Showing posts with label Well Placed Chair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Well Placed Chair. Show all posts

Sunday, April 24, 2011

How To Design Delight

Necessities of life delighting me in other gardens. Gravel, chair, hydrangeas-roses-sasanqua-boxwood, collection of old watering cans. Of course I designed them into my garden.
Provocateurs of epiphany.
And beauty.
Filled with rainwater from the same storms killing-destroying in North Carolina, Chinese snowball petals fragrant at the top end of new decay.
Always, on to the next season. Always.
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Always, leaving this season. Always.
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Frisson, more delightful & engaging than perfection, to me.
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What is delightful to you in a garden? It's this simple, yes, to design delight into your garden.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics from my Potager this week.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Anna Wintour: Garden Room

Light, a trinity of topiaries, rough wood table, sleek metal chairs, drain in the floor, white walls to reflect more lite, Anna Wintour has the perfect garden room. (Read that sentence again, it's a great formula. Go, create your own garden room.)
(Pic, above, Ann Wintour's garden room in World Of Interiors)
I don't think Anna likes to linger after her lettuce.
(Pic, above, Christopher Baker)
I do. These chairs, above, are for me.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Habitually Chic had these pics in a fabulous post.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Vertical Gardening

Every garden must have at least 1 cone shaped evergreen. Draw eyes to the sky. More about this Italian garden, above, here.
Gertrude Jekyll, famous landscape designer, said, "The first thing I consider is what to put on the house." At zero point in college or symposia has anyone said this to me. Took this pic in France, a private garden. In addition to vines on a house, I like espaliered woody flowering shrubs, they need no trellis or wire.
Vertical gardening on a tiny subdivision lot, above, canopy & understory trees with climbing roses. If Monet could have a climbing rose thru his understory trees, so can I. That's my garden, above. The window? It's where I'm typing this post.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Quite selfish leading with the pic I took in Italy. A garden brimming with epiphanies. While I was in it and after.
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3 Vertical Gardening concepts, get started.
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Garden Designers Round Table: MORE Vertical Gardening Posts !!
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Garden Up!When you hear the phrase “vertical gardening,” what comes to mind? You might think about roses scrambling up a trellis, or an overhead arbor dripping with wisteria. Those with a contemporary aesthetic may envision a mosaic of succulents hung on an outdoor wall, while edible gardeners see a riotous mix of creative containers, with tomatoes and peas reaching for the sun.

Vertical gardening is all those things and more. To celebrate the publication of Garden Up! Smart Vertical Gardening for Small and Large Spaces by roundtable members Susan Morrison and Rebecca Sweet, this month our designers share their own unique perspectives on this exciting garden trend.

Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK
Pam Penick : Digging : Austin, TX »
Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In the Garden : Los Altos, CA »
Scott Hokunson : Blue Heron Landscapes : Granby, CT »
Susan Morrison : Blue Planet Garden Blog : East Bay, CA »
Tara Dillard : Vanishing Threshold : Atlanta, GA »

Monday, February 28, 2011

Formula: 2 Chairs + Table

Woodland, palace, mid-century modern, cluster, townhome, shotgun, split-level ranch & etc.2 chairs + table; works every time.
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Of course, you must choose the correct vernacular.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Another pic from MIXSON at my job in Charleston, SC.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

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.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The Chair

SHIPMAN sent this, below, from Greece yesterday. Of course, in my mind, these chairs have already been designed into fabulous gardens.
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Graveled terrace, ancient wood harvest/farm table, tree trunk arbor, 3 old chandliers not matching but hanging at the same level above table. 6 of these chairs with a pair of bentwood/cane armchairs at each end of the table.
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At the entryway of a garden room. A pair of these chairs with chickenwire molded into dog forms covered in a small leafed ivy. At the other end of the garden room another pair with chickenwire in cat forms covered in variegated ivy.
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In honor of a dear friend a cluster of shopping bags arrayed around the chairs.
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Of course there are chickenwire forms of people with the chairs...
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What do you see?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Can't wait till you get back SHIPMAN, lunch???

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Surprises Tucked In

Adirondack chairs as focal points. Easy. Unless, perhaps, you've put too much junk in your garden?
Oakleaf Hydrangea blossom stealing the spotlight.


Tucked in, above, I adore old watering cans.
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A little surprise, tucked in, seen when you sit in my adirondack chair. Placement matters, poppets. Sometimes 2" matters.
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Don't create the gravest of garden cliches; all your baubles fighting to be seen AT ONCE. Ugh.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken this month in my garden. Again, you realize I do not like styled pics? When a design is good no need to style your pictures. Bottom pic: shot pea gravel, gray Cherokee flagstone edging & oakleaf hydrangea spilling over. Aaaaaah, love it. Calms me. Ha, whatever works, right?
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cliche: trite, hackneyed, desperate...............

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Getting It, Fast

Enter Rose Terrace thru a pair of gardenias. Get comfortable in an adirondack chair.
Hear the crunch of Shot Pea Gravel under foot.
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Overhead, a cathedral of mature Crape Myrtle. Espaliered against the wall: tea olive, camellia, hydrangea, climbing rose. Edging for shot pea gravel, cherokee gray flagstone & rescued brick. View, embracing arms of hydrangeas & the Tea Olive Terrace with its pond-hedges-groundcovers.
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Last December the Rose Terrace was a bed of hydrangea under the crape myrtles. Yawn. I wanted to ENJOY my garden. You know, wine/canapes with girlfriends.
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Why is this new garden room FABULOUS FAST? Dahlings, I followed the rules.
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Garden Design has a history of templates that work EVERY TIME.
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Of course I had to get over myself to know this.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken last week in my garden. AND this new garden room was CHEAP.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Outside & Inside A Hedge

Standing in the street, below, at my front gate this morning. Inside the hedge, below, is my Bay Terrace.
Oakleaf Hydrangea blossoms unfurling, below, in the Bay Terrace.

The subtlety of my rule "Just Let It Touch", blossoms caressing, below, the adirondack chair.

Oakleaf Hydrangeas espaliered, below, at the bay window. Learned this trick in Italy at Lake Maggiori.

Did my garden make you curious about seeing, below, inside?


My go-to spot, above, for working on projects, lunch, dinner with a girlfriend.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Bottom pic taken weeks ago, rest of the pics taken less than 15 minutes ago.
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Love English hedgerows and copied. Mine: dwarf abelia, climbing rose 'Dortmund', hydrangeas, boxwood, palm, rosemary, lavender, liriope, clematis, hollyhocks.
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Breakfast yesterday morning, in my gown, sitting in the adirondack chair caressed with oakleaf hydrangea blossoms. Neighbors in my tiny subdivision, surrounding my tiny property, well hidden behind my hedge.
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The antique gateleg table had been in my office for a decade until last January. I hired Susanne Hudson to choose paint colors, somehow, ALL my furniture moved !

Monday, April 26, 2010

SERENDIPITOUS BEAUTY

Serendipitous Beauty is one of my mission statements. Chinese Snowball blossoms snowing petals, below, 2 days ago in the rain on my Bay Terrace.
Going inside, below, a perfection of Serendipitous Beauty.


Tossing off my hat & setting the umbrella down, inside the door, below, more Serendipitous Beauty.

Jack, below, was attracted immediately to my Serendipitous Beauty for different reasons.


No, I'm not making this up as I go along.


Creating a life of Serendipitous Beauty is a choice.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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She invited me to tour her garden. No, I invited myself. I'm quite rude if I think it's important to see a garden. It was hot. Humid. Bringing us (I was rude enough to invite myself & entourage) inside she offered lemonade. Yes. Walking toward the kitchen she set down her straw hat & straw purse on a table without pausing. Beautiful still life. Without effort. The effluvia of her life was beauty. In that moment I knew. Serendipitous Beauty must effulge in my life too.
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Oh dear, now you know I go into a morning rain wearing my gown, and ugly shoes, taking pics of my garden.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Best Lawn: TARA TURF

Moss & lichens are wornas jewelry upon this bench.
TARA TURF is its carpet.

Discovered over a decade ago during a study tour of Scotland TARA TURF is obvious.


TARA TURF: moss, lichens, mondo, clover, bulbs, dandelion, violets, fragrance, dwarf chamomile, scilla, muscari, dwarf daffodils, honeybees, ladybugs, fescue, what the wind blows in, 50%-75% less mowing, formal or informal depending upon mowing pattern & heights, zero fertilizer, zero chemicals, zero irrigation Mother Nature's rain only, unique to each zone & region world wide.
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TARA TURF, luxurient decadence. Earth poetry.
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Poetry of Man? Weekly mowing, insecticides, fungicides, their fumes passing thru your skin, stench, fertilizers, irrigation systems, poisoned ground water, dead mychorizal fungi, dead earthworms, dead lady bugs, dead honeybees, lawn cats/dogs/children must be protected from walking upon once treated, well, dahlings you get the idea.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken last week in CORPORATE WOMAN's garden. Pics of her POTTING COTTAGE soon.
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Sod manufacturers, heads-up. Many people have inquired where to purchase TARA TURF.

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?

Thursday, April 15, 2010

OWN YOUR SKY

Chinese snowball, Kwansan cherry, cypress + dwarf abelia hedge, below. Ha, now the dwarf abelia hedge is apparent, below. You see my gate.
Glimpses, below, of the Bay Terrace. Shot pea gravel, adirondack chairs, terra cotta pots.

The street view, above, of my tiny sweet garden. Excepting the sky. As designed; I own the sky. Nothing tiny or sweet about that.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken 3 days ago. Wish I could say all of the above is original. Nope. Historical landscape design: ceiling (trees), walls (shrubs), floors (gravel), hedge, gate, axis, pots, furniture, bloom sequencing, scale, flow, color, focal point, textures.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

ANAL ABOUT VIEWS

From inside the bay window, below, a glimpse of my new Bay Terrace.
From the Woodland Walk, aka a/c side of my house, below, walking into the Bay Terrace, aka, frontyard. Shot Pea Gravel, above, hasn't settled yet. Adirondack chairs resting upon 1" thick Cherokee gray flagstones so legs won't sink.

View, above, from the same chair in middle pic. Variegated boxwood in terra cotta pot, above, same as viewed from inside my house, top pic.
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Annette Bening's character in the 1999 movie, American Beauty, was anal. I blew past that a few years ago !
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No unconsidered views in your landscape.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

BAD CHAIR & GOOD CHAIR

Bad chair, below. Why? Though new, it's Dated. Acceptable color, clean lines. Hmm. Nice for a hotel at an exit ramp off I-85 in mid-North Carolina, or South Carolina. Good chair, below. Why? Though new, undated. Timelessness.
Hints of 30's Deco, 50's mid-century modern. 8 of these jewels around an old harvest table in your garden? Or inside your house. Done! Comfort, classic, timeless. And, only $32.
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Would you EVER think of putting the chair, top pic, inside your home? NEVER.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Took pic while Hunting/Gathering at Lowe's this week.
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NOTE: Not bashing the Carolina's. If you've driven the route you can't help asking , "Why so many new hotels at exit ramps? How did they get the loans? Is all of America overdosed with new hotels at exit ramps along the interstate system?" Seen during my road trip to lecture in Virginia last February. At that lecture, dahlings, I met Eddie Ross & JAITHAN. Good food, good wine & stories to tell. Fell in crush with both of them. But, alas, this is a garden blog. Tootles.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

TAKE JOY

Rosemary Verey wrote of removing foliage off winter blooming Lenten Rose. I copied, below. In Sir Walter Scott's garden I saw a 'well placed chair'. I copied, below.
Pamela Harper wrote of every garden needing a tall cone shape taking the eyes to the sky. I copied, below.
Joy is always present. Always.
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Take.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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"Take joy" was a favorite of Tasha Tudor, from the book, Tasha Tudor's Garden, pics by Richard W. Brown & text by Tovah Martin. Don't have this book yet? Take joy, buy it.
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Stephen Holden recently reviewed, "Gershwin...Here to Stay", performing at the Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, for the NYTimes. In it he wrote, "When Gershwin's friend Kay Swift observed him playing "dark, doom-laden chords" and asked him what he was composing, he said: "Oh, nothing. I was just working off some of the dreary music that lies near the top of a composer's mind. Then I"ll dig down to the happiness stuff, with any luck."

Friday, March 5, 2010

SMALL CONTENTMENTS

Wallpaper, 24 years old & still adored.The urge, energy & creativity to bring flowers inside, below, was absent for years. Blooms outside these windows every day, all year, no effort. Of course I must tolerate birds, butterflies or honeybees everyday too. Camellias, blooming outside, below. The brown? Dormant hydrangeas. The green? Azaleas. (Tara's Trinity of the Southern Garden: Azaleas, Camellias & Hydrangeas.)
Old wicker from an estate sale around the corner 3 years ago.

The cloche had been in the garden over 5 years, until hellebores were cut last week.

After 20 years, my house was painted. A decorator, Susanne Hudson, hired to help with colors & interior design.
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I'm basking in the joy, serenity & energy my new spaces are giving me.
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Above, When stamens drop, I'm taken out of time. (Lucky me, I think some people need cocaine to feel like this. As the Sea Witch in Little Mermaid says, "...Poor unfortunate souls........")
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What mentors have shared with me the most? Small contentments.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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That fabulous cloche? TJMaxx, $9.99!