Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Creating Backdrop for the Kitchen

Vita Sackville-West's head gardener, leaving for war, wrote her, "..whatever you do maintain the hedges."


You think you're in the kitchen.


My pride is views of the hedges.
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At this 200 acres I was hired to create intimate garden views.  Without blocking rolling vistas.
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Who knew you could be deeply enriched, soul filled, & ego enlarged (professionally), with a backdrop?  No need to be star of the show, the mature desire is being the entire proscenium !
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics last week at a jobsite.  If the kitchen or porch affect the garden views, it's my job to say something.  Here?  Of course I said, ".....love this."  Pan on right burner of stove?  She made us grilled ham/cheese sandwiches.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Empty is Fine. Why be perfect?

Garden Design is not about having a perfect garden.


It's about having a beautiful garden without stress.  From every window a beautiful view.  


Doesn't matter if the terra cotta pot is planted.
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There is a realm the perfect garden matters, pollinator habitat.
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Oddly, my Garden Design formula based on historic gardens across Europe does, indeed, create maximum pollinator habitat.  And I thought I was going after beautiful + low maintenance.  Classic story of following your heart, while others belittle what you are doing, and gaining far more than anticipated.
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Why does pollinator habitat matter?  Increasing pollinators increases crop yields up to 80%.
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Have a seat, hold on, YOU are a pollinator too.  
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics at jobsite this week.  Have you ever really thought about the types of sex plants have?  Hilarious when compared to the snit about humans.  

Friday, September 20, 2013

Chiaroscuro in the Garden

Have you done this in your garden?


Caught the chiaroscuro.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Oddly exciting, and moments of life most intense.  Never taken a chiaroscuro moment in your garden?  They cannot be given, only taken.
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pic from The Vintaquarian.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Interior Design: Urn on Plinth

Urn on plinth, a little interior Garden Design.


Whoever thought this up, I adore them. 
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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pic ?  

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Take This Picture: Home to Patio

Will the picture from your-home-to-the-patio tell me who you are?


"Our lives are about getting the outside to match the inside."  Jung
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic from Traditional Home, The Lisa Porter Collection.
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Posted this earlier, it flows well with a lecture I'm presenting at Callanwolde later this morning.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Garden Road Map

Every size garden needs its map drawn.  A road map.


When I draw a new Garden Design it is on site.  I must know how it 'walks' in real life.


Garden rooms must be named.


Last month at Hedgerow Farm, finally, this was handed to me at lunch.  She knew I would be as excited as she was.


Within minutes I had already put it to work.
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Yesterday the general contractor had questions about the next layer of installation & out came the map.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

Monday, September 16, 2013

Arne Maynard: Point of Inspiration


When I first saw Arne Maynard's work I thought, "Simple, liberating."


At a jobsite this week we are keeping a huge stupid gum-drop-on-a-stick holly.  Soon it will be topiaried into a sweet whimsy.
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Better, it's located within the new potager.  Amazing good fortune.
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Piquantly I know something else about Maynard's work.  In my 20's I would have reviled it !  The classic response to not understanding what you see.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic A Library of Design.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Stone Mountain: Where You are Inspired?

Most days of the week for 3 decades I'm here, below.  


Stone Mountain daisy is unique, in all the world/galaxy, to this single spot.


They've already begun to fade & their musky sweet smell of decay & death is intoxicating.  Thrilling.  A smell metaphor, "You've made another year.  You're ALIVE."  Language of Nature I understand.  People?  Not so much.
 

In the crevices & margins, above, I never cease to marvel and many times a year simply stop to absorb their lessons.


With every step this mountain lets me share in what is sacred.
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On this mountain my place is secure.  Providence speaks the eternal.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pics taken yesterday morning.  Would love to have the perfume of yesterday, "Tara, you smell like dead daisys."  "Thank you."  I say.

Friday, September 13, 2013

How to Tame Trouble

Met a new client last nite with a no-mans-land of trees/ivy/invasives/drainage ditch/weeds.  Its ownership 'looks' like it could be their property or their neighbors.
What to do is quite easy.


An entry & path will instantly take ownership and tame the trouble.
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Clearing invasives, controlling ivy/weeds, planting desirable understory trees & etc... will take a bit more time.  Happily, now there is a road map.
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Garden & Be Well,             XO Tara
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Exciting times, their brown brick home with brown shutters will soon be WHITE !
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Pic Litchfield Hills, lost provenance of photographer.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

How to Hide an Eyesore

If you have an eyesore place a focal point nearby.


Trying to hide the faucet would have drawn more attention to it.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken at jobsite earlier this month.  Most often, hiding eyesores does draw them greater attention.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

So What is the Most Important Element of Architecture?

A small handful of homes during my decades of garden & home renovation have packed a surprise.


They appear 'normal' when I park at the first visit.  Knocking at the front door the surprise is apparent.


Saying to myself, "......this home is HUGE."
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The reasons must be many for the illusion.  Top of the list is, proportion.
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Ironic, architecture & life have so much in common.  Proportion.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pics taken at job site, same home as previous post.  Perhaps this is the magic ingredient of architecture engaging Thomas Jefferson........1789 Mar. 24. (to Joseph Willard) "We have spent the prime of our lives in procuring [young men] the precious blessing of liberty. Let them spend theirs in shewing that it is the great parent of science and of virtue; and that a nation will be great in both always in proportion as it is free."

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

2 Types of Garden Design

The underbelly of my profession sometimes falls under the heading of design-build-maintain.


Aka, fox-designing-the-hen-house, cliche.
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Low front windows?  Sure, design shrubs growing to 15', they'll need pruning 2x/year.  Why design groundcovers, mulch needs replacing yearly.  And the list grows: mowing weekly, fertilizer & chemical treatments, irrigation, annual beds.
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This type of landscaping has its place.  Yet this type of landscaping is hardly low-maintenance & frugal.  It just 'appears' to be.  Mr. Testosterone-on-wheels-mow-blow-go-commodify-all-I-touch is happy to put you on contract.  Again, this type of landscaping has its place, I get that.  
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Why mention it?  Because it's incredibly sad to my heart.  Historic garden design feeds the soul, pollinator habitat, doesn't poison ground water, increases property value, reduces hvac expense, reduces maintenance, has little yearly expense,  & etc....  
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken at jobsite this month.  I didn't do the original design decades ago.  We've recently replaced mulch with groundcover at the foundation.  Luckily part shade slows her plantings from fast growth.  So, we did not replace them.