Monty Don on Garden Design

"All our buildings fascinate me and have influenced the structure of the garden more than anything else.  I have to relate the garden to the house, and the house to the garden.  The view from a window will influence the positioning of a pathway and a doorway at the end of that path.  I have a primitive need for symmetry and balance."  Monty Don

Excellent advice.  Vanishing threshold.
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Garden & Be Well,            XO Tara
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I never tire of learning how others design landscapes.   Asiatic jasmine groundcover, above.  Mother Nature smiles.  Thick in areas yet still spreading in others.  Pair of columns on axis with the front door.  Can lights are placed in the porch ceiling away from ceiling fan blades.  Who wants that spinning shadow pattern!

Design Winter Shadows Into The Landscape

Others wanted to cut the old redbud, Cercis canadensis, down.  Men with machines looking into my eyes, awaiting a shake of my head.  Instead, a firm, "No."
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Wall, nor garden, are finished, above.
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Later I came upon the shadow.  In that moment, it let me know why the universe was formed.  And my place in it.  Humbling.
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Providence speaks loudest to me in a garden.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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pic taken last week in a client garden

1790's HOME & GARDEN: Albany, New York

Lecturing in Albany, New York last week I had the option of hotel or private home. Please. Observing how others live & garden inform my Muse (more about Muse in another post).
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All of a Tuesday NAUGHTY GIRL hosted me about Albany: Shaker gardens (more in another post), her friends homes & gardens, restaurants, Master Gardener public gardens, historical sites, and evading police twice on downtown bridges during the filming of Angelina Jolie's newest movie. NAUGHTY GIRL was good, indeed, for my Muse.
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APPLE SAUCE QUEEN, below, lives in this circa 1790 home. My 1st time inside a real 5-4&door.
APPLE SAUCE QUEEN had 4 minutes notice of our arrival. She & her husband were in the backyard gardening & caretaking a grandson. Spring, calm, beauty, love, laughter emanated from this trio as we pulled into their drive.

Have you designed shadows, above, into your landscape? Wish you could have walked upon this venerable stone path to APPLE SAUCE QUEEN's front door with me.

Immediately at the front door, above, original stairs, rail, floor, foyer.

APPLE SAUCE QUEEN & her husband stripped the flooring of layers of paint, above.

Each side of the foyer, above, with these doors. Were they to help caretake children, control pets?

The dining room, above & below, was a later addition. In the china cabinet, above, APPLE SAUCE QUEEN has a jar full of pottery, china, pipes, marbles & other misc. things found while digging in the garden. Some of the china is from China. Slow-witted me did not think to get a picture for you. Oops.

APPLE SAUCE QUEEN not only makes applesauce from her own apples but jams from her own blackberries, raspberries, strawberries & blueberries. Her grown children live close and she's able to caretake her grandchildren. Her love & joy with life is a delightful cloud to be enveloped within.

Why is this a fabulous landscape picture, above? Trust me, it is. APPLE SAUCE QUEEN was in the process of removing iris and planting vinca minor when NAUGHTY GIRL & I arrived.

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Many talk about low-maintenance few follow thru.

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Thank you NAUGHTY GIRL for this tiny slice of Tuesday.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

ARE SHADOWS DESIGNED INTO YOUR LANDSCAPE?

BETTER THAN WALLPAPER. Like my shadows? Of course you do. I designed them.
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The epiphany of designing shadows was instant wicked potent delight.
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PLAYING WITH SUNBEAMS.
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Shadows to fall, fold, envelope, embrace & caress a landscape and you.
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Sensuous shadows alighting on interior walls of your home. Pitching art where there was none before.
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Hmm. I've never seen a landscape design lecture about creating shadows. Perhaps I should include it in my list of titles?
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Chair is in my summerhouse.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara