Hydrangea 'Queen of Pearls' on the Front Porch

Front porch garden. 

Hydrangea 'Queen of Pearls', still in its 3 gallon pot, slipped into a tall classic iron urn.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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A Dirr selection from McCorkle Nurseries.  Susanne Hudson's front porch.  Queen of Pearls was a no brainer with her green-brown-white trinity of colors.

Rules of Vignette

How little can you do & it: is pretty, comfortable, easy to maintain, flows from your interiors, affordable, describes who you are, makes you happy, has a color theme & ages into more fabulous. Does it create its own world?

Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic via Greige Design.  Can you imagine when the vine fills the wall?  This is my idea for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival in Douglasville, GA, June 2-3, 2012.  Several small spaces of equal size & different designers.  Of course the fabulous garden of Susanne Hudson is on tour too.
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BTW, whenever I'm accused of living-in-my-own-little-world I smile & graciously say "Thank you."

Kitchen Lighting

Leaving at dusk last month I could see, from beyond the Ancient Orhcard, these lights, below, on.

 Retro fitted lighting ca. 1880.  The light bulbs mimic gas.

I'm a Landscape Designer & demand every view into your home be fabulous.
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Lighting, window treatments, furniture, art & etc.
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If I can see it from the garden it is within my domain.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pic taken at a jobsite last month.  The primitive piece next to the marble island is called a biscuit board.  Never seen one till here.  Wish I had the type of camera to have shot from the garden, past the Ancient Orchard, across the Lawn & into her windows.  Susanne Hudson is helping with interiors.

Put The Shutter Inside

At the frontdoor, below.  

 Don't know why I bought the old shutter-dog, don't know why I kept the old shutters in my garage for almost 2 decades.

Susanne Hudson made the brilliant suggestion, put the shutter inside.
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Kept the original color on the shutter & haven't touched the original rust on the shutter-dog.
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It doesn't fit accurately and I adore the entire idea.  And opening/closing it each day.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Yes, I'm this easily amused.  Better than street drugs yes?

Signature Style

Did you notice, below, the shelf above the sink?

 An old pie safe, hung on the wall.

Susanne Hudson has several signatures, this is one.
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Every time I see her pie-safe-on-a-wall-routine, it's FRESH !
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I love bringing Susanne into my projects.  Team Tara knows when to bring in specialists.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

Hydrangeas On Speed

At my back door, below, this week.

 Potted hydrangea & a potted variegated boxwood.  Last year this hydrangea was a cutting in a 4" pot.

 Susanne Hudson has phenomenal growth planting 4" potted hydrangeas in large terra cotta pots.  Phenomenal.  Of course I copied her.  It worked.

Aaron Copland anticipated my arrival, writing Appalachian Spring for my garden & for me.  I hear it in my garden & looking at the pics.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pics from my garden during days of great drought, heat, humidity & zero maintenance or watering.  This is why I've taken you around my garden the past few days. You must know how easy it is to have a garden.    

Lamps Beside The Daybed

Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Susanne Hudson redecorated her Conservatory this year.  Sconces are laid on the table in my Conservatory, primer/paint/brush nearby, new packages of screws/hooks, brown/white ironstone transferware.  Soon, a bit of my own redecorating in the Conservatory.

How To Stabilize A Column In A Pot

We didn't know how we were going to stabilize the column in the pot, we knew it was-going-to-happen.With few raw materials, bricks-gravel-dirt, we chose bricks for wedging. Gravel for gaps, then
dirt to plant 6 boxwood.

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Columns don't budge.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic from PMHF garden Susanne Hudson & I created.

Decorating Alone

Decorating my Conservatory late Tuesday, alone, I got frustrated. Typically with a client moving things or, most often, with my guys.Multiple trips to attic, garage, mudroom and back to Conservatory I had a sweat going. Along with a mess & the transpiration of TIME; 3 hours passed.
What I completed looked like 12 minutes of work. And there's more to complete.

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I did what any grown-up pouting girl would do, I called Susanne Hudson with my tale of woe.

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She laughed and said, "Tara, it took me over 50 hours to get the sea shells organized and my conservatory redecorated." She, too, worked her Conservatory alone.

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Susanne's redecorated Conservatory & sea shells, above pics.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Took the pics last weekend.

Sea Shells In The Conservatory

Seeing Susanne Hudson's sea shells, below, in her Conservatory,I was inspired to gather mine from attic & garage. Before Georgia I lived at Cape Canaveral &
Galveston Bay.

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Why wasn't I honoring my past?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic taken last weekend. What parts of your past need to be honored in your garden?

Daybed In The Conservatory

Pink & brown & hydrangeas & a Conservatory in the garden. With a daybed.With large terra cotta pots as legs.
Our jute draperies
pool, below, outside.

Susanne Hudson & I were on the front page of the paper. Did I know the photographer was coming? Sweat, hat hair, gardening clothes, dirty. We were the happiest women in the galaxy.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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I took the pics yesterday in the garden Susanne Hudson & I created for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival.

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Thank you Douglas County Sentinel for promoting the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival. Newspaper pic by Winston Jones.

Pots, Easy Landscape Edging

Pots, original, as landscape edging? Hardly. A centuries old idea. At my garden, with Susanne Hudson, for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival, below. (PMHF is this weekend, June 4-5.)"It's what we do with what we have.", my mentor Mary Kistner said. I first saw pots as edging decades ago in Ryan Gainey's Decatur, GA garden.
Susanne & I have broken pots & fallen limbs.

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Perfect landscape edging. Easy & free.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken a few days ago.

Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival + Before/After

The Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival, Douglasville, GA, is this weekend, June 4-5, 2011.

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Free display gardens, Free standard Flower Show, Free Festival Market

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Garden Tour with Tram, $25, residential gardens including nationally recognized gardens.

