How To Make A Garden Room

From a patch of open space, below, a garden room is created beautifully & affordably.  

Why the drama of always doing a lawn, hedging, stone terrace, poured concrete, blah-blah & blah?  (Well, that's obvious Boo Boo, it's more highly commodified. )
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A few pots, shot-pea gravel, furniture, poof, your new garden room.
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Of course it does help having canopy/understory trees nearby.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pic taken last week at Atlanta Botanical Garden.

A Surprise Match

Pow.  They matched the trailing plant to the gravel, genius, then color echoed flowers with foliage.

Pow.  I stopped in my tracks at this pot.  Genius.  (And began talking with the pot/plants/gravel.)
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Does anyone else have conversations with gardeners who aren't present?
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pic taken at Atlanta Botanical Garden last week.  And the pot picks up colors of the moody sky.

How To Choose The Best Urns & Containers

The very best containers?  NEVER NEED PLANTING.

 Any container considered for purchase, ask yourself, "Is this so fabulous it can remain empty?", and, "Will this be fought over at my Estate Sale?"

 These classic beauties, centuries of existence across continents, are classic for a reason.

Size, form, & color are considerations.
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Garden & Be Well,            XO Tara
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Pics from my wholesaler.  These 3 urns are truly my 'go to' urns.

Hydrangeas On Speed

At my back door, below, this week.

 Potted hydrangea & a potted variegated boxwood.  Last year this hydrangea was a cutting in a 4" pot.

 Susanne Hudson has phenomenal growth planting 4" potted hydrangeas in large terra cotta pots.  Phenomenal.  Of course I copied her.  It worked.

Aaron Copland anticipated my arrival, writing Appalachian Spring for my garden & for me.  I hear it in my garden & looking at the pics.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pics from my garden during days of great drought, heat, humidity & zero maintenance or watering.  This is why I've taken you around my garden the past few days. You must know how easy it is to have a garden.    

Making A Table

In a hurry, before a tour, last month, finding a solution for the table top, below, had to be accomplished.
The real table top is too big for this location.

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A Garbage Can Lid was the quick solution.

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In Milledgeville, GA during the 1960's, my grandmother had an extensive garden of dahlias & paths. The plants were staked and as tall as me. A birdbath was made from an ancient, dented, upturned garbage can lid. Grandma was raised on a farm. Able to make-do with anything.

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I've discovered the garbage can lid is better than my true desire, granite or marble leftover from someones kitchen renovation. Why? It holds water. Enough for only weekly watering, yet no mosquitoes.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Yes, I will get another pic of this. Quite a dreadful little snap.

Without People & Without Styling

Weaned on cover shots of Smith & Hawken sales catalogues ca. 1980's, and Horticulture magazines of the same era I've never wanted people in my garden shots. Couldn't afford it. (I shouldn't neglect the garden pics in House & Garden magazines of that era too.)My (film) slides, a roll of 36, each had to be beautiful & educational & of use till the end of my days.

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Interesting, I KNEW this in my 20's.

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Without awareness, at the time, I only shot gardens WITHOUT STYLING. Who wants a garden needing a stylist to look good?

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A picture, above, (not needing a stylist) I made in Italy, originally a slide, then a print, now a digital pic of the print made from the slide.

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Seek a garden without styling. It will be a garden of truth.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

How To Stabilize A Column In A Pot

We didn't know how we were going to stabilize the column in the pot, we knew it was-going-to-happen.With few raw materials, bricks-gravel-dirt, we chose bricks for wedging. Gravel for gaps, then
dirt to plant 6 boxwood.

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Columns don't budge.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic from PMHF garden Susanne Hudson & I created.

Cool Colors - Hot Day

Drama & color, below. Large pot & fine textured foliage. Cool greens, blue, yellow. These pics are not styled. Turning camera 1ft., below,
same pot with more drama, an agave.

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A beautiful vignette at A W Pottery in Chamblee, GA.

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Good landscape design is all about low maintenance & not having to 'style' anything to get a pretty picture.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last week. Over 95% of the pics on my blog ARE NOT STYLED.

Faux Bois Bench: Well Sited

A lovely incident along the gravel path, below.
(Notice stone edged gravel, decrepit terra cotta, leaf litter mulch? Melts my heart.)
Same bench, same path, from opposite direction.

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Thus, a good garden. It could be 2 different paths, 2 different benches or 2 different gardens.

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How to create Double Axis. A class by itself.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last week in Susanne Hudson's garden.

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.

Italian Simplicity: Are You This Brave?

A vine & 4 pots. Voila, lush, done.No foundation plantings, no lawn.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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I took this pic over a decade ago in Italy, outside of Lucca, and haven't wavered in my awe of its simplicity.

Turning A Hedge Into Entries

For decades I've designed gardens. What I know for sure? It's not about the plants. By the time someone contacts me they are in a new chapter of life, sometimes a new book. Are they aware? Mostly, no.

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When the garden is born again, their life is changed.

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My job is to "capture the humanity of what is under way".

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Myriad times I've taken 1-2 plants out of a hedge & put in a path. Creating 2 entries instead of 2 dead-ends. Isn't the vocabulary stunning? Entries vs. dead-ends.

Then, it happened to me. A hedge in front of my home became entries.

Within the new hedge/entry a potager became a gravel terrace with adirondack chairs, a place to have lunch, talk on the phone, eat breakfast, read, sit still waiting for hummingbirds to fly so close I can hear their wings. And the Chinese snowball blossoms drop their petals in benediction of the foxgloves, above, about to bloom next.

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How could I know when the entry was born I would have a new room to LIVE in? And I had entered a new chapter.

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It's easier to see a new chapter in a client's life.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken in my garden last week. I've done more than the Bay Terrace the past year. A Conservatory, Tea Olive Terrace, Natchez Terrace. Though I didn't know it while creating these garden rooms they have given me the strength to finish a book in my life.

Chinoiserie & Design

Wisteria 'Amethyst Falls' at my front door today. A tiny area, yet interesting, and welcoming. (Without moving my feet these pics are a scan from left to right.) Peeking beyond the Wisteria, below, urn/plinth on axis with my bay window.
Filtered thru Wisteria foliage, above, the gravel terrace with large flagstones leading to the frontdoor.
The little Pot Cluster, above, and adirondack chair.
Classic Landscape Design, above, and pollinator habitat. (High & low density, canopy/understory, walls, floor, contrasting foliage textures/colors.)
Landscape Design's Pulitzer Prize, above. Beauty, privacy, low maintenance, organic, all season interest, pollinator habitat, fragrance, fantasy within reality, a place to sit, a spot viewed on axis from within the house.

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Take the camera view a bit to the right you'll see neighbor's homes, their cars, their landscaping, the street. Honestly, who wants to live that way? Seeing neighbor's stuff? It's not my realm. The pics above ARE my realm.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Puppet Barbuda apologizes for bluntness in her captions today. Puppet Barbuda is zealous in details of landscape design/pollinator habitat. Puppet Barbuda disdains the ridiculosity of pretty garden pictures focusing on 'a plant', 'how to dig a hole', 'plant them 2.5432" apart'. Information providing you nothing about putting a beautiful garden together. When Puppet Barbuda reads interior design books/blogs/magazines they don't tell her how to produce the fabric on the couch, how to dye it, cut it, sew it, staple it & etc.....they appreciate she has a BRAIN.

How To Place Beautiful Things

My beautiful pot on plinth, below, placed on axis with the middle window pane of my bay window at the drawing room. Thus sited, it's part of my drawing room. Not separate.How to place, below, a beautiful summer house?
On axis with a main pair of windows from the home, of course !

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Oops. No pic of the view seen while in the summerhouse above. Ha, must get back to the Cotswolds for it.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Top pic in my sweet garden, in the Bay Terrace, aka front yard. I took the bottom pic in the Cotswolds at Sir Hardy Amies garden.

Vanishing Threshold: Lunch & Learn

Vanishing Threshold is an original concept, an epiphany while studying historic landscapes in Italy. Landscapes begin inside your home. Place focal points on axis with key views. It's that simple.

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An inner voice impels me to take Vanishing Threshold out of the garden realm. Are you an Interior Decorator? Landscape Designer? Come hear me speak about creating beautiful landscapes in Vanishing Threshold with your home.

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AmericasMart, Lunch & Learn: Looking for inspiration and education between Markets? Join Tara Dillard for a demonstration on successfully incorporating outdoor living spaces into your designs - March 24, noon-1pm, at AmericasMart. RSVP to 404-220-2055 or nlyle@americasmart.com.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pot on plinth, above, on axis from my living room. Centered on window. Interior decorators, are you looking out the windows of your clients home? Interiors are not finished unless the window views are part of a home's interior. My landscape designs are not complete unless views into windows are fabulous.

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Designer? What is original to you? What is your horse/pony show? Willing to get out of your comfort zone & let the world know?

Ireland: Helen Dillon & A Classic Tablescape

Helen Dillon's Irish garden, below.All the potted plants from South Africa, all terra cotta pots, all full sun, landscape design rule of big leaves with small leaves.

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Timeless. Did I take the pic last summer or 1998? (Big concept, taking advantage of it? The best gardens across the globe do.)

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Travel assignment, visit Helen Dillon's garden in Ireland be sure to have tea/scones too.

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You thought this was just a table-in-the-garden-with-a-few-pots? Hardly.

No Date In The Garden

My garden pics tell me the season. They date themselves.
At this angle, below, it doesn't matter the flowers are in plastic pots. They aren't visible.
At terrace level, below, there was a pond. I moved it.
Dwarf mondo will be planted between the stones, matching the rest of the terrace.
Duck Foot ivy will be planted on the riser to the greenhouse, hiding the timber & adding lushness. (Lushosity?)

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Soon, French doors will be painted BM-HC- 77. Didn't realize I was building a space for the pot cluster with the Conservatory. Adore happy surprises.

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.

Siting: Urns & Plinths

Not often do you see iron urns significantly past a century old, below.
Last year in Birmingham, AL these urns, already by the front door, went into my landscape design.
Why? Too low. The scale was incorrect for the size of the home, frontdoor, & landing.

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Bought 'on approval', this pair of plinths arrived with a question mark last week. Naturally, my answer was, "yes, buy." And it's time to paint urns/plinths a dirty-dark-lead color. 2 tones will be needed.

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Did you notice where the urn/plinth is sited? NOT centered between frontdoor & column. Placing them a bit closer to the column enlarges the space.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken by a client in Birmingham, AL.