Tara Maxwell: Natural Horse Training

He came emaciated, broken-hearted & mentally wounded about 2 years ago to a client's farm.

Last week he came to me in friendship, curiosity, hopeful of a treat, and told me what a fine day it was.  Tara Maxwell was hired from the start to work with him.  Horse Whisperer is the best description of her talent.

His pet dog, above, and one of the carts, below, he pulls regularly.

Most days he is in pasture with Jacob sheep, below.

It was the 1st time he treated me as a peer.  Tears were in my eyes.  Would I have the fortitude to overcome, as he has?

When Tara Maxwell & I overlap at the farm I never intrude, only watch her work from a distance.

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The hand of Providence in action.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken at jobsite last week.  This is not a paid endorsement, just simple thanks at what I've witnessed.

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.

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.  

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.

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 ?  

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."