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.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

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.

SUBSIDIARY FOCAL POINT

Tucked into a boxwood, below, hidden from most views. Meow. Bamboo rake bought for aesthetics.

A neighbor, retired NAVY, taught me how to do the rake/gravel thing.

A new pleasure, dragging a bamboo rake thru gravel. Aaaah, the sound, the feel of rake thru gravel, new body movements, making swirls, curves, lines, intersections, mindlessness; but not.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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.

.

Annette Bening's character in the 1999 movie, American Beauty, was anal. I blew past that a few years ago !

.

No unconsidered views in your landscape.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

GRAVEL AT THE DOOR

The sound, view, warmth, welcome, ease, history, joy, affordability, aesthetics. Gravel at the door.
.
"He who is born with a silver spoon in his mouth is generally considered a fortunate person, but his good fortune is small compared to that of the happy mortal who enters this world with a passion for flowers in his soul." Celia Thaxter, in, An Island Garden.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic via Greige Design. Pics soon of my new chandelier in the Butler's Pantry (aka mudroom) & gravel to my front door.

WHICH DIRECTION?

This crabapple, below, doesn't have a bad direction. Here, above/below, in Susanne Hudson's backyard.

Looking thru the gate, below, is a view from the frontyard.

Blossoms, below, each had honeybees. Wish you could hear this tree.

Classic Design Recipe, below. Path, gate, arbor, light, picket fence, color theme, bench, potted boxwood, leaf litter mulch, Tara Turf, focal point on axis. (Note: treat this as any good recipe. It works everytime & is unique everytime.)

Crabapple viewed, below, from the front porch. She fills the horizon.

Notice winter's bare branches? I adore the frisson.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pics taken last Friday. My favorite direction is from the library, early morning. Alas, we were hard at work on our book project.

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.

.

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

.

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

.

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.

.

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

.

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

.

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.

.

(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.
.

NOTE: Adirondack on flagstones, prevents irratic sinking. For proper photography & when guests are present hide flagstones under shot pea gravel.

.

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

.

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

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

DO IT YOURSELF & WOMEN

Often I will look deeply into my client's eyes, and say, "YOU do this, don't let the crew do it."

Picking up acorns, pulling branches together after a storm to use in a wattle, planting a pot or a few perennials & etc.

.

One client's husband refuses to let her garden in the frontyard. He thinks it looks, "low class."
.

How could society create such a man? Gardening is luxury. For women wanting to garden.

.

Manly help is hired, above, for things I cannot do.

.

Why is gardening potent to gardeners? Oxytocin & endorphins.

.

Yesterday I stained a pair of cedar adirondack chairs bought at the Smith/Hawken going-out-of-business sale last fall. Several hours on a sunny, warm winter's day.

.

Ha, got my oxytocin & endorphins along with a pair of newly stained adirondacks.

.

This is exactly why I tell my women clients, new to gardening, DO IT YOURSELF. Not an admonishment, A GIFT.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Top pic, taken in January while hammering, with a spot of tea, the tile around my old tub. Theories about what was behind the tile wall & under the tub were discarded once I began hammering. Yes, called a man. Bottom pic, taken in December when my frontyard became a gravel terrace.

VANISHING THRESHOLD: Lighting

When it moves outside it's a trend. Fabulous lanterns. First Rules of Landscape Design: copy, simplicity, repetition.
.
SENSUOUS, above. Crunch of gravel, trilling water, warmth of candle light, hearing refreshments poured from a pretty pitcher, feel of foliage upon your arm, repetition of color house-furniture-shutters-arbor-fountain-gravel, scale, flow, texture, vanishing threshold.
.
Beauty w/Low Maintenance in the garden is sensuous & feng shui.
.
Design, above, for yourself. Grace IS a destination.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic, Michael Partino via Brabourne Farms

UP TO THE HOUSE

Stone or gravel up to the house. First view, Scotland, almost 2 decades ago during a landscape study trip. I GOT IT !!!! Not during college, not during any symposium had anyone, ANYONE, said to put stone or gravel up to the house. I've been doing it ever since.

.

Oddly, I've only recently done it for myself. Days ago. Why did I wait so long? Cobblers child?

