Three Best Mistakes to Make in Your Landscape

Choose to make garden mistakes on the side of too simple, too little, too plain.

.

Better to want more later than dig-up, move plantings, replace a now-thought-cheap/tacky-bench, regret the shape-style-color-of.....

.

Long term, cute in a garden grates.  Whimsy is better.

.

Be wary of 'words' in a garden.  They hold thoughts hostage that should flow randomly, Cole Porter's, Don't Fence Me In.

.

Of course there are exceptions to all of the above.  Indeed.

This morning, above/below, Tomato & Hydrangea.  Perfect name for a spiked tea & scones cafe.

Feeding cats & chickens, assessing what the night wrought & will it rain today.

Tomato still in its peat pot with cellophane wrap & tags.  Awaiting a much larger pot & bamboo cane trellis.  Perhaps this weekend?  Hydrangea blossoms hanging lower, petal margins crispier, will I cut to dry or leave to enjoy from the windows?

Calm.  Boring is good.  Idle chit-chat in the head.

.

Something new to learn about Social Media.  Facebook cannot control pictures during war.  Images seen cannot be unseen, merely absorbed into a safe, prayerful, place.

.

Again, my Garden working for me.

.

Have you watched the award winning foreign film, Burnt by the Sun ?    "The film depicts the story of a senior Red Army officer and his family during the Great Purge of the late 1930s in the Stalinist Soviet Union. Like a tragedy bySophocles, Burnt by the Sun takes place over the course of one day."  Wikipedia

.

Oddly, it's beautiful. 

.

Glad it taught my heart to assimilate what I saw yesterday within mundane ubiquity of beauty in a tomato & hydrangea.  The gift of choices, health to act upon them, perhaps a dinner party in late summer honoring the last of the tomatoes.  With dried hydrangeas in a vase.

.

This is freedom.

.

Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara

.

Pics taken in my garden this morning.

.

 For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Most Wanted in the Garden

This is what I want, below, from my garden.  Every day, to look out from the windows of my home and think, "Oh WOW."

More, I want to walk in my garden, any day of the year, and take a roll of gorgeous 36.

View from the street, above, thru my tiny orchard to little cottage.

Oakleaf hydrangeas, above, drying in the garage next to my car.

Attention to detail, inside/outside.

.

Everyday clients change the scope of their project, it may rain for 30 minutes delaying a dirt delivery 2 days, a supplier does not have what they promised,  mis-communication with a subcontractor,  an employee forgets a tool or gas/oil mix for equipment thus stopping the work totally.

.

All expected, & normal, business.  

.

And why I crave the beauty/solace of my garden & home.

.

A realm of grace feeding the spirit.

.

  What do you want from your garden?

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pics from my home/garden this year.

.

 For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Vanishing Threshold: Get Yours

With Garden Design do you know the most important Demarcation Points?

.

With the Demarcation Points, above, I'm rolling in wet sand as the waves roll up.

.

(A child of Cape Canaveral & Galveston you understand my happy metaphor.)

.

The Romans, bce, never built a home without a vanishing threshold.

.

Amazing, a horticulture degree obtained, decades of seminars attended, libraries of books read, and not 1 source referenced vanishing threshold.

.

Then my epiphany, in Italy of course.

.

House & garden are 'one'.

.

You see it here, above.

.

From the garden, above, you see vanishing threshold looking into the window.

.

Nicky Haslam always knew about vanishing threshold.  Study his book, Folly de Grandeur.  

.

Next?

.

Create yours.  A lifetime of joy, and grace, melding the strength of your intellect against this desirable challenge awaits.

.

Biggest irony of vanishing threshold?  Increases property value, reduces HVAC, and maximizes pollinator habit up to 80%.  Needs no irrigation, fertilizers or chemicals.  While cutting in half the amount of maintenance. 

.

Beginning to understand the lack of education about vanishing threshold?

.

As garden centers & mow-blow-go companies are structured, now, not much money to be made.

.

Those companies are dependent upon your turf needing chemicals/fertilizers/irrigation/maintenance.

.

And etc. etc. etc. as Yul Brynner said so well.

Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara

.

pic via Jennings & Gates.

.

Visit my Vanishing Threshold board on Pinterest.

.

 For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.:

Does Your Landscape Describe You?

Beside the front porch, below, is the mudroom entrance.

.

 I feel the welcome & delight in each detail.

The wreath is in honor of the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival & this home/garden are on the tour.
Been in Southern Living magazine too.

As if the bench still-life were not enough, the little wall, below, along the path is 'done' too.

Precociously my Tara Dillard garden design rule, "I must know who you are from the garden before ever entering your home.", is wowza answered here.

.

Today, seriously look around your garden & home's exterior.  Do they tell me who you are?

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning:

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Front Porch: Color, Shutters, Narrative

In a subdivision, below, without the trees you would see neighbor's houses from the front porch.

Whenever you see the gardener, dressed up/down, she's arrayed in black/white.  With a bit of bling too, but you knew that from her front porch.

The shutters are bi-fold doors from a closet.  Ick to fab !

.

Color, seating, flow, layers, texture, invitation, relaxation, all ages, conversation, dining, narrative.

.

Which shouts loudest?

.

I adore the narrative, above.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning:

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Front Porch: Formal + Informal

Design Rule: Contrast.

.

A touch of the Queen + Ellie Mae Clampett.

.

Urn on Plinth + Galvanized Buckets hanging with ropes.

.

Your garden must tell me who you are before stepping inside your home.

.

Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

.

Pic taken this month.  Jeri Farmer's lovely home/garden was on the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival Garden Tour.  Jeri & Susanne refreshed the garden this year and time/money were both running short yet pots were still needed for the ferns.  Of course Susanne said, "Put them in galvanized buckets."

.

For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning:

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Design Deeply: Connecting Dots

Some of my best work, below.  

.

See the connected dots in the garden, below?

.

Those who understand hire me to design their acreage or townhome.

.

Or, hire me to lecture across the USA.

.

Some offer book contracts or ask for magazine content.

.

 The best?  People who share appreciation of their epiphanies with my work, tell their stories, enriching my knowledge.

View, above, from client's Music Room.

.

What type of Garden Design is this?

.

Why do Garden Centers abhor this type of garden?

.

What are the tough choices made?

.

What type of ecosystem are you looking at?

.

What is the relationship, and why, between the ground layer & tree layer?

.

How does this ecosystem keep other layers on this property thriving?

.

How many other layers would that be?

.

Why would a PhD professor at UGA Ag school want his students to intern here?

.

Why did Historic Williamsburg, after my lecture there last year, pick up many of the layers shown, above, for their topics in this year's symposium?

.

What is the relationship between government laws & this type of garden?

.

Took me decades to connect the dots, including myriad trips across the globe studying historic landscapes.

.

What else is in this garden?

.

Answers in previous posts.

.

Did you realize my stories connect these dots?

.

The teacher appears when the student is ready.

.

Ironically, with this client,  land-plants-livestock-wildlife-weather-buildings-roads taught us.

.

We listened.

.

And we share.

.

Don't live on acreage?  No worries, many layers are HOA approved & adaptable.

.

What does this type of Gardening have to do with property value & HVAC bills?

.

Yes, have taught at the local college for years.  Atlanta Botanical Garden too!

.

I don't believe in spoon feeding knowledge, passionately sharing yes.

.

Tasha Tudor believed in, "Take joy."  Here, it's "Take Knowledge."

.

Both are there, always.  All you have to do is 'take'.

.  

Life conspired, teaching me, take both, everyday.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

 For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning:

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Design: Know Where Important Views Begin

The most important views of your garden are from inside.

.

Kitchen views into the garden are imperative. 

.

Make a choice, it's that simple.

.

Continue with your life accepting garden views harmful to your spirit or make the choice to create garden views joyful to your heart.

.

Too busy?  No Money?  Life issues?

.

Then, those views are essential.

.

I know from whence I speak.  With zero need to relay any of it here.

.

No matter where you start, your garden can take you (if needed) from victim to survivor to thriver.

.

Each of us is all of the above, excepting, too often, thriver.

.

When you make a choice for your garden, you indeed make a choice to thrive.

Standing at the kitchen sink this morning eating yogurt I see, above, to my left, Torte de Shelle, resting on the table Beloved commissioned for me as a birthday gift.

.

The mophead hydrangeas starting to color, above, a gift from my bosom friend Penny McHenry, who died several years ago.

.

Without moving my feet, and looking right, above, another hydrangea from Penny causing a great stir in my heart as it approaches peak.
.
The teak bench was a 40th birthday present to myself.  It arrived with a surprise, it needed assembly.  I adore that type of chore !
.
The variegated Boxwood was bought on a whim, not knowing if it would do well in this zone.  It does well.
.
Is it any wonder I stand at the kitchen sink & eat breakfast?  Literally, the energy & joy filling into my spirit is felt.  Pure atonement.
.
2+ decades ago I named my business, A Garden View, Inc.  Obvious, now, where I was headed though zero clue at the time.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
pics taken this morning.  Pic, below, though fuzzy is my favorite.

.

 For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning:

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Designing a Garden to Interact in your Life

A celebration this month in one of my gardens.

.

3 decades of photographing gardens.

.

Gardens.

.

This garden, that evening, a wild 'need' to shoot people.

.

Friends, below.  Their story brings sweet tears to the cheeks.

Happy daughter, below, waiting for her dad to bring back petits fours in a take-home box.

Every note, below, a lament to life's abiding.

Sisters, below.  And a peak at those petifores.

Beyond grace, atonement & joy, this garden has crossed an unknown threshold & gardens me in return.
.
Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
.
  For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning:

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Screened Porch: Furniture Texture

Furniture textures are important.  In addition to color.

A new covered screened porch, above/below, with warmth & welcome.

Patio/deck/porch/garden furniture is too often in 'sets' with matchy-watchy pieces too.

.

What is this hold garden furniture ads have over popular imagination?

.

Of course they want you to buy sets.

.

Most often, why would you do that?

.

However, there are lovely exceptions.  

.

Be sure you are one before embarking upon sets of matchy-watchy garden furniture.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

pics this week in a client garden.

.

For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning:

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.