VANISHING THRESHOLD: Lighting

When it moves outside it's a trend. Fabulous lanterns. First Rules of Landscape Design: copy, simplicity, repetition.
.
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.
.
Beauty w/Low Maintenance in the garden is sensuous & feng shui.
.
Design, above, for yourself. Grace IS a destination.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic, Michael Partino via Brabourne Farms

4SOME: CLUB, WING & ADIRONDACK

Adirondacks were the 1st 4some I saw outside. And LOVED. A client had a 4some of club chairs w/ottoman at their center, inside their home. Gorgeous.
.
Now, wingchairs in 4some, above, outside. Yes!!!
.
What works here?
* No foundation planting.
* Vines on the house.
* Color: bricks, chairs, pots, foliage, flowers, sky.
* Pots: size, plantings, placement.
* Scale.
* Flow.
* Axis.
* Contrasting textures. Dark leaves by chartreuse leaves. Big leaves by small leaves.
* Canopy & understory trees.
* Walls: plants & house.
* 4SOME of Chairs. Comfort.
* Invitation. Steps leading you further, if only in imagination. Doors, beckoning the great indoors.
* Mystery. Yes, I want to see this garden. Yes, I want to go inside this house.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic from Maison Sud-Ouest, via, Garden Rooms. Had to show it to you. This garden has stuck in my head as pure pleasure.

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.

.

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.

.

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

.

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

.

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

.

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.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

A LITTLE COLOR

A few days ago in Oregon, below. What I like most, above? Remove flowers & pumpkins, and the design holds together.
.
Your pots must be so wonderful they can be empty.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Love your porch pic Trina, thanks !

CHALLENGE: TREES + ROOTS + SHADE

Old house, old trees, old solution!!! Le Jardin Blanc in Douglasville, GA spread #89 granite gravel under its old trees. Oh the romance of hearing gravel underfoot. Tables + chairs? Yes, ordered from France. Notice where the gravel laps into the tree? Left natural, by choice.

It's a fairy tale, but true, garden at Le Jardin Blanc.

White house, white garden, white furniture, white tea pots, white red -velvet cake.

.

LOL, at the style of Le Jardin Blanc. Why? Most people crumble at the challenge of huge trees, dense shade, roots rising from the ground. Le Jardin Blanc decided to open a business in this 1868 plantation home. Their budget? Nill.

.

They tamed the landscape sustainably, organically & with low-maintenance.

.

Nothing new about the fabulous landscape created at Le Jardin Blanc. The ladies copied what worked from the past.

.

PUPPET BARBUDA knows landscapes of gravel are cheap, affordable, well-priced, soft-on-the-wallet, effective, gorgeous, low maintenance. Women clients into their 60's have shoveled their own gravel once delivered. Gravel landscaping has been used more than 10 centuries. Ha, PUPPET BARBUDA wouldn't sell you an irrigation system with lawn under those trees................

.

It seems PUPPET BARBUDA wants to bark about landscapes that can be created by you vs. landscapes that can be sold to you.

.

Yes, pics of the tea party are mine, at Le Jardin Blanc. I was there lecturing about Vanishing Threshold to a large garden club group. An incredible afternoon.

.

Felt like we were in the park in the movie, Gigi.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

FRONT PORCH IN A SUBDIVISION, FAST

Rare people implement landscape design quickly. What is quick? One year is a blink of the eye in the landscape realm. Jeri Farmer, retired marketing guru, moved in a year ago. In retirement? She owns, Le Jardin Blanc, with Susanne Hudson.

Jeri is hooked on white. With some blue. Susanne designed Jeri's garden overdosing Jeri's theme.

Jeri did something shocking. She implemented the plan, without wavering. And in a year has a garden life.

Landscapes, like people, are more defined by what they say no to.

"Men come to build sooner than to garden finely as if gardening were the greater art." Alexander Pope 17th century
.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

SPO: HOME, GARDEN, TEA

SPO's home was under construction when I drew her landscape design several months ago. I knew from descriptions it was going to be scrumptious. A small house is what she, & her husband CAPE COD, wanted with great details, antiques, art, books and a garden. Look at the tea she served. Cava, ha, isn't she wonderful? County restrictions & certificate of occupancy played a role in the initial landscape. A dastardly lawn HAD to go in. Soon much of the lawn will be flowering shrubs, groundcovers, understory blooming trees, paths, rosemary, lavender & more wildflowers.

SPO's first wildflower meadow, above.

Lawn now but just you wait, hydrangeas, azaleas, viburnum, mondo, jasmine, tea olive, cryptomeria, gardenia, camellia, forsythia, & etc......

SPO sourced most of the materials for the house. The working shutters are on all sides of the house. The living room, above, with 2 pair French doors leading to the back porch and, below, a door from the master bedroom to the back porch.

Well chosen downspout, below, it's round. The stones are faux. On site, from 3', you can't tell they are faux.

The kitchen, family room, master bedroom, upstairs office, & porch, below, overlook an amphitheater with a mature woodland backdrop. You would not believe the birdsong.

Natural terracing, below, forms the amphitheatre. Faux stone tops the retaining walls.

Textured blocks, below, even cheaper than the faux stone, comprise the retaining walls. Not seen, why spend more?

A delight in the carriage house, the Cadillac. SPO & CAPE COD drive for pancakes each Saturday in the Caddy. Yes, I've asked them to stop by & pick me up some Saturday.

SPO adores cooking and found her kitchen online at Yestertec Kitchen Works. Simple, compact, functional and charming.

The oven, below, is in the cabinet under the stove.

And the armoir, below, is not a pantry.

It's a cooking center, below. Delightful, just close the doors and it's a clean look.

In the library, below. Moving into this house they decided to forgo cable. And are loving the change in their lives.

Between kitchen and living room, below, the desk. The house is one room deep in these rooms and full of natural light. And views, views, views.

Keeping it small, below, SPO knew to go high with the living room ceiling.

SPO & I dreamed, before she moved in, about having a tea party on the back porch, below. Alas, dear ones, we were weak. Do you know how forsakenly hot/humid it was?

SPO & CAPE COD have successfully down-sized from their large home yet already feel the difference in living larger, richer, simpler, lives.

.

Enjoying the cava, conversation, house, garden and scones with fresh fruit/jam it was difficult to comprehend they have only been in their home for 3 months. It felt like E. M. Forster. The solidness of Howard's End. A place to fill the spirit.

.

You'll be getting more of SPO & CAPE COD because I didn't get any pics of their corgi, who really owns the place. And of course, as the garden goes in.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO T

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.
.
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.
.

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.

.

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.

.

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

.

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

.

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.

.

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

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara