Landscape Design Zero Plants: Before & After

Landscapes take 3 + years to look good, on average. Most gardens get stuck in the '+'.

Unfinished, this garden is ready for showtime. Those pallets of stone, above, MAKE the garden, below. Ha, no plants, yet a garden is born. Why?

Landscape Design 'listens' to the site.
The biggest focal point in a garden? Your home. Vanishing Threshold.

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Consider: paint colors, light fixtures, shutters, doors, views into windows, turning windows into doors, getting rid of disgusting foundation plantings, pathways to move the eye + foot thru your garden, land stewardship, how to be in the garden for pleasure (tea-wine-canapes-luncheon-reading ipad-etc.), historical concepts of landscape design, thriftiness, no watering once established, no chemicals ever, no fertilizing once organically stabilized, groundcovers instead of mulch, succession planting, something coming into bloom throughout the year, canopy trees, understory trees, evergreen walls, & more.

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Consider all of the above & you won't wait 3 years, or 3 seconds, for a beautiful garden.

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Proof is in the pics above.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Look at the new frontdoor again. See what I did? Took out the transom, replaced with a taller door. Getting rid of that subdivisiony horrendous aspect, ca. 1970's, of windows/door at same height. Guess how we chose the color for the frontdoor? (Another post.)

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Eco Gardening is a SMALL concept. Vanishing Threshold is how I create a garden.

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(Puppet Barbuda has zero attitude, she's all PUPPET'ude !)

Landscape Design Perfection: Sir Hardy Amies

I took this pic in the Cotswolds in Sir Hardy Amies garden.A complete landscape design course, in one picture.

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Looks easy, can you do it?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Money is not a criteria. Rescued plants, rescued hardscape & etc..... Yes, you can do this.

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.

Finally, Fabulous Fake Stone

Cobblestones, below. Manufactured by Belgard.Flagstone, below. Manufactured by Belgard.
Finally.
Fake stone that isn't crap.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Poppets this isn't only aesthetics. Think cost savings with uniformity of materials. I've NEVER used Belgard. This year? They changed my mind !! No, Belgard did not pay me, or ask me, to mention their products.

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Alas, Belgard still uses old fashioned photography in their sales literature. Don't let it scare you.

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Horrendously, Belgard still uses the equivalent of avocado refrigerator/shag carpet/pink Sunbeam mixer for exterior furniture styling with their sales literature. Don't let it scare you.

Materials Indicate Movement

Parking at the left with concrete block/gravel, enter the home at stones + wood steps, driving lane of cubed stone/gravel.Stone at doorway, below.
Concrete blocks/gravel for parking, below.
Cubed stone/gravel, below, for roads.
And, below,
they look great together.

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Did you notice something FABULOUS? Each is water permeable.

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Nice to pull onto these surfaces & hear their bit of crunch and feel their texture under your tires.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics from Mixson, my project in Charleston, SC.

Create Magic At Each FRISSON

FRISSON's are potent. Do you see this one?FRISSON's, done well, create magic.

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Transitioning mortared steps to a step set in dirt is a FRISSON. Sure, I could have designed all the steps with mortar but I wanted a more exciting FRISSON (and this path is not a high traffic area).

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Consider each FRISSON in your landscape. Where: potager meets woodland, turf meets flowering shrub border, house meets garden, terrace meets Tara Turf, path meets pond & etc........

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic taken during construction in a client's backyard last month. Client is DIY with some of the plantings, dwarf mondo will be planted between the stones set in dirt.

Andre Breton, photographer-poet-writer-surrealist theorist-expert on Soviet Modernist architecture was the one drawing my mind, via his photography, to the importance of FRISSON. Gertrude Jekyll was big on the FRISSON.

Front Porch: Before & After

3 decades of ugly, below, a single step to the front door & porch. A limitation to the eye & foot. Remove the limitation, below, open the porch to proper scale.
The new terrace caresses the porch on the left, below, and
right, below.
A new front door, paint colors & light fixtures are next. Of course the downspouts will be
painted Sherwin-Williams Best Bronze. Look again at the dreadful white downspouts.

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Stay tuned, there is furniture for the flagstone terrace and plantings to go in.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last week. Can't wait to see this finished project. We've done a stone terrace in the backyard too and a neo-rondel in the orchard.

Men Are Unknowable

Unfinished terrace, below, AIRPLANE MAN, after my guys left, brought a folding chair, little music box & a glass of wine.AIRPLANE MAN saw his lake from a new angle (25 years in the house), & turning slightly he could see his wife, in the kitchen; cooking.
AIRPLANE MAN was not interested in my services. NOT. The Wife; she hired me.
Bluestone mortared stoop, above, leading from a backdoor to the new, unfinished, terrace. My design indicated flagstones in soil with dwarf mondo in the cracks. AIRPLANE MAN wanted mortared bluestone. Tall walls of their home demanded softening. Mortared bluestone wasn't wrong but not the best for their needs. Told them to think about it a few days.

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A room with lots of windows leads to this new terrace (formerly known as the weed patch), soon some of those windows will be a French door; trees & shrubs & groundcovers & H20 feature & furniture will be added.

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Back to AIRPLANE MAN. He was stuck with me, alone, last Tuesday. The Wife, she was at work. I was called, by The Wife, to inspect a post at the new potager.

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AIRPLANE MAN answered the door with dirty hands, dirty clothes & covered in sweat. (Poppets, something fabulously attractive about a man who gardens, hmm, wonder how Thomas Jefferson looked all sweaty garden dirty). We immediately delved into gardenspeak & began covering the new paths, rondels & grounds . Stop, is this the man irritated by my hire?

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Had to ask, "Who did you listen to?". Edith Piaf.

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To The Wife, girlfriend YOU DID IT. Your garden is all-totally-completely AIRPLANE MAN's idea.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken Tuesday. Men are such unknowable beasties, or are they? I adore that The Wife & AIRPLANE MAN have flown into a new chapter of their lives together. Of course I'm partial to garden chapters !

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No, never thought AIRPLANE MAN would garden. NEVER................

Double Axis: House & Landscape

On the patio, below, looking into the backyard.
On the patio, without moving my feet, below, looking into the house. A room overlooking: frontyard, sideyard, backyard. 3 walls of windows & a fireplace wall with 2 doors. I doubt there is a smaller, more delicious room.
Incredibly exciting Double Axis. Do you have a Double Axis point like this? Get one. Then, get more!

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Tara Questions to answer about Double Axis at your home & garden. 2 pictures taken from 1 spot. Does this picture make me want to see the garden? Does this picture make me want to see inside the home?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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More pics from my jobsite in Macon, Ga last weekend.

Keep It Simple Sweetie

Simplicity, repetition, color, scale, quality, comfort, timeless, flow, destination, garden room, contrast of shapes-materials-foliage, & more.
Posted on La Maison Fou several days ago, this garden room is proof;

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A lot goes into simplicity.

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Choosing to say "No" to things, isn't easy. What you keep out is as important as what you put in.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Scruffed Up Is A Choice

Months of the year my formal stone terrace is, indeed, formal. But I adore Scruffy Landscapes, & meadows. (Lot's of blather, internationally, about how tough meadows are. Ha, it seems I'm a Meadow Whisperer !)

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Yesterday morning, below, annual blue ageratum gracing my stone terrace & Just Touching the variegated Boxwood-In-A-Pot.
Further along the stone terrace, below, Rudbeckia fulgida fulgida, is gracing the other variegated Boxwood-In-A-Pot.
Early this spring, below, English daisies graced the pots &
Scruffed Up my formal stone terrace. How I adore this !!!

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Poppets, Scruffed Up landscapes are a choice! Boxwood-In-A-Pot works most anywhere across time, continents, styles, incomes & etc. Each of the above flowers self-seed, require zero watering and came into my life by serendipity. A bird gave me the 1st English daisy. Ageratum came in the soil with peonies I dug up from Aunt Tilly's garden after she died. Working at a nursery, decades ago, a customer gave me the Rudbeckia fulgida fulgida.

Beatrix Potter's Beehive

Sharon Lovejoy visited Beatrix Potter's home recently, below.Poppets, look at that darling BEEHIVE !!!!!!!!!!!

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Exactly what I need for my tiny property. Exactly. This feels good, already, in anticipation. If I can't find it to buy I'll use the pic & my carpenter will make it.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Never heard of Sharon Lovejoy? Gardener, writer, artist & more wondrous things.

Tables: Square or Rectangle

Still life, pot collection, flagstone terrace in dirt, groundcovers, vines, conifers, meadow, high & low density for maximum pollinator habitat, contrasting textures & colors(foliage), color of window trim, timelessness, Vanishing Threshold, rectangular table, & which continent is this..... (Did you really know so much was in this gorgeous pic?)Puppet Barbuda cannot abide round tables for terrace/patio/deck.
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Puppet Barbuda loves square or rectangular tables; they are so flexible. Pushed next to your home, a rail, edge of terrace, behind a bench.
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Puppet Barbuda loves the flexibility of 2 square tables; used separately or pushed together.
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Imagine the pic, above, with a round table. Ick.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Tara Question: Pic of your patio/deck should answer, "Is this so wonderful I must see the garden & is this so wonderful I must go inside & see the interiors?"
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Pic from Dana Gallagher. Puppet Barbuda knows there are exceptions to her round-table-disdain.

Speaking in Stone

Miss Texas sent a pic of her home. Quickly, I noted her stone edging was too horizontal. Accentuating the many horizontal lines of her home. Contrast was needed. (Of course it didn't hurt that I've studied in Scotland, seeing master templates for dry stone work.)
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Miss Texas sent this delightful pic, above.
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It's obvious her son is an organic Stone Whisperer. Pulling stones aside while placing the 'right' stones perfectly. Did he realize the stones were speaking to him?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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When I coach DIY clients about their stone some look at me as if I were crazy high on drugs when I say, "Stone tells you where top, bottom, back, front are." Others TOTALLY understand. Are you a Stone Whisperer?

Art, Multiple Axis

From the lower garden, formerly a tennis court, I first saw this sculpture on a plinth, below. (Did you notice, below, the dry stack stone wall?) Up the stone steps, below, curiosity is satisfied.

Drawn to another garden room, below, I turn & see a better axis for the sculpture. (Did you notice the mature canopy/understory trees+sky view?)

Inside the new garden room, below, the axis keeps getting better.

Then I turn body, but not feet, to my left & see this, below,

and about fall over in delight/surprise. Vanishing Threshold.

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Inside the room, above, the first sculpture is on perfect axis with the door in the center of the wall.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics, from Athens, GA, taken last week. Same garden as previous post. Think this is easy? Good, poppets, do it in your garden too. Remember, this is a subdivision with homes encircling the garden. Always a tough constraint.

Beauty Allowed

Beauty trumps. This gardener knows.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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I think this gardener slowly took over the courtyard. A pot here, a pot there, then bodaciously pot/palm plopped center stage. Voila, gorgeous, and really good sun. Do you do this too, create backstories to gardens without trying?
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Did you notice the pot theme?
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Pic by Shipman taken in Italy last week. He's on a multi-week blow-out cruise.

Piquant

He's 68, retired, & living his dream on 10 acres of Kentucky heaven. A mix of rich character. Living as a conservative, voting liberal, spending as Jesus would. By hand, and alone, he's building this drystack stone wall behind his home.

Stone is gathered from his stream after storms.

Of course there's a gorgeous woman in this story. Queen of the realm. She rules thru culinary skill, aesthetics, intellect, humor, experience, wisdom, patience, & love.

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What stories are in your landscape?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken in Kentucky last weekend. Have always had a piquant fascination for old stone walls. Wanting to know when they were built, who was the builder, know the 'life' swirling while the wall was being built.

Ranchburger: Beauty Without Stress

Lining the foundation of this ranch, below, were the obligatory-neatly-in-a-row, evergreen meatballs. Between the house & frontdoor sidewalk I removed the line of meatballs,

put in a flagstone terrace with teak bench/coffee table, low evergreen shrubs, groundcover, understory tree, & pots. Voila, ta-da, but of course.

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My Dear Lady has been slowed by multiple health issues for over a year. Yet her garden has never been a worry for maintenance, even during this 5 weeks without rain.

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This is the point of good Landscape Design: can you work a million hours, travel, caretake a loved one, or have health issues & still maintain a beautiful landscape?

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A beautiul landscape not allowing for real-life is not a beautiful landscape, it's stress.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken earlier this week in the same garden as previous blog post. Poppets, "I" did not literally perform labor in this sweet garden my contractor did. Wish I could rip out mature shrubs, install flagstone terraces & etc.... !

Double Axis

A view of the house, below, from the historic cabin. View of the historic cabin, below, from the house.

Views, above, across potager & into her acreage beyond. Soon there will be a FOLLY upon that acreage.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken late last month at Hedgerow Farm. Local gravel & field gathered stones used in the potager. Landscape Design is quite amazing. Before the potager was installed the historic cabin & home had no relationship to each other. Now? It's as if home-cabin-potager have simply always 'been'.

Increase Your Welcome

See, below, the front door? I didn't think so. 'Landscape Design Trick: Increase Your Welcome' should be in your quiver of tools. Boulder steps, above, seen from the parking court. A few days ago there were no boulder steps.

Same steps, above, seen from the home.

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If you can extend the welcome of your front door, into the garden. DO IT.

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Increasing your welcome, & function, creates enfilades too.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics from the woodland hilltop of Rooster Cogburn, Katharine Hepburn & Handy Man. I created a landscape design for them early last month. Landscape Design Trick: Increase Your Welcome, ha, should be a new lecture title. It's a trick I use a lot.