Double Axis

Looking along a path, below, in one direction. Looking along the same path, below, in its opposite direction.

DOUBLE AXIS. (Same garden as yesterday's post.)

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Double Axis, my landscape design invention (la-ti-da). I noticed the best gardens have beautiful axis, and when you turn around they are beautiful along the opposite axis, DOUBLE AXIS.

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So, dear poppets, it's not merely good enough to have a beautiful view. You must have a beautiful view in 2 directions along the same line.

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Of course you can throw a roundabout into your Double Axis and create a Double Double Axis. Life is good when these are your musings.

Subtle Focal Points

Walking into the garden room, below, (from yesterday's post) is the tennis player (have I mentioned winning the district tennis 4-A womens singles tennis championship 2 years in a row?). Opposite the tennis player, below, is St. Fiacre. Circa 1930's he is an inherited piece.

The tennis player & St. Fiacre book end the garden room, originally a tennis court.

Another doorway, above, in this garden room (apologies poppets, didn't ask its name).

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Dry stack stone wall & drystone steps. (Paying attention guys at the stone supply? Yes, you, who told my client last week it was 'impossible' to dry stack wall & steps as I drew in the plan. Please skip Scotland, Italy, my past clients in the states & etc.... you'll discover centuries worth of dry stack. By-the-way, I sent those clients to you, paying customers in a bad economy. They bought no stone from you & called me afterward confused. No worries, I got them going again & sent them to a different stone store!! 7 tons of fieldstone is your lost sale.)

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Tennis player & St. Fiacre are subtle focal points. Not subsidiary focal points & not main focal points. A delicious garden.

Create Seductive Doorways

Invite people thru your garden with doorways. Use a pair of pots, pair of vertical stones, pair of plinths, pair evergreen shrubs, arbor & etc. Drama of a step, narrowing to the path, above, less than 3' wide, lines of boxwood creating a hallway. Focal point on axis, creating a foyer and

beyond is another fabulous living room.

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Doorway, top pic, leads from the terrace in yesterday's post.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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It is this simple. Doorway, landing, hallway, foyer, living room. Gorgeous & low maintenance too.

Pot Display

When the setting is right a pot display is de rigueur.

Choice morsels to delight the eye and

invite perusal.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Have seen Pot Displays from Italy to Ireland & points between. Here, a delight in the same Italianate garden in Athens, GA as previous posts. This garden is about 1 acre.

Foyer, Hallway, Doorway

Welcome to the foyer, below. Beyond the terra cotta urn on a plinth is a hall leading to a frontdoor (iron gate). Ah, creation of mystery & privacy.
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MORE, poppets, if you can stand it !!! Gate & terra cotta urn are on axis with the bronze hatted girl in the previous post.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Landscape Design: Focal Point, Axis

Moments after seeing a subsidiary focal point (previous post) I see this charming bronze hat, below. DRAMA !! She's a terrace level below & gazing along a rill at yet another terrace level. (Counting? Yes, 3 terraces.) Down the steps, below, finally I see her. (She's backed with creeping fig.)

When she opens her eyes

she sees this, above.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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The rill reminded me of Helen Dillon's garden in Ireland, before she paved the lawn of course. I mentioned this to the owner & yes she had been to Helen's garden.

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Instead of buying a 2nd home the owners of this garden bought the house next door, demolished it, and created their dream garden.

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Bravo!!!

Subsidary Focal Point

In most landscapes she, below, would be a focal point on axis with a main view. In this Italianate garden she's a subsidiary focal point. A surprise, lovingly tucked in.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Remember, the landscape design rule: 1 Focal Point/area.
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Pic taken in Athens, Ga this month in the same garden as previous post.

Doorway Repurposed

Charming courtyard, below, created when an addition was added to their home. An original doorway, top at left, no longer needed.

Repurposed as a staging area for annuals.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Alas, poppets, I was there the day the annuals were ripped out. With drought, heat & the gardener just returned from vacation it was still fabulous. What fun choosing new annuals, new colors-textures-heights.

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This was the 3rd repurposed doorway I've seen like this. Mrs. Whaley's garden in Charleston, SC. A private garden in Greensboro, NC. And now this Athens, GA garden.

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Did you notice the color themes?

* Black shutters, furniture, doormat, windowboxes, plinth

* Terra cotta pots

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Pics taken last week in the same garden as yesterdays post.

Protecting Lemons

In Italy, centuries ago, when a late freeze threatened the lemon crop,

smudge pots were lit.

saving the lemons.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic taken last week in Athens, GA, same garden as the previous post. The gardener purchased these smudge pots in Italy.

Art, Multiple Axis

From the lower garden, formerly a tennis court, I first saw this sculpture on a plinth, below. (Did you notice, below, the dry stack stone wall?) Up the stone steps, below, curiosity is satisfied.

Drawn to another garden room, below, I turn & see a better axis for the sculpture. (Did you notice the mature canopy/understory trees+sky view?)

Inside the new garden room, below, the axis keeps getting better.

Then I turn body, but not feet, to my left & see this, below,

and about fall over in delight/surprise. Vanishing Threshold.

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Inside the room, above, the first sculpture is on perfect axis with the door in the center of the wall.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics, from Athens, GA, taken last week. Same garden as previous post. Think this is easy? Good, poppets, do it in your garden too. Remember, this is a subdivision with homes encircling the garden. Always a tough constraint.

Magic at the Corner

Behind the hemlock, below, a street & stop sign. View from the bench, above, another street & another stop sign.
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Yes, the front corner of a corner lot. In an almost century old subdivision in Athens, GA.
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Conifer-hardwood-shrub obscure views in one direction yet provide backdrop for another view.
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Ah, poppets, the bench. Elegancies of a dark stain, an overdose of curves, all-year warmth of wood, perfection of scale & an invitation of repose.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken last week. Stay tuned for more of this fabulous garden.

Details in Simplicity

Simplicities: trim color is not a bright white, no window screens, interior window treatments are elegant, lights on inside, contrasting foliage textures, contrasting foliage colors, espaliered lushness upon home, well maintained, easy to maintain, urn is fabulous enough to be empty, urn is not hugging wall of home or frontdoor, classic template of centuries copied, design is elegant in winter, makes me want to see the interior, makes me want to see the rest of the garden, the landscape describes the owners. Front of home, above, and its backyard, below.

Shown in yesterday's post too.

A retired couple lives here. They maintain the garden.

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Two important questions to ask yourself about a pic of your home.

1. Is it so wonderful I must see inside?
2. Is it so wonderful I must see the entire landscape?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last week in Athens, GA