THIS WAS A RANCH?

SURFER CHICK & TENNIS bought a dystopian ranch. Then hired architect John Knight . Do you see any hint of the ranch? It's still there, all of it.

SURFER CHICK & TENNIS liked my idea of French doors off the dining room, above. Creating a magic circle.

After the landscape design was complete TENNIS said he wanted a level frontyard.
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Hence the stone wall, above.

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Plantings are not yet a year old. A true dwarf loropetalum 'Purple Pixie', above, will soon soften the wall. Along with gardenias, variegated pittosporum, hydrangea, Southern Indica azaleas, & perennials.

Stone for the wall copies what John Knight chose for the house.

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Repetition & copy are 2 landscape design tools.

The new landscape is redolent of another era, 1930's, using pass along plant favorites.

John's details are fabulous, above, round copper downspouts, and a slight pitch to the shingle siding where it meets the brick.

Entry to the garden from the street, on axis from the front door, creates an enfilade. Adding depth, warmth, welcome, focal point, movement.

Thru the black-eyed Susan's, above. Pairs of gardenia are used at the front entry near the curb and at the front porch.

Last Friday I was on site to draw the backyard landscape.

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I've added another pair of French doors to the left of those above. And 2 new arbors. One extending from the screened porch and the other directly opposite. Ceiling fans on the arbors, cozy seating with Adirondack chairs and a harvest table with chairs.

Potting table & gravel terrace (#89 granite gravel) will be added in front of the back wall, above, with the oval window. Camellia sasanqua hedging will embrace the gravel terrace.

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The upper lawn, above, will keep it's tapestry hedge of azalea, ligustrum, liriope, camellia. I've added several oakleaf hydangea and a new sitting area.

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The front door has an enfilade thru the French doors, patio & lawn, above. A bench has been placed on axis with it in the plan.

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And I'm feeling negligent I didn't get a picture of the plan for you.

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I'll ask SURFER CHICK to send a picture of the plan AND a picture of their original ranch.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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

A.O. SCOTT, About KARL MALDEN Inspires LANDSCAPE

Within his ode to Karl Malden, "...a pungent hothouse, ripe with free-floating eroticism & Southern Gothic motifs."

A.O. Scott, New York Times writer, inspired another landscape. At least for me.
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Then he chirps assuredly about the divide of agriculture vs. horticulture, "...a can of tomatoes dropped into a flower garden..."
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Southern Gothic saturates Susanne Hudson's landscape, above.
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We gather from the worlds of others to create our own contoured world.
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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

PADDOCK LUST

When Mrs. Wilcox told Margaret, Margaret Schlegel of course, Howard's End even had a paddock I knew. A paddock became item #2 on my fantasy garden list.
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It seems so simple to have a paddock, or a meadow. Ha, not in my subdivision. Arriving to this, above, at Sunday's bar-b-q, you know I was lost in fantasy; adding height to the meadow & Adirondack chairs. Loving, adoring, reveling in Nature's garden.
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Hearing Vanessa Redgrave as Mrs. Wilcox, again. Then about Helen, "The energy of the Wilcoxes had fascinated her, had created new images of beauty in her responsive mind. To be all day with them in the open air, to sleep at night under their roof, had seemed the supreme joy of life, and had led to that abandonment of personality that is a possible prelude to love." EM Forster
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Hmm, I certainly fell for the paddock.

I met the owner of the paddock, at least it's a paddock in my fantasy, thru the pages of his free local magazine, Up Close & Personal in Tucker.
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The bar-b-q celebrated his advertisers, staff, & people who have been written about. Over 100 came. A celebration honoring his company and helping weave a small town together.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

SPO: HOME, GARDEN, TEA

SPO's home was under construction when I drew her landscape design several months ago. I knew from descriptions it was going to be scrumptious. A small house is what she, & her husband CAPE COD, wanted with great details, antiques, art, books and a garden. Look at the tea she served. Cava, ha, isn't she wonderful? County restrictions & certificate of occupancy played a role in the initial landscape. A dastardly lawn HAD to go in. Soon much of the lawn will be flowering shrubs, groundcovers, understory blooming trees, paths, rosemary, lavender & more wildflowers.

SPO's first wildflower meadow, above.

Lawn now but just you wait, hydrangeas, azaleas, viburnum, mondo, jasmine, tea olive, cryptomeria, gardenia, camellia, forsythia, & etc......

SPO sourced most of the materials for the house. The working shutters are on all sides of the house. The living room, above, with 2 pair French doors leading to the back porch and, below, a door from the master bedroom to the back porch.

Well chosen downspout, below, it's round. The stones are faux. On site, from 3', you can't tell they are faux.

The kitchen, family room, master bedroom, upstairs office, & porch, below, overlook an amphitheater with a mature woodland backdrop. You would not believe the birdsong.

Natural terracing, below, forms the amphitheatre. Faux stone tops the retaining walls.

Textured blocks, below, even cheaper than the faux stone, comprise the retaining walls. Not seen, why spend more?

A delight in the carriage house, the Cadillac. SPO & CAPE COD drive for pancakes each Saturday in the Caddy. Yes, I've asked them to stop by & pick me up some Saturday.

SPO adores cooking and found her kitchen online at Yestertec Kitchen Works. Simple, compact, functional and charming.

The oven, below, is in the cabinet under the stove.

And the armoir, below, is not a pantry.

It's a cooking center, below. Delightful, just close the doors and it's a clean look.

In the library, below. Moving into this house they decided to forgo cable. And are loving the change in their lives.

Between kitchen and living room, below, the desk. The house is one room deep in these rooms and full of natural light. And views, views, views.

Keeping it small, below, SPO knew to go high with the living room ceiling.

SPO & I dreamed, before she moved in, about having a tea party on the back porch, below. Alas, dear ones, we were weak. Do you know how forsakenly hot/humid it was?

SPO & CAPE COD have successfully down-sized from their large home yet already feel the difference in living larger, richer, simpler, lives.

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Enjoying the cava, conversation, house, garden and scones with fresh fruit/jam it was difficult to comprehend they have only been in their home for 3 months. It felt like E. M. Forster. The solidness of Howard's End. A place to fill the spirit.

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You'll be getting more of SPO & CAPE COD because I didn't get any pics of their corgi, who really owns the place. And of course, as the garden goes in.

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Garden & Be Well, XO T

GRAPHIC GIRL GETS HER LANDSCAPE

GRAPHIC GIRL surprised me with lunch while designing her landscape. Grilled salmon, vegetables with a mixed green salad & a pesto vinaigrette. The dishes, hand-painted, are inherited and were bought in China. Her home, circa 70's, is getting a new kitchen. French doors went in recently, new deck & screened porch too.

Enjoying paper in the guest bathroom, below. A weird enjoyment, but there it is.

FEEL your landscape with flags/tape before it's installed.

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Place flags for trees/focal points & tape for bedlines & terraces. Drawn to scale, 1"=20', below, still use flags/tape.

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A 6" change may transform good to FABULOUS.

Soon, a fig bush will engulf the pump house from behind, below. Her antique bench goes in front and hollyhocks will bloom on each side. A potager will replace the lawn.

The pool will get a facelift.

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Windows, below, will soon be French doors with a stone terrace.

GRAPHIC GIRL loves Stone Carpets, below. She saved the picture from Early Spring 2002 Garden Shed magazine. Don't you love her level of determined passion?

Below, is where her Stone Carpet will go. A custom lattice wall will hide the stairs/raised beds.

GRAPHIC GIRL saved this Veranda magazine cover shot since 2003.

Please, someone, create fabulous software for laptop & digital camera. So far, the software isn't worth it. My fantasy is designing en plein air with laptop on the folding table.

En plein air with GRAPHIC GIRL's inspirations: pictures, mission statement, plant list.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara