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
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Read the Blue Heron Landscapes Blog: http://www.bhld.wordpress.com/
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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.

KNOW WHO TO ASK

Ask a landscape contractor specializing in brick/stone/concrete/mortar for ideas about a path or terrace? It's fairly certain you'll end up with ideas like this, below. Instead of something like this, below.

Gravel ranges $20-$48/ton & doesn't require skilled labor.

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At a girlfriend's for dinner I broke a personal rule, "No Landscape Designing, Unless Asked. " She told me the story of several contractor bids to repair her old, broken concrete patio. Each bid into the thousands of dollars. I asked her, "What do you think of gravel?"

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Yes, dahlings, less than $300 later she had a gravel terrace. She asked me, "Why didn't any of the contractors tell me about gravel?" She loves the terrace & so do I. We've had many dinners, brunches & glasses of wine on her gravel terrace.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Top pic from Smithsonian Horticulture Archive, Bottom pic from the movie, It's Complicated. No time to poke around for my girlfriend's gravel terrace at the moment. Another post!

IT IS UNCOMPLICATED

This landscape had me at its gravel. Did you notice this landscape requires no skilled maintenance?
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Pillow? Already telling us something about the home's interior.
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Vines adding lushness without taking up space.
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Pot clusters created as still life's, art. Not some stupid notion of need-a-garden-idea-here.
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Do you feel the pots, bench, plantings, gravel leading you to the back door?
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Sense how this garden room can be as easily rearranged as an interior room?
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This tiny garden room gives a huge sense of the woman living here. Does your garden look like your inner self?
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Do you think this garden was professionally designed? Yes? Me too.
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If this were your garden room, and you didn't have it professionally designed would it look this good? More importantly would it have cost so little to implement? Of greater importance would it be as easy, cost effective, to maintain? Topping the importance list, would you have created a garden room inviting you to use it?
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PUPPET BARBUDA loves this Vanishing Threshold garden.
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Pic from the movie, It's Complicated.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara aka PUPPET BARBUDA

DISCOVERY

Landscape Design, blue/white ginger jar, below, $3, thrift store, color, no plants, no watering, no replanting, tablescape. Found this pic, above, yesterday. Discovering I've shot this jar

throughout most seasons. STYLED pics aren't my thing. Pink Debutant camellia blossoms adorn the blue/white ginger jar now. Awaiting Mother Nature's styling before I show you.

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Did you know this about my landscape design & gardening? Choosing beauty. The, "Oh, WOW", of looking out every window of my home. Everyday.

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A powerful life choice. Grace. Ironic, it's not what I was looking for, it's what I found.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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

COLOR: BEFORE & AFTER

After creating garden rooms, color is my #2 choice for what's important in a landscape. Came across this pic, below, yesterday.

OMG, so glad I stained the teak and painted the iron.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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

LANDSCAPE DESIGN: DOUBLE AXIS

Patio views yesterday thru the crape myrtle 'Natchez'. Thru blossoms to my backdoor, below. Same blossoms, below, viewed from the backdoor.

If a view is pretty in one direction it must be pretty in its opposite direction, Double Axis.

Looking up, above, thru the blossoms as far as you can see. Triple axis!

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Note: Patio is a bit of a mess until the frontyard project is completed this fall. It's holding pieces going to the front. Timelines aren't always perfect. The day job forces me to be a plodder in my own landscape. And I love the plodding in my garden! Sweet.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

MISSIONS & PAINTS & OBITS

Faded green, color-matched from a House & Garden magazine picture circa 1990's. The home was in England, owned by a couturier to the Queen. My trim had been white. (Blinds, above, are always open but lowered to prevent birds smashing.)

Antique iron gates, Egyptian, late-Victorian, arrived rusted with hints of Robin's egg blue. It became the color for all the iron in my garden, above.

This chair, above, arrived, from Wal-Mart circa 1990's, already stained. Ick.

Original stain finally wore away and I stained, above, the chair Saturday. You knew, of course, I do these chores myself? Then, as it dried on the patio the rains came.

Choices had to be made, above, painting this iron gate with wood post. Stain the wood, as all the wood is stained, faded green, or go with Robin's egg blue? After that, choosing the bird's color was easy.
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Robin's Egg Blue: from Lowe's color matched, Olympic exterior oil gloss, base 4-73704, B57-3, Kingston Aqua exterior gloss oil, 101-24 102-28 103-3 Flat egg Sat s/g gloss. Note, they don't sell oil anymore.

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Faded Green: from Lowe's color matched, Olympic maximum, Deck Fence & Siding Stain. 100% acrylic Latex Formula, clear base, custom color, manual dispense 113-5Y40.5 115-2Y1.5 114-2Y47 102-1Y8.5

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Staining teak or an arbor aren't easy choices. My regret was waiting to make choices. The colors never bore. They are different in shade, sun, morning, evening, rain & etc.

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Painting & staining in the garden completed the interiors of my home.

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I live from the center of my home to the property line. Before, I only lived from the center of my home to its walls.
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A delightful obituary in the NYTimes Tuesday for Edward Durell Stone, Jr., landscape architect included, ...Most recent honor , the ASLA Landmark Award co-sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Presevation for PepsiCo's world headquarters in Purchase, NY was particularly gratifying. Designed over thirty years ago, PepsiCo's corporate campus was recognized for its excellence and inspiration to its people and their purpose.

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Why do anything less for yourself?

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A home & garden to inspire your daily life & your purpose in this world.

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Reminds me of something from Oprah magazine, What is your life the answer to?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

THIS WAS A RANCH?

SURFER CHICK & TENNIS bought a dystopian ranch. Then hired architect John Knight . Do you see any hint of the ranch? It's still there, all of it.

SURFER CHICK & TENNIS liked my idea of French doors off the dining room, above. Creating a magic circle.

After the landscape design was complete TENNIS said he wanted a level frontyard.
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Hence the stone wall, above.

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Plantings are not yet a year old. A true dwarf loropetalum 'Purple Pixie', above, will soon soften the wall. Along with gardenias, variegated pittosporum, hydrangea, Southern Indica azaleas, & perennials.

Stone for the wall copies what John Knight chose for the house.

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Repetition & copy are 2 landscape design tools.

The new landscape is redolent of another era, 1930's, using pass along plant favorites.

John's details are fabulous, above, round copper downspouts, and a slight pitch to the shingle siding where it meets the brick.

Entry to the garden from the street, on axis from the front door, creates an enfilade. Adding depth, warmth, welcome, focal point, movement.

Thru the black-eyed Susan's, above. Pairs of gardenia are used at the front entry near the curb and at the front porch.

Last Friday I was on site to draw the backyard landscape.

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I've added another pair of French doors to the left of those above. And 2 new arbors. One extending from the screened porch and the other directly opposite. Ceiling fans on the arbors, cozy seating with Adirondack chairs and a harvest table with chairs.

Potting table & gravel terrace (#89 granite gravel) will be added in front of the back wall, above, with the oval window. Camellia sasanqua hedging will embrace the gravel terrace.

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The upper lawn, above, will keep it's tapestry hedge of azalea, ligustrum, liriope, camellia. I've added several oakleaf hydangea and a new sitting area.

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The front door has an enfilade thru the French doors, patio & lawn, above. A bench has been placed on axis with it in the plan.

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And I'm feeling negligent I didn't get a picture of the plan for you.

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I'll ask SURFER CHICK to send a picture of the plan AND a picture of their original ranch.

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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

BIRTHDAY PICNIC IN THE EVENING GARDEN

He said, It's late but please come to LOLA's birthday picnic. Bring something healthy for about 15. I met LOLA last month lecturing for the Extension Service. Instant GIRL CRUSH.LOLA was growing TARA TURF before we met! Historically correct for her older home. A mix of fescue-moss-clover-what the wind blows in. Never needs water, fertilizer or chemicals. Honeybees love it.

LOLA chose the paint for her bricks and created her own interiors. How to get you the fragrance of this magnolia?

Vanishing Threshold, above, dictates views into a window are pretty in both directions. No backsides of pictures, clocks, or TV.

Do you like still life's too?

About here, above, I thought to myself, This is probably rude leaving the party to wander & take pics without asking. Ha, did I stop?

I knew LOLA wouldn't have paper plates. Or paper napkins.

Gazpacho in the pitcher, Mario Bitalli asparagus (sauteed with garlic/parsley/citrus), fruit salad, cucumber salad, field pea salad.... Wine & beer & tea were in the copper farmhouse sink cradled in ice.

Set into a slight hill the house is crowned with a hardwood canopy of oaks. Captured light, above.

Vanishing Threshold, house & garden, each a seduction of comfort.

LOLA added French doors.

The back garden has 3 terraces.

LOLA really nailed her pot clusters, above. She overdosed, with 3!

Standing at the French doors looking into the garden. A designer planned the garden; contractors put in the stone. LOLA and darling TOM are doing the plantings & maintenance. Exactly the hand-heart-eye a paid maintenance crew cannot provide. The word for it? Charm.

What is a house & garden without a Queen? CHESSIE was in control. She also sweetly gave away a personal tidbit. She's a Daddy's Girl.

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LOLA & TOM live from the center of their home to the property line. And that darlings is Vanishing Threshold.

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Stop here if you don't partake of good gossip.

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LOLA & TOM were married last year in Italy. LOLA invited her 2 best friends. And that is how darling TOM honeymooned with 3 women at a villa in Italy.

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You bet I'll keep up with this interesting crew.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara