Showing posts with label Trees. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trees. Show all posts

Sunday, April 18, 2010

STREET VIEW & GARDEN VIEW

Standing in the street, below, a view of my garden. Front view: Italian cypress, Chinese Snowball & Japanese red maple. Standing in the garden, below, looking into the street. Back view: Italian cypress, Chinese snowball & red Japanese maple. (Wicked delight, you can't see the street.)

Double Axis. Same line, 2 views. I noticed all the great gardens of Europe & my mentors had Double Axis. Dahlings, had to GET ME SOME !
The Well Placed Chair, above, under the Chinese snowball. A tantalizing hint of my charming potager. Oh, the tangents you can build from Double Axis.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken 4 days ago in my garden. You got Double Axis? No? Turn off your computer & go get you some ! A great epiphany gleaning Double Axis. My invention, La-ti-da. Not college, not books, not lectures told me HOW to get the gorgeous landscapes I was seeing. So. Many trips to Europe, dissecting gorgeous landscapes, gaining epiphanies. Naming them. Result? A landscape surpassing my fantasies.
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Well Placed Chair? Another epiphany, specific to Sir Walter Scott's garden, another invention. Place a chair for artistic merit/photographic content. Discovery, I use Well Placed Chairs to lunch, take a call, read, set a tool, watch birds alight & scope their world...
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I adore epiphanies. Most occur in gardens, sometimes reading or in the shower. They feel so good. You too?

Sunday, March 28, 2010

JOHN SALADINO

Saladino's work is in full measure. Garden & house. Vanishing Threshold. The pruning of his canopy & understory trees, above, tell me more about the man than his interiors.
His VERTICAL LAWN (vine on wall) & lidded urn on the shelf melt my heart.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Found the pics yesterday via Period Homes.

Monday, March 1, 2010

SPRING IS EASY

This garden, below, gets it right. How do you know?
The bones (evergreen structure, axis, focal point, hardscape) hold together in deepest winter, above.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Top pic from Wing Haven. Bottom pic I took last week at Wing Haven, Charlotte, NC.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

DOUBLE AXIS

Looking east, below. Looking west, below.
Double axis with an Italian cypress.
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My wicked invention after an epiphany in mentor/friend Margaret Moseley's garden.
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A focal point fabulous in one direction must be fabulous in the opposite direction.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Don't despair dahlings, it takes years to get to double axis. Start with your single axis & the double will come. Example: Place bench on view from your bedroom window. Sitting on the bench you see the air-conditioner? NOT ALLOWED. Ha, put your intellect to it and create a fabulous view from the bench.
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Pics taken last Friday.

Monday, February 15, 2010

CONE IN EACH ROOM

Each garden room should have a cone shaped evergreen. Bringing eyes to the sky.
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Honestly, dahlings, I don't make this stuff up.
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More honestly. It was the hardest rule to get right. Done correctly cone shaped evergreens appear serendipitous. Lagniappes.
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Ha.................! Anything but.
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Cone shapes, mostly, are inherent in what you've already designed. If not, they're balanced symmetrically/asymmetrically with house or trees or garden room or, or, or.
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They will feel right.
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Study pics of landscapes using cone shaped evergreens correctly. Study-study-study. It took me years to get this right.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken in my garden last Thursday. The cone? 2 Italian cypress planted with rootballs touching, beginning in 1 gallon pots. (Proof I'm patient, ha.) Songbirds love nesting in these cypress.
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Studying cone use in Italy it's obvious their style won't work in USA. Why? Don't know. Whenever I see a USA landscape copying an Italian landscape with lots of cones they look stupid. Hmm? Anyone know why?

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

HOW TO GIVE & KEEP

On axis with your favorite view, from inside your home, plant a fabulous tree. Beauty for yourself, lifestyle for birds, food for butterflies, increased property value, lower heating/cooling costs. Trees are gifts to future generations.
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Sandra Jonas, Recreating Eden Landscape Design, planted Japanese Flowering Apricot (Prunus mume), above, it blooms in winter lasting a month. Growing to zone 6 this tree ranges wide.
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Plant flowers for a lifetime with Japanese Flowering Apricot.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic by Sandra Jonas & posted in Gadabout Media with a lovely article. Private note: Sandra dahling, please get your blog going.

Monday, February 8, 2010

COLOR + FORM = DRAMA

Horizontal form & burgundy foliage Japanese maple at right, below. Light green foliage, weeping willow at left, above.
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Contrast colors & contrast forms for fabulous tree combinations.
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Imagine a purple leaf plum with a burgundy Japanese maple. Yawn.
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Go for the DRAMA!!! Use contrast.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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I took the pic in Mr. Jim's (Jim Gibbs) garden.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

CALLANWOLDE & FREDERICK LAW OLMSTEAD

Circa 1920, a dowager survives demolition, 1971, in a neighborhood Olmstead designed. Ceiling of trees outside, ceilings inside, below. Proof, again, of what survives landscape design: TREES & MEADOW. Please, dahlings, you must begin your garden with TREES & MEADOW.



I lectured at Callanwolde, (Dekalb Federation of Garden Clubs was host), this week. All original, below.


I realized I was taking Callanwolde for granted. I've lectured & attended many events here thru the decades.


The courtyard was enclosed, above. A little fetish of mine, enjoying the styling of refreshments garden clubs provide. Charm straight from the heart.


Front terrace, above.
Hand-painted silk panels in the dining room, above.

Hand carved front door, above.
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Garden clubs weave a tapestry of nurturing around their communities. Most members don't realize the potency of their actions.
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Many Garden Club meetings I've sat thru, waiting to speak. Learning who has died, been sick, had a baby, moved out/in, crime issues, new fundraising plans to benefit xyz, holiday plans & more.
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Garden Clubs are the last bastion of civility in our neighborhoods.
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If I were to get a Phd in horticulture, Garden Clubs & Society, would be my topic. That's my soap box & I'm staying on it!
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Took the pics this week at Callanwolde.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

4SOME: CLUB, WING & ADIRONDACK

Adirondacks were the 1st 4some I saw outside. And LOVED. A client had a 4some of club chairs w/ottoman at their center, inside their home. Gorgeous.
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Now, wingchairs in 4some, above, outside. Yes!!!
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What works here?
* No foundation planting.
* Vines on the house.
* Color: bricks, chairs, pots, foliage, flowers, sky.
* Pots: size, plantings, placement.
* Scale.
* Flow.
* Axis.
* Contrasting textures. Dark leaves by chartreuse leaves. Big leaves by small leaves.
* Canopy & understory trees.
* Walls: plants & house.
* 4SOME of Chairs. Comfort.
* Invitation. Steps leading you further, if only in imagination. Doors, beckoning the great indoors.
* Mystery. Yes, I want to see this garden. Yes, I want to go inside this house.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic from Maison Sud-Ouest, via, Garden Rooms. Had to show it to you. This garden has stuck in my head as pure pleasure.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

POWER OF NUANCE

Meadow, trees, house. A trinity complete. A landscape design of choice, above. Dramatically static. Aristocratic courtship of man & nature.
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Can't you see this throughout the seasons?
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Plain? No. I see a flamboyant language. Elusive truth. A repertory of expectancy.
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Symbolist mystery with modern directness.
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Disparate harmony.
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Humble? Not in the least.
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Status in a meadow. Nature's & man's.
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I live in a subdivision. Of course I would love to live in a home looking across meadow into trees. Instead, I've created many garden rooms as a moat of grace around my home. And my life.
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I didn't know that when I began to garden.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic by Borjanna Eghbalian, Schloss Kasel, via Green & Stylish.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

A LANDSCAPE WORTHY OF JANE AUSTEN

Pleasure walks, focal points to stimulate conversation, peaceful corners to sit & read, have lunch, write a letter, gossip with a friend, entertain, experience metaphors of nature writ large, a retreat to retire & contemplate, connive perhaps, most importantly it's civilized. Of course it's my garden.
These views taken from my office window this week with my cell phone.

Living within this tiny plot of land in a cluster home subdivision and all the cares of the world; this garden allows me a Jane Austen life.
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Ugh, the matchmaking part? Terrible. Did it once, never again. They divorced.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara


Saturday, September 12, 2009

VERTICAL STONES DEFINE ENTRY

This had been lawn, below, until I realized I deserved a garden when pulling into my tiny drive. The more entryways a landscape has the better a landscape is.
Low maintenance was a given, drought tolerant too, and NO MORE LAWN !
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Enter my garden here, along a flagstone path flanked with a pair of huge quartz stones, placed vertically for added heft & drama. Dwarf Indian hawthorn & roses caress the path. Contrasting foliage sizes & colors are easy drama. Why don't more people do it?
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The Chinese snowball tree and weeping red cut-leaf Japanese maple block views of neighbor's homes. And add repetition from other parts of my landscape. Ooh-la-la I love to show off with Chinese snowballs.
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A dear friend carried those stones home from camping trips in north Georgia. Turning 40 he sold every possession and moved north to be with family. A disconcerting estate sale but I came home with books & stones. He wouldn't let me pay for the stones. Two months later, my dear friend moved back to Georgia. Enough family, I suppose. Over a decade later Georgia is where he remains.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

CHALLENGE: TREES + ROOTS + SHADE

Old house, old trees, old solution!!! Le Jardin Blanc in Douglasville, GA spread #89 granite gravel under its old trees. Oh the romance of hearing gravel underfoot. Tables + chairs? Yes, ordered from France. Notice where the gravel laps into the tree? Left natural, by choice.

It's a fairy tale, but true, garden at Le Jardin Blanc.
White house, white garden, white furniture, white tea pots, white red -velvet cake.
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LOL, at the style of Le Jardin Blanc. Why? Most people crumble at the challenge of huge trees, dense shade, roots rising from the ground. Le Jardin Blanc decided to open a business in this 1868 plantation home. Their budget? Nill.
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They tamed the landscape sustainably, organically & with low-maintenance.
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Nothing new about the fabulous landscape created at Le Jardin Blanc. The ladies copied what worked from the past.
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PUPPET BARBUDA knows landscapes of gravel are cheap, affordable, well-priced, soft-on-the-wallet, effective, gorgeous, low maintenance. Women clients into their 60's have shoveled their own gravel once delivered. Gravel landscaping has been used more than 10 centuries. Ha, PUPPET BARBUDA wouldn't sell you an irrigation system with lawn under those trees................
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It seems PUPPET BARBUDA wants to bark about landscapes that can be created by you vs. landscapes that can be sold to you.
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Yes, pics of the tea party are mine, at Le Jardin Blanc. I was there lecturing about Vanishing Threshold to a large garden club group. An incredible afternoon.
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Felt like we were in the park in the movie, Gigi.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

DON'T WHACK

Crape Myrtles do not, DO NOT, need whacking. Prune to shape but DO NOT WHACK.
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This is my Crape Myrtle at Stone Mountain Park at the Walk-Up Trail. Blooms are fragrant in the morning only. Interesting.
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Blossoms on the ground? Know what they're called?
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The Snows of Summer.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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For those outside the zone of crape myrtles I am showing off aren't I? But you must appreciate our zone is not friendly to peonies. Which should not be in the realm of possibility.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

LANDSCAPE DESIGN: DOUBLE AXIS

Patio views yesterday thru the crape myrtle 'Natchez'. Thru blossoms to my backdoor, below. Same blossoms, below, viewed from the backdoor.
If a view is pretty in one direction it must be pretty in its opposite direction, Double Axis.


Looking up, above, thru the blossoms as far as you can see. Triple axis!
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Note: Patio is a bit of a mess until the frontyard project is completed this fall. It's holding pieces going to the front. Timelines aren't always perfect. The day job forces me to be a plodder in my own landscape. And I love the plodding in my garden! Sweet.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Saturday, July 11, 2009

DELIGHTING IN PEELING BARK

Arching entry to my back terrace a pair of crape myrtle 'Natchez' delight daily. Especially July 4th when their bark begins peeling. Though this year they were 4 days early.
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Not only visual it's soothing, mesmerizing, slowly pulling strips of bark away. Have you ever peeled crape myrtle bark? Is it a secret pleasure?
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Few crape myrtles boast the bark colors of L. 'Natchez'. Rain intensifies the colors. The blooms are white. Their shade is intense. Birds adore this tree. And, my, do they grow fast. Water? Ha, best of the drought tolerant trees.
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L. 'Natchez' is one of the largest crape myrtles. Site properly and never perform Crape Murder. Do not whack these beauties.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Sunday, May 17, 2009

DECADENCE ON THE LAWN

Masterpiece Theatre, decades ago, had Miss Marple. The English settings were incredibly decadent. Furnishings on the lawn. Tea on the lawn. A notion inextricably appealing.
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Oakleaf hydrangea are peaking now at Aldridge Gardens, above, in Hoover, AL. Their hydrangea festival was last week. After I finished lecturing box lunches were served in the garden.
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Why share this ridiculous notion? Without direct effort my life has included countless repasts in the garden for decades, at home, with friends, clients & lecture venues.
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What began as an infatuation has, indeed, become a way of life.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

LANDSCAPE DESIGN: WASHINGTON PARK, ALBANY, NY

Gertrude Jekyll, world's 1st landscape designer, said, When I design a landscape the FIRST thing I consider is what to put on the house.
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Near Washington Park Jekyll's edict is planted. And there's a thrilling roof. Stone shingles are larger at the gutter, tapering toward the ridge.
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Having something on your house does not always mean a vine. I prefer espaliered woody shrubs. No wires or trellis needed. Vines are often too much maintenance vs. an espaliered woody shrub. Nearby, below, what my LANDSCAPE DESIGN EQUATION advocates. When you create a landscape design begin with trees. What survives in a landscape? Trees, meadow & stone focal point. If you care about low maintenance, organics, sustainability with rainwater only, creating a realm of beauty to live amongst & leaving something for the future. TREES.
With age the trees have become more spectacular than the house, below.

Why is this painted brick, below, working for me? I used to hate painted brick. This painted charmer is near the homes pictured above.

And each of the homes edge Washington Park in Albany, New York. Yes, I was there during the tulip festival.

Original plan, below, for Washington Park. Much of the land has never been privately owned.

Below, the wisdom of what lasts in a landscape (trees - meadow) contrasted with the ephemeral (tulips).

Contrasts, another landscape design tool. Above, see the tree design? Canopy, understory, cone, weeping, horizontal, burgundy foliage, deciduous, evergreen, brown bark, white bark, grey bark.
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There is a template for landscape design with trees. I didn't learn the template in college for horticulture. No. Studied landscapes in France. They don't muck about, as the English would say.
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Pics of Washington Park from their website.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

KEEP THE SNAG

In landscape parlance a dead tree is a SNAG.

MOTHER NATURE is not wasteful.

Dead & dying trees are equally important as living trees. Maybe more? Dead & dying trees attract insects & fungi which attract song birds. Earth's eco system, a portion.
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If a dead/dying tree isn't a threat to safety keep it.
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Above, my red bud tree, SNAG, lasted 6 years. It danced with the birds outside my breakfast room window during that time.
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Who knew, dead & dying trees are precious.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara