How To Stabilize A Column In A Pot

We didn't know how we were going to stabilize the column in the pot, we knew it was-going-to-happen.With few raw materials, bricks-gravel-dirt, we chose bricks for wedging. Gravel for gaps, then
dirt to plant 6 boxwood.

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Columns don't budge.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic from PMHF garden Susanne Hudson & I created.

Cool Colors - Hot Day

Drama & color, below. Large pot & fine textured foliage. Cool greens, blue, yellow. These pics are not styled. Turning camera 1ft., below,
same pot with more drama, an agave.

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A beautiful vignette at A W Pottery in Chamblee, GA.

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Good landscape design is all about low maintenance & not having to 'style' anything to get a pretty picture.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last week. Over 95% of the pics on my blog ARE NOT STYLED.

Faux Bois Bench: Well Sited

A lovely incident along the gravel path, below.
(Notice stone edged gravel, decrepit terra cotta, leaf litter mulch? Melts my heart.)
Same bench, same path, from opposite direction.

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Thus, a good garden. It could be 2 different paths, 2 different benches or 2 different gardens.

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How to create Double Axis. A class by itself.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last week in Susanne Hudson's garden.

Decorating Alone

Decorating my Conservatory late Tuesday, alone, I got frustrated. Typically with a client moving things or, most often, with my guys.Multiple trips to attic, garage, mudroom and back to Conservatory I had a sweat going. Along with a mess & the transpiration of TIME; 3 hours passed.
What I completed looked like 12 minutes of work. And there's more to complete.

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I did what any grown-up pouting girl would do, I called Susanne Hudson with my tale of woe.

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She laughed and said, "Tara, it took me over 50 hours to get the sea shells organized and my conservatory redecorated." She, too, worked her Conservatory alone.

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Susanne's redecorated Conservatory & sea shells, above pics.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Took the pics last weekend.

Sea Shells In The Conservatory

Seeing Susanne Hudson's sea shells, below, in her Conservatory,I was inspired to gather mine from attic & garage. Before Georgia I lived at Cape Canaveral &
Galveston Bay.

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Why wasn't I honoring my past?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic taken last weekend. What parts of your past need to be honored in your garden?

Gertrude Jekyll: Munstead Wood Inspires Pool

A 40 acre Alabama garden I'm working on has the bones of Gertrude Jekyll's home, Munstead Wood, below.
I've been asked to put in a swimming pool off the back terrace. Seeing these curves, above, I knew immediately how to shape the swimming pool.

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How do I design 40 acres? I start at the house.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic via internet. All my travels in England, and never to Munstead Wood.

Daybed In The Conservatory

Pink & brown & hydrangeas & a Conservatory in the garden. With a daybed.With large terra cotta pots as legs.
Our jute draperies
pool, below, outside.

Susanne Hudson & I were on the front page of the paper. Did I know the photographer was coming? Sweat, hat hair, gardening clothes, dirty. We were the happiest women in the galaxy.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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I took the pics yesterday in the garden Susanne Hudson & I created for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival.

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Thank you Douglas County Sentinel for promoting the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival. Newspaper pic by Winston Jones.

Beer In The Garden

I adore working men in the garden.At the end of the day this wonderful man, above, earned his beer.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic from Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival in Douglasville, GA. It's tomorrow & Sunday. You do realize there is NO pun intended with the top sentence?

Pots, Easy Landscape Edging

Pots, original, as landscape edging? Hardly. A centuries old idea. At my garden, with Susanne Hudson, for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival, below. (PMHF is this weekend, June 4-5.)"It's what we do with what we have.", my mentor Mary Kistner said. I first saw pots as edging decades ago in Ryan Gainey's Decatur, GA garden.
Susanne & I have broken pots & fallen limbs.

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Perfect landscape edging. Easy & free.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken a few days ago.

Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival + Before/After

The Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival, Douglasville, GA, is this weekend, June 4-5, 2011.

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Free display gardens, Free standard Flower Show, Free Festival Market

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Garden Tour with Tram, $25, residential gardens including nationally recognized gardens.

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This year's table, below, incomplete, already looks FABULOUS.
Big impact, little input. Love this type of Landscape Design: old table, old wheelbarrow, old light & negligible maintenance.
Same table, below, last year.
From lamps to chandelier, from potting table to dining table.

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Come see our garden, it's in the free zone. Ha, no excuses!

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Been working like a young man creating this garden. My body is not amused. Susanne Hudson & I are creating this garden.

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Top pics taken yesterday, 94f & 200% humidity (please appreciate the effort). Bottom pic, I snapped last year.

Penelope Bianchi of McCormick Interiors

Penelope Bianchi, McCormack Interiors, is a new discovery. Penelope designs 'done' but I adore her 'not done' creations, below.Rare, she is the interior decorator creating gardens too. Of course she can design tidy gardens but I'm partial to, below, her scruffy

gardens.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics from Penelope's website. I'm slow to the game, discovering Penelope, and will post more pics.

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Been away the holiday weekend creating a garden, with Susanne Hudson, for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival. It's next weekend June 4-5, with vendors, a garden tour ($25 with tram) & several free display gardens too.

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Our garden is free and FABULOUS. Why make a garden unless you believe it to be FABULOUS?

Focal Point In The Roundabout

I designed the roundabout on axis with: porch, back door, drive, meadow. With a focal point in the center, OF COURSE.A rooster was found, & placed, almost 2 months ago, above. Love it.

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Last Friday, Patrick, The Rooster Of Hedgerow Farm, was killed by a bobcat.

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She had tears as she told me the story. You must understand, Hedgerow Farm belonged to beloved Patrick. SHE belonged to Patrick.

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Now, the rooster in the roundabout is a meaningful memorial. Who knew?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Same garden as previous 2 posts. Pic taken last Friday, from the mudroom porch.