Rustic Simplicity

Simplicity is a choice.  

Rustic simplicity is a bold choice few Americans take.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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pics My French Country Home.

Foundation Planting

Starter home to million plus, Americans love their foundation plantings.  Why?  Rows of green meatballs planted by the builder, pruned ad nauseam for decades showing off the enabling co-dependent relationship serving neither party. 

And the confidence of this driveway.  More than function, a feature.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic My French Country Home.
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
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Details about online design services.
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Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
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Details about lecture titles here.
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I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Simple Garden Fix

A simple solution

 to a couple of tons of problem.

Car tires.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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pics taken at a jobsite last month.  Granite cobblestones.  New, I think from Mexico.  Can't wait till the groundcover, liriope, fills in and there is no more dead brown mulch.

Choosing Swing Open Garage Doors

I'm hunting garage doors that swing open.  The garage is a charming 1945 cinder block with low sloped roof.  Privacy is an issue, and money.

 These are the doors I'll send to Magic Man, below.  A potting shed near the garage needs one of the doors above, alas, that money issue.  But dreams are free.

Will use a frosted glass.
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Magic Man will say all sorts of wonderful embellishments to simplicity, above.  Alas, again, that money issue. 
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Hardware isn't much of an issue with these doors either.  A huge savings.
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Garden & Be Well,            XO Tara
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Top pic via Velvet & Linen.  Bottom pic via Rachel Ashwell.

Formalities & Rusticities

A woodland entry was added to their property, alleviating traffic issues at the family entry.  Formal aspects abound elsewhere.  Keeping RUSTICITIES balances the whole.  Don't know about Formalities & Rusticities?  Read your Jane Austen again, she certainly understood.  Her sanctimonious characters were certainly of the formalities-only-school.

 I used cedars, enlarging a natural drift.  Stone from the site & fallen tree debris, above.

 What you won't see along the lovely Woodland Entry, below,

is what I've hidden.  Modern necessities: satellite, power box & etc. 
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Since we've created this entry & completed the Landscape Design, amplifying Rusticities, she told me it's now her favorite way to enter her property.  A new way of seeing her home.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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pics taken last month.  This is a large area and I adore using the potency of Rusticities in a manner learned from my mentor Mary Kistner, who said, "It's what we do with what we have."  And thankful for a client trusting me with a few rocks, tree debris & her own wild cedar trees.  Rumpelstiltskin was conjuring the wrong form of gold.  This is the gold.

Soldiers In The Landscape: Formal & Informal

In the city, below, less than an acre.  Keeping a gravel drive BY CHOICE.  Where woodland meets gravel  keeping the frisson 'wild' BY CHOICE.  Feelings of leaving-the-city-behind, the sounds of crunching gravel; driving thru woodland.  (Gravel percolates water, no taxes for stormwater runoff.)

 Adding soldiers, below, to the front parking area.  A zone with more formality.  The stones, known as soldiers, indicate "yes, park here."

Soldiers can be: bricks, concrete chunks, branches, pavers, plates, baby doll heads, half submerged model ships, old farm parts, & etc.
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Garden & Be Well,          XO Tara
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Did you realize the top pic was totally landscape designed?  Including the leaf litter mulch.  It is !

Materials Indicate Movement

Parking at the left with concrete block/gravel, enter the home at stones + wood steps, driving lane of cubed stone/gravel.Stone at doorway, below.
Concrete blocks/gravel for parking, below.
Cubed stone/gravel, below, for roads.
And, below,
they look great together.

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Did you notice something FABULOUS? Each is water permeable.

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Nice to pull onto these surfaces & hear their bit of crunch and feel their texture under your tires.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics from Mixson, my project in Charleston, SC.

Interesting Times

Indeed, these are interesting times. A recent client had a cracked & buckled asphalt drive.To save money, she was willing to replace it with another asphalt drive.
Interestingly, & true, a new concrete drive was cheaper than asphalt.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Brick apron, above, wasn't installed yet when I was taking pics.