.

Shot pea gravel, above, $20/ton. #89 granite gravel is gray and slightly larger than shot pea gravel. Voila, color choice!!

.

An idea for Manse & Caretakers Cottage.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.

Pic by Nicolas Tosi via Architect Design.

A LITTLE WEED PLEASE

Where are the weeds? Gorgeous? Yes, in a Stepford Wife banality (honestly, remove the 'b' from the previous word). Ha, not even garlic chives or marigolds at the edges to repel bugs. PUPPET BARBUDA contemplated deeply about this garden. Conclusion? It lacks ROMANCE. Yet, PUPPET BARBUDA adored the romance of the settings in the rest of the movie, It's Complicated.

Susanne Hudson is using true landscape bamboo fencing for my new window treatments, above. A soft burlap for dust ruffle & chair cushions.

My garden tub, above,

is coming inside, above.

The strength of girlfriends, above. My 2 new gravel terraces? (5 tons, $410) Specifically for more girlfriend action!

.

PUPPET BARBUDA has added Hollywood movie garden stylist to her dream job resume. It looks, top pic, like a vegetable garden in a CHEMICAL COMPANY ad circa 1962. Even butterflies, honey bees & lady bugs knew this was a no fly zone. Ugh.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pics from the movie, It's Complicated.

KNOW WHO TO ASK

Ask a landscape contractor specializing in brick/stone/concrete/mortar for ideas about a path or terrace? It's fairly certain you'll end up with ideas like this, below. Instead of something like this, below.

Gravel ranges $20-$48/ton & doesn't require skilled labor.

.

At a girlfriend's for dinner I broke a personal rule, "No Landscape Designing, Unless Asked. " She told me the story of several contractor bids to repair her old, broken concrete patio. Each bid into the thousands of dollars. I asked her, "What do you think of gravel?"

.

Yes, dahlings, less than $300 later she had a gravel terrace. She asked me, "Why didn't any of the contractors tell me about gravel?" She loves the terrace & so do I. We've had many dinners, brunches & glasses of wine on her gravel terrace.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Top pic from Smithsonian Horticulture Archive, Bottom pic from the movie, It's Complicated. No time to poke around for my girlfriend's gravel terrace at the moment. Another post!

IT IS UNCOMPLICATED

This landscape had me at its gravel. Did you notice this landscape requires no skilled maintenance?
.
Pillow? Already telling us something about the home's interior.
.
Vines adding lushness without taking up space.
.
Pot clusters created as still life's, art. Not some stupid notion of need-a-garden-idea-here.
.
Do you feel the pots, bench, plantings, gravel leading you to the back door?
.
Sense how this garden room can be as easily rearranged as an interior room?
.
This tiny garden room gives a huge sense of the woman living here. Does your garden look like your inner self?
.
Do you think this garden was professionally designed? Yes? Me too.
.
If this were your garden room, and you didn't have it professionally designed would it look this good? More importantly would it have cost so little to implement? Of greater importance would it be as easy, cost effective, to maintain? Topping the importance list, would you have created a garden room inviting you to use it?
.
PUPPET BARBUDA loves this Vanishing Threshold garden.
.
Pic from the movie, It's Complicated.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara aka PUPPET BARBUDA

PUPPET BARBUDA GARDEN CENTER SHOPPING

PUPPET BARBUDA, landscape critic, was invited by a dear friend to a soiree at a bonafide retail garden center this week. PUPPET was sooooooooooo excited. In PUPPET's world plants are wholesale & arrive in trucks with vigorous helpful men. Retail garden center experiences are rare. (Yes, PUPPET purchases from big box hardware store plant departments 3-4x's/yr. Are they garden centers?) PUPPET BARBUDA's mental math, "What is my spending cap at the garden center today?"
.
Instead, a preening tragedy. The garden center, inside, was dramatically static, by a decade, or more. Garden merchandise is more tempting at TJMaxx or Marshall's or Ross. (PUPPET shops those places for her garden many times/year!)
.
How to fix this? PUPPET BARBUDA wishes Atlanta interior design blogger, Things That Inspire, would be invited to decorate/merchandise inside the garden center. In exchange? Promotion of her work & blog. The garden center is tight on money in a tight economy, understandably.
.
PETERSHAM NURSERIES in England is where PUPPET BARBUDA vicariously shops. PUPPET is on PETERSHAM's email list & adores each missive. Their pics (they're on Flickr too) have her smitten. At least the distance to PETERSHAM's saves PUPPET money.
.
PUPPET BARBUDA is horrified a new gardener, or non-gardener, would enter the Garden-Center-of-Preening-Tragedy and think, "This is what gardening is about?" Though a fabulous remnant remained from another era, CUSTOMER SERVICE. Oh, the poor dears had not much to sell.
.
When PUPPET BARBUDA saw the pic, above, via Dust Jacket Attic, she thought it had more to sell to gardeners than the garden center stuffed with merchandise she visited this week. PUPPET BARBUDA's heart is on her sleeve about gardening & wants each element of the profession, & you the gardener, to prosper.
.
It should be easy to have a sustainable, eco, organic, low-maintenance, spirit filling, beautiful garden. PUPPET BARBUDA would survive without hers but she wouldn't THRIVE.
.
Life is short, thrive.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO PUPPET BARBUDA aka Tara
.
(Mental math? Thrifty PUPPET BARBUDA was willing to go $200 max, instead, ZERO)

A FREE HOUSE

Knowing he replaced windows Susanne Hudson deduced the old windows were going someplace, shall we say, unpleasant, in these 'sustainable' times? With Susanne's brilliance, instead of ending their life at a, literal, DUMP his windows are becoming GARDEN HOUSES, metaphorically, free.

#89 granite gravel creates crunchy delicious floors.

With rescued objects (aka free) and an exquisite eye for junking Susanne's GARDEN HOUSE is a statement in INTERIOR DESIGN too.

.

Who knew junking & rescuing could be so GORGEOUS!!

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Took pics in Susanne's GARDEN HOUSE.

WHEN TO BUY & DIY CONTRACTING & etc.

November is the best month to buy plants on sale. Most nurseries must make space for Christmas trees, arriving typically, by Thanksgiving.

A tempting email arrived from here. I bit. And bought!!

.

A delicious man helped place my order, arriving Dec. 4th. Gosh he was rollicking good. I think I asked him to deliver my plants himself. He wasn't sure they would let him. Honestly, I begged him to be the one unloading my plants with me.

.

We are still emailing back/forth about my order. More deliciousness.

.

What's so delicious? Try a 25 gallon Variegated Kousa Dogwood at $90, a 45 gallon Cryptomeria at $130, 25 gallon Natchez Crape Myrtles at $60 and super tasty 7 gallon Setsugekka Sasanqua's at $40. Best prices of the year.

.

Told you Mr. Rollicking Delicious was good.

.

It's been almost a decade since I've done a large tweek in my garden. At my baywindow I'm creating a gravel terrace. 2 Adirondack chairs from the Smith/Hawken going-out-of-business sale were bought for this new garden room. Another gravel terrace is being added in my side garden under the crape myrtles. A chandelier is waiting in my garage to be hung from the crape myrtles over this new seating area. Teak seating was bought from TJMAXX.

.

My garden is tiny & full of rooms. Soon I should win an award for most garden rooms/square foot!!!

.

Gravel for the terraces will be ordered tomorrow. Laying in bed I connive where it should be dumped. There's no where. At the bottom of my short drive seems best. Don't want the dump truck breaking it. Guess who shovels? Me. Hired my contractor, Dan Riddle, to plant the big stuff. Can only afford him, and workers, for a full day.

.

Why tell you all this? So you can be your own contractor too.

.

AND, my interior was SUSANNED Tuesday. When Susanne Hudson left (10am-7pm) I was excited and dizzy. Since Tuesday I've been taking my notebook with color chips/notes around the house & to bed, it's beside my computer now as I type glancing at the colors.
.

SUZANNE MEASURED. Things I knew couldn't be done, were done, because she measured. Antiques from my garage will be going inside, finally. She also named rooms. The Parlor, Music Room, Garden Room, OMG, what fun.

.

Top pic is of HighGrove, Prince Charles's estate in England. And the bottom pic was a joy to come across. I've been in that garden. Don't remember where. Must peruse my pics & find my shot of the same spot. I think the pics came via Golden Age Gardens .

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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.

.

See the landscape design secret?

.

No?

.

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

.

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

.

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

.

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.
.
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.
.
CONTRAST.
.
Yes, contrast flower shapes/colors, tree forms, foliage colors/shapes & etc. Knowing, contrasting FORMAL/INFORMAL is the most important.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
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.

TRAILING DRESS, GARDEN, HOWARD'S END

"Why did we settle that their house would be all gables and wiggles, and their garden all gamboge-colored paths?" Won't tell you what 'gamboge' is. Why take away a pleasure? A great day when a dictionary is needed. "Trail, trail, went her long dress over the sopping grass, and she came back with her hands full of the hay that was cut yesterday..." Mrs. Wilcox walking in her garden peering into her house, Howard's End. This scene from Howard's End so enchanted me I had to buy the book. Not imagined by the movie director, I discovered, but written into the story.

You must understand, walking about my garden, and peering into my house, calms & fills me with energy. A private, sublime, pleasure. Why would I share it with anyone, these thoughts? Then discovering my private joy was written about by E.M.Forster in 1910.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.

Pics via Hooked on Houses from the movie, Howard's End

WHAT'S MISSING IN THIS PICTURE?

Centuries of landscape design & garden maintenance lessons in France, where I took this pic. What is wrong in this pic?
.
The gardener has increased his gardening time by 10-15X's. Why? Don't we all want low maintenance?
.
Fallen prunings, with thorns, have to be picked up by hand. Leaves & petals will have to be blown.
.
A sheet under the prunings, dahlings. A sheet. All is picked up, no thorn worries, no blower.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Other gardeners at this public park outside Paris were using sheets.

KISS: Keep It Simple Sweetie

How little can you do in your landscape and have it evoke in picaresque who you are? Splendiferous you.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Thank you Krystol for this pic

PATH & PATIO

PATH GIRL, born 1935, hired me early summer. She was stuck in her backyard. One glance, I knew. First, stain patio furnishings a shade from inside.

More important, paths. PATH GIRL created a beautiful garden but the paths weren't 'done'. A roundabout, below, radiates paths.

Gravel to the rescue. PATH GIRL shoveled her own. Edging garden beds with stone found on-site & fallen tree limbs. Not quite finished yet. Yes, dearies, part of the design, use what's at hand.

An alcove of path with an antique marble bench &, while sitting on the bench, a pineapple, symbol of welcome, at your feet.

And the pre-built potting shed, Magnolia Hall, is steeped in gravel too.

Up to its side, adding a new sitting area.

Many weeks of shoveling then an invitation to lunch.

Crabcakes & conversation. Hours of connection.

In the dining room a 2nd, smaller, table for games, reading or dining with a view.

Vanishing Threshold views, above & below.

NOTES & RESOURCES:

* Edge gravel path, with stone or brick, closer to the house.

* Edge gravel path with fallen tree limbs farther away from the house.

* Transitioning edging materials creates another layer of interest.

* Paint Colors for deck furniture: Behr Ultra Exterior Satin [primer & paint all in one] at Home Depot. Antique Red UL 170, Native Soil 179-22 [taupe].

* Powder Coating of wrought iron table/chairs: http://www.millerpowdercoating.com/. 4251 Wayside Ct. #B, Lilburn, GA, 770-931-1505.

* Rug for deck, not shown, http://www.rugsusa.com/

* Shot pea gravel: Atlanta Landscape Materials, 5996 Buford Hwy., Doraville, GA 770-936-8462

* Lantern, not shown, http://www.nadeauimports.com/, Buckhead Store.

* PATH GIRL had the shot pea gravel delivered to her driveway. It took her several weeks to shovel from the pile to a wheelbarrow then dump into place. A neighbor, seeing her shovel, offered help. With a smile of appreciation she happily declined. Enjoying her gardening too much to let others in on her fun. Remember PATH GIRL, born 1935, is DIY.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara