Hydrangea 'Queen of Pearls' on the Front Porch

Front porch garden. 

Hydrangea 'Queen of Pearls', still in its 3 gallon pot, slipped into a tall classic iron urn.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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A Dirr selection from McCorkle Nurseries.  Susanne Hudson's front porch.  Queen of Pearls was a no brainer with her green-brown-white trinity of colors.

Double Islands

Need double islands?  These did their job.  Clusters of people, conversation, laughter, good food. 

 Between kitchen & family room, below.

 Butler's pantry, below, anchoring opposite end of double islands.

This kitchen worked perfectly.  Designed to entertain & fundraise. 
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Work takes me into beautiful homes & gardens, country clubs too.  This event was a portion of pro bono I do each year.  Typically I work pro bono with my county Extension Service helping with school grounds.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Yes, more of the garden I lectured at 2 weekends ago.  Knew you would want to see the double islands.  Wish you had been there.  Plenty of wine & canapes.   

Lush & Sparse: Design Tool

Welcome.

A front door with spare elegance, above.  Near the front door, below, billowing lushness.

 Off to the other side of the front door, below, more lushness. 

 And a path, below, leading

 to a door

 not far from the front door

yet light years away in language.
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Landscape Design is about contrasts.  This home has a gardener with a sure vision.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics taken 2 weekends ago while lecturing.  No other time than full blazing afternoon sun to get the pictures.  So few gardens use the potency of spare with lush.   

Deeply Covered Porch

A covered porch for the entire family or quiet solitude to fill your spiritual well, below.  Several rooms flow into this porch.

 Looking out, above, looking in, below.

Perhaps a door to a guest suite, below?

A fireplace.  Simply a fireplace, below.  Be wary of a huge monument fireplace.  Too often they are  life sucking spectres.

I told the owner how I adored her porch & she smiled saying the entire house began with this porch.  The architect working outward from here.

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Love a woman with priorities.

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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

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pics taken 2 weekends ago.  I lectured in her porte cochere.  Wish I hadn't been in such a hurry, needed more pics of this porch. 

Designing Out-Of-Town

Slept away last nite, below, planning a garden.

 Sweet chaos on the mantel, below,

in the bedroom.
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Can't tell you where I was.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics taken this morning.  In a public career there is always a percentage to remain, private. 

How To Increase The Drama

Subtle drama, ego in check.  Pair of stone columns, iron gate, half-round stone steps & on axis a Japanese maple.  Not a gaudy statue or etc.

 Do you see the opportunity to increase the subtle drama, below?

Remove the pinestraw bed & let the turf flow to the stone wall.
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Small tweek HUGE impact.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pic taken last weekend at my lecture venue.

Retaining Wall Lust

Have your eyes & brain accepted this, below? 

 Aside from lust pure astonishment.  This retaining wall is hidden away in the family parking court.  That murdering Roman thing with stone building slaves ca. 1 BCE, then the poverty cycle with the bricks.  Later, much later.  But here it all is, in narrative.  Mine.

 Another chapter to the story, below, at the end of the retaining wall.  Tuscan hillside, fieldstone steps are Jane Austen rusticities.

Framing my lust, below,  relative to the house.  Steps & hillside look as if they were there, leftover from some ancient Roman volcano.  Vesuvius, 79 ad?

 She, the owner, waylayed me.  Oh no, ick.   Grabbing my right arm in both her hands saying, "I'm taking you to the Bellsouth room."  I had no time for this, so deeply involved in my lust for the retaining wall, fieldstone steps, & garden.  Outwardly nice, inwardly thinking how to get away.  Get back to her garden. 

 She marched straight here, above, my arm still in her hands.  "Isn't this the greatest spot?  I love looking at it and go to the bench often, have you ever seen steps like this,  &....."

 My attitude went 180.  Couldn't get enough of her.  That bench?  Of course I hadn't seen it from terrace level.  The bench overlooks the 18th hole of a PGA yearly stop.  

Portion of the Bellsouth room, above.  We paid it 'no mind' as Neil Diamond would sing.  I was in girl-crush as we walked the rest of her house & grounds spilling life stories, work, men, spirit. 
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pics taken at my lecture venue last weekend.  Love how conversations flow with women amongst my tribe.  How did EM Forster know us so well?

Wickedly Neo-Unprepossessing

Across Europe the best gardens, with attenuated home of course, invite you thru a neo-unprepopressing entry.

 Arriving, above, I knew it was a carriage house or guest cottage.  How?  They told me I would lecture in the porte-cochere.  Executed to perfection, below right. 

 Whoever owned the estate HAD ME at the curb. 

 In the porte-cochere, above.

The bench is a metaphor for the house and garden.  Detailed, quality, elegant, enduring, comfortable, welcoming.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Did my 4 lectures in 2 days last weekend in the porte-cochere, at Sugarloaf Country Club Garden Tour & Boat Show.  This house & garden donated proceeds to Mothers & Daughters Against Cancer.  Of course I have more pics for you.

Interior Design Speaks To Exterior

Sink, below, awaiting installation in the powder room.

 Island, below, is gray-blue-periwinkle all at the same time.

 In the dining room, below.

 More of the dining room, below.

 Ceiling of his study, below.

 Stairs curve their invitation for all 3 floors.  Scaled in confidence.

My interior partners.  The Landscape Design must be worthy of them.  Adore this challenge.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pics taken at a jobsite last week.  Yes, these details are keeping me on my toes.  And the dance is quite fun. 

Portico Influences Shapes

When the portico was built, below, I knew exactly how to design its landing.  A bit tricky because it is also

 part of the parking court, below.  Blue stone leads to the front door, below, shaped like the portico where it touches the exposed aggregate drive.  The space called for formality.  Hence the beds touching the house are edged in raised granite cobblestones.

 Not far away, below, the property line, alas, at the crest of a slope & near a neighbor.

What neighbor?  What property line?  I put in a 4-board fence with hogwire exactly like the rest of the 400 acres with horses.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pics taken at a jobsite last week.  WTF, 400 acres & horses?  Hardly, this is infill new construction on less than an acre.  A dream home.  They've lived nearby for many years & the land recently became available.  Doesn't matter, the historic architecture demanded the 4-board fencing.  (Balance with the brick, stone, exposed aggregate drive, and iron railings, being made now, for the portico.  And narrative.  You do realize every fabulous landscape has a narrative?  Another thing they do not teach in college.)  Will stain the 4-board fencing the same black as the house shutters, and jasmine 'Madison' will grow on it.
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Cannot wait for the drive to get its first cleaning, iron for the portico, & .......
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What a fun job.  My clients buy me new gardens.  And I love having this one.  Oh my, I love having them all.

Working With Contractors

Bamboo poles aren't quite perfect in a client's garden, found this, below, as a future template

 2 clients have wonky doors they access and are too visible near the front door.  Found, below, the tiny shed roof over the door at the bottom right of the pic.  Perfect for the wonky doors.

It's not enough to ask my men to create something, I find pics too.   

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Magic Man always looks at a pic and says, "OK, ...........", and proceeds to make the photo idea BETTER.

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How smart, starting with, "OK!"

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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David Stevens, my longtime contractor had the audacity to die, age 50, still irks.  Went thru 4 contractor stories of hell afterward.  #4 toyed with me mentally.  He would always begin, "Ugh, no......"  How stupid was I?  To put up with that.  Then discovered he lied to his partner, and me, about 'business' things. 

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Now, I'm Goldilocks, each contractor in my team more than just-right.  A joy.  We leverage each others talent.  Honesty, integrity, character, humor, daily with my team. 

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Pics unknown.  I really did save them for clients, not thinking I would post them.

Patio Test Questions

Mostly, these patios are bought with good intentions, below.

And little follow through.

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This one makes me want to see their interior. 

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Would your patio make me want to see your interior?

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Would your patio make me want to see your garden?

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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara

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Have often imagined 2 of these together.   Pic via Centsational Girl.  The first time (over 15 years ago) I visited Penny McHenry & saw her patio/deck it was an epipahny.  And where the 2 questions came from.