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

DESIGNING A B&B LANDSCAPE: COPYING KEW

Ric the Inn Keeper from Highlands, NC is ready to landscape his B&B. I'll drive up in March.

He has grassy areas and wooded.
I see Kew gardens at his B&B. Timeless, inviting, low maintenance, sustainable, serene.

Canopy & understory trees, shrubs, focal point bench, TaraTurf.

Contrasting: oval trees, weeping, conical, crooked, evergreen, deciduous, green foliage, yellow....

Ric, I want these pictures from Kew in your head before I arrive. I know you want more color. We'll place viburnum, rhododendron, mountain laurel, peony, antique roses, hydrangea, lenten rose, iris, on axis with views from the B&B.

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TaraTurf is fescue, moss, clover, crocus, dwarf daffodils, whatever the wind blows in. Are you that brave?

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I took the pics last month at the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew.

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Garden & Be Well, XO T

EVERGREEN HEDGES & GARDEN ROOMS

Evergreen hedges are the bones of a landscape. No down time. Behind the hedge is a secret garden room.

FORMULA: TREES (ceiling), SHRUBS (walls), MEADOW (rug), FOCAL POINT (art)
*Big leaves next to small leaves.
*Green leaves next to yellow leaves.
*Oval shapes next to flat shapes.
*Tara Turf, meadow, mix of what's there and keep what blows in.
*Focal point, think, Is it so wonderful it will be fought over at my estate sale?

Landscapes are about contrasting everything for greater impact. Use as little as possible for the biggest impact. "Elegance is refusal" anon.
Behind the winged statue, above, is this charming garden room, below.

The same garden, below, contrasting purple foliage with green foliage.

Garden room, below, behind the hedge, above. Photo, below, framed with the purple foliage, above.

Sustainability isn't boring or new & needs little maintenance.