A Garden View at Work

Have you done this for your office?  The view?

Who is this painter?  Caring so for the outside coming inside?

.

Could he paint you at work in your home?

.

With your garden as benediction.

.

Henrik Nordenberg artist, link to his work.

.

Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

.

If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon.

.

Benediction.  The word wasn't thought up, merely arrived.  "A benediction (Latin: bene, well + dicere, to speak) is a short invocation for divine help, blessing and guidance"

.

As a child I assumed gardens spoke to everyone.  As an adult I recognize their grace and heed their guidance.

John Dickinson: Design

John Dickinson said, 

"Taste is a word I avoid. Good or bad, it's all so nebulous. The more you're dealing with taste, the more you're on shaky ground. Vulgarity to me is another matter. Vulgarity has great vitality."

"There's no cop-out in using pairs of things in a room. Matching chairs, sofas, lamps or tables can bring discipline, strength and balance to a scheme."

"You cannot do a lasting room design based on a current fad or novelty. There's a fine line between being amusing and being eccentric. A whole room based on amusing things would not be a laugh."

"There are many places in a house that do not warrant expensive furnishings. It's really not essential to spend everywhere. Muslin curtains can be the prettiest things in the world if they're sewn beautifully. You just don't have to make a big production of everything in a room."

"Some of the easiest things to use as inexpensive accessories are natural objects. Seashells are heaven. The bigger the better. Coral's marvellous if you can get big pieces of it. It must be large—little pieces don't mean anything."

"I have long thought that if one has a fireplace, to feel one must out of necessity and total obligation hang something over it is absolute nonsense. I think a blank space over a mantel is very interesting. "

"I don't like viewing my designs as sculpture. It's too pretentious. This is not art, it's decorating. It's not fine art, it's decorative art and there's a world of difference."
.
Garden Design writing is traditionally, as Anne of Green Gables said, "A perfect graveyard of buried hope."  Instead, I mine ALL the arts and apply to Garden Design.
.
The Style Saloniste has  pics with the quotes above.  I remember most of the pics when they first appeared in magazines.  
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Dickinson's last quote, above is not applicable to Garden Design.  When working with Nature it would be the greatest failure not to apply the elements of pollinator habitat.  And the work of Nature is the purest ART.
.
Pic above lost provenance.
.

If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon.

Elements of a Focal Point: Sandra Jonas

Focal point, double plinthed, on axis, Tara Turf, contrasting colors. contrasting textures, contrasting formal/informal, high density/low density, pollinator habitat, Getrude Jekyll delightful, Jane Austen narrative, and best of all 

this is my beloved friend's garden, Sandra Jonas.  We've been across Europe & USA together studying Garden Design.
.
Wonder what she thinks I see here?
.
Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
.

If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon.

Design Elements: Macro, Micro

Freshman year of college an elective course in economics gave me macro/micro.

.

Garden design elements fall into those 2 realms.

.

Both equally important.

.

Both waltzing thru time.

.

The snow that stopped Atlanta, above.

.

Dots of poetry.  Ephemeral.

.

Sure, the wall is a macro Garden Design element.

.

But not for this moment.

.

You're looking at the ephemeral micro element trumping the macro.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pic at jobsite last week.

.

If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon.

.

That economics course?  Tough.  The professor barely spoke English his accent so strong I heard, at most, every 12th word correctly.  One word in particular scared my IQ, could not figure out what the mar-ghaa-reene was.  Especially with his corresponding gesticulations and hi pitch solely upon that word.  Mar-ghaa-reene really got the sweet little man going.  Me too, what was it?  Finally asked my seat mate what he was saying.  She said, 'margin'.

.

From that point I ignored the dear little man and solely learned from the book.  

.

30+ years later I can still hear/see Mar-ghaa-reene being performed.

.

Yes, macro/micro elements amuse me greatly.

How to Know it's the Muse Speaking

A client in an older subdivision in Athens, Ga has a bit of vintage woodland at the margin.

.

Their home is Connecticut farmhouse vernacular ca. 1894.

.

Not large, not small, not grand, pure elegant.

We will make a slight clearing in the vintage woods for a cabin.
.
EXACTLY the cabin in imagination, above.
.
A folly to be discovered.  A folly that can be used as many things thru the years.
.
Let the rescue operation begin: windows, stone, brick, door, wood.....
.
Hired to design the garden it's amazing what the Muse thinks of.  Perhaps your Muse speaks and you think you're having 'crazy thoughts'.  How to know it's the Muse speaking?  The idea scares you a bit, stretches you out of your comfort zone, yet from 1st thought the idea is thrilling, delightful in the way joy was when you were 8 years old.  Here lies your spirit.  Wabi sabi, feng shui.  Not listening is perilous.  Letting others steer you away from your Muse?  They are in your life why?  
.
Too often it's the one we love saying, What?  Here's what to say if the one you love hinders the path to your Muse's bidding, "Your words are harmful to my spirit.", or simply, "It makes me happy."
.
Over 50 and a woman?  Either statement could empty a stadium full of men spoken with the right tone/body language.  But you already know that.
.
Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
.
Pic via  Content in a Cottage.
.

If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon.

Making it HOME

Susanne Hudson was over 24 hours getting home after Atlanta's snow storm hit.

We spoke briefly last nite and the tone in her voice when she said, "There really is no place like home.", spoke volumes.

.

When we meet-up I will get all the details.  

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

My sister, from Texas, kept me informed of Georgia's governor & Atlanta's mayoral performances on TV.

.

A learned bastard stands higher than an ignorant high priest.   —   Midrash

.

"In Judaism, the Midrash (Hebrew: מדרש‎; plural midrashim) is the body of homiletic stories told by Jewish rabbinic sages to explain passages in the Tanakh. Midrash is a method of interpreting biblical stories that goes beyond simple distillation of religious, legal, or moral teachings."

.

Midrash is quite Texas thinking.  I am Texan.  With 3 decades of Georgia under my belt buckle I know exactly what the kind Southern matriarch says in these types of governor/mayor situations, Well-Bless-Their-Heart.  Covers reams.

.

Pic from Susanne's sun porch.  Mostly it's where her Jack Russell heads out to kill squirrels.

A Wabi Sabi Plinth

If you find the perfect pair of urns do not worry about their height.

.

Use a plinth if they must be higher.

Old urns, new to the site, with the perfect plinth, above.
.
The Long Barn, above, was made of terra cotta squares decades ago.  A few were found.
.
Sure, new plinths could have been bought or custom made for this site.  However, using the terra cotta squares is superior.  The best gardens have elements of the Poverty Cycle.  Put another way, wabi sabi must be included in every garden design.
.
Then there is Mary Kistner's, "It's what we do with what we have.", life motto.  Whenever I include Mary I know I'm doing the right thing, and I'm getting a little visit from her.  Sometimes I go so far as to ask, "What would Mary do?"
.
Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
.
Pic taken at jobsite last month.
.
Mary, an artist,  was childless & died a widow in her 80's.  Her memorial service was at a museum in the main, huge, gallery.  Standing room only.

Every Garden Needs the Tall Cone Shape

Every garden needs a tall cone shape to draw eyes to the sky.

Can't remember which symposium lecturer said this but knew immediately it was true.  And, more, how do you know WHERE to put this tall cone shape?

For years I asked other garden designers how they knew where to put this piece of magic.

.

None could put it into words.

.

Ironically, I do know where to put tall cone shapes now.

.

Yet have no words to describe the process.

.

Intuitive.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pics at jobsite this month.  Italian cypress framing the Long Barn and pastures.

.

If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon.

The Proper Direction of Stewardship in a Garden

"We discover G*d's presence inside whenever we override our ego's pride and courageously put aside all that we hide."  Rabbi David Aaron

From the mailbox & gravel drive, above, my best work begins.  

.

Getting here was decades.  Learning simplicity & the humility to let the site speak without reference to my 

skills.  Honestly, I wonder how Providence has time for anyone else, attention lavished upon my character defects never wains.
.
Nor must I 'own' this site.  My pride/ego is rooted in the work.  A walled orchard is built, a gravel drive spread, potager planted and more, and with each, they are taken by the owner's hands before my feet leave the site.
.
I'm in love with this site, and so is the owner.  It is very much the 3 of us.  That is how strongly we relate to these acres.  She is a good steward of her acres and in return I get to watch her acres in stewardship of her.
.
Gifts of loving these acres arrive in many forms & layers.  Telling us we are doing the right thing/s.
.
Tasha Tudor's favorite line of poetry, 'take joy', in action.  Joy is always there, but it must be taken.
.
What does any of this have to do with you?  Stewardship.  Not your stewardship of the garden.  But the stewardship your garden has for you.  Do you have that in your life?  Are you in relationship with your garden?  Does it fill you with joy, enrich your spirit, give you energy just seeing it from the windows of your home?  Good news, it's not about acres & money.  It's putting the garden into relationship with your home & life with historic templates.
.
This reads a bit like an altar call.  Ironic, she says her deep feeling with her garden is 'abiding', I feel 'atonement' in mine.
.
Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
.
Pic at jobsite this month.  Silent Partner, I can see your face reading this and know you understand the metaphorical use of filthy lucre.
.
My garden is one of my best friends, unconditionally loving, rich in narrative.  A language I can understand.  People?  No, easier to understand my garden.  
.

1.  If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.
   

   .

   Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                    .

   Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon.

 

Using Color Restraint with Intensity

Intense restraint and another example of the color trinity green-brown-white.

Restraint so intense the terrace has become a proscenium for guests.
.
Subtlety so rich the bluestone & granite become focal points.
.
Humbling execution.
.
Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
.
Pic Wendy Posard and Associates.  Definite teamwork between architect & owners.
.
2 Tara Dillard questions a patio must answer, 'Is this patio so fabulous I must see inside the house?', 'Is this patio so incredible I must see the garden?'.  Yes & yes.

Simple Manipulations: How Many Do You See?

Do you see the manipulations, below?

Seating to create a gathering spot, figs for summer shade/winter sun over the benches, drystack stone wall cut into a slight slope forcing foot traffic into defined directions, formal boxwood framing pastoral views, tapering stone wall allowing only small machinery into the pasture from this direction, gravel terrace ready for men-trucks-heavy equipment, horses, or a catered soiree for 100.
.
And, of course, it must all look a century old, be easy to maintain, and provide interest 24/7.
.
When something appears simple, it rarely is.  Same is true of people.
.
Garden & Be Well,       XO Tara
.
Pic at a jobsite last week.
.
Do you know the maximum pollinator habitat, above?  Seriously, can you verbalize what creates the best pollinator habitat above?  Answer at bottom.
.
Being simple requires each of the decades I've been learning about gardens.  Better, being simple in a garden, takes me where Joseph Campbell says our eternity is.  Ironic, in this American life/era, to have found my bliss in work.
.

1. Joseph Campbell - Wikiquote

   en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell‎

   Where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own .... And the experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life.
2. More, being simple connects me to the message/life work of Wendell Berry & E.M. Forster.  

3. Wendell Berry Earns Highest Humanities Award, Lectures on ...

   sojo.net/.../wendell-berry-earns-highest-humanities-award-lectures-econo...‎

   Apr 24, 2012 - On Monday evening, Wendell Berry delivered the 41st annual ... The title hinges on E.M. Forster's 1910 novel Howards End, which Berry said, ...
4. .
5.  If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.
   

   .

   Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                    .

   Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon.
6. Answer to question, above,  High density/low density, open meadow/dense woodland.

Refreshing: Interior Plants Do Not Look Store Bought

Notice something extraordinarily different about the plants styling the dining room, below?

They look as if they came from the conservatory on site.
.
Quite rare to see this attention to detail, though saucers should be included with the coleus & orchid for a complete narrative.  (I have clients on tours, in magazines, TV, so, yes, I'm paid to be this particular!)
.
And that doesn't begin to mention the delicious focal point on axis with the vanishing threshold.
.
Nice, indeed.  Well done.
.
Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
.
Pic Architectural Digest.  Cote de Texas had the pic on a post about wall paper recently.
.
  If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon.