CHALLENGE & SOLUTION

When the carriage house, below, was completed Susanne Hudson's builder said, "Don't plant, I've packed solid Georgia red clay so you won't flood."
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What did Susanne do?
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She planted a garden around her carriage house in POTS.
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Last fall's flood, killing several in Douglasville, GA? Roads & bridges are still closed in places. Susanne's carriage house did not flood.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken in Susanne Hudson's garden of her carriage house. Susanne prefers green, brown & white in her garden. Above, you see mophead hydrangeas allowed into her tight color scheme. Three years ago Susanne began the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival. A weekend of lectures, vendors & garden tours. Go if you can, it's fabulous.

VANISHING THRESHOLD: Your Frontdoor

Two questions your front door answers. Whether you think so or not.

Do I want to see inside their house?

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Do I want to see their garden?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic from Homes & Gardens via Brabourne Farm

VANISHING THRESHOLD: Lighting

When it moves outside it's a trend. Fabulous lanterns. First Rules of Landscape Design: copy, simplicity, repetition.
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SENSUOUS, above. Crunch of gravel, trilling water, warmth of candle light, hearing refreshments poured from a pretty pitcher, feel of foliage upon your arm, repetition of color house-furniture-shutters-arbor-fountain-gravel, scale, flow, texture, vanishing threshold.
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Beauty w/Low Maintenance in the garden is sensuous & feng shui.
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Design, above, for yourself. Grace IS a destination.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic, Michael Partino via Brabourne Farms

DIVA BRAIN vs. LIZARD BRAIN

POVERTY IS A GREAT PRESERVER. Unaffordable harvest tables led my conniving lizard brain to a table I already own. Hideous: oak, mahogany stain, carved clawfoot pedestal, terrible measurements.
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DIVA BRAIN took over from LIZARD BRAIN.
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Dahlings, I hired a man with a power tool, muscle & skill.
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Now, harvest table is an exact 30" wide.
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Soon, faded green stain, same as the teak in my garden, will fabulously display the triumph of DIVA over LIZARD..
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That hired man? He hung a pair of antique gilt/chrystal chandeliers over my harvest table. They've changed my life.
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Only 2 weeks & the chandeliers are a morning ritual. Arising before the sun, walking into the kitchen, along with cat entourage, I fire up those beautiful girls.
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To be continued....
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic via City Sage via Isa's Little World
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To be continued? House in chaos. Painters into week 4. Clawfoot tub, now in my bathroom, still filled with vinegar/water soaking away stains from its former use in the garden. My kitchen is no longer the kitchen. Cut off a counter, moved ceiling lites, added chandeliers + 24" ceiling fan, harvest table added. Though painting debris litters the room it is potent enough, unfinished, to be called THE GARDEN ROOM.

STUDIED INSOUCIANCE

Charming insouciance. But not enough. If this were MY wood the gate stays, posts are replaced with split locust & the hideous new wire replaced with rescued old wire.
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Dahlings. Really. Indeed. Informal wildwood landscape design is as serious as a designed formal potagere.
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From Mirram-Webster, INSOUCIANCE: lighthearted unconcern.
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You think an INSOUCIANT woodland walk in my garden is serendipitous?
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Garden design is pairings: ying/yang, formal/informal, & etc..............
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic from House & Garden magazine via Brabourne Farm.

ILLUSION OF REPOSE

Chairs & benches are favorite focal points. Why?

They give the illusion of repose.

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Weeks & months may pass without time to sit in my garden. Doesn't matter.

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Potency lies in the illusion, throughout my days, seeing from the windows, views prettier than any Hallmark greeting card.

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Seriously. How can Hallmark compete with a deep red cardinal landing on the top of a chair & singing to his mate? A squirrel bringing lunch to the arm of a bench in the potagere?

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Comfort must not be illusion. Sit test each chair/bench.

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I don't care if it's rescued or only $19.95. If it's not comfortable & fabulous, don't take it home. Remember my estate sale question, "Will this be fought over at my estate sale?"

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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I took the pic in Susanne Hudson's garden.

CALLANWOLDE & FREDERICK LAW OLMSTEAD

Circa 1920, a dowager survives demolition, 1971, in a neighborhood Olmstead designed. Ceiling of trees outside, ceilings inside, below. Proof, again, of what survives landscape design: TREES & MEADOW. Please, dahlings, you must begin your garden with TREES & MEADOW.

I lectured at Callanwolde, (Dekalb Federation of Garden Clubs was host), this week. All original, below.

I realized I was taking Callanwolde for granted. I've lectured & attended many events here thru the decades.

The courtyard was enclosed, above. A little fetish of mine, enjoying the styling of refreshments garden clubs provide. Charm straight from the heart.

Front terrace, above.
Hand-painted silk panels in the dining room, above.

Hand carved front door, above.

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Garden clubs weave a tapestry of nurturing around their communities. Most members don't realize the potency of their actions.

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Many Garden Club meetings I've sat thru, waiting to speak. Learning who has died, been sick, had a baby, moved out/in, crime issues, new fundraising plans to benefit xyz, holiday plans & more.

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Garden Clubs are the last bastion of civility in our neighborhoods.

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If I were to get a Phd in horticulture, Garden Clubs & Society, would be my topic. That's my soap box & I'm staying on it!

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Took the pics this week at Callanwolde.

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.