Contorted & Twisted

Take advantage of contorted & twisted.  Honor them.

No lawn, no mulch, above.
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Yet elegance reigns.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic Susanne Hudson's garden this month.  Had the good fortune to spend the nite when the crabapple was blooming.  In the morning we had coffee in the library with the crabapple blossoms filling the horizon, backlit by the morning sun.  An unexpected 'life' moment.

Big Garden Design Rule

One of the most important things to know in Landscape Design, below.

Know when to leave it alone.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic this month in Susanne Hudson's garden.

New Use for Erosion Control Fabric

Hanging from a large oak tree, below, chandy stays on 24/7.

Recognize the tablecloth?  Erosion control fabric.  Bought in huge rolls.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pic this month from Susanne Hudson's garden.

How to Place Sofa Table

Sofa table, below, rather formulaic with pair of lamps & table toppers.

Laughably obvious!  Yes, put the sofa table outside.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken this month in Susanne Hudson's garden.  She has a totally warped way of looking at & doing the obvious.  Lamps on 24/7.   Don't know where to start furnishing your garden?  Sofa table seems easy.

Double Axis & Before/After

With a view, below, you must be able to turn around

and have an equally fabulous view, below.  Double Axis.

Had the good fortune to visit Susanne Hudson's garden again a few days after this pic, below, was shot.

Without the roses peaking, below, the arbor resumed its status as Focal Point.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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All pics shot this month.  Created a garden this weekend and put in one of these arbors, above.  With pendant lite.  We'll use a historic fence template too but one with a bit more privacy.  We won't use white, they already have a delicious dark putty color on their home.

Accessorize

Accessorize.

Focal points are macro garden design.

Accessories are subsidiary focal points.

The micro garden design.
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Perhaps the strongest tool in Garden Design, micro garden design, making your garden MORE you.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Susanne Hudson's garden, pics taken earlier this month.  I laughed out loud when I saw this pair, had been in the garden days earlier and did not see them.
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Remember this garden design rule at the antique shops, art shows, garage sales, junk stores, it's your permission to buy!

Conservatory: Multiple Axis

Near the door of Susanne Hudson's conservatory, below.

And her great garden pun, below.  A plant in the conservatory!  As if.  What?  As if the Conservatory were for plants.  Ridiculous.

The same lamp, below, from a different axis.

Another axis, below.

Same hydrangea, below, different day.  Heavy rains in the interim.

The more axis a focal point has the more successful the Garden Design.

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One of the best arrows in your quiver.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken in Susanne Hudson's garden this month.

The Table You Want on Your Porch

Rescued: door, windows, stool.  

Love the sexy lines of this stool, we chose it first so more galvanized accouterments placed for balance.  

    

 Dinner table, floral arranging table, potting table, styled table.  Whatever, they're FREE.

During the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival we caught many pairs of friends sitting, visiting, enjoying the breeze, loving the views.

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Susanne Hudson & I sat in the chairs admiring our work.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken earlier this month at the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival.  The porch got bigger with the furniture added.  Why?  More function added along with the beautiful forms.   How did Susanne & I get the porch done, we schlepped everything you see into place.  

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No magic minions.

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Passion is the magic.

Garden Path: Before & After

Leading to our porch garden, below.  Iron gates roped to the trees.  

Yes, horrendous security gates reborn with grace.

After the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival, below.  Hard to imagine the gates were ever there.

Terra cotta pots, top pic, are Cinderella-after-the-ball, below.

In my garden, above, the pots are still where I unloaded them.
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"Scope for the imagination", as Anne of Green Gables would say.
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Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara
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More of the garden Susanne Hudson & I created for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival.
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Taking down a display garden is quite depressing.  It feels like the killing of a soul.

Air Conditioners: Before & After

If you have an eyesore put a focal point nearby.  

2 weeks ago Susanne Hudson & I created a garden/porch for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival.

Our garden beliefs: simple, historic, focal points, axis, comfort, beauty & simplest.

 We pride ourselves on how little we can put in a garden.

We bought very little for our display garden.  Breezing thru with what we already own.  Proving our beliefs in what we created.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics taken earlier this month.  Hydrangea 'Blushing Bride' in the galvanized tubs.
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Nurseries don't like Susanne or me.  They want to sell you annuals & perennials, mostly.  Many independent garden centers have been slammed in this economy and are gone.   I know why.  They forgot gardens are what people want intuitively, from their soul.  Without knowing it, most people are intuitive gardeners/designers.  What they don't trust, within themselves, is the counterintuitive skillset garden design demands. 

Covered Screened Porch

Garden view, daybed, lamps, table w/chairs, blue/white, cozy, stuffed with amenities.  Staycation is too small of an idea for this room.

Flowing from garden to kitchen with doors, & views from master bedroom and living room.

This couple is always doing something with their grown children & spouses with grands.

Tipping point for the TV is obviously the grands.

Daybed, slounging chairs + a table with chairs for projects/computer?  Perfect trinity.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pics same house/garden as previous post.  It's obvious Susanne Hudson has put her skills here.   I have a strong weakness for grandparent/grandchild relationships.  Mine still fills me with incredible strengths.

Basement Door is now the Dowager's Porch

It's common to see a basement door with lawn.  And nothing else.

Mother-in-law Suite doesn't aptly describe this rendition.

Common furnishings, off the shelf shutters, a simple arbor, concrete pavers & voila !

Color theme was chosen and leveraged with punches of yellow.

Boxwoods, liriope, hollies prettier AND easier to maintain than ubiquitous lawn.  Notice, above, the garbage can?

Between driveway & Dowager's Porch is a tiny foyer, above.  Gravel, above, pure brilliance.
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Most basement doors are the throw-away-zone.  Worse, the criminal zone.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken last weekend at the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival.  This garden belongs to Jeri Farmer, co-founder of the PMHF with Susanne Hudson.  Susanne helps Jeri with her Garden Design.  

Color on the Ceiling

"Paint the ceiling the same color as the walls", she said.  

Susanne Hudson has come onto my team many times thru the years, I trust her.  Painting the ceiling was out of my comfort zone.  Of course there was no other reply than, "Ok". 

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Benjamin Moore-HC Rockport Gray.

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Morning winter sun, above, reads blue.  As summer comes and the trees leaf , the ceiling is white in the mornings and greenish in the afternoon.  

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Walls & ceiling are the same color, above.  

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The ceiling never looks the same color as the walls.  

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic yesterday, had to verify a package delivery.  Exciting times, this is the 'before' pic.  Gave Susanne a heads-up last weekend about ordering a sofa for this room & slipcovering a pair of chairs.  You know I especially love how my garden colors the ceilings.

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Marc Chagall, "Color is all. When color is right, form is right. Color is everything, color is vibration like music; everything is vibration."

Theory vs. Reality

Today I'm off to a jobsite, outdoor kitchen & foyer, mostly complete, to place lighting.  Of course locations for the sconces & chandeliers are already chosen.  Do you think that matters?  No.  Real world placement trumps theory.

I need a sofa at the foot of my bed.  Dozens of pics later this is the only one I've liked.  In theory it's perfect.
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Susanne Hudson, the decorator on my team, is sourcing it now.  She'll get one with the right dimensions & fabric.  Perhaps she'll have a list of bullet points, or a single reason, why this sofa isn't right.  I'll trust her judgment, it's her specialty.
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It's something my clients have taught me!  Patience, and trust.
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Too much money is involved to make a mistake.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Patio & Folding Tables

Patio tables should be square.  Buy a pair & use them apart or pulled together.

 Buying folding tables?

Round tables, 36" diameter are best.  Seat 5, don't need a huge centerpiece, and conversation flows easily without breaking into 2 groups. 
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Garden & Be Well,          XO Tara
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Pics taken at client jobsites last week.  Been doing the square patio table thing for decades.  The 36" folding table idea is pure magic from Susanne Hudson.

Deer In The Laundry With Arbor

We were so busy in the garden I never had time to ask about the deer in her laundry.

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Didn't realize the pic was getting the awning outside.  She has several, this one is over the gas grill.

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A style quite common ca. 1910.

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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara

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Pic taken last month.

Decorate With Multiple Collections

She drinks alot of Perrier perfect bottles for rooting cuttings, below.

 She inherited boxes of shells, it took about a year of spare time to sort them, below.

 Old, broken, water salts & moss make her terra cotta better.  Of course the arrangement is fabuloso, below. Have you noticed how people that arrange flowers seem to be able to arrange anything?

Clustered & themed, she uses collections to decorate. 
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This trinity of collections are close to each other in her Conservatory.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics taken last month in Susanne Hudson's Conservatory.

Garden View From Her Desk

Her desk, below, in the kitchen.

 With its

garden view.

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Inside & outside she's created her own world, it's not of this time.  It's timeless.

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Have you done this for yourself.  Created your world?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last month in Susanne Hudson's garden.