GARDENING BABETTE'S MEAL

PECAN ORCHARD has lived across the globe for decades. Now, she's home. In a Georgia pecan orchard, below.Returning home, PECAN ORCHARD made a lifestyle choice. Nature.

Utilizing land & outbuildings for: family, friends, honey bees, dogs, cats, chickens, goats, horses, ponds, potagere, hay, pecans, fruitery, pleasure walk, birding, sports, & more.

PECAN ORCHARD wants to do it herself. Using little outside help.

Her petite muck boots are outside most doors.

Century old outbuildings are being refurbished.

Friends are sharing in her bounty.

And me? Sitting at my folding table/chair en plein aire I drew a concept plan for PECAN ORCHARD. Decades of study, travel, books, designing, contracting, paying attention, being present, successes, failures, joys, tears, stress, serenity, went into PECAN ORCHARD'S garden.

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Drawing the concept plan, hours felt like seconds.

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Uncovering her garden, seeing what was already there.

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Leaving PECAN ORCHARD I felt, surely as Babette did, above, serving her meal.

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Magic lies in letting go.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Top, pic from PECAN ORCHARD'S home/garden this week. All other pics from the movie, Babbette's Feast.

IS IT THE COVER?

Even necessities of a garden must be fabulous, below. A question, to help you get there,

"Is this worthy of the cover of a garden catalogue?"

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Plantings, Patio, Porch, Potting Table. The question remains the same, "Is it the cover?"

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken in Susanne Hudson's garden.

POT WORK

Why plant when the pots

look this good?

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Choose wisely & never plant, water, fertilize pots again.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken during an Italian study tour of gardens, yes, a warm sunny summer afternoon.

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Note from PUPPET BARBUDA: Sustainability of annuals? Not. Wholesale greenhouses with heaters, swamp coolers, irrigation, manual labor, trucking of soil, containers, fertilizers, & more. Then, trucking of annuals to retail sites, more labor, watering, losses, then driven home to final user, more watering, potting soil, fertilizer, labor. Hmm.

This IS Designed: FRISSON

Old tools, old shed, below, works every time. Totally designed, above. Ha, you thought it was an area 'not done'? Hardly.From the same garden, above.

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Create FRISSON in your landscape.

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Tension between formal/informal. Ying/Yang.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken in Susanne Hudson's garden.

RAISE THE RED LANTERN

Oh the drama, below.

Fresh, modern, above. Raise The Red Lantern, 1991, above, has an incredible garden scene. Lasting seconds, I watched & rewound dozens of times. A courtyard of bonsai. Trees, ancient, human sized, centuries of nurturing. A potted forest.

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What seems new, top pic, is a centuries old idea.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic via Style Court, Francois Halard photographer, published in Ammo 2009.

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

LUSH WITHOUT SPACE

Want to add lushness without taking up space? Put a vine on your house. Or espalier a woody shrub. Not much, above, but loads of lushness. And little maintenance. Rich, welcoming. Don't you want to know what the inside looks like? And the garden? Already sense you would like the owner?
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Slow down, dahlings. 3 questions, above, are quite serious. And part of designing your landscape.
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Ask those questions of your frontdoor & back patio area.
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Color, empty pots, scale, path, axis, light fixture, bell pull, enfilade each play a role too. But I'm only speaking of the vine today. Isn't it amazing how the simplest of garden pictures is, in reality, a full landscape design course?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic from Kathryn Ireland

VELCRO CROTCH

Gardening clothes aren't serious. Please, someone, manufacture garden pants with a VELCRO CROTCH. By the time I run inside finally, finally to the powder room it's a battle to get my sweaty pants off. Seeing, above, I know what to wear pruning my peony patch circa 1798 with staff in attendance.

How I'm feeling, above. Chaos reigns in my home: painters, plumber, carpenter, electrician. Soon, when garden clubs have their meetings in my garden the flow will be so much better.

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Did you know they existed? Garden club meetings in a garden? With catered box lunches!!!Learned of them thru Penny McHenry. She had them, to perfection. Penny would lead a tour of her garden, about 1 hr, then everyone would gather iced tea/box lunch & settle throughout garden & home. The breaking of bread with one another would perform its magic in Penny's setting. The magic? Grace & spirit.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Top pic Christian Lacroix, bottom pic Galliano.

GARDEN SPECIALIST

Doctors, lawyers, engineers & more have specialties. ELLEN OGDEN is the KITCHEN GARDEN specialist.

Whether you have acreage or a tiny city apartment you can have a kitchen garden. Beautifully & easily.

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Ellen & I spoke at the same symposium in Vermont a couple of years ago. Wow. Author, speaker, gardener. She's been living a kitchen garden lifestyle for decades.

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No, dahlings, kitchen gardens aren't boring or ugly. Think potagere. The French concept of vegetables-herbs-fruits-flowers-flowering shrubs in lovely combination.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics from Ellen's site, Kitchen Garden Designs.

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Note: You think a kitchen garden will be too much work? The work my garden does on me is more important than the work (playing*) I do in my garden.

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* We don't say, "I work tennis, I work football, I work golf." Ha, "I play tennis, I play football, I play golf." However, with thanks, my garden does, indeed, work on me.

EXPANDING ARCHITECTURE

Welcome, below, begins at the gate. Imagine the landscape, above, without the gate/arbor/fence. Much smaller. Expand your architecture, leverage your welcome.
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Resist temptation to use a property line for fencing.
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The more entries a landscape has the better a landscape is.
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Placing a gate on axis with your frontdoor creates an enfilade, a view thru to a view. Most desirable.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic on Lane Realty, via, Hooked on Houses.

4SOME: CLUB, WING & ADIRONDACK

Adirondacks were the 1st 4some I saw outside. And LOVED. A client had a 4some of club chairs w/ottoman at their center, inside their home. Gorgeous.
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Now, wingchairs in 4some, above, outside. Yes!!!
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What works here?
* No foundation planting.
* Vines on the house.
* Color: bricks, chairs, pots, foliage, flowers, sky.
* Pots: size, plantings, placement.
* Scale.
* Flow.
* Axis.
* Contrasting textures. Dark leaves by chartreuse leaves. Big leaves by small leaves.
* Canopy & understory trees.
* Walls: plants & house.
* 4SOME of Chairs. Comfort.
* Invitation. Steps leading you further, if only in imagination. Doors, beckoning the great indoors.
* Mystery. Yes, I want to see this garden. Yes, I want to go inside this house.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic from Maison Sud-Ouest, via, Garden Rooms. Had to show it to you. This garden has stuck in my head as pure pleasure.

MAKING IT LESS MAINTENANCE

Know how to create less maintenance, below? Replace turf with groundcover.
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Notice what is not in this landscape? NO FOUNDATION PLANTING !!!!
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Notice what is in this landscape? A French theme. OVERDOSE YOUR THEME.
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Notice how simple this landscape is? KEEP IT SIMPLE SWEETIE.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic via Things That Inspire. A favorite blog, named to perfection.