WHY DO MEN STOP WOMEN FROM GARDENING?

More than a handful of women have 'SECRETLY' hired me to design their landscape. WHY? Why do men stop women from gardening? Mostly they don't want their lawn changed. What is the most harmful feature of American landscapes? THE LAWN. Fertilizer, chemicals, water, gas powered lawn-mower. What are the other reasons? Change. Not wanting change.
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LOVELY called for a design and explained she & PRICKLES, her husband, were retired. PRICKLES is always home. How could she hide me? We covertly planned lunch. PRICKLES, LOVELY & I had a delightful lunch, and as expected, PRICKLES went to the basement to play on his computer. LOVELY & I walked her garden and I did her landscape design. With feverish searching eyes LOVELY scanned her kitchen & family room for signs of PRICKLES before paying me in cash.
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PEONY wanted a landscape design & told me up front her husband, GOLFER, must never know. Could I come during a very specific time? PEONY had a lovely landscape but wanted a good tweaking. Knowing his golf schedule she timed my landscape design to the minute. With feverish searching eyes, and paying cash, PEONY made sure I was out of her driveway 1/2 hour before GOLFER was due home.
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CHEF recently bought a circa 1960's home on acreage. The previous owner's landscape crew, TESTOSTERONE ON WHEELS, showed up. CHEF told them how she wanted it done. No ma'am that's not how it's really done, they said. CHEF said, Well, there's a new sheriff in town. Weeks later, CHEF asked TESTOSTERONE ON WHEELS, again, to mow according to her tastes on her property. You know where this is going don't you? TESTOSTERONE ON WHEELS was summarily fired.
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When I began to garden COLLEGE BOY said, You can't do that. Like an idiot I listened. After 3 years of 'partially' gardening, with fabulous results, I began to garden in earnest. Without telling COLLEGE BOY anything I began to garden from my soul. In exchange I do all the gardening myself and pay for it myself.
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More stories but this post is already too long.
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What have we done, as a society, to let anyone (male or female) think they can stop another person from gardening?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

AND THEY LOOK THIS GOOD? FREE DESIGN

Look closely. A pair of picnic tables create this dining room. Design for any budget.
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Why is this garden room inviting?
* Timeless
* Speaks, Welcome, without words
* A shady respite
* Seating
* Complete room: (ceiling) canopy & understory trees, (walls) of shrubs in contrasting foliage
colors/sizes, (flooring) of gravel
* Works for one or a group
* Outdoor ceiling fans on 6"x6" posts can be added to keep mosquitoes away
* Copied, it will be unique at each site
* Not too big, not too small
* Low maintenance
* Can't find matching tables or chairs? Copy the French: paint or stain everything the same color

Pic from Velvet & Linen

AKEBIA VINE & SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT

Akebia vine is blooming. Pretty but not showy. It's FRAGRANT. With akebia blooming, I feel like a dear friend has returned. A once a year fragrance, akebia flowers aren't sold during the rest of the year, that I know of.
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Is this what the SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT is about? Creating a sense of drama, desire, appreciation. Skip the eco, carbon, sustainability, la-ti-da.
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Savoring smells, tastes, textures.
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Giving up the world of choice and gaining the world within the fragrance of akebia.
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Akebia quinata - 5 leaf akebia, zone (4)5-8. Plant only 1. They like to have SEX.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

A GATE IN THE FENCE

A 15' span of fence received a gate. Instead of the woodland path dead-ending into the fence it continues thru a new entryway. Above & below, with my back to the new gate the camera shoots along the woodland path.

Below, turning my back toward the chair (above) while feet stay in the same spot, looking thru the new gate into my backyard.

Below, viewed from upstairs the chair is a focal point from many axis.

Larger leafed azaleas are tougher than small leafed azaleas.

Above, azaleas following the focal point rule, Just Let It Touch.

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Garden Goal: standing still shoot a garden picture to the left, then shoot a garden picture to the right. Your garden must be both directions beautiful.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

TUB: A PREDILECTION

Found online this pic has seared itself into my brain. Seared with further design. In my mind's eye there are 5 claw foot tubs under the tree. A small table, with dinner-wine, at each tub. I'm in one of the tubs & girlfriends are in the rest.

We are talking-sharing-savoring: the tree, the art, night, fireflies, fragrance, sound of bats, each other, floating, comfort, nurturing, laughter, ideas, joys, lessening of sorrows, epiphanies, being silly, gathering strength, being tender, knowing we will leave the evening enriched-changed-more completely ourselves.

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Top pic anonymous at the moment. Anyone know? Send it to me.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

CREATING MYSTERY

The average landscape is seen at a glance. BORING. Fabulous landscapes share a trait: MYSTERY.
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Fabulous landscapes delight the eye and tease the intellect.
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With eye & intellect engaged feet follow. Is your landscape doing this?
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Above, through my camellias a hint of the terrace. Beckoning, Come see me.
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Once at the terrace, Where will you be beckoned next?
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And you know you will be, don't you?
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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

PLANT CONTORTED FILBERT INTO YOUR LIFE

Catkins are hanging gold now. Backlit by the morning sun. CONTORTED FILBERT is winter's focal point in the landscape. My Contorted Filbert is the best on the North American Continent. Truly. But more important, my Contorted Filbert is an old soul in my life.

If I've done one thing right in my life it's having Open Garden in Winter, passing along Contorted Filbert.

Planted without knowledge, simply a Plant Crush, my Contorted Filbert quickly outgrew its space. With no heart to move a vigorously happy plant I pruned Contorted Filbert up from the bottom.

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Its contorted trunks are naked for 5'. Capping at 15' in a bower of curly branches overhead as you walk my woodland path.

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This tree makes me understand the DRUIDS.

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Contorted Filbert is something you should do for yourself. It's zone 4-8, (Corylus avellana 'Contorta'.)

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

TEA & PEE or PEE & TEA?

Always, but always, take the tea&scones option when touring European landscapes. You'll experience more axis in the landscape. Life is good when the sign, below, greets you. Your biggest decision of the day will be, Do I tea first or pee first? Really good days include this decision 2-3 times. Did you know scones on a garden tour in Europe have ZERO calories?

Stopping in quaint villages, for lunch, en route to more gardens requires an action plan. Choose food you can eat from your hands while walking. This will get you into every junk shop, thrift store and antiques purveyor in a tiny village.

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If you're really serious about lunchtime shopping stash food & napkins in your pockets. All of your time will be spent traipsing junk shops and getting pics.

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But of course darlings, I took the pic, above, in England last January while lecturing. Eating & walking in this Cotswolds village I came away empty from the shops but did get some pics.

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Frivolous? No, it's part of wringing every moment from a study tour of landscapes in Europe.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

POTTING SHED? POTTING COTTAGE!

CAREER WOMAN had a Potting Shed vision. I think she created a Potting Cottage. Field gathering old windows & doors give the new Potting Cottage sweet charm. And it's not even complete.

Particular, CAREER WOMAN, wanted a chalkboard wall & she left directions for shelving.

A gorgeous, fit, fabulous & about to be 60 this year, CAREER WOMAN, set the brick flooring herself. Alone.

The sink, above, will drain into the garden. Yes, a garden hose instead of plumbing.

I wonder how many plates will be hung in the Potting Cottage.

And she served an impromptu lunch. Mushroom & arugula soup, salad with incredible tomatoes for March, tofu and fresh vinaigrette. A delightful Merlot.............

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I'm designing landscape bones, placing misc. focal points & 9 incredible urns.

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Driven? CAREER WOMAN is possessed!

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Once the Potting Cottage is complete you will get the pics. And I'll get you the specs.

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Just in case.........you want one.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

DOUBLE AXIS: SINGLE SHOT

DOUBLE AXIS: if you have a focal point bench, below, you must have a focal point to view while sitting on the bench. If you have a focal point folly, below, you must have a focal point to view while in the folly. DOUBLE AXIS is a Tara Landscape Design Rule. It's also my invention. I shot this DOUBLE AXIS at Bodnant Garden in North Wales.
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The DOUBLE AXIS, above, is also an ENFILADE. A view thru to a view. From the bench, or folly, your view is across lawn, over pond, thru a double flowering shrub/perennial border.
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Studying historical landscapes gave me the DOUBLE AXIS epiphany. Also, my mentor, Margaret Moseley. She's now 92 years old. Wherever you go in her garden it's a double axis.
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Spanning 2 decades of symposia + college degree I've never heard anyone lecture about creating the DOUBLE AXIS or ENFILADE.
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Yes, I am this nerdy. DOUBLE AXIS + ENFILADE have been in plain view for centuries. It is incredibly satisfying to isolate them as important functions of landscape design. And don't give me the, I-don't-have-money-for-it, routine. Visit my landscape or scroll backward in this blog to see pics of my garden. I do my own gardening and my budget, ah well that's a laugh. An important laugh. If I can do DOUBLE AXIS + ENFILADES on my minuscule budget,

YOU CAN.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

DESCRIBING LANDSCAPE DESIGN ELEMENTS

Winter's landscape in England last January. Why does it look good in the depths of winter? Thoughts on this tiny space:
* Mostly evergreen. Serene landscapes use evergreens as a chief element.
* Repetition: color, line, evergreens, hardscape brick.
* Overdosing a theme: faded green wood topiaries.
* Drawing the eye to the sky with the focal point topiaries enlarges the space.
* Repetition of balls on topiaries to match ball on brick column.
* Vertical lawn on backdrop brick wall adds lushness & feeling of more space.
* Contrasting textures of foliage.
* House provides canopy layer.
* Plants on the house provide understory layer.
* Low maintenance allows good maintenance.
* A sense of who the owner is.
* Element of control, Man over Nature.
* Element of wild nature with some plants spilling over the brick wall.
* Element of mystery. What will be blooming later?
* Clean visual line of house, low wall, column.
* No stupid sign saying, Welcome. (Thank God.)
* Nothing cute.
* Sense of timelessness.

A little garden. Did you know it held so much DESIGN?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara