Showing posts with label gravel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gravel. Show all posts

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Pots, Easy Landscape Edging

Pots, original, as landscape edging? Hardly. A centuries old idea. At my garden, with Susanne Hudson, for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival, below. (PMHF is this weekend, June 4-5.)"It's what we do with what we have.", my mentor Mary Kistner said. I first saw pots as edging decades ago in Ryan Gainey's Decatur, GA garden.
Susanne & I have broken pots & fallen limbs.
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Perfect landscape edging. Easy & free.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken a few days ago.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Focal Point In The Roundabout

I designed the roundabout on axis with: porch, back door, drive, meadow. With a focal point in the center, OF COURSE.A rooster was found, & placed, almost 2 months ago, above. Love it.
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Last Friday, Patrick, The Rooster Of Hedgerow Farm, was killed by a bobcat.
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She had tears as she told me the story. You must understand, Hedgerow Farm belonged to beloved Patrick. SHE belonged to Patrick.
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Now, the rooster in the roundabout is a meaningful memorial. Who knew?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Same garden as previous 2 posts. Pic taken last Friday, from the mudroom porch.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Gravel To The Door With Vine + Table

After designing a landscape Saturday I perused Brabourne Farm, a favorite blog. Here, below, I stopped.I had just designed this EXACT garden. Less than 2 hours earlier.
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Client has 5 acres with woodland, gravel lanes, open meadow, barns, horses. And a home with a daylight basement needing the 'zip' (zest?) above.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic from John Granen. Molly, is this what your mother's bistro set looks like? Wish gardens could be installed this fast.

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.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Butterflies, Gravel, Fresh Poop

Butterflies, oddly, adore gravel after a rain. Gathering nutrients & moisture.Butterflies adore fresh poop. Again, gathering moisture & minerals.
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Brooke at Velvet & Linen put a potager in her frontyard, above. She also acquired some chickens.
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Increased pollination, the circle of life.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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What good is increased pollination? Increased food production/acre.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Dressing A Service Space

Color, vine, below, dress a service space.An easy fix, below?
An ornate black iron gate.
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A wood gate would harbor surprises: possum, snake, person.
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Would add 3 cobblestones at base of vine, keeping gravel away.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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A new home in Mixson, Charleston, SC.
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No space, none, is left undone in the best gardens.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

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.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Hiding Necessities: Before & After

1st cup of tea in my Conservatory, below. Already hiding, via camera angle, an important necessity.Switch plate to the chandelier, below. A necessity, but look at it? Not.
Old ironstone, below, with a lovely pattern named, Summertime.
Oh my, another book idea. Before/after pics of hiding necessities around home/garden.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Did you notice the gravel floor, top pic, under the table? I know, the lamps need shades. Found the lamps, $20 for the pair at my local thrift store. Love the giant Spode tea cups/saucers: tea, broth, soups, cereal....

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Landscaping A Rental Home

Chandelier Chick, single with a fabulous career taking her across the continents, rents a tiny working-class ca. 1940's cottage, the last street of its kind in this section of Atlanta, enveloped by cluster mansions & located minutes from her job.At the terrace level by her back porch she sited a little garden & pond. White washed cinder blocks & the gravel? Yep, that's Chandelier Chick's touch, dancing in the Poverty Cycle with keen intellect.
Mornings with coffee, or evenings with wine, her bench,
pond, birds, plants, meadow, & views fill the spiritual well.
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Who wants to spend a lot of money on a rental house?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken last Saturday.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Wine Bottle Edging

She let go. And isn't it fun when a woman let's go?She lined a garden path DRAMATICALLY with wine bottles. (Poppets, she did it herself, no hired labor. Unwittingly, she copied curves from a table in her foyer, above.)
Adoring genius, I copied her lead. Concept plan, above, new curving paths will be Wine Bottle Edged & capped with her signature curve.
Her home is historic, the garden revitalized. Curving flourishes with the Wine Bottle Edging are subtle up close, DRAMATIC when viewed from the house.

Bare soil, above, will be filled-in with evergreen groundcover.
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Gravel terrace at the tennis court, above, becomes a landing for her party tent (she's a fundraiser for the Humane Society). Under the tented area the gravel will be checker boarded with 18" concrete squares. Did I mention she loves to sail? Lakes of mondo in the gravel will be home to old wood boats, sails flying from their masts. The little Williamsburg building at the tennis court will be enlarged, creating a 'boathouse', complete with dock. In addition to storage it will be the Bar during parties.
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Stay tuned, there's more.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken last week, same home/garden as previous post.

Friday, October 29, 2010

NYTimes & Anne Raver: Backwards Design

30 years with a beautiful flower garden, Page Dickey, finally creates a fabulous Landscape Design. "We need an overall plan: more green architecture & less plants.", she says. How? "The first step is to replace perennials with shrubs & ground covers."Page has arrived. ATONEMENT.
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Anne Raver, yesterday's NYTimes, knew to lead her delicious garden column with these facts. It's human nature to garden backwards. Flowers are seductive.
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Magazines & nurseries pimp flowers.
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PUPPET BARBUDA is miffed her industry, Landscape Design, is tainted with the Flower Pimp industry.
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How many flowers do you see, above, in my conservatory?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Poppets, did you see the pic of Page Dickey? I want to look like her when I'm 70, sexy gorgeous !!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Not Easy To Find

If you see terra cotta pots: marked-down, at a garage sale or thrift store, BUY.They are harder to find good/cheap/free.
Some Ace Hardware have a line of excellent terra cotta in spring. Once they sell-out it's another year before the shipment arrives again.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken at Susanne Hudson's conservatory. Poppets, the pics are not styled. Why have a landscape be anything less?
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Ugly is easy, fabulous is intellect.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Mission Statement, Focus, & Have Fun

"It seems no wonder if our ancestors regarded Friendship as something that raised us almost above humanity. This love, free from instinct, free from all duties but those which love has freely assumed, almost wholly free from jealousy, and free without qualification from the need to be needed, is eminently spiritual. It is the sort of love one can imagine between angels." C.S. Lewis, from, The Four Loves.Arriving at the Barn Dance Friday, below. Is it obvious Pecan Orchard & I designed the meadow & gravel drive? No? Excellent, fabulous, wonderful!
Wildwood cleared, figs rescued, below, a new roof, fresh paint, broken glass replaced &
the old Dairy Barn, inside below, is alive again.
Almost a century old, its terra cotta block construction, with original paint, below, has more centuries to serve.
Couldn't resist showing you the desert table, below.
Tea Table too, below.
Heirloom chickens in their new home, below, next to the Dairy Barn.
17 piece orchestra (3 members from the Atlanta Symphony), below, setting up in the tractor barn.
Tractors were gone, below, for the wine/canapes.
Pecan Orchard bought the land and derelict home with dependencies about a year ago. Her mission statement to live a gardening lifestyle AND be of service. A lifestyle witnessed living abroad for decades. Horses, sheep, heirloom chickens, potager, gardens, goats, ponds, meadows, woodland, barns & etc. A lifestyle including church, master gardeners, beekeepers, tennis, horse shows, family & Friendships.
Meeting new people at the Barn Dance & hearing stories of grace bestowed via friendship with Pecan Orchard is a rich cord connecting us.
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Pecan Orchard's choices ripple far beyond her community. Without the intention of leaving a footprint Pecan Orchard is already leaving something larger-deeper-richer, wing beats.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken Friday nite. Hope it's obvious Pecan Orchard has brought copious amounts of grace into my life.

Monday, August 9, 2010

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......

Friday, July 30, 2010

Tuteur & Drama

Cone shapes draw the eye in landscapes. Charming tuteur, below, buta subtle color.
Imagine if each tuteur were bright yellow or red. Changes the garden, yes?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic from the same garden as yesterday's post. My client made these tuteurs. Notice the drama of tuteurs in pots. The Anna Belle hydrangeas are a victory in this drought & hi temps & sun.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Garden Room: 101

Before construction, Susanne Hudson & I knew our Garden Room was fabulous. Understatement yes? We designed architecture & landscape, decorated & styled with only items junked, rescued, borrowed. (Well, we did buy tin roofing, gravel & a few pots.)
Tiny, potent. Peek thru, below, see our potting table?


Alone, or with girlfriends, this Garden Room is a life changer. Virginia Woolf territory.


Delightfully different views into each side.


Leftover pavers from edging the gravel. Voila, a table. And a meadow, does it get any better? Yes, hearing the crunch of gravel, smelling the fragrance of meadow & woodland, sound of rain on tin, seeing the chandelier & lamps on at nite. Knowing you have a bolt hole.
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My favorite part? Building the garden & Garden Room with Susanne. And this was work?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Built for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival, on site at Le Jardin Blanc in Douglasville, GA. Poppets, I had to spend several nites with Susanne while we created this Garden Room. Attended a Gala 1 evening. Progressive dinner another nite. Behind the scenes for a huge wedding at Le Jardin Blanc another nite. Mexican & margaritas another nite. Garden tour & Thai food 1 nite. Oh my, FUN.
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Want a Garden Room? Susanne & I can create one for you, contact here.