Southern Living Magazine: Clear Winner

When I design landscapes I must see pictures of gardens you like, and dislike.Women, men, widowed, single, divorced, all ages, starter home, mansion, city, country, heterosexual, bisexual, gay, lesbian, whatever, this garden is the clear winner.

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Yesterday's client, yep ! Saved this pic since its debut.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic taken of Southern Living magazine photo at my jobsite yesterday.

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Why does this garden resonate? Good Design: canopy trees, understory trees, evergreen walls, groundcover flooring, layers of green (contrasting in texture/color), hi density & low density. Paths, seating, water, sky, intuitively low maintenance plantings.

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Do you know why hi & low density are potent? Pollinators............

Axis, Bench, Focal Point In Your Landscape

A note yesterday, "Should I buy a pair of these.....?" "Yes", in reply.$200 each. Don't know the name of the shop. Designed her Birmingham, AL landscape a year ago & know there is a perfect place.

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Where? TBD !!!!

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Why is To-Be-Determined so extraordinarily exciting, always, in a landscape? When, many parts of life To-Be-Determined contains a wariness, an acceptance, a sense of 'this too, shall pass'. (Trees are noble shedding their leaves. Enriched by what they shed. A metaphor to hang on to. Oh, no, I have to relearn it over-over.....)

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic via Birmingham........ I'm partial to benches as focal points. You may never have time to sit on your bench but looking at a bench from inside your home gives the illusion of repose.

A Room With Purpose

Bunny Mellon has a room for her baskets, below.Biltmore Estate has a room for flower arranging.

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2 very good ideas.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic via unknown.

Where You Need A Desk

Susanne Hudson says, "Every garden needs a desk."Her little thought is a great truth. Until then I didn't KNOW my garden was missing its desk.

When my Conservatory, made of rescued materials, is completed, yes, it will have a garden desk.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics of Susanne's garden desk taken earlier this year. Of course they are real hydrangeas.

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(Remember Penny McHenry's Garden Desk in her garage? Yes, inspired by Susanne Hudson.)

Sir Hardy Amies, Constance Spry, David Hicks

Constance Spry, below, of floral fame. A nice article about her in yesterday's NYTimes.With her, ca. 1960, Sir Hardy Amies.

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A decade (longer?) ago I visited a fabulous (you know, like, cool, shazam, wow, the best EVER) teeny garden in the Cotswolds; its owner absent. Leaving, my guide said, "The owner is couturier to the Queen." Yeah, whatever, I'm an American & you think I'll fall for anything.

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I bought, David Hicks, My Kind Of Garden, Edited by Ashley Hicks, last year, it includes Sir Hardy Amies garden. Bingo, my beloved little garden.

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In the pic, above, it lists Sir Hardy Amies as, "...the clothing designer..."

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When I can sweet-talk my way into using a SLIDE PROJECTOR in this dreadful PowerPoint era it's pure selfishness to see my dear, darling, perfect gardens in rich, soul satisfying colors. Sir Hardy Amies garden tops the list, of course there is Helen Dillon's garden too, and.....

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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My dream PowerPoint presentation? 4 machines, facing the 4 compass points, in a huge auditorium. You'll be sitting amongst the garden: looking forward-backward-left-right. Poppets, how many gardens do you think can be shown this way? It's exactly how I design gardens, every direction beautiful. Those preaching: sustainable, eco, green, organic, pollinator & etc.... set a very low bar and harm PUPPET BARBUDA'S beloved Landscape Design profession. Gardens must be all of these things and a Vanishing Threshold with the interiors of your home, and, low maintenance. Anything less than epiphanical and the giver of grace, well, Puppet Barbuda is sad for those 'poor unfortunate souls' living with such a landscape.

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Indeed, I asked my lecture venue in St. Louis, MO next year for 4 PowerPoint projectors, he laughed!!!!

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Pic taken from the NYTimes article.

Rust, Inspiration & Booty

Bringing my garden tub inside, below, the rust (it's real) looked so good I decided to keep it.
Wine Bottle Girl loved her old radiators so much she hired an artist, below, to faux paint them RUST.
Enchantingly, historically, beautiful &, poof, days later I RESCUED a radiator. Odd how the universe works, yes?

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In my conservatory it will become the base to a console table with a marble top, also rescued.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Rescuing my radiator was a bit tricky. Seen in the weedy woods while I was riding on acreage, in a golf cart, driven by a man, there was an awkward snag, his-land-his-stuff. "Oh, I want that !!!!!!!!!!!", and he paused a bit too long. Poppets, Ya Gotta Go In For The KILL. There was no time for me to gather the booty. You know what evolved, Golf Cart Man will bring the radiator to my conservatory.

Found: Cloches

Cloches are back at TJMaxx. Get there quick.
Above, $20 each. Made in China, the glass is thin. Polish cloches are much thicker. Mexican cloches are the thickest I've discovered.
I do not own a French antique cloche. I own 25-30 cloches, myriad sizes & makers.
With cats it's not easy having floral arrangements in the house. Into the terrarium, above, they go.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Cloches are used to protect tender seedlings from frost. TJMaxx is next to my post office, they did not pay me for this post.

Landscape Design Patterns Inside Your Home

Art, furniture, architecture, lamps, even rugs inspire landscape design patterns. Particularly scrumptious, below.The curves she had led me in a NEW direction; pattern in a mass planting of evergreen groundcover, below.
Wine Bottle pattern, above, pure subtlety with green bottles, I'm thinking yellow/gold wine bottles instead. I want the pattern to be seen.
How the Wine Bottle patterns look in concept, above.

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Her frontyard meadow is ripe for the central pattern in the carpet, top pic. Expanse of meadow with pathways radiating.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Yes, Poppets, Landscape Design is this easy.

Squire Mushroom vs Wine Bottle Girl

"James Gillray's etching 'Delicious Weather', 1808, mocks the middle-class villa owner, satirized elsewhere as the newly rich 'Squire Mushroom', for his attempts to make an elegant landscape in a 2-acre garden." J Fearnley-Whittingstall
Who caters to the man, above? TESTOSTERONE ON WHEELS MOW-BLOW-GO & COMMODIFY EVERYTHING I TOUCH IN YOUR LANDSCAPE PHILOSOPHY.

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Poppets, PUPPET BARBUDA, has been buying clothes, before reading/seeing the above, she declared her style: French, early 19th century, white wig, leggings, & dare I say, a bit of modest cleavage.
From the Dining Room, above. Seen only when standing near, not while seated. Solution? A floral arrangement of wine bottles & accouterments, softly lit from below. A cornucopia to Wine Bottle Girl's theme.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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How could I resist mixing these topics? The difference between 'Squire Mushroom' & 'Wine Bottle Girl' ? Wine Bottle Girl lives Cole Porter's, "It must be FUN". Poppets, she has zero time-energy-will to impress. PUPPET BARBUDA finds Squire Mushroom & his minions tiresome, to the point of harmful, to her beloved industry.

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Top pic & quote taken from, THE GARDEN An English Love Affair One Thousand Years of Gardening, by Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Wine Bottle Edging

She let go. And isn't it fun when a woman let's go?She lined a garden path DRAMATICALLY with wine bottles. (Poppets, she did it herself, no hired labor. Unwittingly, she copied curves from a table in her foyer, above.)
Adoring genius, I copied her lead. Concept plan, above, new curving paths will be Wine Bottle Edged & capped with her signature curve.
Her home is historic, the garden revitalized. Curving flourishes with the Wine Bottle Edging are subtle up close, DRAMATIC when viewed from the house.

Bare soil, above, will be filled-in with evergreen groundcover.

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Gravel terrace at the tennis court, above, becomes a landing for her party tent (she's a fundraiser for the Humane Society). Under the tented area the gravel will be checker boarded with 18" concrete squares. Did I mention she loves to sail? Lakes of mondo in the gravel will be home to old wood boats, sails flying from their masts. The little Williamsburg building at the tennis court will be enlarged, creating a 'boathouse', complete with dock. In addition to storage it will be the Bar during parties.

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Stay tuned, there's more.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last week, same home/garden as previous post.

Silver & Steel

Her historic Atlanta home has plenty of resources for Landscape Design inspiration.
She adores Industrial Steel & kept the radiator with warming oven in the dining room, below.
She loves arcane silver, below, too. Know what it is? A serving spoon warmer. Antique boiler off a ship, with a glass top, was repurposed for her dining room table, below.
Antique Industrial Steel, below, in her foyer, repurposed as a table with glass top.
Wine corks, 3rd from bottom, appear in a few spots too. Wine bottles make a stunning appearance too.

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Knowing DINKY IS STINKY, I'll show you what we've done with her wine bottles and curves tomorrow. Without her lead, I would never have imagined it. We Vision Quested !!!!!!!!!!

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last week.

Men Are Unknowable

Unfinished terrace, below, AIRPLANE MAN, after my guys left, brought a folding chair, little music box & a glass of wine.AIRPLANE MAN saw his lake from a new angle (25 years in the house), & turning slightly he could see his wife, in the kitchen; cooking.
AIRPLANE MAN was not interested in my services. NOT. The Wife; she hired me.
Bluestone mortared stoop, above, leading from a backdoor to the new, unfinished, terrace. My design indicated flagstones in soil with dwarf mondo in the cracks. AIRPLANE MAN wanted mortared bluestone. Tall walls of their home demanded softening. Mortared bluestone wasn't wrong but not the best for their needs. Told them to think about it a few days.

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A room with lots of windows leads to this new terrace (formerly known as the weed patch), soon some of those windows will be a French door; trees & shrubs & groundcovers & H20 feature & furniture will be added.

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Back to AIRPLANE MAN. He was stuck with me, alone, last Tuesday. The Wife, she was at work. I was called, by The Wife, to inspect a post at the new potager.

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AIRPLANE MAN answered the door with dirty hands, dirty clothes & covered in sweat. (Poppets, something fabulously attractive about a man who gardens, hmm, wonder how Thomas Jefferson looked all sweaty garden dirty). We immediately delved into gardenspeak & began covering the new paths, rondels & grounds . Stop, is this the man irritated by my hire?

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Had to ask, "Who did you listen to?". Edith Piaf.

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To The Wife, girlfriend YOU DID IT. Your garden is all-totally-completely AIRPLANE MAN's idea.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken Tuesday. Men are such unknowable beasties, or are they? I adore that The Wife & AIRPLANE MAN have flown into a new chapter of their lives together. Of course I'm partial to garden chapters !

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No, never thought AIRPLANE MAN would garden. NEVER................