Draperies in the Landscape

Last Sunday, below. Considered draperies for your landscape?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Took the pic in Susanne Hudson's garden.

The Sacred & Profane of the Best Landscapes

The best landscapes have elements, below, of the Sacred

and elements, below, of the Profane.

Landscape design is about contrasts.

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The Sacred & the Profane. Got both?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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(Big leaves with small leaves, blue foliage next to burgundy foliage, pyramid forms next to horizontal forms, blowsy hydrangeas bursting over neat green hedging, spikey flowers by round flowers, & etc.)

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Top pic taken last week at Stone Mountain Park, bottom pic England.

A Landscape Design

Think this is unkempt? A landscape design, above, an illusion of country. Nature. Not one leaf is unconsidered. The dirt path? Part of the landscape design.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Took pic in England.
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Living with a manicured lawn yet love the garden above? Yes? Life is too short not to have a garden nurturing your spirit.

Decorating Your Conservatory

Susanne Hudson used windows from the dump, 2" X 4" 's, opaque corrugated roofing panels, old doors, & #89 granite gravel, below, to create her conservatory. Inside, plenty of seating, lighting, & art.

Tables, cushions,

fabrics & collections.

A color palet. A few plants too.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Can't wait to begin building my conservatory. Hunting/gathering now. Dahlings, there's zero budget for this. Adore the challenge. Getting what I want at MY price point. Soon I'll be: hammering, shoveling gravel, painting, then, ta-da, decorating my conservatory.

Outside & Inside A Hedge

Standing in the street, below, at my front gate this morning. Inside the hedge, below, is my Bay Terrace.

Oakleaf Hydrangea blossoms unfurling, below, in the Bay Terrace.

The subtlety of my rule "Just Let It Touch", blossoms caressing, below, the adirondack chair.

Oakleaf Hydrangeas espaliered, below, at the bay window. Learned this trick in Italy at Lake Maggiori.

Did my garden make you curious about seeing, below, inside?

My go-to spot, above, for working on projects, lunch, dinner with a girlfriend.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Bottom pic taken weeks ago, rest of the pics taken less than 15 minutes ago.

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Love English hedgerows and copied. Mine: dwarf abelia, climbing rose 'Dortmund', hydrangeas, boxwood, palm, rosemary, lavender, liriope, clematis, hollyhocks.

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Breakfast yesterday morning, in my gown, sitting in the adirondack chair caressed with oakleaf hydrangea blossoms. Neighbors in my tiny subdivision, surrounding my tiny property, well hidden behind my hedge.

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The antique gateleg table had been in my office for a decade until last January. I hired Susanne Hudson to choose paint colors, somehow, ALL my furniture moved !

Foundation Plantings are Ridiculous

Why a stupid row of evergreen meatballs when you, below, can have this? Why give away your real estate? Foundation plantings are a tired concept.

One espaliered shrub adds a lushness legions of sheared green meatballs will never approach.

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In your mind, at this moment, take away your foundation plantings. Good, have fun destroying a landscape and creating your garden. One matching your interiors, architecture, intellect & spirit.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken when I was in England. Got rid of my foundation plantings over 15 years ago, la-ti-da.

A Few Good Things

Window box, below, fake stone, below,

terra cotta feet, below,

were a few good things I saw last month at Lowe's.

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Remember when fake stone was ridiculously stupidly ugly?

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The window box is lovely but underscaled for the average window. Buy 2, get it right.

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Loved the price on those terra cotta feet, 3/set for $3.99.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

HAY HOUSE, Macon, GA

Last weekend at Hay House, below. I adore tented plant markets. There was a garden tour too.

Hay House, below.

Completed at the beginning of the Civil War Hay House was originally stucco.

Original Minton Co. tiles, below, at a back service area.

For gardeners, in a world of the mundane, these events shine with character, intelligence, something new around the corner.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last weekend, alas I kept getting separated from my camera. And I missed the garden tours, ugh. After lecturing the laptop beckoned with contractors & clients needing answers.

Greenhouse Contemplation

Greenhouse: old windows, 2"x4"'s, paint, translucent corrugated roofing panels. Not large, perhaps the size of the one, above.
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Should I?
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An eyesore has revealed itself in my garden; new scope for the imagination.
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Yes, a little greenhouse exactly 'there'.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken at Le Jardin Blanc 2 weeks ago. Don't you love the chimney!

Mystery

Mystery is a landscape design tool. Does a garden keep you walking to see more? Exactly. That is mystery.

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Thru the camellia blossom/hedge a pruned peek-a-boo vista into my patio.

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Hmm, what will you look like walking your garden pondering more mystery? Ha, neighbors will think you're walking slow with that peculiar look on your face again.

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Sometimes I sit in my neighbor's frontyard to simply gaze upon my garden.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

COMPOST CONTAINER

In the kitchen, below, circa 1930 pressed glass lemonade pitcher used for kitchen scraps headed to the compost pile. (No dairy/meat dahlings.)
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Rosemary Verey couldn't have been happier than I walking my gravel path to the compost pile once a week carrying this lovely pitcher scored for $10 at Scott Antique Market moons ago.
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Gardem & Be Well, XO Tara
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Soooooooooo Oooooooooooooooover store bought compost containers. Galvanized compost pail rotted thru, plastic pail too big too stinky too ugly, enameled compost pail rotted thru. None of those stupid 'compost' pails delighted. And they weren't cheap.

Stealing the View

View, below, from the Garden Room earlier this year. Same view, below, last week.

My tiny property lives large because I own the sky. How? Canopy & understory trees, walls of evergreens, floors of groundcovers/stone on axis from window views inside my home. Vanishing Threshold.

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And, Dahlings, this is big, I stole the view, above. Those aren't my trees. La-Ti-Da.

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Azalea 'George Tabor' is the pink flower you see. Soon blue mophead hydrangeas will be blooming. Later, rosy pink Sasanqua's will bloom.

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By December I'll have the 4 Seasons view from this window.

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(Tara's Trinity of the Southern Garden: Azalea, Hydrangea, Camellia. Plant my trinity and you won't go a day in the year without blooms. Included are oakleaf-Anna Belle-mophead-PG-Tardiva hydangeas & C. Japonica.)

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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23 years in my home & these are the first pics from this view. Why? Since January interiors have been painted, kitchen & master bath remodeled, furnishings redecorated. Odd, new interiors creating new views of the garden. Susanne Hudson was hired to choose colors. Ha, that flowed into other changes. Love everything she's done. Salient fact, I gave her free reign. Total control. A blessing to get out of my own way and let Susanne create magic.