What is Special About this Garden?

What is special about the landscape, below?  Take away the lovely home, insert a 3 bedroom 1960's brick ranch with a carport, and still, every drip of special about the landscape remains.  Small input, huge output, in the garden, but specifically, why is it special?



Most USA homes are entered from the driveway.  Above, a garden entry leads you into the home.
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Normally, the garden entry, above, is lawn next to the driveway.  Perhaps you would like a pretty garden instead.  Welcome home.
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Note, too, layers of green.  Layers of green never fail, and succeed quickly.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic via Pinterest.

Structure Your Life By Design

Structure Your Life By Design---Not by Default, at bottom, a headline guaranteed to get my attention.  Late to the game, I signed a CBS-TV contract the same day I signed a book contract, age 45.  Needing to keep my day job, designing landscapes, how to carve time for book & TV work too?  Without delay I hired a client who had recently become a certified Career Coach.  Best decision ever.  Together we came up with a template to get all the work done, while keeping a private life, and no stress.  She also recommended I hire an image consultant.  Another best-decision-ever.  Who knew image consulting is a complete science, much like landscape design?
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Myriad facets aligned.  A designed garden, designed career, designed personal image, each made life easier.  What else could I design?  Interior of my house, from attic to crawl space.  Again, more steps taken to add beauty/function.  Life became more simple.


Picture Aerin Lauder via Eonline   

Then, I was given 8 heirloom chickens for a birthday.  Wanting them, it was a surprise what they gave me, a degreed landscape 'expert'.  My garden had already been on tours, in magazines and on tv, yet the chickens taught me more deeply about gardening, perhaps the most profound gift, beyond structure-your-life-by-design.  And the chicken lesson made me laugh out loud, in my garden.  Isn't that the way with koans?  Moments of intuitive enlightenment.  Stewardship.  With the chickens I knew gardening is about stewardship, in the macro, and micro.  Macro?  Micro?

Stewardship is a gift in any life.  Stewardship is everywhere, once you understand.  G*d almighty first created a garden.  Indeed.  More humor.  Until understanding 'stewardship' I had thought my gardening was entirely my brain/physical effort/monies/talent/desire/spirit, la-ti-da.  Without ceasing, until the epiphany, my garden had been in constant stewardship of me.  Constant.  Washing of the servants feet, cliche comes alive in stewardship.  So too, take- my- yoke- upon- you.  No worries, this is no altar call, but an understanding of historical metaphor abiding in stewardship.  A source of energy, and delight in doing, for things outside of yourself, bringing a depth of wealth to your spirit no amount of money can purchase.

E.M. Forster knew well the trap of money, for those living without stewardship, using layers of humorous narrative, for the observant.  In particular, Where Angels Fear to Tread, ca. 1905.  One character wonders about another, both wealthy, what will she do, she has no resources.  Interesting.  Wealthy character without resources?  She's rich, of course she has resources.  Quickly to my 6" Websters, and learning resource is also the capability or skill of meeting a situation.  Forster understood Jane Austen's method of writing, I already knew this character would not prosper, with his effortless, lighthearted disdain surrounding the word 'resources', though I originally had zero clue to its specific meaning.  Have you noticed when Jane Austen describes a character's garden, with defects, so too their character, but that's implied with the garden slam.  Go Jane.  

Back to, below, Structure Your Life by Design, and, "...    Mary Elizabeth knows how to create authentic designs for learning linked to full system change. Mary Elizabeth shares design thinking as a process clients can use to imagine new possibilities for personal and professional change. Mary Elizabeth helps dynamic, motivated change leaders structure their lives by design, not by default...super quickly. "   Without stewardship I cannot imagine tackling a single layer of Mary Elizabeth's structure your life by design.  None.  Too much effort.  With stewardship, I see what she is doing, and know it is doable.  Easily.                    

You are invited to attend:

Structure Your Life By Design—Not By Default

with Mary Elizabeth Bongiovanni of Learning Through Design

Tuesday, February 16, 2016 from 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Whether you want to implement a new initiative at work, craft a high leverage concept, or rethink your brand, the Design Process powerfully moves you from inspiration to implementation. The process helps you:

• Identify important design challenges for your personal and professional life
• Frame your challenge as a design question
• Declare the ultimate impact you want to have
• Envision possible solutions to the problem
• Understand the context and constraints you are facing

These are essential dynamics of the Design Thinking—a process that allows us to imagine a better future and take steps to make it happen.

Mary Elizabeth Bongiovanni is a professional leadership coach and Chief Engagement Officer of Learning Through Design. Having served diverse learning organizations for 23 years, Mary Elizabeth knows how to create authentic designs for learning linked to full system change. Mary Elizabeth shares design thinking as a process clients can use to imagine new possibilities for personal and professional change. Mary Elizabeth helps dynamic, motivated change leaders structure their lives by design, not by default...super quickly. "

Chose pic, above, of Aerin Lauder for every layer of its design, and stewardship.  The house, she inherited from her grandmother, without changing much she made it completely her own, using it for pleasure and work.  

In its deepest sense I know beautiful-garden-beautiful-life.  Seeing pics of Lauder's personal/professional life it seems she's projecting, subtly, beautiful-self-beautiful-life.  All roads lead back to Joseph Campbell's, "Follow your bliss."      

Fill in the blank for you, Beautiful- ______- Beautiful- Life.  What is yours?  

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

Design: Speak Volumes With No Words

Live - Love - Laugh blares a painted garden sign, on the shelf, with price tag.  Next time you see any garden sign/plaque for sale think, "Danger Will Robinson.", while asking yourself the Dante'sque question, Does this path enlarge, or diminish, my thought?
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Mostly, if words are put into a garden Alexis de Tocqueville has been given another arrow to release at USA.  Mostly.  And that's one of the joys of designing your garden, knowing when to use your tiny percentage allowed, to break rules.
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In a garden it is important no matter the joys & sorrows amongst your days/years, you know you have a place actively nurturing sorrows and increasing joys.  Without effort.  This layer of garden design is rarely mentioned, but inherent.



Made me laugh, above.  No words.  Is it whimsy, or a pun?
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Doesn't matter.
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Secondary smile, above, at the height of the evergreen wall.  Noticed decades ago the economics of gardens and hedges.  The 4' hedge easily maintained by the owner.  The 6' hedge, still maintained by the owner, but a ladder is involved, or hired gardener.  8' + hedges pruned with scaffolding or cherry picker for hired gardener to reach.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Found pic on Pinterest, and it had no link to provenance other than what is stamped on the picture, Getty Images.
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"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.", Alexis de Tocqueville.

Dowager Duchess at Edensor House: Gravel Paths

Dinner tonight in honor of a friend's beloved grandmother.  She would have been 99.  Grandma's chocolate pie will be the star, and focused conversation for all, about grandmothers.  

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A dinner ritual for many years, I was unaware & suppose my continual mention of my grandma earned me an invitation.

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Days a bit longer and  will be able to see my host's garden before last light.  Designed her garden about 2 years ago, and they are totally DIY.

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Snakes are a problem at their home, and they have 2 young daughters.  

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Gravel is designed up to the house, and stones within the gravel, as needed for easier main paths.

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Gravel with pathway stones has been done for thousands of years.

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Another benediction for gravel with stones, below, Debo, Duchess of Devonshire, if Debo does it, case closed.

Duchess of Devonshire, below, at her dowager house, above, Edensor House, an old vicarage, she called, Old Vic.  Note, exquisite pruning, below, to the right of the door?

Centuries old, below, the backdrop landscape behind the Duchess is no accident.  None.  

Old Vic, below, rendering to be sold at Sotheby's.

The Duchess, below, was keen on many outdoor activities, in one of her books, can't remember which, she mentioned how cold/wet/mucky some pursuits were but the game was on for all included, Show No Discomfort.  

Before pie, we'll walk the new gravel paths.  Today, temps are freezing, winds gusting to 20mph, and we will do our best to show-no-discomfort.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pics from Sotheby's .  The Style Saloniste has a bit more about the Duchess, here.

Washington Post: Richard Arentz Home & Garden

My construction team laughs at my proclivity for garden designing French doors from windows, adding retractable screen doors too.
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From the French doors, below, site a focal point on axis, add a path to the focal point, plant an allee of understory trees with flying buttresses of canopy trees, underplant with an evergreen groundcover, finish this garden room with its walls, an evergreen hedge.  Put in a cross axis just behind the evergreen hedge.
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This garden design, written, above, pictured, below, is a classic 1,000's of years old.  It sites beautifully along the sides of a home too.




