Penny's garden by the Queen of Hydrangea Heaven herself. Decades of blue blossoms in her garden & years in mine. 2 years ago, severe drought, they turned pink due to poor aluminum uptake. Plenty of rains since last fall, hmm, still pink.

Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival

Susanne Hudson & I are creating a garden for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival, in Douglasville, GA. Saturday, June 5 - Sunday June 6th, 2010.
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This chandelier, below, will be in our garden. Along with rescued treasures: rusty, dirty, antique, arcane. And: #89 granite gravel, busts, furniture. Ha, almost forgot, plants too. A tram circles the gardens on tour. Including Susanne's nationally recognized garden, below. Erica Glasener , of HGTV fame, speaks Saturday, 5th and so will I. In the evening there's a garden tour & progressive dinner.

Twice to Douglasville & spend-the-nites with Susanne already, working in our garden. More work days & spend-the-nites ahead.

This is work?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken at Susanne's yesterday morning, yes, a 'work' day morning! She toured me to some of the gardens Wed. evening because I won't have time to see them during the Festival. We were able to have private time with the owners, & their dogs, strolling their gardens after a lite rain. The air cool, fireflies, and scent of jasmine pervasive.

Frames in the Landscape

A bit small for framing, below, in person. But with

your camera this armillary sundial

is an interesting frame in the landscape.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Shots taken recently in Susanne Hudson's garden. Hydrangeas, bottom pic. A friend visiting my garden last week saw my armillary sundial laying unused on the potting table. She suggested I use it as a chandelier for the new conservatory. Hmm, delightful !

Outside & Inside A Hedge

Standing in the street, below, at my front gate this morning. Inside the hedge, below, is my Bay Terrace.

Oakleaf Hydrangea blossoms unfurling, below, in the Bay Terrace.

The subtlety of my rule "Just Let It Touch", blossoms caressing, below, the adirondack chair.

Oakleaf Hydrangeas espaliered, below, at the bay window. Learned this trick in Italy at Lake Maggiori.

Did my garden make you curious about seeing, below, inside?

My go-to spot, above, for working on projects, lunch, dinner with a girlfriend.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Bottom pic taken weeks ago, rest of the pics taken less than 15 minutes ago.

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Love English hedgerows and copied. Mine: dwarf abelia, climbing rose 'Dortmund', hydrangeas, boxwood, palm, rosemary, lavender, liriope, clematis, hollyhocks.

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Breakfast yesterday morning, in my gown, sitting in the adirondack chair caressed with oakleaf hydrangea blossoms. Neighbors in my tiny subdivision, surrounding my tiny property, well hidden behind my hedge.

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The antique gateleg table had been in my office for a decade until last January. I hired Susanne Hudson to choose paint colors, somehow, ALL my furniture moved !

A NEW GARDEN ROOM: ROSE TERRACE

ROSE TERRACE, unfinished & already a dowager, hosted me Saturday. Shirt sleeves, wine, book.

Incomplete, ha, the charms of ROSE TERRACE are prodigeous.

ROSE TERRACE is under the crape myrtles, below, and my office window.

ROSE TERRACE, below, last month. Delightful, the potency of shirt sleeves Saturday.

Of course, below, I was in the chaise, circa 1930, taking pic of the teak adirondack with fallen camellia blossoms, C. 'White By The Gate'.

Antique roses weave into crape myrtles shading house & ROSE TERRACE. That idea came in Claude Monet's garden, circa 1990. Couldn't get home fast enough to order the roses. Today's era? Order via cell phone from Claude's garden. "Claude', one of the dead men I have a THING for.

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Prior to being the ROSE TERRACE this was a hydrangea patch.

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Prior to being a hydrangea patch this was an herbaceous border.

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Prior to being an herbaceous border this was ---can't believe I'm admitting to this --- otto luyken laurels I planted before I knew a thing about gardening.

Hydrangeas repurposed, below, at the border of ROSE TERRACE. Shot pea gravel, 3" deep -- no landscape fabric, with stone & brick for edging.

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New Camellias, Tea Olives & Gardenias are espaliered against the wall of ROSE TERRACE.

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Lanterns + Candles await to be hung from the Crape Myrtles.

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Terra cotta pots await my luncheon appointment with a topiary wholesale nursery next week. Honestly, it would be impossible to make this stuff up. AND it's work. My career.

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(Of course no one wants my job when it's hot/humid & blood is trickling down my neck from mosquito bites or I'm picking up dog s---t in a client's garden so they'll only see my contractor's beautiful installation of my design. Oh, lest I forget, falling off the second story of my home before a winter open garden & getting up and working more while it's still dark outside so the 10am start time is EFFORTLESS. Ha!!!!!!!!!)

Dowager? Incomplete, ROSE TERRACE is already gorgeous & functioning.
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NOTE: Adirondack on flagstones, prevents irratic sinking. For proper photography & when guests are present hide flagstones under shot pea gravel.

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Inspiration? Enjoying wine/canapes at a girlfriend's, realizing I didn't have a similar spot.

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Can't wait for warmer days ahead, girlfriends & ROSE TERRACE.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

SMALL CONTENTMENTS

Wallpaper, 24 years old & still adored.The urge, energy & creativity to bring flowers inside, below, was absent for years. Blooms outside these windows every day, all year, no effort. Of course I must tolerate birds, butterflies or honeybees everyday too. Camellias, blooming outside, below. The brown? Dormant hydrangeas. The green? Azaleas. (Tara's Trinity of the Southern Garden: Azaleas, Camellias & Hydrangeas.)

Old wicker from an estate sale around the corner 3 years ago.

The cloche had been in the garden over 5 years, until hellebores were cut last week.

After 20 years, my house was painted. A decorator, Susanne Hudson, hired to help with colors & interior design.

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I'm basking in the joy, serenity & energy my new spaces are giving me.

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Above, When stamens drop, I'm taken out of time. (Lucky me, I think some people need cocaine to feel like this. As the Sea Witch in Little Mermaid says, "...Poor unfortunate souls........")

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What mentors have shared with me the most? Small contentments.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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That fabulous cloche? TJMaxx, $9.99!

CHALLENGE & SOLUTION

When the carriage house, below, was completed Susanne Hudson's builder said, "Don't plant, I've packed solid Georgia red clay so you won't flood."
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What did Susanne do?
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She planted a garden around her carriage house in POTS.
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Last fall's flood, killing several in Douglasville, GA? Roads & bridges are still closed in places. Susanne's carriage house did not flood.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken in Susanne Hudson's garden of her carriage house. Susanne prefers green, brown & white in her garden. Above, you see mophead hydrangeas allowed into her tight color scheme. Three years ago Susanne began the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival. A weekend of lectures, vendors & garden tours. Go if you can, it's fabulous.

VANISHING THRESHOLD: Lighting

When it moves outside it's a trend. Fabulous lanterns. First Rules of Landscape Design: copy, simplicity, repetition.
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SENSUOUS, above. Crunch of gravel, trilling water, warmth of candle light, hearing refreshments poured from a pretty pitcher, feel of foliage upon your arm, repetition of color house-furniture-shutters-arbor-fountain-gravel, scale, flow, texture, vanishing threshold.
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Beauty w/Low Maintenance in the garden is sensuous & feng shui.
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Design, above, for yourself. Grace IS a destination.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic, Michael Partino via Brabourne Farms

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.

NOTHING HAS MOVED

Today, below, the end of a long fall. This summer, below, a fairly decent year for Mophead Hydrangeas.

Table nor blue/white ginger jar has moved. Only the seasons have changed & where I've stood to take the pics.

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Big Impact, Little Input Gardening!!

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

THE WELL-PLACED RAKE

With wood tines this rake was bought for ornamentation. To create vignettes. Then realizing this is the rake to use on a bluestone terrace. No scratching of your stones with metal tines.

