Kitchen View

Birdhouse condos, below. View from deck.

Still lifes are imperative for this landscape. Deck is viewed from the Garden Room & Kitchen. Is the deck used? As a destination for the eye, yes.

From inside the Kitchen (& Garden Room), below, EDUCATOR watched a pair of bluebirds build their nest & raise their young this spring.

This simple joy, a huge victory.

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Sometimes the hand of G-d takes control of our life. Sinking into a garden let's me trust that hand. Watching it in the life of a friend is humbling.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken yesterday in EDUCATOR's home/garden. Client, & now a friend of several years, she is able to maintain her garden with unskilled (aka: affordable) labor. More....

Compost & Gertrude Jekyll

"The size of a garden has very little to do with its merit. It is merely an accident relating to the circumstances of the owner. It is the size of his heart and brain and goodwill that will make his garden either delightful or dull, as the case may be, and either leave it at the monotonous dead level, or raise it, in whatever degree he may, towards that of a work of fine art."

Gertrude Jekyll, Wood and Garden, 1899 When a client has compost, above, filling their drive I know they are of the finest rank.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken last week in the same garden as the previous post. Wish you could smell the sweetness of that compost pile.

Landscape Mix

Old gate, below, in a new fence.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Another pic from yesterday's post. This lucky girl sleeps with her carpenter & yardboy. Aside from putting in the old gate in their new fence he also designed/built their deck & more....

Tuteur & Drama

Cone shapes draw the eye in landscapes. Charming tuteur, below, buta subtle color.

Imagine if each tuteur were bright yellow or red. Changes the garden, yes?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic from the same garden as yesterday's post. My client made these tuteurs. Notice the drama of tuteurs in pots. The Anna Belle hydrangeas are a victory in this drought & hi temps & sun.

Privacy in the Open

Typical subdivision, below, seen from the street. Standing at the frontdoor, above, a view of the street, below.

Why do Americans give real estate to passing cars?

Vanishing Threshold landsape design starts inside your home. Not at the street.

Hints of the street, above. To the left of the bed, above, is the driveway.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last week. A client from many years ago called me back for some tweeking. They are both self-employed, grandparents & have Show dogs. Crazy busy lives, yet wanting a beautiful, little care, landscape. They are do-it-yourself gardeners.
Good timing for the visit. They are repainting soon & we will choose a more faded shade of white & the gutters will become 'copper'. And they're in need of a good pruning. A fabulous landscape with zero styling for these pics. (Magazine landscapes styled for their moment of glory aren't my thing.)

The Chair

SHIPMAN sent this, below, from Greece yesterday. Of course, in my mind, these chairs have already been designed into fabulous gardens.
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Graveled terrace, ancient wood harvest/farm table, tree trunk arbor, 3 old chandliers not matching but hanging at the same level above table. 6 of these chairs with a pair of bentwood/cane armchairs at each end of the table.
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At the entryway of a garden room. A pair of these chairs with chickenwire molded into dog forms covered in a small leafed ivy. At the other end of the garden room another pair with chickenwire in cat forms covered in variegated ivy.
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In honor of a dear friend a cluster of shopping bags arrayed around the chairs.
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Of course there are chickenwire forms of people with the chairs...
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What do you see?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Can't wait till you get back SHIPMAN, lunch???

Underused Plants

Now that you've seen, Edgeworthia, below, how can you not have it? Winter blooms on deciduous stems. Grown as a shrub or small tree depending upon your pruning. Part shade to edge of woodland in the south, full sun to part shade in the north, zones: 5-9. . Pic

Lonicera fragrantissima, below, visually a bore, but once you smell her, you will have her. A gangly shrub, zones: 1-9, with arching canes, sun or shade, plenty of winter blooms to bring inside.

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Witch Hazel, below, a small understory tree for shade to part sun. Blooms in winter. Foliage persists through much of winter, beige, boring until you see it dripping with rain/dew backlit by the morning sun. Upon that morning you will know why the universe was invented.

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Each are drought tolerant & essentially carefree. Oddly, I chose winter bloomers.

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More Underused Plants at the Garden Designers Roundtable today.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Discovered the pics via Garden Lust. Not entirely clear if they were from the New York Times or taken by Garden Lust.

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The Garden Designers Roundtable posts will be up after 1pm central.

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Wish everyone could have camellias and gardenias and tea olive & etc. Alas, narrow zones.

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Fantasy plant? Dwarf eleagnus, 2'-3'.

Landscape Design

Almost 3 decades designing landscapes, writing books, hosting my own CBS TV show, national lecturing & national awards. Guess what I won't do? Wing it in my own little garden. In the beginning, & too long after, I did.

Winging it wasn't getting me beauty of the ages, low maintenance, color all year, views on axis, or Vanishing Threshold.

Like Monet I like to work en plein air, with drawing board, folding table/chair.

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On paper, the science & art of Landscape Design meld. Paper also invites the MUSE.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Rosemary Verey's, The Garden In Winter, is my favorite landscape design book. Designing your own landscape? Buy her book. Top pic, beloved rescues Laskett & Henry working on a long distance landscape design in the office.

Flag Site

Landscape Design Rule: 1 focal point/area. Flags are focal points, frontdoors are focal points. Flags, sited at/near frontdoor diminish both.

Flags reeking of cute? Must I go there? A flag with the word 'Welcome'. Oh dear. Your home & garden say 'WELCOME'. Remember, CUTE KILLS.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic taken in my garden this month. The best gardens BREAK RULES.

Diminutive

Historic light fixtures were

often diminutive. Keeping the original says a lot.

This original light fixture, above, told me volumes about my client before meeting her. Of course the entire entry reeks of quiet elegance, intellect, narrative & confidence. What do you want your entry to say about you?

Had to share Peaches, (she lives here) a rescue, above, with you. Intellect? Ha, Peaches has her owner firmly under control.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Doormat

I first saw this type of doormat, below, in a centuries old French garden (cobblestones set in gravel). As perfect as this entry, below, is I want to take it back

further. Do you know what I mean?

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Do you know how?

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The container. Fabulous, but too new for this landscape.

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We have already sourced a new container, almost a century old, in Birmingham, AL.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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When the new container arrives the current era will be blended across the past.

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Timelessness, a grace in every landscape fortunate enough to wear it.

Hydrangea Drying Now

Hydrangeas, too many weeks, have spilled into my paths. (These are EXACTLY the type of problems I want in life!) Finally, edges of their blossoms feel 'papery'. Time to dry. Drought & hi temps are the obvious diary entries upon each petal.

Cut the stems, peel off the foliage. Voila, ready to dry.

Lazy Woman's Guide to Drying Hydrangeas by Tara Dillard.

Could it get any easier, above/below, than sliding an entire bouquet in the slats of my French garden chair?

I like that the blossoms are not perfect.

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Their story, more potent.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken Sunday. Love, love how my Robin's egg blue looks in the top pic. The table, from France, on the patio many years, was moved inside while redecorating earlier this year.