Choosing What To See

Miss Kim fern, below, is a beauty in her gorgeous urn backlit by the morning sun.Decades of shooting gardens taught me to SEE them.
Not the reality.

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It's a nice place to be.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken yesterday at my jobsite.

Scruffed Up Is A Choice

Months of the year my formal stone terrace is, indeed, formal. But I adore Scruffy Landscapes, & meadows. (Lot's of blather, internationally, about how tough meadows are. Ha, it seems I'm a Meadow Whisperer !)

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Yesterday morning, below, annual blue ageratum gracing my stone terrace & Just Touching the variegated Boxwood-In-A-Pot.
Further along the stone terrace, below, Rudbeckia fulgida fulgida, is gracing the other variegated Boxwood-In-A-Pot.
Early this spring, below, English daisies graced the pots &
Scruffed Up my formal stone terrace. How I adore this !!!

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Poppets, Scruffed Up landscapes are a choice! Boxwood-In-A-Pot works most anywhere across time, continents, styles, incomes & etc. Each of the above flowers self-seed, require zero watering and came into my life by serendipity. A bird gave me the 1st English daisy. Ageratum came in the soil with peonies I dug up from Aunt Tilly's garden after she died. Working at a nursery, decades ago, a customer gave me the Rudbeckia fulgida fulgida.

Beatrix Potter's Beehive

Sharon Lovejoy visited Beatrix Potter's home recently, below.Poppets, look at that darling BEEHIVE !!!!!!!!!!!

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Exactly what I need for my tiny property. Exactly. This feels good, already, in anticipation. If I can't find it to buy I'll use the pic & my carpenter will make it.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Never heard of Sharon Lovejoy? Gardener, writer, artist & more wondrous things.

Man vs Crew vs DIY

Susanne Hudson & I chose the site, theme, materials & designed our Garden Conservatory, below, for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival last spring in Douglasville, GA.We also had this man, below.
Fluid of movement. Body, clothes, tools, materials, site, social skills, sense of humor, (pleasing 2 exacting women), decades of experience &, most important, intellect.

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He surpassed expectation (we knew he would), came in under budget, ahead of schedule & worked alone aside from Suzanne & I doing our girlie best.

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The other gardens created for the festival? Each, created with crews of men & heavy equipment.

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Our man? Last of the Mohicans.

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It was an honor to watch him work.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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In my garden I'm mostly DIY, in my dreams I have the skills of this man.

Landscape Light for Interiors

Owner, interior designer, photographer each Get It about landscape light, below.What's To Get?

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Lamps, chandeliers, mirrors, textures, window treatments, colors, & etc., myriad surfaces inside a home, affect lighting.

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Most important to interior lighting, above? Light from the windows. A daily theatrical, landscape tainted.

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Before light enters the home, above, it is infused by the landscape. Carried inside by a joyful Providence.

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Does your interior use Providential light? Mine does, by choice. It's how I want to live.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic from Jennifer McGee Design. This girl is GOOD. Many pics of her work include landscape light. Did you notice the open door, above? In my imagination ginger lilies are blooming in the garden & their scent......

Which is the Focal Point?

Obviously the lake, below, is the focal point.Perhaps the focal point is the Illusion of Repose?
Living a busy life, what you see from your windows will enrich your spirit or diminish your energy.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken at a jobsite yesterday. A ca. 1970's subdivision with ranch & split-level style homes around a lake. I've used the landscape design style of Italy at Lake Maggiore for this home/garden. Focal point of the lake is pure. Added evergreen tall hollies to block views of neighbors. And, at the back of the home, a small flagstone terrace for enjoying views of the lake. 5 understory trees were added; the canopy layer was too abrupt with its groundcover layer. Creates a better pollinator habitat too. Odd, in hindsight, how classic-of-the-ages landscape design translates into the best pollinator habitats.

Landscape the Ubiquities of Life Away

"Here I am breathing the soft air of Mount Edgcumbe standing upon the brink of a Cliff overlooking the sea and singing Notturnos with Pacchierotti. Innumerable bees are humming about the Myrtles and Arbutus which hang on the steeps and are covered with blossom." William Beckford 1781Oh my, the connection is intense. Gardens transcend time, size, style, budget, governments.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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View from my garage, above, living in a ubiquitous American subdivision. With my garden, I've left the ubiquities behind.

Kerry Ann Mendez: Author, Speaker, Designer

The Ultimate Flower Gardener's TOP TEN LISTS, 70 Garden-Transforming Lists, Money Saving Shortcuts, Design Tips & Smart Plant Picks for Zones 3, 4 and 5. By Kerry Ann Mendez.Warning: Kerry Mendez is explosive. She's on fire for gardening. When lecturing she emits a direct electrical current to your mind/heart. (Which, unfortunately, travels to your checkbook!)
The 8th Annual Great Gardens & Landscaping Symposium, April 1-2, 2011, at The Equinox, Manchester, VT, is not to be missed. (Another talent of Kerry's, she created & produces the symposium. Great speakers, sponsors, location, food.)
Kerry's book, above, is for gardeners in ANY zone/continent with myriad real-world-practical-helpful garden tips.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics by Kerry taken in her garden. I love/adore Kerry. There's only 1 problem, we live sooooooo far apart ! You know the type of speaker that motivates you into a garden center within 24 hours after hearing them? That's Kerry.

Working With The Earth

An allee of trees with triple axis, below, do you see? The Wild Wood remains, but with several paths entering. (Alert Poppets: This is perfect pollinator habitat with low density-high density & canopy-understory-groundcover, plus multiple seasons of bloom/berry/seed.)But first, below, an oval of turf. What's left, red clay, will become meadow (clover, fescue, bulbs, English daisy, ageratum, rudbeckia fulgida x fulgida, what the wind blows in & etc.)
Broad dry stone steps, below, taming the slope. Meadow, mown at 3 heights
will carpet these steps.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Will keep you posted on this garden, it's phasing in over the next year. I adore each process of creating a beautiful landscape. Wish you could smell what it's like. Churning up the soil, laying sod, placing stone & etc. Love how the earth releases it's myriad aromas during this phase, exotic-musky-ancient-clean, accepts what we do then calms itself. Leaving only memories of its exciting scent.

NYC Vanishing Threshold

Puppet Barbuda loves the horticultural humor, below. Vanishing Threshold with delicious hardscape. At the same NYC hotel, below, Puppet Barbuda loves the plantings,

container, and edge-of-chaos landscape style. Poppets, did you notice the chartreuse foliage matches the chartreuse stripe in the rug? Not an accident. These people get it!

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics via Firmdale hotels.

Chinoiserie

Screen door, below, had a horrendous 'colonial' motif. Hired a carpenter to put in the Chinoiserie.Plant foxglove, above, they ALWAYS make you look like you know how to garden !
My front door, above, is Chinoiserie too. The painted pattern copied from artwork in a calendar I had moons ago.

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OVERDOSE YOUR THEME. French, Italian, Chinoiserie & etc. doesn't matter Poppets, overdose it.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics from my garden. Love the blog, Chinoiserie Chic.

Playing Favorites

Sir Roy Strong, below, my favorite Landscape Designer. His garden, below, The Laskett.

Now you know how Laskett, my cat, got his name.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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I'm such a Landscape Design nerd I have Sir Roy Strong on my Google Alerts!! Sir Roy Strong has written many books, including a few landscape books. Hope you have them on your shelves.