Gravel Drive

 Oconee Pea gravel dumped, below, spread, above.  A tiny gravel from the Oconee River outside of Watkinsville, GA.  Amongst the pea is sand.  This gravel compacts, almost, in a day.  Cobblestone edging arrives next week.

Strings were initially laid, then cars & trucks driven, lines adjusted & flags placed. 
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My degree in horticulture prepared me for none of this type of Landscape Design.  Instead, I was trained to design landscapes in subdivisions where everything touched is commodified.  Lawns mowed, bushes power trimmed, mulch instead of groundcover, annuals replaced every 6 months, fertilizer applications, insecticides/fungicides. 
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What I call, Mow-Blow-Go-Testosterone-On-Wheels-Commodify-All-I-Touch.
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For 2 decades I was off to Europe studying Landscape Design.  For 3 decades I've had 4 mentors & several friendships with peers in the Landscape Design industry.
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Everything I know, have seen & done has been required of me to place this gravel drive. 
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Simple.  Tis a gift to be simple.
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Elegance is refusal....
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken this week at a jobsite.

Exterior Design & Scale

Pretty now the Chinese snowball is young.  It's bottom will be pruned away once the blooms finish.  This Chinese snowball is growing into a tree. 

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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara

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Pic taken in a client garden yesterday.  Always greedy to show off with decadent blossoms there are 2 more Chinese Snowball nearby.  They will be pruned too.  Viburnum macrocephalum, easy. 

Blossom Boxes By Steve Eaton

She needed something at her gravel parking court.  (Tara Dillard's, Queen's Pot, of course.  A pot so fabulous it can remain empty.  Do all of your pots pass this test?)

Mostly, she has Steve Eaton of Blossom Boxes plant her urns.

 She wanted a gate leading into her woodland, fabulous.  But it needed another Queen's Pot, this time on a taller plinth, above.  And, it's on double axis.  More another time, (miss priss) forgot to get the other axis pic.

 No sun reaches her front door, Blossom Boxes keeps her pots always lush & green. 

Another pot, in her backyard, above.  Blossom Boxes stayed true to his name: pansies, violas & dwarf snapdragons.
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Met Steve Eaton over 20 years ago.  Have seen him in gardens & flower shows ever since.  Had him in an episode on my TV show. 
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I thought you should know such a man, Steve Eaton of Blossom Boxes, exists.  That there is a world where men plant flowers & girls design gardens for their daily bread.  A world, they know, is their own Camelot.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pics taken in a client garden last week.  Steve Eaton, Blossom Boxes,  770-337-8840, sceaton3@yahoo.com.  

Gate Is Born

Her gate has to let a horse & carriage thru, we left a 12' opening.  Before choosing the new gate a new drive was in use and a new vista beheld.  Unexpectedly, this gate became, almost, a front entry view.  Deer are an issue plus I wanted a bit of mystery & enchantment.

Yesterday, above, her new gates. 
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I perused dozens of pictures, sent 3-4 to the owner, voila-poof, she chose my favorite gate, top pic.
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Of course it came with no dimensions/details.  Our carpenter, Magic Man, scaled it to the site.  He used the curve a fly-fishing rod makes to judge the correctness of his top curves.  He asked me a few questions about proportions. 
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You normally don't see unfinished pics here.  But the work, above, of Masonry Man & Magic Man is enough to speak for itself.
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More pics as this project continues.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Top pic found online, did not keep the origin.  Had no idea I would be showing off with it.  Love, love, love the pace of this project.  Love more the team I'm working with.

This Landscape Never Has Chores

Under the Chinese snowball Saturday.

I don't have to do any garden chores.  Ever.  Have you noticed?
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Sure, the petals will have to be blown when they brown.  How can that be a chore?
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It's an act of grace.  And thanks.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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When you have good garden accidents you know you've done it right. 

Mrs. Wilcox, Howard's End

Mrs. Wilcox walks in her garden around her house, Howard's End.  It starts the book & movie.  E.M. Forster knew a few things about people, especially women.

 Meandering my garden, above, I see beauty, time, love, atonement.

 I see strength, & gain energy.

 Small, middle-class, probably 'working class' as the NYTimes would say, this bit of garden is a great joy & pure grace. 

 Like Mrs. Wilcox, looking into my windows, the garden & house are beyond measure.  To me.

To have created this tiny garden amongst a huge metropolis within a crammed subdivision I count one of my greatest successes.  In life.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics from my garden this month.

Renovation Bling

 Yesterday, above, lighting bling was being installed.

 Over the breakfast table, above.

 Guest room, above.

 Jack and Jill bath, above/below.

 Master bath, above.

Master closet, above.
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This renovation has gutted an entire floor.  Blown it out too.
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Scrumptious part of my job, for decades, seeing the work of myriad decorators + architects.  Alas, I get to see train wrecks before completion. 
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Garden & Be Well,         XO Tara
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This project, took the pics yesterday, has been a joy.  Watching every phase develop.  Beautifully. 

Vanishing Threshold: Perfect Bathroom

Lighting is even designed to hang from the tree.  Garden nor room are too big.  Simple.

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Humbling, the talent designing this.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Pic from Velvet & Linen.  Years of beautiful interiors & gardens with Brooke & Steve Giannetti and they only get better.

Still Life

 Waiting, below, for the next event.  Quiet still life.

 Her old Dairy Barn coming alive for various gatherings. 

 Simple.   

Meeting needs.  Spare, with deep richness. 
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Abiding.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pics taken earlier this month.  Her sense of abiding is palpable.  A gift.  When she told me this inner most feeling I understood immediately.  Feeling atonement on my land. 

Well Placed Chair

The potager is hidden from view, above, but the chair hints at the mystery destination.
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Have sat here many times thru the years and in all seasons.  Having a bowl of cereal or lunch or perhaps talking on the phone.
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And to think, I placed the chair there for aesthetics.  Instead, it's lifestyle.
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Discovered the Well Placed Chair phenomena while studying gardens across Europe.
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Copy, it's a fabulous rule of Landscape Design.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pic taken in my sweet garden last week.  Especially proud of this garden room because its backdrop is the rest of my subdivision.  And we don't want to see REALITY do we?

Don't You Want Beautiful Perspectives?

My property is under 8500 square feet, in a subdivision.  Do you know this from pics of my garden?  NO. 

 

 Instead, you see perspectives of my garden.  And they are beautiful. 

Everyday, all year.  Beautiful.
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Garden & Be Well,       XO Tara
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Have you made this choice, yet?  Why not?  A beautiful garden around your home is, guaranteed, a moat of grace around your life.
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Chinese snowball, dwarf weeping golden conifer, espalier apple tree.
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Did I mention pollinator habit 24/7 all year, low maintenance, reduced HVAC?  Remember, your landscape starts inside your home on axis with main window views.
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Why is gardening difficult for most people?  I think it's because much of gardening is counterintuitive.  Nothing difficult, just paying attention to many layers.
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"...men come to build sooner than to garden finely as if gardening were the greater art......"  Pope ca. 17th century.

Happy Flowers

Planted for its happy early spring blooms, kerria gave the surprise of engulfing a post of the Summer House this week.

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Good garden accidents.  Revel in them. 

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Don't know kerria?  

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When I began gardening nurseries were concerned about getting you the best plants for your garden.

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Nurseries now push patented plants ( preferably  advertised in Better Homes & Gardens or Southern Living magazines) with better profit margin.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

Pic taken last week in my garden.