FRAGRANCE OUTSIDE MY WINDOW

Outside my office window, top left, viburnum x burkwoodii are arraigned in white glory. Faithful friend each year. Hearkening spring, honoring winter. Their fragrance seductive, evocative, redolent. My birthday is very soon, ha. When the viburnum blooms I know I've made it another year. Throughout the year, many birthdays as various plants come into peak. My 'real' birthday pales in comparison.
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Blue blossoms near the viburnum? Hydrangea 'Anna Belle' with leftover spray paint. Sometimes being silly in the garden works.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

THE WELL-PLACED CHAIR IN SNOW

In the walled garden at Abbotsford, Sir Walter Scott's home, sat a well-placed chair. Its mission, aesthetic.
Place a chair in your landscape for aesthetics. Yes, a Tara landscape design rule.
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You'll find yourself there on a Saturday morning eating breakfast.
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When the 1st warm afternoon arrives you'll sit & have lunch.
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From a window you'll see a cardinal land on the arm and know, you're living a beautiful life.
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Imagine the picture,above, without the chair. A mush of snowy branches.

Yesterday, what it took to shoot a Southern Snow Storm.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T

LATE VICTORIAN COLOR

Walking in London last month I saw this. Late Victorian tiles. Who knew? COLOR! PERMISSION! From curb to center of your house, vanishing threshold. Color, style, theme, intelligence, wit.
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Weedy looking 'weed' edging the path is Forget-Me-Not. Pure SOPHISTICATION.
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Can you imagine the blue blossoms spilling along the edge of the path? Calendar Shot.....
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This morning, watching the dawn thru my baywindow, I glanced up from reading the NYTimes. 'Oh my gosh, the sky is the same color as those pathway tiles in London.'
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A color splash lasting moments but still transmitting serotonins-dopamine-crack thru neural pathways.
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Does color affect you this way?

A WINTER LANDSCAPE--A LITTLE HOWARD'S END

Enter as I did. A gap in the hedge. No hint of what lies beyond. Curious? Standing in the gap, seeing a charming garden. A small Howard's End.

Echoes of the frontdoor................

.......in the back wall of the summer house.

More evergreen hedges, below, leading where? Mystery. A potager? Clothesline? Chaise lounge for sunning nude?

Flagstone terrace, not lawn, at the house. Extending the house.

This house doesn't have a back. Each side is delightful.

Lead horse trough now a rain butt.

All the sticks & browns soon to become blossoms, calendar shots.

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Winter's bleak chic more important than the ease of spring/summer blowzy caresses.

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I didn't want to leave this Howard's End-a new clip- world-life-feeling-energy-joy.

This dirt path is landscape design brilliance. A feeling of the country in the city & cementing the idea of being in another garden room. Leaving the garden through another gap in the hedge. Tara's Golden Circle: the ability to enter/leave a garden room through 2 or more doorways. A little design trick I observed in the best of old landscapes.

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This landscape is a several hour design class but you're busy. Thanks for taking the time to walk in the garden with me.

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I shot these pics last month at the Birmingham England Botanic Garden.

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Garden & Be Well, XO T

TORTURED MAN'S MISSING CHEEKS

Tortured man is good but would be better without the rock. The silhouette would be 360 degrees.

This man in resin...........please don't do it but if you do. Cover him in a small leafed evergreen vine. Creeping fig zone 7, a small leafed ivy elsewhere. Tacky focal points ruin landscapes.

Basics of Focal Points. If an area is longer than it is wide put a focal point at its terminus.

Notice the niche pruned into the evergreen hedge for the statue. Below.
Birmingham, England Botanical Garden last month.

EDWARDIAN SIMPLICITY

Does it get any simpler? A trough, window, vine, stone terrace, good pruning. Notice what's missing? There is no traditional American foundation planting. Joy !!!!

This winter garden melts my heart. Can you imagine what it will do in summer?

The best urns don't need planting. The old moss, even better.

This urn is a focal point on axis from several directions.

The best focal points, historically, are on multiple axis.

Maybe this one is on axis with the masterbedroom where mistress lies her pretty head. Should a garden begin elsewhere? Priorities darlings.

Stone and bricks in dirt, above. No mortar. Mistress could easily do this herself.

XXOO T

DETAILS IN THE EDWARDIAN LANDSCAPE

Flagstone terrace in dirt. Use stones 1" thick. Don't use sand/grit you'll track it inside.
Notice the edging stones around the planting bed. They are leftover stone pieces placed vertically to contain the soil when it rains.
This view is calm. You may never have time to sit in the bench but it gives the illusion of repose.

Victorian edging tiles create a planting spot. Time to refresh the gravel. The pruning is perfection. Imagine seeing it from inside when leafed out or with a bird on the branch.

EDWARDIAN LUST

After lecturing last week in England it was off for the backroads, hedgerows, B&Bs, tiny villages and gardens. I was in the Midlands/Cotswolds/London areas. The garden above is Edwardian. I lust after these landscapes. This is a side view of the home, now a Trust Property. Notice the expert use of espaliered plants. A winter garden and gorgeous. The dormant plants provide summer's glory. The bench is a destination. The round gutter contrasts the many squares. Gravel crunches underfoot. A romantic, functional landscape.