SHELL HEAD CONNIVING

She's art. A SEA QUEEN for the garden. I have heads & I have shells.

Alas. Talent to combine shells & head? To be determined.

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It begins. Lust. Discovered her at Scott's over the weekend. No clue where she'll go in my garden. YET.

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Why? 1 focal point/area in the landscape. Create a new garden room? Rotate an existing focal point off exhibit? Perhaps use her as a subsidiary focal point? Yes, this will give weeks of enjoyment. Conniving.

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Ha, this too, is gardening.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

SUBSIDIARY FOCAL POINTS

Garden Rooms ambush the rule: 1 Focal Point/Area. Each garden room is allowed its own focal point. What about all the stupid little things? Focal point bench, above, softened with plantings in the pot cluster. My broken head collection is used as a Subsidiary Focal Point. Watering can too.

Tucked into the Hydrangea 'Anna Belle', the blue/white egg is hidden from most views.

Ezra, my Gethling, above, tucked into a shady spot. Most people never see Ezra indicating he's a well placed subsidiary focal point.

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Subsidiary Focal Points are delightfully devious to children. They GET the fantasy. Who knew? Gardening fully for yourself is gardening for children too.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

SEEING THE SMALL

Photographing landscapes teaches me to, See The Small. It's a surprise which 'Small' owns the whole.

Macro, above, the red ball in a lantern is a yawn. Pulled aside, micro, caressed with the camera, top, it's a delight.

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So? What's the big deal?

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Once you see landscapes thru the camera you don't have to use a camera to appreciate Seeing The Small's of your garden. Your eyes will create the art. At least mine do!

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last week in Douglasville, GA. Styling by Susanne Hudson at the home of Jeri Farmer.

BROKEN HEADS

Working in the shed behind the greenhouse I had to be careful of spiders, snakes, rats & stacks of collapsing merchandise. I loved it!! The oddest rat scurried at my feet. I screamed. Thoughts in chaos. Why? The small black rat was in reality the BROKEN HEAD OF ST. FRANCIS, about 3" & black, rolling quickly by.
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Brain thought, RAT. Eyes saw a face.
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That began my BROKEN HEADS collection.
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Girlie, above, is about 4". She cost a $1 at some nursery. Another joy of my BROKEN HEAD collection? Cheap. One nursery tried to charge me $12 for a BROKEN HEAD, ha, I walked.
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Only the observant will discover my BROKEN HEADS collection in the garden.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

YELLOWBOOK IS A SMASHER

Returning home to my garden yesterday wasn't pleasant. Yellowbook threw their newest edition at my front door. It smashed onto the birdhouse, above, knocking it to the ground. Destroying sections of roof, perches and lovely curved wall.
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For over a decade, this house has raised 1-2 nests of wrens, and the unfortunate cowbirds, each spring.
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Thankfully, birds were safely fledged before CSI: Birdhouse.
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Wisteria 'Amethyst Falls' is the vine.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T

TOUGH ON BUNNIES

The bunny on the right, below, is a finial on the arbor. A squirrel jumped from the crape myrtle, onto his head, and he crashed to earth. Losing an ear & a foot. Bunny on the left, below, is a finial on the front gate post. A bird landed upon his head, sending him to earth and he lost an ear & foot.

And I proclaim, I don't like to collect things. This is a tough garden for bunnies.

Penny, my late mentor, had a porcelain bunny with a dried hydrangea blossom hat. Instead, I found a dog, above.

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I can still hear Penny, You're no bunny till some bunny loves you.

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Hence the bunnies in my garden. They're passing along Penny's voice, and laughter, in my garden.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

SUBSIDIARY FOCAL POINTS

The rule is, ONE FOCAL POINT/AREA. Subsidiary focal points are allowed. And desired. I found this heavy rusted iron greenhouse junking in Augusta, GA a couple of years ago.

All of the iron in my garden is robins egg blue.

My late garden cat, Cat-Cat, above, loved to nap in the greenhouse.

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Guess what I discovered yesterday? Kit-Kit, my other garden cat, has begun sleeping in the greenhouse. Cat-Cat was the alpha cat but who knew Kit-Kit was hankering to sleep in the greenhouse!! Both cats were left by neighbors moving away.

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I bought the greenhouse because it made me happy to look at. With the garden cats choosing it for their bed this subsidiary focal point exceeds expectation.

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Choices you make in the garden, if they are the right choices, will exceed expectation.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

CLOCHE SALE

Touring Susanne Hudson's garden earlier this month I saw cloches, and more cloches. Several are in my garden but Susanne had overdosed a theme.

Tuesday Morning was on the way home after making large scale copies for a client plan at Kinko's. Hadn't been inside for years.

They had a shelf of cloche's. Most, not all, were on sale.

I bought all on sale, 7. Most are etched, others plain and varied amongst 3 sizes.

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All made in Poland.

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Department store price, $60, sale price $12.99 & $17.99.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

FOCAL POINT: CATS IN A TREE

The rule is, One focal point per area. Subsidiary focal points allowed. Subsidiary focal point example? A cast-stone cat in the trunk of a holly tree.
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Near the frontdoor of my appointment yesterday I tried to get a pic of the stone cat. Someone got jealous.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

ROSES: COMPANIONS & DOUBLE AXIS

This isn't the first famous landscape for ROSE. Downsizing house & garden, ROSE again hit it out of the park. Speeding up the process she knew to hire a designer, Brooks Garcia. ROSE mentored others by example. She could have done it on her own but it would have taken longer.
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Below, a narrow sideyard is made wider with stepping stones set on diagonal. The gate says, Welcome. ROSE came to gardening through a love of roses. Her beautiful landscape is merely a setting to show them off. A Southern matriarch in every good sense of the phrase, ROSE was nudged by her landscape into lecturing and opening her garden for tours.

Above & below, two views of the same narrow path. A double axis pair of pics.

Above, a child's sized bench enlarges the scale of the tiny foyer between frontdoor & sideyard.

Above & below, backyard pic looking left & looking right. Another double axis. ROSE lives in a cluster home neighborhood. Her landscape denies reality.

Above, it's no accident the benches have a curved back. The curve softens rectangular landscape design lines and reinforces a French essence.

Above, ROSE's family room window with sundial on axis and enfilade. Roses's over the window make the tiny area lush.

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Below, view from ROSE's family room window with Dancing Girl on axis and enfilade.
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Above & below are yet another double axis.

ROSE threaded many clematis, below, through her roses.

Above & below, clematis.

Below, subsidiary focal point. Remember 1 focal point per area.

Walls with 3D are more interesting, below.

This hand, below, charms me each time I look at it. So many metaphors and it follows the 3D landscape design rule for walls. Which metaphors do you see?

The first time I met ROSE was through an invitation to see her garden, with Penny. Of course it was a hot, humid summer day. We began inside ROSE's home. Three steps inside the frondoor I felt like I'd known ROSE always. Delighting upon antiques, art, books, garden views, & stories. ROSE invited us to refreshments at the breakfast room table overlooking the back garden through French doors. Icy cool water, tea, soda, and pound cake left from a recent lecture program. Remembering, especially, the antique silver pitcher of icy water covered in beads of condensation.

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Conversation, laughter and anticipation of soon seeing ROSE's garden.

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The garden didn't disappoint.

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More pictures of ROSE's garden are in my book, Beautiful by Design.

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XO Tara

CLASSIC FOCAL POINTS

A postcard yesterday. Four delightful things.
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Statue: hints of Italian & French landscapes. Garden: impatiens, astilbe and the flower brushed behind the child's right leg. Simplicity has the greatest impact in a landscape. Photographer: portrait shot, framing, lighting, ahhhh. Marketer: you understand gardens are seductive, joyful, easy. This business knows landscapes are art. How many times have I designed the finial below?

More times I've designed this focal point urn, below. Every urn in your landscape must be so wonderful it can remain unplanted. How do your urns look empty?

I have a pair of these urns, below. The lid comes off. Why should it? They do their job without soil, plants, water, fertilizer. Intelligent Design takes on new meaning in the landscape.

Place this French planter, below, contrasting with a curving terrace, step or lawn.

A wall fountain with depth, below. I like to put these on walls with a demilune or sofa table underneath. Add an evergreen vine to the wall.

KISS (keep it simple sweetie), below. The lines on this birdbath are of the ages. Do you know why this is a true birdbath? It's shallow. Birds don't like water more than 1" deep.

A great sibsidiary focal point, below. Place under a bush at the dripline. Site where you can see it from the house.

The pieces, above, fit most landscapes. Why? They've been proven thru the centuries to accent a landscape and not diminish it. Understatement is their shout.

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Tara's Focal Point Question:

Will your focal points be fought over at your estate sale?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics via Florentine Craftsmen

LANDSCAPE CAUGHT MY IMAGINATION

This little garden found on Aesthetes Lament stole my heart. A centuries old style. Do you see only a woman standing in gravel? Ha!

Gravel is cheaper than stone, doesn't require skilled labor and lasts as long as a stone terrace. Creating a planting bed in gravel is simple, place cobblestones as edging and presto---a planting bed.

The bed, below, is lush and has stakes ready for tall blooms and twine ready for, most likely, clematis.

A solid urn is a wise choice atop the brick column. Who wants to water a pot that high? Do you want to climb a ladder and replant a pot up there?

An iron gate contrasts materials, shapes and has a keyhole view to another garden room. Ooooooh mystery, I must go thru that gate. Does your garden have mystery? No disgusting foundation planting ruins the front of this home. Obama should have included, Americans cling to their foundation plantings as a source of security. Lushness is espaliered on the house. Easier to maintain espalier 'whatever' than foundation plantings.

A pair of iron clamming baskets frame the sitting man. (Made that up, don't know what those iron baskets are.) Without plants they will hold the design-decorating together.

I want to smell this garden, hear the gravel crunch, meander thru the gate and ask to use the toilet (the English look at you funny when you ask for the restroom) then I can see inside the house. Assuming I'm on a garden tour of course.

Cecil Beaton's eye, the photographer, is knowing. Movie-set designer, gardener and writer he adored decadent amounts of fresh flowers in his home, cut from his garden.

He wrote, Here was the garden at its best & I lay in bed & saw the Picasso & Hockney engravings framed on my side wall, & the pictures were alliterated with the reflections from outside the window of roses blowing in the breeze, & the green marvel of the garden beyond."
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Photo from National Portrait Gallery

MRS. POWERS GARDEN GATE

Mrs. Powers garden gate at Mackenzie-Childs has charmed me. No fence? Don't worry, set it into a hedge or hang it.I've always said, CHOOSE A THEME & OVERDOSE ON IT. Mrs. Powers door knocker, below, matching the gate. Ship Men already gave me a charming door knocker from Malta but this is tempting.

MacKenzie-Childs is a kindred spirit. Mrs. Powers door bell.

I have Mrs. Powers Door Bell and am still deciding where to place it. Until then it's in my office where I can see it.

pics above via MacKenzie-Childs

SUBSIDIARY FOCAL POINTS

I spoke in Augusta, GA at the Sacred Heart Cultural Center a couple of years ago. Display gardens in a cathedral, speakers, food, booths. It's exciting to be in another city. Knowing I'll find something unique, a new person entering my life, new ideas & something to buy for my garden.

Choosing a private home vs. an offered hotel. Saving money isn't the noble reason, pure selfishness. Curiosity about the garden, interior, cooking, lifestyle of those choosing to share their time, home and garden with me.

Often, hosts have a dinner party and I meet their friends-family. Always, a tour of gardens. Lunch at a delightful spot, the gardens chosen with care & pride. Usually it's 2 cars of serious gardeners.

Sharing on these trips has shaped my life. Lives laid bare. Decorating, good food, a child's drug use, shoes, a spouse's drinking, hats, vacations, the sister with breast cancer, divorce, sex, a parent's alzheimer's, new books, the latest movie, great bras, antiques, pets, travel & more mingle with hydrangeas, manure, granite grit and water use.

Hydrangea 'Penny Mac' above. Birdhouse, behind, bought while at the Sacred Heart lecture. Reminding me of a special time with new friends, gardens, food and conversations.

Larry Smith, 706-894-1737, thebirds@hemc.net, made the birdhouse,
"ARCHITECTURAL BIRD HOMES! Scale models of authentic historical homes and buildings throughout America. Each home is one of a kind."

My birdhouse is a replica of the Jonathan Edwards Home, circa 1760.