Landscape Design: What Era Will You Choose?

Whitlow House ca. 1830.  Keeping the views,

 and the house rustic are intentional.  Wanting places of repose,

outside of time.

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Garden & Be Well,          XO Tara

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Pics taken at a project last week.  Landscape Design is about designing elements of TIME & PLACE.  Received a delightful comment about my home/garden this month, "You've really created your own little world, haven't you?"

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Getting The Scale Right

Once or twice a year I work with a home that looks normal but the closer you get you realize its scale is much larger than 1st impression.

 This tiny area, above, is truly larger than it appears.

The lanterns are almost  3' tall.
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Anything smaller & it's Dinky Is Stinky territory.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic taken last week, lanterns sourced by Suzanne Hudson, Le Jardin Blanc.

How To Create Vanishing Threshold

Views outside flow inside, below.

 Draperies, a lamp turned on.

Before you enter the room, above, you know who she is.
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Furniture style, color choices, accessories, scale, flow, placement, comfort, simplicity.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Standing in front of your home, would I know who you are?
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Pics taken last week

Copy Precedent

Researching a sleeping porch I went straight to, An Affair With A House, by Bunny Williams.

 Simplicity, roof line, methods, lattice, doors, heights, colors, interior, exterior & etc.

Initial thoughts were Chinoiserie lattice.  Studying Bunny's book, and others, chose rectangular lattice.

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'Our' porch won't have solid panels at the bottom of the walls, they will be rectangular lattice.

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COPY, it's the most important rule of Landscape Design.

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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara

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Both pics from An Affair With A House, by Bunny Williams.  REPETITION, close-close-close to being the most important rule of Landscape Design.

Crossing The Line Into A New Yorker Cartoon

 The  landscaping was too tall at an assisted living home near me, I drove up to investigate.  Another victim of the economy?

 Signs of a last meal?

Perhaps the food sanitation score closed the business.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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The richness of ALL the patio furnishings being white.  So, did they have a full table and share?  A full table and only 1 resident had an 'issue'.  "Pass the potty please."

Color On The Front Porch

Plates change, colors change, Mary's front porch always delights.

 Mary grew up in this tiny cottage.

 Love this type of caress, below.

 Porch & front door face a side, not the front of the cottage.

 Not quite an acre, it lives bigger, having mature canopy hardwoods & understory trees.

 Love her blacktop.

A view from the front porch into the garden, above.
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After decades away, in much larger homes, life conspired for Mary to live in her tiny cottage again.  I know it's a blessing in my life.  She's around the corner from my garden.
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Garden & Be Well,         XO Tara

Lawn With Mowing Strip

Make it easy, to mow or weed-eat flush with your home, below, with a stone strip.

 Choose stone wisely.  These, above, were easy.  We copied the stone, granite, already used at their frontdoor.  Stone should look like it was quarried on site, or nearby.

Landscape Design is all about repetition.
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Notice 4 more MAJOR Landscape Design topics in the pics?
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Garden & Be Well,           XO Tara
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Why is the deck painted?  Lattice isn't off-the-shelf-big-box-disgusting.  How was the size of the arbor chosen?  How to choose placement of deck steps.  Same garden as previous post.

When To Let Lawn Touch The House

Great Dixter, in England, had Sir Edwin Lutyens & Christopher Lloyd.  Seeing bits of the meadow sweep to, and touch, the house was a revelation.  Frank Lloyd Wright used the conceit.

New deck above, its patch of lawn touching a full length of it.  On purpose.  Lutyen's idea.
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Planting a STUPID row of bushes (green meatballs) along the deck provides what benefit?
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Lawn, here, is a perfection of size & maintenance.  And looks larger without the row of green meatballs.  The deck, also, looks larger without the row of green meatballs.
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Note: deck faces east, and a lake.  Finished days ago.  Furniture, pots/plants arriving soon.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara

Focal Point In The Roundabout

I designed the roundabout on axis with: porch, back door, drive, meadow. With a focal point in the center, OF COURSE.A rooster was found, & placed, almost 2 months ago, above. Love it.

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Last Friday, Patrick, The Rooster Of Hedgerow Farm, was killed by a bobcat.

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She had tears as she told me the story. You must understand, Hedgerow Farm belonged to beloved Patrick. SHE belonged to Patrick.

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Now, the rooster in the roundabout is a meaningful memorial. Who knew?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Same garden as previous 2 posts. Pic taken last Friday, from the mudroom porch.

Back Porch With A Breeze

Architecturally drawn to mimic original construction at this century old home the back porch has high ceilings, great depth + length, and is in an 'L' shape. Exactly like the original front porch, previous post.Old wicker, found locally, is layered with old primitive tables. Scale isn't 'intuitive', not oversized to reach for the hi ceiling. It's scaled for historical correctness, body comfort & ease of conversation.
No matter the heat of the day, stillness of the air, there is always a breeze on this porch.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last Friday.

Front Porch Dining

Built before air-conditioning (near Athens, GA) there was a REASON for this long & deep 'L' shaped front porch.
With morning sun, it's perfect for evening dinner.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Table/chairs arrived recently, sourced/ordered by Susanne Hudson. Big surprise, there are 2 of these tables/chairs. Alas, my pic was awful. Will try again and post the whole front porch for you. Team Tara includes Susanne Hudson on this project.

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Susanne & I are teaming in a garden at the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival in Douglasville, June 4-5, 2011.

Enlarging A Front Porch

Ubiquitous rectangular home with a jailed-in front porch. American Builder's Special. Ugh.Remove chunks of railing and disgusting foundation plantings, widen steps, add flagstone landing.
Now, a front porch to enjoy.


I've removed so many porch rails for clients I've lost count.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Same garden as previous posts.

Seating On A Deck

Pair of matched chairs. Works every time. If it's wood in her garden it's painted her special green.Directly below this deck, pathway to her rescue run. She rescues & fosters dogs.
From this portion of her deck, below,
you can see her wooded frontyard or the backyard & lake.

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Seating areas are throughout: garden, porch, deck, dock, woodland.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Same garden as previous post.

This Garden & Its Mistress

Carriage house, fescue, boxwoods, pair of elms, stone wall/stone terrace/steps, below, all new, perhaps 12 minutes old in the pic.
Client is successful, headstrong, bold, smart, athletic, spiritual, demanding, puckish.

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Today she is in a hospital bed unable to move or speak.

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Before surgery she directed her brother to finish her landscape with us.

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My hope & prayer? In addition to complete recovery, I want to hear her ask: why those boxwoods are 6" off, why didn't you get bigger elms, why isn't the potager edged with dwarf boxwood, why aren't existing boxwoods-in-pots sited & etc.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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This story, this incredible woman, has dug itself in. She's in my prayers.

Formula: 2 Chairs + Table

Woodland, palace, mid-century modern, cluster, townhome, shotgun, split-level ranch & etc.2 chairs + table; works every time.

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Of course, you must choose the correct vernacular.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Another pic from MIXSON at my job in Charleston, SC.

Choosing Exterior Color

Your front door does not have to be black. Nor does it need to be the color of your shutters. Choose a color threading thru your interior art/wallpaper/couch. I cannot design a landscape without seeing interiors.
Look at color choices in sun & shade, morning, evening, rainy days.
Beware of colors that are too alive. They steal attention. White is the worst offender. No worries, there are plenty of calm whites.
A color looking (for example) grey/green in shade, and at the same time looking green/blue in sun is fabulous.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Colour Me Happy is a dedicated COLOR EXPERT. I love everything written & photographed at Colour Me Happy. I like using Benjamin Moore Historic Colors. There is a reason they are historic !

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Pics taken at a client's last week.

Curtained Debut

Yesterday, below, my conservatory under construction. Rescued materials (aka free) a century old: doors, most windows, cedar planks, tongue-groove.French doors, above, are the front of my conservatory & face the back of my home.
My carpenter (now my hero, for this feature alone) set the back windows, above, to open. Notice the outlet above? Chandelier + gravel floor + 3 outlets + 4 walls of windows; what more could a girl (no worries, girl knows when to sling queenly commands) want in less than 200 sq ft?
My patio, above, in normal life.
My patio, above, today. I can't abide it.
Curtains, above, from my bedroom onto the patio have been closed for weeks. My constitution does not include the strength to see this.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Today, maybe, guys will be done !!!! Cannot wait for the curtained debut of my conservatory. No, my guys aren't slow they keep working on my client's jobs. Yes, a GOOD problem.

Choices For Happiness Even In A Rental

Chandelier Chick chose to put a roof over her patio & screen it in.No, materials aren't top of the line, as expected living in a rental home. With a sense of style Chandelier Chick
chose a White Theme.

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What her covered porch shows? Pure optimism. Choices in a life about HOW TO LIVE.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last Saturday at Chandelier Chick's home. You should have seen her interiors. She made a fabulous New Orleans (her hometown) brunch for us then we flew off to Scott Antique Market....... Another fabulous place to make a girl (boy too) happy.

A House In The Garden

Research discovery; plenty of cheap garden structures, and the too expensive. I'm needing a house in the garden, on a steep slope, behind my client's ca. 1920 Tudor home.

Have settled upon a chinoiserie style roof & plenty of French doors. Need a front deck too. Don't want the switchback trail up the slope to enter from the front, want to enter from the side.
Received the first set of drawings, below, from my contractor last night. All he received from me were several pics & about 12' X 18' please.
His creativity in materials has exceeded expectation.

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Contractor & client have a phone appt. today about details. Pricing should be complete early next week. No, it won't be cheap. Goldilocks is hoping for 'just right'.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics, top 2, via research (aka unknown) the past couple of weeks. Bottom 2 pics, via my contractor.

Fake Geometry

Revelation came slowly, below.The balance is real, below.
Symmetry, below, only an illusion. Do you see?
Slow down, look closely, below.
Fake Geometry; looking real. The columns are not symmetrical.

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Poppets, when the revelation about the columns arrived I knew I was in the presence of genius. Have known about Fake Geometry in Landscape Design but this was my first encounter when it was the columns.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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More pics from my client's home in Macon, GA last weekend. Notice the enfilade from parking court/patio/room/frontyard in the 3rd pic? Taking pics in my gown/robe by early morning lite the scrumptious dogs did not rouse from their beds. Their daddy was making coffee, I was only a guest & you know who they were awaiting, mommy. When she arrived those dogs exploded in joy !!!!