Showing posts with label Porch-Deck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Porch-Deck. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Blossom Boxes By Steve Eaton

She needed something at her gravel parking court.  (Tara Dillard's, Queen's Pot, of course.  A pot so fabulous it can remain empty.  Do all of your pots pass this test?)
Mostly, she has Steve Eaton of Blossom Boxes plant her urns.


 She wanted a gate leading into her woodland, fabulous.  But it needed another Queen's Pot, this time on a taller plinth, above.  And, it's on double axis.  More another time, (miss priss) forgot to get the other axis pic.
 No sun reaches her front door, Blossom Boxes keeps her pots always lush & green. 
Another pot, in her backyard, above.  Blossom Boxes stayed true to his name: pansies, violas & dwarf snapdragons.
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Met Steve Eaton over 20 years ago.  Have seen him in gardens & flower shows ever since.  Had him in an episode on my TV show. 
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I thought you should know such a man, Steve Eaton of Blossom Boxes, exists.  That there is a world where men plant flowers & girls design gardens for their daily bread.  A world, they know, is their own Camelot.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pics taken in a client garden last week.  Steve Eaton, Blossom Boxes,  770-337-8840, sceaton3@yahoo.com.  

Thursday, March 22, 2012

5th & State On Mary Bairstow

 5th & State came to Atlanta recently to visit her friend Mary Bairstow, interior decorator. 
 You'll like Mary's interiors but I fixate on her exterior.  The woman has Vanishing Threshold.
 I swoon, above, at the diminutiveness of these steps & matched in scale boxwood and asymmetry.
 A taste of Mary's interior, above. 
Is there any doubt, above, you are about to enter a fabulous home/garden?  None.  When every element of simplicity/function are achieved you know you are looking at the work of a master.
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Garden & Be Well,            XO Tara
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5th & State took the pics.  Still pouting I didn't know she was in Atlanta, I would have invited myself along on this visit to Mary's magical home/garden.
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Did you notice the layers of green Mary uses in her garden?  Layers of green give you serenity & calm.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Foundation Plantings & Front Porch Opening

Typical USA foundation plantings, along with incipient pruning, below.

 The Cottage has good bones.
 I have sure thoughts, below.
Plants have been moved to a tapestry hedge, rails removed and The Cottage is sighing in relief, below.

Next?  Granite curbstones will be placed as a step at all 3 sides of the porch.
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Next?  Gravel arrives, a potager, boxwood, brick painting.
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Adore this process. 
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Garden a bit slow, The Cottage needed new windows & pipes.  All the copper had been stolen.  Roof is beyond its life expectancy but honored heavily for its steadfastness.  A penny saved is a garden installed.....
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3rd pic via Griege Design

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Are Rockers OK On Your Front Porch?

Lovely rockers & home, below.
 But it's obvious when rockers are unacceptable for a front porch, below.
 There is no space to comfortably
sit in them.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Exciting project in tiny amount of space.  Rockers will be moving to a back patio and a pair of large iron chinoiserie planters, with tuters will be placed each side of the front door.  New paint colors, new light fixtures, and reshaped bed/plantings too.
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The owner had happy tears in my eyes yesterday.  She told me the story of planning a trip with her granddaughters to London & Paris and how she surprised them with it.  They are going this summer.  My parents did this for me when I was a teenager.  6 weeks across Europe: England, West Germany, East Germany, Belgium, France, Holland.  Cannot wait for them to go, & have their stories !!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Flowers In Winter

Confidence, below, at the front end of winter.
 A few flowers to dress-up the teak patio furniture, bare of cushions.
A good wager with our mild winter.  But you never know what's ahead & it's good to see spunk.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pics taken last week in a client garden.  She's getting a potager with amended soil & a compost area.  Notice her flooring, above?  The swimming pool was filled in and the pool decking was kept.  The green grass you see had been water.
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I haven't done annuals in winter for over a decade.  Instead, relying upon camellia, tea olive, daphne, helleborus, mahonia, kerria, rosmary to bloom, and bloom, and bloom......

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Historically Siting Bulbs

Hillary Clinton had 'intellectual exercise' conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt.  Remember those headlines? 
 Oddly, I got it.  Even then.
Last month I sited thousands of bulbs after "consulting the genius of the place."  I've spoken with landscapes for decades.  
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This garden, above pics, has a historic home with little but its pecan orchard intact.
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Next year anyone seeing the drifts of daffodils will think they've been there a century.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Many of you have this skill, "consulting the genius of the place", but don't trust it.  It's why I listen so hard to landscape questions.  The answers are already in the question. 
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Yes, Alexander Pope...Consult the genius of the place......

Saturday, January 14, 2012

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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Friday, November 4, 2011

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.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

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

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

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.

Monday, August 1, 2011

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."

Thursday, July 28, 2011

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

Friday, July 15, 2011

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.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

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

Friday, May 27, 2011

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.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

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.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

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.

Saturday, May 21, 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.