In the foreground, above, is a Pee Gee hydrangea. With dried blossoms, by the rake, is an oakleaf hydrangea. After this picture was taken I added 'Anna Belle' hydrangea.

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Oakleaf/'Anna Belle'/Pee Gee, tolerate full-sun in my zone 8 garden. Oakleaf's bloom early summer, 'Anna Belle' most of summer, Pee Gee late summer.

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The burgundy foliage? A Weeping Cut-Leaf Red Japanese Maple. Bought for 90% off at Lowe's. A hand-written sale sign for all shade trees several fall's ago. Ha, the cashier said this tree wasn't included. Hunger, lust, desire, dahlings, I had to have this tree. Yes, a $200 tree for 90% off. Had to ask the cashier for the manager, to get the sale price. Wholesale, trees this size are more than $200. Sold, $20 !!!

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What you can't realize about this vignette in my garden? It's at the front of my tiny property and neighbor's houses are EVERYWHERE. But, la-ti-da, I have my little Cotswoldian idyll and don't see them.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

SEASONS IN A GARDEN ROOM

Her voice, You must have Rudbeckia fulgida fulgida. Standing in the aisle layed with old roof shingles in the perennials greenhouse. I worked propagation, professionally, moons ago. (Moons ago is less aging than 'decades' ago, yes?) Her gold Rudbeckia fulgida fulgida has been blooming July-Dec. ever since, in my garden, above.

A bird planted the spring English daisy, above. Recognizing a true landscape designer, I kept it.

Same chair, above, fall view from my office.

Early summer, above, hydrangeas start and Rudbeckia fulgida fulgida are 1' high.

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A supporting tapestry to my days, for many years, I realized I should gather pics of my formal stone terrace & part-time meadow. Threads aren't finished, will get you a pic of the blue ageratum blooming in Sept.

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This terrace is a nurturing friend.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

SHOOTING HYDRANGEAS & LOVING LEGS

How did the hydrangeas KNOW where to grow? This is not a 'styled' picture. It's viewed thru my kitchen & bedroom windows.
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When it comes to focal points, just-let-it-touch. What bench, statue, urn, birdbath isn't improved with a hint of foliage just touching?
Shooting hydrangeas and seeing the table legs from a new angle, below. The legs have a slight curve from top to bottom, reeking of the 1950's. Aside from being a diminutive rectangular shape, perfection, I had to have those legs.

And the glass top with more hydrangea blossoms underneath. A hydrangea carpet!!!

And the blue/white ginger jar? It's a traditional Chinese wedding gift. The writing says, 'Double Happiness'. Of course I didn't know that when I bought it at the thrift store for $3.
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Notes: Square or rectangular patio tables are the best, round tables aren't as flexible in usage. A pair of square tables can be used separately or pulled together for larger gatherings. If you find an old iron patio table, as above, don't worry that it doesn't have chairs. Find comfortable chairs or benches of wood or metal and paint them all the same color. The French have been doing this for centuries. Place an arbor over your table with a ceiling fan to keep mosquitoes away. ENJOY.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

SUSANNE HUDSON'S FRONT PORCH

Framed by 2 magnolias, Susanne Hudson's front porch is a masters class of design. Susanne created the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival honoring 2 loves, a plant & a friend.

In her town, Douglasville, GA, Susanne is proof, Build it & they will come.

Susanne asked me to speak to her garden club last year. That venue was her wildly successful wedding & events business, Le Jardin Blanc.

This year I spoke at the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival. It was last Saturday.

Trams shuttled visitors to speaking venues, tented vendors & open gardens.

After speaking it became pure garden fantasy. Seeing Susanne's garden.

Her front porch took 1/2 hour.

Her home is on the historic register.

Green, brown & white are Susanne's favorite colors to use in the garden.

Oh my, the timelessness of Susanne's design.

She creates realms of calm repose. Simply.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara