HOW TO GET LOVELY HIPS

Athletic hips. Sexy hips.

Subtle hips.

Have you ever seen such rose hips?

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Fall is the season for rose hips.

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Wish I could tell you which roses they're from but I didn't write down their names. Pics taken while studying in France.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

WHAT'S MISSING IN THIS PICTURE?

Centuries of landscape design & garden maintenance lessons in France, where I took this pic. What is wrong in this pic?
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The gardener has increased his gardening time by 10-15X's. Why? Don't we all want low maintenance?
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Fallen prunings, with thorns, have to be picked up by hand. Leaves & petals will have to be blown.
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A sheet under the prunings, dahlings. A sheet. All is picked up, no thorn worries, no blower.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Other gardeners at this public park outside Paris were using sheets.

HGTV & TARA DILLARD?

HGTV contacted me last Monday. They are scouting, across America, talent for new shows. I interviewed on tape, yesterday. They asked, Bring what's exciting you in the landscape.

Having hosted a CBS TV show & author of several books I thought that's how HGTV found me. NOT.

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Good news Blogland, you are being heard-seen-read. HGTV knew none of my past. They found me thru this little blog.

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Exciting. HGTV carefully choosing new show concepts. Of course, more exciting if they CHOOSE ME!

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

INSIDE TO OUTSIDE LANDSCAPE DESIGN

Style inside is directly related to style outside. What? Often I copy arrangements atop mantels, chests & tables. What? Easy!! Above & below, painting is evergreen hedge or side of your house, lamp is an understory tree, clock is a 4'-5' evergreen shrub, books/box are hellebores, and the porcelains are cinnamon fern,

the platter is dwarf sarcoccoca and the nosegay is a stunning pieris cultivar.
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Took these pics at a client's this week while installing a new phase. I love it when clients have a strong sense of style. A challenge to be on top of my game.

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What do you see in your interiors, to use outside?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

FRONT PORCH

Wreaths on doors are difficult. Scale, color, quality. Oh no, The 'Cute' Factor. CUTE KILLS. Ha, another Tara rule. Wit, whimsy, humor. YES. Last week BOOK GIRL's door had it right.

Looking to the right of the door, above. Reality garden photography, I styled nothing.

Looking to the left of the front door, above, more reality garden photography. Nothing styled for the pics. BOOK GIRL does her own decorating.

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Landscapes should be designed and decorated for the impromptu photo shoot.

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Think of your landscape as it is, this moment, can I meander and take several shots to steal your heart?

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When you look out the windows of your home, at your garden (Vanishing Threshold), does it steal your heart?

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When your garden melts your heart you've got an endless stream of energy, joy, beauty, wit, serenity, peace to draw from for daily living.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

RANCHBURGER: Before & After

Contouring of the land, below. What to do, what to do?

The most important thing you can do to a Ranchburger? Let It Out Of Jail.

Remove the rails, and those ratty (Rattus rattus) evergreen meatball shrubs, which are naked at the bottom and chopped at the top, the builder planted decades ago. Shall I wax poetic about builders landscape design? Hmm, PUPPET BARBUDA is too busy today.

Aaaaaaah, the brick was liberated too. This ranch is going country French.

Furnishings & Pots aren't 'done' yet. But the Ranchburger is done. Done gone!!

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Thank you for sharing your Ranchburger before/after pics Krystol. Love the dogs & your intuitive landscape design. Fabulous.

MONTY DON: Around the World in 80 Gardens

Monty Don wrote, The Prickotty Bush, years ago. Each January I reread it.

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Garden writing as literature by someone passionate about doing his own gardening. He's done a little TV too. Enjoy.

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Teza's Garden, has more YouTube of Monty Don, and you'll like the blog.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Amazon has 3 copies of The Prickotty Bush, today, all used, at 50, 72, 92 POUNDS. Not dollars dahlings.

FEEDING THE MUSE

Designing landscapes is science & art. With a degree in engineering & horticulture the science is easy. The art? I've learned it's something to be nurtured & honored.

Speed walking 5miles, 3-5x's/week, at Stone Mountain, GA, feeds my muse. Doing my best thinking while sweating.

Being in nature to feed the left brain/right brain thing.

A potager? Perennial border? Choosing paint colors for a house & patio furnishings? Nature, consistently enriching my creative muse.

Understanding forms, patterns, silhouettes, plant drifts? Color? Nature has it all, and more.

How a body relates in scale to its surroundings?

Creating enfilades thru paths, rectangular stone terraces edged with brick, over a fountain, between pairs of boxwood, caressed by flowering shrub borders sprinkled with a few tough perennials, and finally landing the eye/foot on a bench. Nature? Hardly.

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But it's nature feeding the creative muse, a tool box for designing landscapes.

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What else feeds my creative muse? Music, pets, books, friends, movies...

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What feeds your creative muse?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken at Stone Mountain Park, 2.96 miles from my garden.

DESIGNED TO LOOK UNDESIGNED

Bits of this landscape look UNDESIGNED, yet nothing was left to chance.
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A potent landscape design tool:
CONTRAST FORMAL VS. INFORMAL.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Thanks Krystol for your pic.

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 !

ROOFSCAPE

In your garden, looking back at your home, how does your roof look? Please tell me you don't have white pvc pipes sticking up from your roof.
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My real ROOF FETISH is about finials. But, that's another post.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Thank you Krystol for this pic.

KISS: Keep It Simple Sweetie

How little can you do in your landscape and have it evoke in picaresque who you are? Splendiferous you.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Thank you Krystol for this pic