Landscape Design Solutions

Scored concrete & a roundabout of pavers in the parking court, below, diminish its 'nature'. Softens the impact.From their fabulous patio, below, a view into the garden via an enfilade with the parking court. Every landscape has its thorns. Mostly 2 cars, more with family/friends.
Another view from the fabulous patio, below.
The foyer between parking court & patio, above. I removed the turf & put in rosemary behind the bench, 1 Michelia figo behind that & etc. Both evergreen & fragrant. Views from the patio with the plantings will obscure views of the parking court & block neighbor's views into the gate of garden/patio/home. (Double Axis with little input AND no mowing, weedeating, yet adding privacy, fragrance, increased property value, & better curb appeal.)
More of the same foyer, above. Copied rosemary behind the bench, Abelia 'Rose Creek' behind that & etc. Mystery created! From the patio you'll see hints of the fabulous garden. From the garden you'll see hints of the fabulous patio. Of course, the parking court is diminished.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Turf, pic above, removed also. Used pairs of boxwood at the sidewalks leading from parking court into the parterre. Used repetition with the Abelia and existing Pittosporum. (Pittosporum, viewed from the parterre, will block views of the front of the cars.) Repetition, is a potent Landscape Design tool.

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Same Macon, GA garden as the past few posts.

Landscape the Ubiquities of Life Away

"Here I am breathing the soft air of Mount Edgcumbe standing upon the brink of a Cliff overlooking the sea and singing Notturnos with Pacchierotti. Innumerable bees are humming about the Myrtles and Arbutus which hang on the steeps and are covered with blossom." William Beckford 1781Oh my, the connection is intense. Gardens transcend time, size, style, budget, governments.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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View from my garage, above, living in a ubiquitous American subdivision. With my garden, I've left the ubiquities behind.

Choosing Simplicity

Paintings, and lives, are made of this, below. 10 acres amongst other farms, many Mennonite, hills & streams. They retired here recently. The work is hard but the joy is greater.

Already their home a refuge for children/grandchildren, friends, & animals. Blossom, above.

Clearing land, above/below, 1st cleared over a century ago.

Discovering original gravel drives & ponds.

Felled wood stored in the circa 1940's cedar barn. Trucks & tractors bought (too) reasonably during this economy. Trading Atlanta for Kentucky.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken this weekend. Did you notice how the slope was contained, at the gravel drive? Of course I said, YES, when invited, roadtrip with a girlfriend to stay with another girlfriend & her yardboy! Stopped at roadside junk sales along the way. Bagged a few old lawn tools. More......

Doormat

I first saw this type of doormat, below, in a centuries old French garden (cobblestones set in gravel). As perfect as this entry, below, is I want to take it back

further. Do you know what I mean?

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Do you know how?

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The container. Fabulous, but too new for this landscape.

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We have already sourced a new container, almost a century old, in Birmingham, AL.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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When the new container arrives the current era will be blended across the past.

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Timelessness, a grace in every landscape fortunate enough to wear it.

Simple

A few weeks ago when the roses began blooming, below. #89 granite gravel drive, picket fence copied from historic template, carport (at right) with "columns" made from 2" x 6" boards, green-brown-white color theme. Pure Simplicity.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Can you hear the gravel as you drive into Susanne Hudson's garden?

JULIA CHILD & RACHEL RAY

Cookbooks. None by Rachel Ray. Not surprising PECAN ORCHARD isn't hesitant to begin her landscape with its bones. Evergreen hedges near the house, working outward. Ah, yes, Julia Child. Truck & outbuildings, below, viewed from the kitchen, above. Soon, hedges. Poof Gone!

PECAN ORCHARD returned from 2 decades of expat living recently. Determined to live a gardening lifestyle with chickens, honeybees, potager, fruitery, nuttery, & more.

Around the corner from her kitchen, above, a guest alcove. PECAN ORCHARD is already hosting events for honeybee & chicken groups.

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A few Garden Ingredients: Hollies, camellias, Pee Gee hydrangea, red bud, crape myrtles, abelia, forsythia, viburnum, boxwood, meadows, bulbs, branch wattles, urns, plinths, paths, gravel, flagstones.

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When PECAN ORCHARD is over 90, decades away, she wants a landscape grown more beautiful AND easier to maintain.

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Combining Rachel Ray ease & Julia Child delectability.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Took pics yesterday at PECAN ORCHARD'S home.

MAKING IT LESS MAINTENANCE

Know how to create less maintenance, below? Replace turf with groundcover.
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Notice what is not in this landscape? NO FOUNDATION PLANTING !!!!
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Notice what is in this landscape? A French theme. OVERDOSE YOUR THEME.
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Notice how simple this landscape is? KEEP IT SIMPLE SWEETIE.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic via Things That Inspire. A favorite blog, named to perfection.

THE SECRET OF FABULOUS LANDSCAPES

Entering Great Dixter, below, the household drive. Tires crunching along the gravel, scent of meadow.

Passing thru the yew hedge into this, above.

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See the landscape design secret?

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No?

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Back your car down the drive, park it on the road, get out, walk up the gravel drive, slowly, and thru the yew hedge.

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Notice the contrast of meadow to clipped lawn? Formal to informal?

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Ha, the secret tool of the worlds most famous landscapes is

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CONTRASTING FORMAL & INFORMAL GARDEN ROOMS.

Did you think this gravel drive & meadow were 'natural'? Ha, not one inch of this drive or meadow were unconsidered. TOTALLY DESIGNED.
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TARA TURF was born in this meadow over a decade ago. And the epiphany of what the best landscapes create, FORMAL GARDEN ROOMS NEXT TO INFORMAL GARDEN ROOMS.
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CONTRAST.
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Yes, contrast flower shapes/colors, tree forms, foliage colors/shapes & etc. Knowing, contrasting FORMAL/INFORMAL is the most important.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Lucky me, taking the pics at Great Dixter while Christopher Lloyd was alive. Note: In another area of Great Dixter meadow is designed up to, and touching, the house. Ha, remember the Tara Rule of Just Let It Touch?
Oh, meadows have been sustainable-organic-eco-low maintenance-beautiful since before language was invented.

LANDSCAPE DESIGN: MISSION STATEMENT

For each landscape design I ask for a mission statement. Often a single mission statement is enough, sometimes one for the front yard & another for the backyard. Ha, some of you need several. Don't think you're hiding from me.
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TRACTOR CHICK's mission statement: "Create an outdoor living space that will not be an extension of my home but where my home will be an extension of my garden!" TRACTOR CHICK chose her home for its lot. For the landscape. The backyard is incredible.

A few challenges in the front yard. Driveways & garages drawing attention away from the focal point of the front door.

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I haven't drawn this plan yet but I already know round downspouts are needed, an arbor over the double garage wrapping around the corner and Bahama shutters, below, on the bare wall between the double garage & single garage.

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Why have the arbor and Bahama shutters? Softness, depth, asymmetry and creating the illusion that living space is balanced on each side of the home.

Bahama shutter pic, above, from The Window Shutter Site, other pics taken last week.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

LANDSCAPE DESIGN: DRIVEWAY

This charming driveway greeted me earlier in the week. A 1-car garage enlarged into a 2-car garage. A gravel drive edged with stones.
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Picture removed at request of contractor.
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CHARM. CHARM. CHARM.
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Picture removed at request of contractor.
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Then I discovered the driveway is where the money ran out. Notice the apron of cement leading into the drive. It's still the original single car garage apron. Then it curves gently wider.
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Instead of several thousand dollars for a new driveway, it was several hundred dollars. Yes. that much of a difference. Did you know gravel runs about $70/ton?
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And I like the gravel drive better. CHARM.
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Often, the 'more money' choice is not the right choice.
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As the saying goes, Poverty is a great preserver.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Note 6-21-09: Though the pics were removed today the idea is still worth keeping this post up.