How Would You Solve This?

Quite nice color echo from purple furniture to loropetalum.

What would you do, below, with this 'pedestrian' landscape?  Very tight budget, of course.

Shutters as the budget allows.  More importantly, pruning the shrubs into espalier next to the house.  I'm thinking 10' tall at most.  Lush.
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Adore solutions costing 'zero'.
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Her solution to the improperly scaled window boxes is brilliant.  Remove the wood boxes, place a stone shelf on the iron brackets and place several terra cotta pots.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken in a client garden last week.

Exterior Wallpaper

No room for a fruit tree?

If you have the right wall with sun you do.
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Fruit trees can be bought already espaliered.
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Isn't it about time you gifted yourself exterior wallpaper?
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pic Bumble at 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.

Apple Espalier In A Tiny Potager

Her potager is barely 3' deep, below.

 No problem planting a pair of espalier apple trees, above.  They require little space.

She offered some of her collards, above, but they were too pretty to pick.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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I espalier a lot of things.  Tried a hydrangea espalier?  Lushness without effort, sasanqua's too.  Sometimes, I espalier, truly due to tight space.

Vines On A Wood House?

Vines on a wood house?  No.  There are ways but I'm too lazy.  Vine clinging to stucco/stone, below,

 a case of desire from Italy.  Can't do it with your wood home?  No problem.  Espalier a woody shrub.

 Whatever your zone, choose a hardy woody shrub and espalier the pruning.

 Abelia, viburnum, hydrangea, camellia, tea olive, and more can be planted & espaliered.
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Use a woody (Why woody?  No wire/trellis needed.) shrub as a 'vine' on your wood home.
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Don't buy shrubs already espaliered, buy big shrubs and prune them into espalier.  On camellia, and many others, this saves over $100+.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Carolina jessamine was growing on my baywindow.  Gone, too much work.  Espaliered a huge oakleaf hydrangea,  2nd pic from bottom.

Details in Simplicity

Simplicities: trim color is not a bright white, no window screens, interior window treatments are elegant, lights on inside, contrasting foliage textures, contrasting foliage colors, espaliered lushness upon home, well maintained, easy to maintain, urn is fabulous enough to be empty, urn is not hugging wall of home or frontdoor, classic template of centuries copied, design is elegant in winter, makes me want to see the interior, makes me want to see the rest of the garden, the landscape describes the owners. Front of home, above, and its backyard, below.

Shown in yesterday's post too.

A retired couple lives here. They maintain the garden.

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Two important questions to ask yourself about a pic of your home.

1. Is it so wonderful I must see inside?
2. Is it so wonderful I must see the entire landscape?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last week in Athens, GA

That Type

When the actor Jimmy Stewart died in 1997 the obit picture was taken in his garden. Oh, BEAUTY. I, I, me-me-me, I, I, wanted THAT type of garden. Yesterday, Rob Browder, in my garden. Finally met his children. Rob, for almost 2 decades, is the only pruning contractor I refer. Precision Pruning.

Rob's pruning is so natural it looks like G*d pruned. But, dahlings, you must write G*d a check.

Hard to imagine I knew Rob about 10 (ok maybe 4) girlfriends before he met his ex-wife. I was thrilled to finally meet his children.

And I shot them in the exact type of garden Jimmy Stewart had.

It was a tough day with Rob & his men. Deep pruning to all the Daphne. And Rosemary. So deep. I couldn't watch.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Bottom pic is my favorite. If you are in the metro Atlanta area reading this, yes, you want Rob pruning your garden.

Espaliered Draperies

Oakleaf Hydrangea, below, draperies outside at the Bay Terrace. A pair espaliered each side the largest window.

Blooms, colorful fall foliage, exfoliating winter bark. Sometimes a bird's nest.

Each year this most terrible time arrives. Awful. Faded blooms & a year of vigorous growth it's time to PRUNE. I natter on about espalier this-or-that but it's never easy. Pruning off faded glory. Why? I know it will produce next year's beautiful show.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last week in my garden. Oakleaf Hydrangea are native.

Draperies in the Landscape

Last Sunday, below. Considered draperies for your landscape?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Took the pic in Susanne Hudson's garden.

Foundation Plantings are Ridiculous

Why a stupid row of evergreen meatballs when you, below, can have this? Why give away your real estate? Foundation plantings are a tired concept.

One espaliered shrub adds a lushness legions of sheared green meatballs will never approach.

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In your mind, at this moment, take away your foundation plantings. Good, have fun destroying a landscape and creating your garden. One matching your interiors, architecture, intellect & spirit.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken when I was in England. Got rid of my foundation plantings over 15 years ago, la-ti-da.

HER CLOSET & QUINCE

Windows along 2 walls, a fireplace & stairs to the attic. Make it a closet, of course! Her garden, below, as well considered as her closet.

Her quince, above/below, last Friday.

And the same quince, above, from her porch.

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Vanishing Threshold.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

A NEW GARDEN ROOM: ROSE TERRACE

ROSE TERRACE, unfinished & already a dowager, hosted me Saturday. Shirt sleeves, wine, book.

Incomplete, ha, the charms of ROSE TERRACE are prodigeous.

ROSE TERRACE is under the crape myrtles, below, and my office window.

ROSE TERRACE, below, last month. Delightful, the potency of shirt sleeves Saturday.

Of course, below, I was in the chaise, circa 1930, taking pic of the teak adirondack with fallen camellia blossoms, C. 'White By The Gate'.

Antique roses weave into crape myrtles shading house & ROSE TERRACE. That idea came in Claude Monet's garden, circa 1990. Couldn't get home fast enough to order the roses. Today's era? Order via cell phone from Claude's garden. "Claude', one of the dead men I have a THING for.

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Prior to being the ROSE TERRACE this was a hydrangea patch.

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Prior to being a hydrangea patch this was an herbaceous border.

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Prior to being an herbaceous border this was ---can't believe I'm admitting to this --- otto luyken laurels I planted before I knew a thing about gardening.

Hydrangeas repurposed, below, at the border of ROSE TERRACE. Shot pea gravel, 3" deep -- no landscape fabric, with stone & brick for edging.

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New Camellias, Tea Olives & Gardenias are espaliered against the wall of ROSE TERRACE.

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Lanterns + Candles await to be hung from the Crape Myrtles.

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Terra cotta pots await my luncheon appointment with a topiary wholesale nursery next week. Honestly, it would be impossible to make this stuff up. AND it's work. My career.

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(Of course no one wants my job when it's hot/humid & blood is trickling down my neck from mosquito bites or I'm picking up dog s---t in a client's garden so they'll only see my contractor's beautiful installation of my design. Oh, lest I forget, falling off the second story of my home before a winter open garden & getting up and working more while it's still dark outside so the 10am start time is EFFORTLESS. Ha!!!!!!!!!)

Dowager? Incomplete, ROSE TERRACE is already gorgeous & functioning.
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NOTE: Adirondack on flagstones, prevents irratic sinking. For proper photography & when guests are present hide flagstones under shot pea gravel.

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Inspiration? Enjoying wine/canapes at a girlfriend's, realizing I didn't have a similar spot.

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Can't wait for warmer days ahead, girlfriends & ROSE TERRACE.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

PURE ROMANCE

Deepest winter, camellias in bloom, a pierced brick wall, a boxwood sentinal,

perennials peeking through, the dormant vine enticing me to come back.

This bit of garden, last week in Charlotte, NC, displays many desires.

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I want to know how to make cast stone urns, a pierced brick wall, forge an iron gate, paint a watercolor of this scene, write a poem about nature's delight & of course garden here.

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Perhaps this is why my contractor told me, "You are a gay man in a womans body." Ha, most of my girlfriends want to do these things too.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic taken last month at Wing Haven.

VANISHING THRESHOLD: Your Frontdoor

Two questions your front door answers. Whether you think so or not.

Do I want to see inside their house?

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Do I want to see their garden?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic from Homes & Gardens via Brabourne Farm

LUSH WITHOUT SPACE

Want to add lushness without taking up space? Put a vine on your house. Or espalier a woody shrub. Not much, above, but loads of lushness. And little maintenance. Rich, welcoming. Don't you want to know what the inside looks like? And the garden? Already sense you would like the owner?
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Slow down, dahlings. 3 questions, above, are quite serious. And part of designing your landscape.
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Ask those questions of your frontdoor & back patio area.
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Color, empty pots, scale, path, axis, light fixture, bell pull, enfilade each play a role too. But I'm only speaking of the vine today. Isn't it amazing how the simplest of garden pictures is, in reality, a full landscape design course?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic from Kathryn Ireland

HOW TO ADD INTEREST TO YOUR WALLS

Gertrude Jekyll, world's 1st landscape designer, said the first thing she considered when designing a landscape was what to put on the wall. I literally set her book down when I read that sentence. To digest. Why?
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No symposium, book, magazine, college professor ever, EVER, said to put anything on the house.
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Jekyll's sentence rocked my world. Hope it rocks yours.
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Gertrude loved to use CLEMATIS MONTANA on walls.
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In Italy, I discovered every conceivable plant espaliered. EPIPHANY: use espaliered shrubs instead of vines. Much, much-much-much, easier. No wires, no trellis needed.
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Shutters, tool bouquets, art, faux doors, faux windows, birdhouses & etc. are also in your quiver; adding interest to your walls.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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On my wall, above, she's hanging on the nail vacated, for the moment, by my dovecote which is in the repair shop. The Yellow Pages delivery person smashed it to smithereens. (A Christine Sibley piece bought at her gallery/garden before she passed. Every piece of hers was bought off the 'seconds' table, 90% off.) Do you have a landscape larder for garden emergencies?????????

TAKE PICTURES OF YOUR LANDSCAPE

Climbing Rose 'New Dawn' on my garage. RIP. Dead, last year, of drought. Wow. Coming across this picture made me 'lose' the rose again. Remembering when I planted the rose, after Hurricane Opal blew thru Atlanta killing my mature 'Lady Banks' rose. Too much drama!
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Still in the fantasizing phase on what to plant now. Happy I've got this picture. Take pictures of your landscape. I promise you they will become little gifts to yourself.
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Off to Texas visiting family for a week............
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

LANDSCAPE ECONOMY: ARBOR, GRILL, SINK

Landscape ideas with charm aren't always expensive. Copied from a 1920's garden book, the arbor. At least I've seen similar arbors in old garden books. Not part of the 'landscaped' garden this outdoor kitchen has loads of character for little cost.

Repeating the arbor, below. Repetition is as important as simplicity in a landscape.

Vines on a house, or espaliered shrubs, are easy. Adding lushness with little effort.

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In a perfect world my slides from Italy would be digitized by now. I've got pics of a villa, which should be posted here, using the same idea above but the style is centuries old Italian. Great style transcends genre.

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What's happening in my garden today? Pulling akebia vine from hydrangeas, camellias, azaleas, viburnum, & more. Ugh. Then a bath and off to design a backyard.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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

ATTACHING VINES TO YOUR HOUSE

Gertrude Jekyll, Englishwoman & world's 1st landscape designer, said, When I design a landscape the first thing I consider is what to put on the house. Fascinating. College degree, uncountable lectures attended and not one person ever, ever, mentioned what to put on a house. I design with vines and espaliered woody shrubs on homes.

You can vaguely see the wires on the house, below. Vines with outward growth add a dimension of lushness & softness.

In winter, the wires are barely visible. Entirely cloaked in summer.

Run galvanized wire in horizontal lines 2' apart.

I use masonry screws for brick walls & a jackhammer drill. Copper wire doesn't carry the load of galvanized wire.

Woody shrubs espaliered against a home need no wires or trellising. Use espaliered shrubs for low maintenance.

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I took the pics last month in England at Wisley, Royal Hort. Society.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara