Egyptian Warrior Booty

"More than 3,000 years ago Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt sent a company of gardeners to what is now British Somaliland for new species, and a century and a half later another Egyptian queen received from an army which had invaded Assyria many new plants, including a pomegranate and a new water lily." Joseph Wood Krutch Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pic taken at Le Jardin Blanc last week. Bust & 19th century smoke house. Can you imagine what fun Queen Hatshepsut had when her Garden Party returned !!!

Incipient Calm

A petty bourgeois comfort. I know. Hydrangeas & Blue/White China say, "Keep Calm & Carry On", ha, without words.
.
Exterior painting, 5 weeks, completed. You know how they left my garden.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic taken in my garden earlier this week. H. macrophylla 'Penny Mac' shown. Dug from Penny's garden by the Queen of Hydrangea Heaven herself. Decades of blue blossoms in her garden & years in mine. 2 years ago, severe drought, they turned pink due to poor aluminum uptake. Plenty of rains since last fall, hmm, still pink.

Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival

Susanne Hudson & I are creating a garden for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival, in Douglasville, GA. Saturday, June 5 - Sunday June 6th, 2010.
.
This chandelier, below, will be in our garden. Along with rescued treasures: rusty, dirty, antique, arcane. And: #89 granite gravel, busts, furniture. Ha, almost forgot, plants too. A tram circles the gardens on tour. Including Susanne's nationally recognized garden, below. Erica Glasener , of HGTV fame, speaks Saturday, 5th and so will I. In the evening there's a garden tour & progressive dinner.

Twice to Douglasville & spend-the-nites with Susanne already, working in our garden. More work days & spend-the-nites ahead.

This is work?

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pics taken at Susanne's yesterday morning, yes, a 'work' day morning! She toured me to some of the gardens Wed. evening because I won't have time to see them during the Festival. We were able to have private time with the owners, & their dogs, strolling their gardens after a lite rain. The air cool, fireflies, and scent of jasmine pervasive.

Painted 'Copper' Gutters

My back door, below. Notice the downspout? It's round, by choice. Better aesthetics.

Gutters are aluminum painted to look like copper. Sherwin-Williams, Best Bronze.

The woman? A Christine Sibley piece. Bought from the 2nd's table when Christine was alive. Ooooh, I miss her gardens, zoo, gallery, 2nd's table, antics, and her.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.

Pics taken yesterday morning. Painters finally finished the exterior. Susanne Hudson, interior decorator & color specialist, was hired to choose colors.

The Queen's Pot

The best containers in your garden? So wonderful they can remain empty.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic taken in the Bay Terrace, my front yard, from the living room. When I saw a particularly fine empty pot at Glamis Castle, one of the Queen's homes, epiphany ! Some of my pots are fabulously empty and some are planted. Please, get yourself at least one Queen's Pot.
.
Garden Designers Roundtable: Containers
More !! More !!! More !!!!

This month’s bloggers on the Gardeners Roundtable!

Christina Salwitz : Personal Garden Coach : Renton, WA

Debbie Roberts : A Garden of Possibilities : Stamford, CT

Jenny Petersen: J Petersen Garden Design : Austin TX

Jocelyn Chilvers : The Art Garden : Denver, CO

Laura Livengood Schaub : Interleafings : San Jose, CA

Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In the Garden : Los Altos, CA

Rochelle Greayer : Studio “G” : Boston, MA

Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK

Scott Hokunson : Blue Heron Landscapes : Granby, CT

Shirley Bovshow : Eden Makers : Los Angeles, CA
.
Apologies, I can't get the links to go thru.....at the moment. All of the fabulous landscape designers, from many states & zones, above, are also writing about containers today at: Garden Designers Roundtable.

Dry Stream

Never a stream, below, simply a low spot in the woods with drainage issues. River rocks & plantings solving drainage issues beautifully.
.
This was the 1st dry stream bed I ever saw, over 2 decades ago. Since then it's become MORE gorgeous while functioning without problem.
.
A French drain would have been ridiculously expensive, clogged up by now, dotted with water pockets & breeding mosquitoes.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic taken at the Atlanta History Center a few weeks ago.

Blogs Feeding the Muse

7 Blogs feeding my creative muse; helpers in my garden ! Velvet & Linen, interiors & gardens. Brooke makes it look easy.
Cote de Texas, mostly interiors. Joni goes in depth & with great pics.
Color Me Happy, fabulous color. Maria shows & tells the why's of color with great business advice too.
A Bloomsbury Life, the title says it all.
Things That Inspire, architecture & interiors & art. Always inspiring & educational.
From the House of Edward, art & words. Beautiful words. Storytelling.
It's About Time, pictures & history with a sure hand. Sometimes the pics are the entire story.
To all of the above I pass along The Beautiful Blogger Award.


Yes, you've guessed I was given a blog award, "Beautiful Blogger Award". Thank you, It's About Time.

The award asks for 7 things you may not know about me:

.

* I adore geology.

* Crash Test Dummies has been playing in my car for over 2 years. Zero variation.

* Camping in the dunes of Edisto Island is my happy place.

* I thought Venice would be a wasted day on my garden tour. WRONG.

* When wonderful things happen I still want to tell my grandmother. She died in 1983.

* The life I'm living is better than the life I planned.

.

Designing landscapes, writing books about landscapes, putting together powerpoints about landscapes, lecturing about landscapes each give me something rare on this earth. A sense of timelessness. Moments of pure joy. The eternity now that Joseph Campbell speaks of.

.

Decades of this work & I can't get enough, still learning, still excited.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pics from Susanne Hudson's greenhouse a few weeks ago.

Do You Have the Eye?

Lovely rose arbor, below, yes? It came from a dumpster.
.
Susanne Hudson saw a commercial awning tossed into a dumpster. She called the building's owner immediately, asking if she could have the discarded awning.
.
Next, she called a fence company to place 8' fence posts.
.
The awning was placed forming a complete 1/2 round instead of its intended 1/4 round.
.
Voila...rose arbor with hanging lanterns.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic taken 2 weekends ago. I've been in Monet's garden and know Susanne's rose arbor is little different from his in drama. What could be better? Do you have the eye?

Dogs in the Landscape

Come inside, below, to see adorable signs of a dog.

Our landscapes are stories of ourselves.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pics taken a couple of weekends ago at Susanne Hudson's garden, she has adorable Jack Russells.

.

When I design a landscape I'm hired to tell the right story. Perhaps the landscape story belongs to a previous owner. Or the story from a past chapter of my client's life.

.

What story is your landscape telling? Is it your story?

Landscape Design: Pollinators

Vanishing Threshold increases pollinator habitat. 1 in 3 mouthfuls of food are the result of insect pollination.
.
Circa 1996, the USDA wrote, "...impending pollination crisis."
.
Ha, not in my garden!! Why? Mix of plants, mix of heights, mix of density, ponds, composting, no chemicals, no fertilizer, . Everything pollinators need.
.
Major cause of pollinator decline? Loss of habitat. Subdivisions across USA with traditional lawn/foundation plantings & their maintenance. Not opinion, scientific fact.
.
Testosterone On Wheels Landscaping vs. Matriarchal Landscaping.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Huge topic, more info at POLLINATOR.org

Jackie Kennedy & Martina Navratilova

COLONNADE has a new home, below, 10 acres, 3 children & is new to gardening. Asked what she liked, COLONNADE produced pics & ideas of Rosemary Verey's. COLONNADE is an intuitively wise gardener. Verey was one of the greats.

COLONNADE, a Jackie Kennedy/Martina Navratilova combo, acquired 3 brothers to help with the gardening.

3 baby goats, above, nibbled my clothes as I designed.

.

Channeling Rosemary Verey is a delight but most importantly I'm an advocate of COLONNADE's time. COLONNADE will be the one on the tractor, riding mower & etc. She's sourcing equipment now.

.

Young children are the focal point and her landscape must be pleasure not stress.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pics taken last week. Did you know baby goats have soft fur? And they want lots of petting & attention. Their little voices sweet.

Frames in the Landscape

A bit small for framing, below, in person. But with

your camera this armillary sundial

is an interesting frame in the landscape.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Shots taken recently in Susanne Hudson's garden. Hydrangeas, bottom pic. A friend visiting my garden last week saw my armillary sundial laying unused on the potting table. She suggested I use it as a chandelier for the new conservatory. Hmm, delightful !