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This year's table, below, incomplete, already looks FABULOUS.
Big impact, little input. Love this type of Landscape Design: old table, old wheelbarrow, old light & negligible maintenance.
Same table, below, last year.
From lamps to chandelier, from potting table to dining table.

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Come see our garden, it's in the free zone. Ha, no excuses!

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Been working like a young man creating this garden. My body is not amused. Susanne Hudson & I are creating this garden.

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Top pics taken yesterday, 94f & 200% humidity (please appreciate the effort). Bottom pic, I snapped last year.

Penelope Bianchi of McCormick Interiors

Penelope Bianchi, McCormack Interiors, is a new discovery. Penelope designs 'done' but I adore her 'not done' creations, below.Rare, she is the interior decorator creating gardens too. Of course she can design tidy gardens but I'm partial to, below, her scruffy

gardens.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics from Penelope's website. I'm slow to the game, discovering Penelope, and will post more pics.

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Been away the holiday weekend creating a garden, with Susanne Hudson, for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival. It's next weekend June 4-5, with vendors, a garden tour ($25 with tram) & several free display gardens too.

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Our garden is free and FABULOUS. Why make a garden unless you believe it to be FABULOUS?

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.

How To Hide An Eyesore Powerbox

Altar table, below, used as a potting table. Lamps (oooh-la-la) have electricity. Altar table, below, was past its church days before it's new life in the garden.
A power box, below, at a client's chicken house & pecan orchard.
Within the louvres, above, is the green power box.

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Top 2 pics were sent to my carpenter as description for what I wanted. He adapted the idea beyond expectation.

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Carpenter & I never communicate well in the 1st round. Ever. Then we laugh, always. Afterward he leverages my ideas 'better'. I adore working with this man.

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We'll accessorize the altar table with a cloth of burlap placed 'church style' (diminishing the louvres) , iron book holder, pair of heavy iron lamps, a couple of baskets for egg & pecan gathering.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Top pics are from the garden Susanne Hudson & I created for last year's Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival. We're using the table again this year but not as a potting table. Can you guess how? Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival, Douglasville, GA, June 4-5, 2011.

How To Copy A Design

Before her bedroom, below, I fell for the garden & parking court in the movie, Something's Gotta Give.Hunting/gathering last week, $20, gotta love it

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"Every garden needs a desk.", Susanne Hudson said. Crazy idea, yes?

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Life is good. Bedroom & garden will BOTH get a desk/chair.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Zero idea how to reconfigure the bedroom for a desk/chair & zero idea where to put a desk/chair in the garden. This challenge is pure catnip.

How To Choose Flooring

Landscape Design is a series of layers. After creating your ceilings & walls (previous 2 posts), create your Flooring. Shade, grass won't grow? Choose checkerboard, below, with shade loving groundcover.Forget STUPID lawn. Choose Tara Turf, below. A mix of what the wind blows in, the birds drop, clover, dwarf bulbs, herbs, spreading groundcovers & etc. Tara Turf is meadow made formal with mowing heights.
Want million dollar flooring for $20/ton? Choose gravel, below. Zero mowing, lovely crunch.

Choose flooring, below, to emphasize formal, informal. If this were a woodland design the flagstone would be removed & woodchips used. (1 of 3 gates, below, at the front of my garden.)
Mother Nature, below, laughed at my efforts, sprinkling a flagstone path with her petals.
River stones, glacial stones, laid in patterns for paths &
terraces. Rough laid stones, above, contrasting nicely with smooth stone folly & pair of obelisks.

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Wood floor inside with antique oriental rug? Same concept in the landscape, above:

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stone path=wood floor

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plants=antique oriental rug. (Adore using my engineering degree in this manner! You do realize you are entirely within my landscape design equation at the moment?)

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Design outside is the same as design inside.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Top pic I took in Susanne Hudson's garden, 2nd pic I took at Sissinghurst, 3rd pic I took in the Cotswolds, 4-5 pics in my sweet garden, 6th pic I took in Sir Hardy Amies garden not far from the 3rd pic. This is hilarious, I don't remember anything. These pics? Remember taking each of them.

The Walls Of Your Rooms

Landscapes ARE architecture. Begin creating architecture in the landscape with ceilings, yesterday's post, then walls. (My Tea Olive Terrace, below, along the side of my home.)Landscape walls can be the side of your home, above, or all plantings, below. (Wall, below, is mine & hides the neighborhood from my tender sensibilities. What me not living in the Cotswolds?)
Espaliered woody shrubs & vines dramatize the walls of a home, fence, dependency & etc., below. (My Bay Terrace, below.)
Using wit, below, Susanne Hudson swags a window. Pow, Shazam, baby.
With more wit, intellect, & drama she created a garden room, raised on a dais (aka deck, but dais is ever so much nicer, yes?),
with old church windows.
Landscape Design: create walls.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Slow down, peruse again, Landscape Design IS this easy. Look at the 2nd pic again. Notice how much sky I own because of my walls? You would CRINGE knowing how many houses along the ubiquitous subdivision cul-de-sac lane (aka street) my garden obliterates in that 2nd pic. Who knew? Gardens are offense & defense. A moat of grace around home & life.

Chandeliers In The Kitchen

Diminutive, my pair of chandeliers hang, as inspired by a blog years ago, over a harvest table. Many mornings I'm here, in my wicker chair,
reading & looking out 3 walls of windows, starting my day.A view out 1 of those walls, from my wicker chair this morning.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Did you notice my ceiling is not white? It's a faded blue/green, depending upon the lighting. Below the chair rail is a terra cotta type color. Both colors are within the wall paper. Susanne Hudson was hired to choose the colors. 25 years in this house & I still love the wallpaper.

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Pics taken this morning.