VERTICAL STONES DEFINE ENTRY

This had been lawn, below, until I realized I deserved a garden when pulling into my tiny drive. The more entryways a landscape has the better a landscape is.

Low maintenance was a given, drought tolerant too, and NO MORE LAWN !

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Enter my garden here, along a flagstone path flanked with a pair of huge quartz stones, placed vertically for added heft & drama. Dwarf Indian hawthorn & roses caress the path. Contrasting foliage sizes & colors are easy drama. Why don't more people do it?

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The Chinese snowball tree and weeping red cut-leaf Japanese maple block views of neighbor's homes. And add repetition from other parts of my landscape. Ooh-la-la I love to show off with Chinese snowballs.
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A dear friend carried those stones home from camping trips in north Georgia. Turning 40 he sold every possession and moved north to be with family. A disconcerting estate sale but I came home with books & stones. He wouldn't let me pay for the stones. Two months later, my dear friend moved back to Georgia. Enough family, I suppose. Over a decade later Georgia is where he remains.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

MAINTAINING GRAVEL

Wanting gravel. Needing gravel. Got gravel!! Why? Oooooh, that crunch. #89 granite gravel, above, in Susanne Hudson's landscape.

Shot gravel, above, in my garden.

In my potager, above.

This path, above, was bermuda lawn. With wheelbarrows, me & beloved Suzy, my chocolate lab, it became compacted. What to do?

Gravel.

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How it was done? Removed bermuda lawn with sod cutter. Loaded 1 ton of shot gravel in my pick-up truck. Shoveled gravel to wheelbarrow then to path. 1 hour to shovel. Total girl power.

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Used no liner, gravel dumped straight on soil. Dust, debris accumulates within 1 year on top of any liner allowing weed seeds to germinate. Why line?

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MAINTENANCE NEEDS: I blow gravel paths 1/month for 4 months each year; 2/month for 6 months each year; 4/month for 2 months each year. Every 8-9 months I sweep gravel, with a broom, up hill. Accumulated weeding time/year? 1.5 hours.

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Per square foot gravel is less maintenance than lawn.

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Gravel compacts after 1 year & needs replenishing.

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Per square foot gravel is cheaper than lawn.

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Gravel needs replenishing after 4-5 years too.

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I discovered the delights of gravel while touring the old landscapes of Europe. Late this fall a new gravel terrace is being added to my frontyard and a new gravel terrace beside the Texas Terrace for a tiny dining area.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Stone Forest has good close-up pics of different gravels, and stone too.

WHICH PICTURE WOULD YOU CHOOSE?

"...REFLECTIVE OF A RICH, WANDERING INTELLIGENCE LIGHTLY WORN."
AN AESTHETES LAMENT
The insouciance of my empty pot & French lavender.
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Which picture from your life illustrates "...reflective of a rich, wandering intelligence lightly worn."?
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LOL, of course I desire a rich intelligence wandering amongst myriad topics and most importantly to wear it lightly !! No energy to wear it any other way. Selfishly want to see pictures you choose. Why? To absorb your rich, wandering intelligence.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

CHALLENGE: TREES + ROOTS + SHADE

Old house, old trees, old solution!!! Le Jardin Blanc in Douglasville, GA spread #89 granite gravel under its old trees. Oh the romance of hearing gravel underfoot. Tables + chairs? Yes, ordered from France. Notice where the gravel laps into the tree? Left natural, by choice.

It's a fairy tale, but true, garden at Le Jardin Blanc.

White house, white garden, white furniture, white tea pots, white red -velvet cake.

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LOL, at the style of Le Jardin Blanc. Why? Most people crumble at the challenge of huge trees, dense shade, roots rising from the ground. Le Jardin Blanc decided to open a business in this 1868 plantation home. Their budget? Nill.

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They tamed the landscape sustainably, organically & with low-maintenance.

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Nothing new about the fabulous landscape created at Le Jardin Blanc. The ladies copied what worked from the past.

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PUPPET BARBUDA knows landscapes of gravel are cheap, affordable, well-priced, soft-on-the-wallet, effective, gorgeous, low maintenance. Women clients into their 60's have shoveled their own gravel once delivered. Gravel landscaping has been used more than 10 centuries. Ha, PUPPET BARBUDA wouldn't sell you an irrigation system with lawn under those trees................

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It seems PUPPET BARBUDA wants to bark about landscapes that can be created by you vs. landscapes that can be sold to you.

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Yes, pics of the tea party are mine, at Le Jardin Blanc. I was there lecturing about Vanishing Threshold to a large garden club group. An incredible afternoon.

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Felt like we were in the park in the movie, Gigi.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

LAMPSHADES + LANDSCAPES

You've got to adore a woman who eyes a lamp, a regular everyday lamp, and thinks, I'll put that in my garden. Lamps happen to be another fetish of mine. Susanne Hudson's too, above.
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Under a tree and near a pond this lamp is on 24/7 and has been for years.
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The little glass jar? Fish food.
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Notice the clay saucer atop the silk lampshade? A practical detail.
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The fence? Susanne scoured books for which style to choose for her, over 100 year-old, home.
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Another BIG THING in this tiny little nothing of a garden pic?
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SUSANNE'S COLORS: green, brown, white.
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Throughout the landscape Susanne only uses green, brown & white.
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Tiny garden picture with lots to teach.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

GREENHOUSE OF OLD DOORS

Rescued doors (aka free) + cacti bought on sale at big box stores, below, in Hogansville, GA. No, the doors don't match. Why should they?

Cobbled together with more rescued bits this greenhouse is instantly charming.

Testament to a woman's growing love, fascination, passion for cacti.

Inside, above, refrigerator shelving + old windows creating a roof.

Attached to the house the greenhouse only needs 3 sides. Above, one side.

Above, the other side. A free greenhouse !! Not your style? Paint it.

Inside. Aaaaaaaaaaaaah. Something about greenhouses does it for me. Neat, messy, empty, full, being in a greenhouse has always melted my heart. Each one, no matter its condition, a life force. Telling me stories. And the smell. Oh my, the smell of a greenhouse. I would buy the perfumes.

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Shopping at Born Again Antiques, spottedsheep@hotmail.com, 304 East Main Street, Hogansville, GA 30230, 404-422-8504, last week for my garden, Allan Boyer, co-owner, said his wife, BJ Boyer, filled the front window with her cacti during winter. A come-on line if I ever heard one. Within 15 minutes I was walking with BJ, & her newest dog, into her garden. BJ makes new antiques by cobbling together broken antiques. The woman has got an eye. (This is not an ad for them, I am simply passing along a very interesting, fun place. Maybe you can go?)

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

PATHWAY PATTERNS + BIT OF FUN

What fun to choose your pathway pattern. This path is obviously professionally done. How can you tell? See the stones cut to fit?

I love that a pattern was chosen but the space

forced it into irregularities within regularity.

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A bit of fun. YOU create the path above. Using only free ingredients. YES, baby dolls you read that correctly. Using only free bricks, rocks & whatever.

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Why?

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That's how most landscapes are created. With found materials. And I want YOU to do the work. No fancy, smancy hired labor. You glorying on your knees in the dirt with hands carefully placing the vision of your heart.
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Oh my, PUPPET BARBUDA is liking this as a flower show display. Wouldn't it be fun seeing all the different paths?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken at Atlanta Botanical Garden last week when I taught a class.

LANDSCAPE DESIGN: MOON GATE

Can you read the landscape design elements supporting this Moon Gate? Canopy trees, understory trees, coarse texture, fine texture, dark green foliage, light green foliage, cone forms, arching forms, horizontal forms, round form, branching forms, coarse stone, fine stone, plaster surfaces, wood plank surfaces, wood shingle surfaces, filled space, empty space. This picture, alone, a landscape design class.

Taken at Atlanta Botanical Garden last week when I taught a class.
The Japanese garden is looking the best I've seen it throughout many years.

A tiny garden, it lives big. Behind the wall, above? Covered seating to enjoy the view of the garden. It's another landscape design class with a pond, stream, bridge, plantings & more.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

LANDSCAPE LIGHTING: CHANDELIERS

Susanne Hudson first electrifies her trees, below, when starting a new landscape. Why? CHANDELIERS ! Her chandliers, above, are on 24/7. Rain, shine, wind, snow, joy.

In Hogansville, GA last week, above, at Born Again Antiques*. I fell for this hot air balloon chandelier.

Hmm? No place for it in my landscape. Yours?

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OK, knock out pair of windows at back of my house, build conservatory, hang hot air balloon chandelier. And so begins another country song lament.

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* Born Again Antiques, 304 E. Main St., Hogansville, GA 30230, spottedsheep@hotmail.com, has no website, yet. This is not an ad for them. Please, buy the hot air balloon chandelier so I don't!

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

PHOTOGRAPHING YOUR LANDSCAPE

Having trouble landscaping? Look at your landscape thru the camera. Not metaphorically, literally. Even the brownest thumbs are intuitive landscape designers thru a camera lens.

Looking at a picture & knowing: something bushy goes there, tall here, get rid of that, throw out those pots, curve the shrub border this way, add groundcover in that bare patch, move the chair closer, need new light fixtures, and the house cannot be painted white another moment & etc.

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Your thoughts are probably on target but you don't know which plants, what color, style of furnishings, shape of terrace or lawn & etc. Then you get frustrated and toss out ALL of your ideas.

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Slow down. Trust your instincts. Take a landscape class about plants, take another about design & tour gardens. If you can't slow down, of course, hire a landscape designer. For DIY use the camera to help you design.

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Pics, above, were a surprise. The gates are at each end of my side garden. Not close in the landscape it was interesting coming across the gates, together, in photography. Seeing them together changes my perception of the side yard. How odd.

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Always learning.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

UGLY LANDSCAPES

PUPPET BARBUDA adores trolling obits in NYT. A line James Lord (newly departed) wrote about his thought of Gertrude Stein, "made me think of a burlap bag filled with cement and left to harden." Describes too many frontyards across America, yes? PUPPET BARBUDA knows, WELL MAINTAINED LANDSCAPES DO NOT EQUAL WELL DONE. There is more to the equation.
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Driving around town, PUPPET BARBUDA, continually hears Bette Davis, WHAT A DUMP. (Please, does anyone know, did Bette Davis ever say this in film or interview?)
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Ok, PUPPET BARBUDA will throw a quick, and obvious, bone about the landscape, above. Paint the foundation the same color as the siding.
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Next, PUPPET BARBUDA, wants free labor from the homeowner, free mulch from the county, and $175.00 maximum for plants; taking this ugly frontyard to gorgeous while raising curb appeal, property value and the inner spirit of the homeowner. Bette Davis be gone.
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PUPPET BARBUDA has more thoughts but must meet a client at the Peachtree Battle Smith/Hawkin for its going out of business sale.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T
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Pic from, Extreme Housewife, she bought the house/landscape as shown & is landscaping as I type!

LANDSCAPE DESIGN WITH A ROUNDABOUT

Roundabouts, below, are the 2nd most common landscape design conceit. After Enfilades. Roundabouts add drama where 2 paths meet. Above, you can walk straight past the urn or make a right/left angle turn.
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Not low maintenance, above? The urn, Queen's Pot, doesn't need to be planted. Perennials? Compost them & plant flowering shrubs. Turf? Create Tara Turf or rip it out & put in flagstones with creeping thyme in the cracks. (Shade? Plant dwarf mondo in the cracks.) Flagstones too expensive? Use #89 granite gravel.
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Turn the Roundabout, above, into an Enfilade? Removed plinth from urn. Place bench or small summer house at far stone wall. Voila, you've made an Enfilade from a Roundabout.

Note: Paths, above, are hallways. Roundabout, above, is a foyer. Enfilade to fictional bench or summer house is a living room.
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Honestly, this landscape design stuff is simply moving the couches & chairs & tables about.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara