Simplicity Isn't For Sale

Lawn to the house.

 A simplicity best for many gardens.

Same view, above, opposite axis.
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Why this Landscape Design simplicity isn't seen more, especially in USA?
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 Many times thru the decades I've been hired as the 2nd or 3rd Landscape Designer.    Why?  The previous 'landscape design' work was pure SALES.
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Simplicity isn't for sale.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pics via Greige Design.  Client last week told me, when I was done, she knew something was wrong with the previous plan she paid for.  When she saw my plan she was able to finally verbalize what was 'wrong'.  Plants were stuffed everywhere.  Every profession has their underbelly of disgust.

Practically Perfect

This would never happen 'new' in Atlanta, GA.  

And isn't that sad.
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Why does everything have to be so perfect?  Mary Poppins knew 'practically perfect' was better.
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This feels like a one sided conversation with Jane Austen.  Of course we know what type of character she would let live here!
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic via Pigtown Design.  Can't you smell the Tara Turf?

Stone Wall Needs to be Seen

A well maintained century, below, at this home.

 Stone accent wall near the entry, above, is obscured by a gorgeous Japanese maple, below.

Have asked the pruner to create tiny views thru the Japanese maple  to the stone wall.  Yet keep the Japanese maple gorgeous too.
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Garden & Be Well,          X O Tara
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Same house as previous post.  Pics taken with my phone & you see my little work basket.  It holds pencils, circle templates, erasers, keys, phone.....and shouldn't be in the pic.

How To Make These Windows More Fabulous

At her bluestone terrace, below.  Inside is the kitchen.

Soon, French doors will open onto the bluestone terrace.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken yesterday at a jobsite.  Notice the gap in the ferns?  Saw the culprit eating them.  Her dog!  Unrepentant.
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When I told her the windows HAD to be French doors she smiled and said it was validation.  Her thoughts exactly.

Pot Planting

A bit of clipping, drip irrigation, enjoy.

                               Oh my, the dappled light.
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I haven't put an annual in my pots for decades.  Magazines & nurseries push-push-push annuals.  And I listen to what I'm asked for EVERY design, 'my landscape must be low maintenance & not expensive.'
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Gravel to the house, bushes in pots, necessity furnishings for meals, entertaining, relaxing.  Why are so many Americans afraid, above, of this?  "Let's build a deck, make it too small, add built-in seating with the rail which won't ever see use......"  "We'll pour a cement patio barely big enough for a mop, Weber grill, round table + 4 chairs."
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Pic via Desde My Ventana

What Is A Status Symbol?

Can you spot the status symbol?

In the land of freeways, subdivisions, strip malls, too many people?

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A meadow is status symbol.  A gravel/dirt drive with wildflowers & trees is status symbol.

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This is a CHOICE, above.  It is Landscape Design.  

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It's not a 'less than' drive because they couldn't afford to pave.  It's the intellect of knowing what's important in life.

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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara

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Pic via Habitually Chic. 

How To Create A Timeless Landscape

Landscape Design question, "Can you take black/white pics of your garden & it's TIMELESS ?

Was this pic taken 2012 or 1972 or.......?  And WHERE?  USA, Brazil, Italy........

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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara

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Pic via Habitually Chic.  Can you imagine having those beautiful dogs !!!  And driving on that gravel.....

Lunch: Meandering & Productive

We've been having lunch for decades.  Yesterday's was planned for weeks.  Of course I had an unexpected jobsite visit in the time slot allotted for preparation.

 He appeared, with a bottle of wine, walking thru the back garden.

 And an appreciation for my new girls & what they're providing, below.

 Made egg salad sandwiches.  The heirloom girls are producing 6/day, they hatched the 1st week of April.

Instead of Greek yogurt with fresh fruit & local honey you see what time allowed, above.
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He can retire & I'm pushing him not to.  His house has new rooms available, children out of college.  We met when they were toddlers.  Peers in the Garden industry we spoke a lot of community activism.  Bringing a Garden perspective to groups without a hint of Garden in their soul.  We're already doing it and leverage ideas for more.
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Luxurious,  meandering conversation about work at the pace of lunch.  A deeper vein of gleaning.  Productive.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Of course we ate in the conservatory.  No time for pics there or the garden, it's fall fabulous at the moment, we both had appointments.  

Vanishing Threshold with Color Theme

Modern addition with classic architecture, as if THAT is often successful.  More deeply sublime are the accouterments.  Garden focal points placed on perfect axis with interior doors, secondary focal points placed on angled axis.  A perfect square with the planters & a circle in stone.  

Layers of green, lean-green-serene.  Statuary & planters color themed to echo house.
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It's obvious this is a tight collaboration between owner & landscape designer.
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Vanishing threshold is magnificent here.
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Garden & Be Well,         XO Tara
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pic via Pinterest.  Which part of your vanishing threshold is 'magnificent'?

Leggy Hags

Leggy Hags!  And this latest pruning is wrong too.  Want lush foliage top to bottom?  Prune the top of your bushes slightly narrower than the bottom.  It's that easy.

This gate is perfection.  

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Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara

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Thank you Cousin Cathy for sending your vacation pics from Nantucket...

Suzanne Somers' Recipes & Landscapes

Suzanne Somers' donated a great deal of money, years ago, to a medical wing in honor of those with family/friends of addicts.  It added dimension to what I knew of her.

 Then, her home went for sale with pics of her landscaping, all the pics here.

She writes books, does product & weight loss sales, acts, lectures, & promotes-promotes-promotes.

Ironically, she doesn't promote her gardening skills.  They are prodigious.
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Between appointments yesterday was my favorite junking haunt.  Suzanne Somers', Eat Great, Lose Weight,  $3.  I knew if I liked her gardens I would like her taste palette.  I was right.  Have already tabbed several recipes in her book.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Of course I bought more.  Copper sauce pan/lid $18 & a copper soup pot/lid $16.  Both almost new with their linings in great shape.  

Patio Table Not To Use

Mostly, I design square & rectangular patio/deck/terrace tables.  Easily placed next to a wall, rails or the edge of your concrete/stone/gravel/wood.

A pair of matching square/rectangular tables is most flexible.  Use separately or pushed together.

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This patio seems to have neighbors looking in?  I would use shutters or custom lattice for more privacy.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Pic House of Turquoise.  Ironically, I was in a garden yesterday needing a Round table.  I love knowing what the exceptions are!  Can you imagine how much space a round table would waste on this patio, above?