Scalamandre's Toile at Monticello

Did you know 'Aphrodite' by Scalamandre is an original toile used at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello?

A heavy linen, tea stained backdrop with deep India blue.

Yes, I'm a fabric junkie.

Not quite 2 yards, this lovely toile came into my possession yesterday. (Fortunately/unfortunately a consignment shop is enroute to my 5 mile speed walk at Stone Mountain Park. Obviously I must stop 1-2/mo.)

Unpriced, ugh, I had to ASK, "how much". Wanting it BAD I turned in an Oscar performance. She answered, "$5".

Oh my, the tree, above, takes my breath away. And the statue, and the stone terrace...

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Like cousin Charlotte, in E.M. Forster's A Room With A View, I shall use this bit of toile as the serendipitous al fresco picnic cloth.

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Perhaps invite you to lunch in the Natchez Circle, and toss it over the antique table.

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I'll wear it too. Off to Hawaii later this summer it will look fabulous draped over my shoulders as I walk the beach every morning. Already have a tank swimsuit white/w dark blue flowers sprinkled evenly.

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Did you know someone could obsess so much, so fast about a little $5 square of fabric?

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And, do you know how important the right fabric is to your landscape? (Just in case you thought I was going off topic.) Your curtains, a couch, a chair, a tablecloth. What fabrics are seen inside your home while standing in the garden? Do they tell me who you are?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Hawaii on frequent flier miles, yippee. And the rest of the trip a gift from my parents. Haven't seen them in ever so long. Dad & I love our early mornings with coffee on the Lanaii watching the sun rise over Waikiki.

Bring in the Light

Susan Burks, SEB Designs, didn't like a short, dark hall near her family room, kitchen, laundry. A solid wood door to the garage, above/below, WAS in the hall.

She replaced it with this door. Choosing seeded glass, and etching it, to block views of the garage.

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Obvious, yes?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Obvious, but I would never have thought of it. Pic taken last month when I was working on her landscape design. No flash used taking the pic.

Gypsy Chicken Caravan

On axis, below, with a dining room view a Gypsy Chicken Caravan. Literally !! On wheels, it moves daily.

Hedgerow Farm makes it seem easy.

If the eggs aren't washed they can be stored at room temp. Did you know that? It was news to me.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Just realized Hedgerow Farm should be my first posted video. You would love seeing this petite Snow White look-alike, dolled-up in her fabulous form fitting jeans, cowboy boots, sunglasses, talking & laughing as she moves her Gypsy Chicken Caravan. Pics taken last month at Hedgerow Farm.

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Out that dining room window? Ugh, 2 huge A/C units, huge generator, & etc... No worries, I've designed the solution. Will post as it's built.

Garden Room: 101

Before construction, Susanne Hudson & I knew our Garden Room was fabulous. Understatement yes? We designed architecture & landscape, decorated & styled with only items junked, rescued, borrowed. (Well, we did buy tin roofing, gravel & a few pots.)

Tiny, potent. Peek thru, below, see our potting table?

Alone, or with girlfriends, this Garden Room is a life changer. Virginia Woolf territory.

Delightfully different views into each side.

Leftover pavers from edging the gravel. Voila, a table. And a meadow, does it get any better? Yes, hearing the crunch of gravel, smelling the fragrance of meadow & woodland, sound of rain on tin, seeing the chandelier & lamps on at nite. Knowing you have a bolt hole.

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My favorite part? Building the garden & Garden Room with Susanne. And this was work?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Built for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival, on site at Le Jardin Blanc in Douglasville, GA. Poppets, I had to spend several nites with Susanne while we created this Garden Room. Attended a Gala 1 evening. Progressive dinner another nite. Behind the scenes for a huge wedding at Le Jardin Blanc another nite. Mexican & margaritas another nite. Garden tour & Thai food 1 nite. Oh my, FUN.

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Want a Garden Room? Susanne & I can create one for you, contact here.

Details of a Garden Room

Rescued sink, "champagne is on ice in the conservatory", & stand made from leftover structural pieces, century old rescued pine. Rescued culvert, above, has a new life, & the rescued chest, windows, shutter.

How calm the shutter looks, above, hiding the sink. Carpet, #89 granite gravel.

Nap, above, on the daybed in the Garden Room? Notice its pot feet? Having a chandelier & lamps is of utter importance.

Chandelier, for sale, alas borrowed from Le Jardin Blanc, hanging from the tin roof. Ugh, we had to buy the roof. Curtains? Jute erosion control fabric. Bedding borrowed from Susanne Hudson's home, & mine.

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Hydrangea welcome, above. After all it's the garden Susanne Hudson & I created for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival on the grounds of Le Jardin Blanc.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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You will not believe what this Garden Room looks like. Can't wait to show you the money shot, soon poppets ! Alert, this garden room built solely with the labor of 1 man & 2 women. None labeled 'young' in contemporary culture. Ha, young in what we create. Please, let us create a Garden Room for YOU. It's all we wanna do. Oh dear, this snippet is turning into the lines of a country song......... ta-ta before it gets worse.

BUILDING A GARDEN ROOM

Susanne Hudson, a year ago, asked me to build a garden with her for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival. I knew then it must be a Garden Room.
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We Field Gathered over 95% of the Garden Room. The roll, below, know what it is? Jute erosian control fabric. Can you guess how we used it? Disgusting 1980's French doors, from the dump, turned into something fabulous, below.

Our wagon, below, filled with a foray behind the barn.

Pine timbers, below, from a factory torn down in Atlanta, about a century old.

A good man for this project was unspoken, below. Notice, we did not think 'crew of men'. Notice, too, more Field Gathering: old wheelbarrow, bed frame, & altar table on its side. But you already saw that yesterday. Oooh-la-la, notice the old bathroom sink in the Tara Turf?

Poppets, pay attention to the galvanized culvert, below.

How would you use it?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Accessorizing a Table

A century old altar table, below, is the potting table Susanne Hudson & I used for our Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival garden. Lamps, plants, bust, ephemera; similar to interior table accessorizing.

Our potting table is viewed from front, back & sides.

Yes, poppets, those lamps are ON. Are you just now discovering you NEED a romantic potting table with lamps ON?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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We bought nothing to create the potting table. Using only what we had between us.

Double Axis

A view of the house, below, from the historic cabin. View of the historic cabin, below, from the house.

Views, above, across potager & into her acreage beyond. Soon there will be a FOLLY upon that acreage.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken late last month at Hedgerow Farm. Local gravel & field gathered stones used in the potager. Landscape Design is quite amazing. Before the potager was installed the historic cabin & home had no relationship to each other. Now? It's as if home-cabin-potager have simply always 'been'.

Houseplants 101

Why I don't, below, have houseplants. Except, 2 years ago 2 Christmas cactus 'spoke'. My 1st nursery job (required: red shirt/kaki pants) was director of houseplants. When my 1st order arrived, a full 18-wheeler, you know who unloaded, into overtime, the whole truck. (Poppets this was before the days of immigrant labor. A college degree punching a time-clock & unloading trucks. Should we discuss my parent's horror? To this day, they abhor my career choice.)

It wasn't long before I was an expert on houseplants. Great JOY when Amy Leigh of

GROWING PLANTS INDOORS was discovered. This girl's ON FIRE !!

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If you are growing plants indoors then go to Amy Leigh for inspiration or help.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Happy to have the Christmas cactus but I've yet to wear a red shirt or sweater again. And I loved the job. Don't miss the 2 1/2 years of going to bed at 8:30pm everynite, bone tired; in my 20's.

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Top pic: Henry, newest member of my family, he arrived early last month. Found in Susanne Hudson's garden in Douglasville. Perfect provenance !!

Increase Your Welcome

See, below, the front door? I didn't think so. 'Landscape Design Trick: Increase Your Welcome' should be in your quiver of tools. Boulder steps, above, seen from the parking court. A few days ago there were no boulder steps.

Same steps, above, seen from the home.

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If you can extend the welcome of your front door, into the garden. DO IT.

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Increasing your welcome, & function, creates enfilades too.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics from the woodland hilltop of Rooster Cogburn, Katharine Hepburn & Handy Man. I created a landscape design for them early last month. Landscape Design Trick: Increase Your Welcome, ha, should be a new lecture title. It's a trick I use a lot.

Tara Turf & A Big Mouth

Tara Turf, below. Meadow of whatever the wind blows in & bulbs-clover-herbs-whatever you want, mown at different heights. (Discovered during my first garden study tour in Europe almost 2 decades ago.) Sunday, a client's soiree. She invited dozens. Meeting a delightful man & describing to him Tara Turf. Further,

telling him 'some locals' did not want her to have Tara Turf, aka meadow. Too many problems with tall meadows 'they' said. Full sail, go Tara Go, describing Tara Turf's fabulousity.

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Tara Talk personified, fully Tara'izing.

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Dahlings, you KNOW what's coming.

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That man? Quietly said, "I cut these fields for decades."

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Hmm. THE local. Hmm. Exit quickly. Silly girl, into another social pickle. Find Rabbit Hole in the meadow quickly....

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last Sunday at Hedgerow Farm. I adore Tara Turf: pollinator garden, no irrigation, no chemicals, fragrant, little mowing, gorgeous, fabulous. Tara Turf has worked for centuries throughout the globe. I adore history.

Are Your Window Views Paintings on the Wall?

In the original part of her century-plus home, below, Hedgerow Farm is taking her time with interior decorating. With the garden, she is on speed dial.

Incomplete, the music room is not lacking pastoral views.

Pecan trees, above, with tall meadow. Hedging at the far side of the house, above, encloses a potager. Both, viewed from a pair of windows in the music room.

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Do you think these timeless views were here? NOT.

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Design techniques used to design views from the Music Room: Hedges, potager, tall meadow, short meadow, copy-scale-axis-historical-enfilade-line-color-form-texture-simplicity-repetition-contrasts-Vanishing Threshold-deer/bug/drought proof plants-pollinator attracting plants-unskilled labor for maintenance.

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And you thought it was a trinity of: pecan trees, meadow, hedge?

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Adding simplicity is an art.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Oooooooooooh, Poppets, learning to let go of my ego for simplicity took time. Knowing the landscape at Hedgerow Farm must look as if I was never there. More, as if time stood still; from a century ago. Yet, creating a vital, serene, exciting, kinetic, everchanging landscape to delight the eye and grace the soul.