Showing posts with label Meadow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meadow. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

THE SECRET OF FABULOUS LANDSCAPES

Entering Great Dixter, below, the household drive. Tires crunching along the gravel, scent of meadow.

Passing thru the yew hedge into this, above.

.

See the landscape design secret?

.

No?

.

Back your car down the drive, park it on the road, get out, walk up the gravel drive, slowly, and thru the yew hedge.

.

Notice the contrast of meadow to clipped lawn? Formal to informal?

.

Ha, the secret tool of the worlds most famous landscapes is

.

CONTRASTING FORMAL & INFORMAL GARDEN ROOMS.

Did you think this gravel drive & meadow were 'natural'? Ha, not one inch of this drive or meadow were unconsidered. TOTALLY DESIGNED.
.
TARA TURF was born in this meadow over a decade ago. And the epiphany of what the best landscapes create, FORMAL GARDEN ROOMS NEXT TO INFORMAL GARDEN ROOMS.
.
CONTRAST.
.
Yes, contrast flower shapes/colors, tree forms, foliage colors/shapes & etc. Knowing, contrasting FORMAL/INFORMAL is the most important.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Lucky me, taking the pics at Great Dixter while Christopher Lloyd was alive. Note: In another area of Great Dixter meadow is designed up to, and touching, the house. Ha, remember the Tara Rule of Just Let It Touch?
Oh, meadows have been sustainable-organic-eco-low maintenance-beautiful since before language was invented.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

DOUBLE AXIS IN YOUR LANDSCAPE

If you have a focal point bench in your landscapeyou must be able to sit in the bench and see another focal point. Double Axis.
.
My invention, Double Axis. Realizing all the best gardens have it. And. Yes, dahlings, more. The more axis views a focal point has the better it is.
.
From the house, above, you see an Enfilade to the focal point bench. From the bench, above, you see an Enfilade to the focal point house/terrace/urns.
.
Isn't it amazing how one line in a garden looks like 2 gardens when viewed in opposite directions?
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Thank you Krystol for your English pics.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

CENTURIES OLD YET NEW

Nothing original here. It's all been done, for centuries. Yet it's fresh at each site. Easy to maintain.
.
IN THIS LANDSCAPE:
* Path mown thru low meadow on axis to home
* Repetition of greens
* Contrasting shapes, oval & connical, of large shrubs & trees
* Gravel terrace scaled appropriately to architecture of home & functional use
* Pair of planters, informing you, "Yes, enter here."
* Plant on the house, Gertrude Jekyll, world's 1st landscape designer, said, "The first thing I consider in a design is what to put on the house."
.
I'm already in my new cedar Adirondack chair, from Smith/Hawken going-out-of-business sale, reading a book on this gravel terrace. Of course it's stained the color of the window trim.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Thank you Krystol for sending this pic from your England trip.