MORE THAN ANDY WARHOL

Landscape classicism, below. Landscape designed to obscure era, continent, neighbors, reality.

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Looking at my house, above,
looking out my windows, above. I choose to live amongst eras, continents & the moat of grace my garden gives my interiors, and life.
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About New York City restaurants in the 60's Andy Warhol said, "They caught on that what people really care about is changing their atmosphere for a couple of hours."
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Lame, indeed.
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Design choices for interior & landscape create a Vanishing Threshold of changing atmosphere for each moment of life.
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Why settle for a couple of hours?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Cell phone pic from my car taken 5pm yesterday. I live in a small cluster home subdivision in a city of millions. Houses are freestanding on tiny lots. Tiny. Ha, myriad homes engulf mine but I've opted out of that reality. And I did it with a tight budget of time & money.

FURNITURE ON THE LAWN

Timeless perfection, deeper than you think, below. Why? Have you deduced wisdom in the plantings? Dwarf conifers, deer resistant & once established zero irrigation.
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Combined by design: contrasting textures - colors - forms, use of backdrop, focal point - furniture on the lawn, & no down time; showy all year.
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Tara Turf: pollinator zone, feeds beneficial insects, fragrant, attractive to butterflies & honey bees, needs zero irrigation-chemicals-fertilizer, & less mowing than tradition lawn.
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I'm a GARDEN WHISPERER, are you?. Did you know this wasn't just furniture on the lawn?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic from The World According To Isa

GARDEN DESIGNERS BLOGLINK: TARA'S TRINITY OF THE SOUTHERN GARDEN

With, Tara's Trinity of the Southern Garden: Azaleas, Camellias, Hydrangeas, you'll have blooms everyday in your garden. Oakleaf hydrangea bloom late spring, mophead hydrangea bloom early summer & summer, 'Anna Belle' hydrangea bloom summer, 'Tardiva' & 'Pee Gee' hydrangea bloom late summer to frost. Above, lacecap hydrangea.

Southern Indica Azaleas, 'George Tabor', above, bloom in spring. They stand up to drought, bugs, cold. Use Exbury azaleas too, they bloom before 'George Tabor'.

Camellia sasanqua, above, bloom in fall. Camellia japonica bloom in winter.

Landscapes designed with evergreen hedges & entries, cultivate the eye, songbirds, & increase property value. Chinese snowball, above. Pathways should flow around your entire property, no dead ends. 'Tardiva' hydrangea blooming, above.

Use wit & whimsy in your landscape, above. Beware, CUTE, it's treacherous.

Start your landscape design from inside your home, Vanishing Threshold. Patio, above, viewed from my kitchen sink.

Design your landscape for February. It will be gorgeous all year. View, above, from my living room.

Site deciduous understory trees, crape myrtle, above, to shade your home from summer sun. Window, above, views stone terrace, below. Summer's blanket of rudbeckia gives way to smooth Tennessee gray flagstone the rest of the year.

If you're new to gardening in the South you'll adore, A Southern Garden by Elizabeth Lawrence, and, Hudson's Southern Gardening by Charles Hudson. Use your local Extension Service for specific advice to your county/state. The Garden In Winter, by Rosemary Verey is an incredible garden design book. My 5 books ( 3 on garden design, 2 on plants) are at the right, scroll down.

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Tara's Trinity Of The Southern Garden is gorgeous, low maintenance & a workhorse of your Southern garden design.

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Today is GARDEN DESIGNERS BLOGLINK across America. 12 garden designers sharing what's unique to their region. ENJOY !!!!!

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Jocelyn Chilvers (The Art Garden) – Wheat Ridge, CO
Susan Cohan (Miss Rumphius’ Rules) - Chatham, NJ
Michelle Derviss (Garden Porn) – Novato, CA
Dan Eskelson (Clearwater Landscapes Garden Journal) – Priest River, ID
Laura Livengood Schaub (Interleafings) – San Jose CA
Susan Morrison (Blue Planet Garden Blog) – East Bay, CA
Pam Penick (Digging) – Austin, TX
Susan Schlenger (Landscape Design Viewpoint) – Charlottesville, VA
Genevieve Schmidt (North Coast Gardening) – Arcata, CA
Ivette Soler (The Germinatrix) – Los Angeles, CA
Rebecca Sweet (Gossip in the Garden) – Los Altos, CA
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Read the Blue Heron Landscapes Blog: http://www.bhld.wordpress.com/
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Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ScottHokunson
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/scotthokunson

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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All pics my garden except hedge with window. Took that pic while writing one of my books.

IT IS UNCOMPLICATED

This landscape had me at its gravel. Did you notice this landscape requires no skilled maintenance?
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Pillow? Already telling us something about the home's interior.
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Vines adding lushness without taking up space.
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Pot clusters created as still life's, art. Not some stupid notion of need-a-garden-idea-here.
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Do you feel the pots, bench, plantings, gravel leading you to the back door?
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Sense how this garden room can be as easily rearranged as an interior room?
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This tiny garden room gives a huge sense of the woman living here. Does your garden look like your inner self?
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Do you think this garden was professionally designed? Yes? Me too.
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If this were your garden room, and you didn't have it professionally designed would it look this good? More importantly would it have cost so little to implement? Of greater importance would it be as easy, cost effective, to maintain? Topping the importance list, would you have created a garden room inviting you to use it?
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PUPPET BARBUDA loves this Vanishing Threshold garden.
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Pic from the movie, It's Complicated.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara aka PUPPET BARBUDA

SO OBVIOUS

Can you name this? SLEIGH PORT !!!!!
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Carport, heliport, airport............
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Yes, another pic from Susanne Hudson's last week. She named her Sleigh Port. The antique sleigh? Americans are larger now. A pair of young teens would fit. Two adults? Barely.

A LITTLE COLOR

A few days ago in Oregon, below. What I like most, above? Remove flowers & pumpkins, and the design holds together.
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Your pots must be so wonderful they can be empty.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Love your porch pic Trina, thanks !

PRETTY vs. GOOD: Perennial Garden

Perennial gardens are like people, they may be pretty, but, are they good? Winter is the test of every beautiful perennial garden. Is it pretty in winter?
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Above, a good perennial garden: canopy & understory trees, backdrop hedge (fence-wall-house are fine too), boxwood. Each element forming structure/bones for the winter landscape.
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Dwarf conifers are great in the perennial border. They peak in winter. Of course, in my Southern zone 8, rosemary is evergreen and blooms all winter. La-ti-da. Sweet.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic from Golden Age Gardens

POT OF POTS

Perfect pots? They are so wonderful they can be empty. No fan of CUTE in the landscape. Wit, charm, style are attractive, classic, intellectual.

IT'S WHAT WE DO WITH WHAT WE HAVE.

In England last January at Whichford Pottery. Do you know what it feels like to be in an English pottery yard, nearing sunset, snapping pics and needing to get to the cashier before she shuts it down? What did I buy? Cane toppers. Know what they are?

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Will keep you in suspense until I've taken pics of them in my garden. Bought some years ago at Great Dixter too.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

DELIGHTING IN PEELING BARK

Arching entry to my back terrace a pair of crape myrtle 'Natchez' delight daily. Especially July 4th when their bark begins peeling. Though this year they were 4 days early.
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Not only visual it's soothing, mesmerizing, slowly pulling strips of bark away. Have you ever peeled crape myrtle bark? Is it a secret pleasure?
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Few crape myrtles boast the bark colors of L. 'Natchez'. Rain intensifies the colors. The blooms are white. Their shade is intense. Birds adore this tree. And, my, do they grow fast. Water? Ha, best of the drought tolerant trees.
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L. 'Natchez' is one of the largest crape myrtles. Site properly and never perform Crape Murder. Do not whack these beauties.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

GROW A ROOM

Why build an arbor room in the garden when all it takes is 8 trees? I would choose more comfortable furniture.
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Easy to do this with 6' trees. Perhaps fruit trees, or redbuds, from Wal-Mart when they go on sale? Sooooooo much cheaper than building a wooden structure, which will never bloom. Flagstone terrace, comfy furniture and DONE.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Another pic I took last January while lecturing in England.

WHY IS THIS PATIO SENSUOUS?

Oh, the sensuousity of each element. Why didn't I think to measure the table? Get its specs. This tiny spot accomplishes, even in a winter pic, what most large patios do not. An invitation to repose, take time, read, have lunch, dinner, a glass of wine or simply enjoy as a still life. Have you already heard the gravel crunching underfoot as you approach? Marvel at the wisdom of keeping the moss? Can you smell the gravel & moss; the morning dew on the tabletop? Can you hear the metal chair upon the gravel as you sit down? Have your fingertips felt the bricks, lichens & moss on top of the table? Did you peak under the tabletop to discover how it was made?
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I took this pic last January, while lecturing in England, at Wisley the Royal Horticultural Society headquarters outside of London.
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As perfect as it is I must Tara'ize it somewhat by adding arms to those chairs. Done.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

LAKE PLACID LANDSCAPE LECTURE: MIRROR LAKE INN

Away a week, lecturing in Lake Placid & Albany, New York. Flew into Albany, rented a car and drove to Mirror Lake Inn in Lake Placid. A portion of the drive was beautiful mythical Middle Earth. Chunks of ice larger than my car, emanating a sky blue from their heart, falling from stone hillsides. White birch trees yet to leaf, waterfalls flowing into lakes following the narrow 2 lane road.
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Below, a portion of Mirror Lake Inn. Did I mention it's in the Adirondack's? I guessed there might be a bear inside, below.

Details done right, below. I typically spec new shutters into landscape designs.

My room, below, is the bay window & 2 windows facing through the trees on the same floor.

Views, below, from all of my windows were spectacular. It snowed the morning I arrived.

Another view, above, from my window. Laying in bed or the Jacuzzi tub I could see the lake and snow capped mountains.

After walking around Mirror Lake I was glad to sit, above. With age I've come to adore Adirondack chairs. Great to set a glass of wine on one arm and a plate upon the other. All while being comfortable and visiting with friends.

Thursday is my favorite New York Times edition. I went into the local library, above, and read the paper while overlooking Mirror Lake and snow capped mountains.

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Perennially Yours was the symposium I spoke at. Kerry Mendez, garden designer, put it together for hands-on gardeners. One in particular stole my heart. At breakfast a woman said to me, I have a Japanese garden on the shore of Lake Champlain. A line to attract any gardeners attention. Her garden began the day the Korean War started. On that day she arrived, with her newly minted botany degree, in Japan. She was working for SAC, the Strategic Air Command. Japan was a 3-year stint for her.

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Somehow I've got to get to Lake Champlain to see her Japanese garden, and her.

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Cold zone gardening changes a person. No time to waste in a short growing season. I was the speaker but listening to stories over meals & during walks humbled me. Gave a new window into what gardening means as a companion in life.

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Landscape design doesn't change but how it's accomplished in the pattern of a life does.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT BEING IN A RELATIONSHIP

Every element of the landscape must be in a relationship with each other. It's what the best landscapes have in common.
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Do you think it's an accident the gravel drive and raised bed, below, casually touch? Why isn't there cobblestone or brick edging? Why is the focal point, above, placed exactly so? Why is the focal point of a subtle color? Why is there so much 'empty' dirt? This is a transition zone from the wild wood to the formality of the home, to the right of the gravel drive. Curious?

Each stone must be placed in relationship to the landscape. Each stone will tell you how it wants to be sited. Which is its top, side, bottom. Do stones talk to you?

As the tree grows its roots take life from the land returning beauty. Simple grace, form, function, and powerful.

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The flowers 'just touching', and in relationship with, the stone, the tree.

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The statue, tree, & stone, above, near the frontdoor of a home. The statue is on axis with the frontdoor. The tree, stone & flowers are subsidiary focal points to partake, if you're observant.

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I cannot divulge this landscape. The owner has hired me to write about the home & garden. Once the owner's timeline is complete I'll trumpet details & pics.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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.