Fruit is Easier

"Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near,
let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples
falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness.
Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could." - Louise Erdrich 

.

Much too lazy for a vegetable garden in the front yard, though turf was removed decades ago.  Ground covers, trees, flowering shrubs, paths.  Little maintenance required.  If food production became a consideration it would be pears, apples, figs & blueberries.  With Tara Turf for greater pollination, increased yield.

.

Easy.

.
Garden & Be Well,           XO Tara
.
Pic & quote via Terry Hershey.

Detail: Furniture on Gravel

Furniture on gravel.

A common scenario, below.

Furniture will sink unevenly.  Soil was dug to place a brick under each table leg, gravel lapping to each.  Voila, no bricks showing.
.
This is not a job for mere mortals, the slab of marble weighs more than my truck.  After using the bubble level the guys are making sure the marble is also set equidistant.  These 'small' tasks always blow my estimates of, "Oh that should only take a few minutes."
.
Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
.
top pic John Saladino's garden, bottom pic a client garden.

Beauty & Politics

Ca. 1400.

Chain at the gate says the fencing isn't about keeping only wildlife out.  And she had to chain it while in the garden?
.
No, this isn't a bucolic garden scene.
.
Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
.
Pic It's About Time.  All politics is local.

Quaint Trick to Nestle Your Focal Points

Why do most focal points look like projectiles from Mars that burned thru the atmosphere and landed  in someones yard?

Studying the best focal points in historic gardens across Europe for 20+ decades I noticed a quaint trick to nestle focal points into a garden.  I call it the rule of, just-let-it-touch.
.
Had to smile when I discovered Martha Stewart doing it, above.
.
Her pruner knows EXACTLY how to just-let-it-touch.
.
Martha's blog has numerous slides with most posts that load quickly.  If you loved a good slide show, back in the day, her presentations are the closest I've seen.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic via Martha Stewart.   Heads-up to the 'bench' focal point.  Is it not level and facing traffic?  Obviously a pet p-e-a-v-e.

French Planter: Color

I put these planters across the front of a home last Saturday, though a bit larger.  

However, zero temerity for foundation plantings, plenty of gracious #89 granite gravel.

Not this big, above, but did put in this size for a home needing to hide garbage cans.
.
Taxus x media 'Hicksii', pruned similar to Great Dixter's, is the plant choice.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Top pic Old Long Island, bottom pic, Things That Inspire.  .
.
Color.  Client house is gray, white trim, black shutters, apple green door.  Planters can be any of those but white.  A nice amount of space but not quite enough to handle the boldness of white.  Apple green is my choice but the gray or black are acceptable too.

Hiding Necessities

Hiding necessities.

Inside & outside.
.
Quite a nice topic for a book.  Anyone?
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic via Mod Vintage Life.  Looks like the patio was extended with 18" square concrete pavers.  Easy, affordable, unskilled labor.  The climbing hydrangea?  Amazing.

Specialty Fence

 Rabbit fence for the potager.

 Perfect for a chicken run  too.
.
Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
.
Pic via Content in a Cottage.

Beware: These Pillows Need Worthy Backdrop

Few gardens could backdrop these pillows.  

Not the focus, yet complete dominance, this garden looks 'not done'.
.
Heads-up, by the time a garden is this simple it is 'totally done'.
.
Joseph W. Tyree did the landscaping.
.
Perhaps the slipper shoes demand the pillows & garden as backdrop.  This man exudes something quite rare amongst his age group, happy self-confidence.
.
More about man & house,  Architectural Digest.  Enjoy.
.
Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
.
Beware, even, the cushion/pillow shelves at discount stores.  They may be cheap but they will steal your entire garden/deck/views.

Evergreen Bones: Before - After

Evergreen bones, below.  Not a first instinct.  No romance, flowers, wow factor.

Remember, evergreen bones will take you where you want to go.

Extreme gorgeous with low-maintenance, drought tolerance, no bugs is the destination.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
pics 2 years apart.  Here's your garden design: evergreen bones, evergreen flowering shrubs, evergreen flowering groundcover, flowering understory trees, flowering shrubs.  More?  Sure, if you want more maintenance.  Contrast foliage types/color, bloom seasons.
.
Choose plants from Extension Service listings as best/toughest for your zone.  Who wants to worry about watering, bugs, disease?  Don't like the list?  Get over it.
.
My favorite clients have already done their own garden design.  Producing, 'horrible'.  A humbling experience, I know, I did it too.  Exactly what got me into college for a 2nd degree, horticulture.

Southern Vegetable Plate

Leftovers this week, Southern vegetable plate.

Bought at, Sherry's, the local vegetable stand in Tucker, GA.

Common, too, this dinner traveled its first nite.

Served on my girlfriend's inherited Wedgwood, below.

Sadly, both meals were inside.  Temps pleasant, rains abundant & mosquitoes in charge.
.
Rethinking a screened porch addition.
.
More than dinners, several weekend breakfasts have been inside when all was well outside, except the mosquitoes.
.
Native honey bees thrive in my garden cannot bear the thought of spraying for mosquitoes.
.
Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
.
Pics taken Sunday & Monday.  3 decades in this home, and this is the first summer mosquitoes are truly in charge.  Screened porch is in the 'talking' stage.  Missing meals outside has become more than I'm willing to do without.

Is Your Garden 'Art' on the Wall?

Every garden view should be 'art' on the wall.

2+ decades ago I visited a garden in Greensboro, NC with every window view taken into consideration.  Every window.
.
Again, something learned from an 'uncredentialed' gardener changing the direction, forever, of how I design landscapes.  Not once during college did any instructor mention being inside a client's home to design a garden correctly.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
pic via Castles, Crowns & Cottages.

Garden Design & French Doors

All about conversation, comfort, nature, beauty, connection.

Though not enough lamps for someone who reads.
.
You must do this with beautiful rooms.  Deconstruct them for your uses.
.
French doors are a secret weapon in my arsenal of Garden Design.
.
Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
.
Room by Billy Baldwin.