Notice, potted plants each side of the French doors, above, become interior floral arrangements.
Choosing a rounded bowl for the orchids was no accident, nor choosing the arching/caning habit in contrast to the exterior understory trees.
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Staging this shot, they've used both house/garden as 1 proscenium.
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In addition to describing how to design this house/garden, above, the verbage is correct.  Most often, clients know what they want, have a pinterest board, yet do not have a vocabulary for what's in their pictures.
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Garden, above, is also little maintenance, and with the right plants, deer proof/drought tolerant/no chemicals/pollinator habitat.  If the house, above, is facing western sun, the allee of trees is shading the house in summer, dropping its leaves allowing the winter sun to help heat the house, lowering HVAC costs.  And, raising property value, while increasing the joy of living here.
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Pic, above, from Richard Arentz's Washington Post article, by Adrian Higgins.
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Biggest take away?  House & garden are a single proscenium.  Site the garden from inside your home.

Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Garden Design Rule: The Tablescape

Vanishing threshold, below, a fecund tablescape.

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A tablescape proscenium.

Across Europe, studying historic gardens for decades, have seen tablescaped tables on  terraces, luring, without words, propelling feet & intellect to investigate.  

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Their insouciance ineluctable.  

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So often seen, having a tablescaped table on a terrace/deck/patio/porch seems to be a Garden Design rule. 

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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara

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Pic by Carolyn Barber from here. 

Why You Need to Take Pictures of Your Construction Project

Working with a property under contract a few years ago I was on site when the lawn crew arrived to mow.  With 1st look I knew they were my type of company, well worn truck, trailer, and the person in charge had boots matching truck & trailer.  In addition, Mr. Magic Boots did something quite smart, before starting he took a few pictures, when finished he took more pictures.
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A seemingly modest property and a modest job for the mow-blow-go team.
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Those 2 facts penetrated.  Get pictures.  Always.
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Fast forward 2 years, we began a landscape job for a new construction high-end home.  Pics taken before, during, after.  During the job we noticed the plumbing sub-contractor attached new plumbing of the home to the existing plumbing from the 1940's tear-down originally on site.  Mind your own business, is the mantra.  Excepting when you see something egregious.  After a day of discussion, should we tell the builder, we told the builder.
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The builder had his plumber fix the issue, a few days later, we don't know why, the builder hired a new plumber.  Not pleasant for anyone.



From The Telegraph.

The job progressed, we continued with pictures, we finished.  A couple of months later the homeowner calls, they have water in their basement.  The builder was called 1st, and carefully described how the 'landscaper' was responsible for flooding in the basement.
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We go to the site, meet with the homeowner, and had pictures showing step by step our work was not playing a role in the basement flooding.  More than proving flooding was not 'landscaper' caused, our pics proved the builder and 2 of his sub-contractors caused the basement flooding.
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This story is more unpleasant knowing the builder is degreed from a prestigious university.  Mr. Magic Boots had more integrity.  Thankful we had the pictures, imagine how thankful the homeowner was.
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Hope this story was layered properly for you.  Get pictures, everyone, contractor, sub-contractor, homeowner.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO T
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Yes, wish I had a drone, video camera 'on', when the builder received his phone call, "The landscaper has pictures showing their work is not at fault."  Karma is usually much slower than its path in this story.

Nicky Haslam & Miles Redd

Copy, it's the 1st rule of Garden Design.  If you don't like rules, who does, you'll like this one.

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Each permutation of 'copy' is unique, guaranteed.

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Copying from the best means you are opening a treasure chest to major talents across the globe, and time.

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Copy, it's a 1st rule of Interior Design too.

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Nicky Haslam, below, at a Sussex Farmhouse. 

Miles Redd, below, at his Momma's house in House Beautiful.

Copy, it works for 2 of the best, above.  It will work for you.

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Copy, glad my epiphany came, but why was I stubborn for so long, thinking I could recreate the wheel?  My work became more original once I knew to copy.  Who doesn't enjoy riffing on a theme?  Though, beware the trap of derivative works becoming stale.  

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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Before - After: What is Your After Here?

If you've read my books or blog you are ready to be the Garden Designer today.  Great before/after, below, yet there is a change I would make to the exterior.  Better, it's a historic answer, cheaper than what was done, and more functional.  Anytime a trinity appears, it thrills beyond measure.
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Take your time, my answer is way at the bottom.  You design the 'after' facade and yard.
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Again, you are today's Garden Designer, what would you do, above, to the facade & yard?

 

Off topic, above/below, giving your resting brain more time to create the Garden Design, I'm a strong believer in using left/right brain.  Furniture, below.  I am a fiend for seeing out windows.  Twin beds, below, I would turn footboards to the windows.  Miss a moment laying in bed seeing stars, a lightening storm, quarters of the moon, snowfall, birds, fall foliage, tracery of winter tree branches, the moment before sunrise when all is chiaroscuro?  Not 1 second would I miss.  Window views are the most exciting part of interior design, and living in a house
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This is a great hint about how to design the front garden.  Consider people first, better, consider your maximum selfishness in the richness available with this front yard.



Obvious from the 'before' picture these are good people, rescuing this home.   Of course they are good people, look at their sweet dog, below.



What is your Garden Design solution for the front yard?
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Seriously, I want to know.  Place it in comments, and thank you.
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Seeing the chimneys, in the 'before' pic, I knew this home was prior to 1890.  Do you know how?
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Coal was common in the South 1890 to 1910.  Chimney flues are narrower for coal, these chimneys are for wood burning fireplaces.
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Ready for my Garden Design answer?
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Remove front porch rails, remove foundation plantings, add granite stone steps to each end of the front porch and at each section where rails are removed, let Tara Turf nestle the home.
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Flow, no dead ends.  Currently each end of the porch is a dead end, walking straight out each front door is a dead end.  Historically, the more entry ways a garden has the better a garden is.  Historically, the more axis a garden has the better the garden.  Historically, the more double axis a garden has the better the garden.  Creating more entries, creates more magic circles for people/pets to flow.  These ideas are not Tara'tude, they are historical.  Garden Design is science, and art.
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Don't forget, leave me your ideas.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Pics, and fuller story, here.  

Florist Shop Technique in Your Garden

I remember well going into the old tiny white clapboard house, engulfed with oleander, gardenias, and sago palms, on the way to League City, TX, with its front half turned into a florist shop, they lived at the back, with mom when she needed to send sympathy flowers.  In the 60's this was not a phone call or internet purchase.  The large glass front refrigerator stuffed with flowers awaiting, scents, vases, ribbons, cut stems in a pile, no, I was not waiting in the car.  Life was electric in that tiny shop & home.
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Saw that house, long abandoned, during my last trip home in December.
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No matter its current state it has sailed a thousand ships in my work.  I have a Pinterest board for Florist Shops.  Clients with acreage, and little time, I send to that board to inspire when they have an open garden or private function.  Temporary beauty easily arranged.
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Claus Dalby, below, from Denmark uses the Florist Shop Technique.  No matter your continent, style, budget, the Florist Shop technique is for you too.    



Pic, above, Claus Dalby.
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Florist Shop Technique.  My favorite type of gardening, see it do it.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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Thank you Janelle McCulloch for another great find.

Willie Nelson & Wendell Berry: Save Farmers Save USA

Late to the party, realizing, first from Wendell Berry, then an English ironstone transferware platter, a century old framed print of a farm, studying landscapes across Europe for decades vs. abhorring my USA ornamental horticulture college education, and most recently Willy Nelson and his Farm Aid, the separation of agriculture from ornamental horticulture is not possible.  It is the industrial complex separating them, to their benefit, our loss.  Connecting the dots has been slow, not boring.  Ironic, forces of industrial farming,  commodities/labor, are now borderless, and have played a role across Europe since WWII, cracks in those borders are daily news, and huge in our current presidential election.
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With industrial farming, residential landscapes became industrial.  Mow-blow-go, chemicals to kill bugs, chemicals to kill fungus/disease, chemicals that create bombs are used to fertilize plants while killing beneficial mychorizal fungi/earth worms, aka killing soil, even poisonous used car tires are ground up/dyed & used as mulch, releasing toxic heavy metals into the soil, groundwater, and above a certain temperature become fumes absorbed thru your skin.  How did residential landscapes flip industrial?  After WWII chemical companies lost their buyers.  First buyers targeted by chemical companies in USA?  Mom's with small children playing in the yard.  Spray chemicals to get rid of bugs.  Voila, start of industrial residential landscapes.  Discovered this tidbit a few years ago when keynote speaking at the Perennially Yours Symposium & hearing Paul Tukey speak.
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Lose family farms, lose rural towns across USA, Wendell Berry has written for decades.  What?  Without family farmers, there is no community of shop owners/service providers/arts venues/car dealerships/medical providers/small banks etc, instead there is a WalMart/Family Dollar/Dollar General servicing several dying communities within driving range.
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The Extension Service, for decades, while providing help to farmers, has based success upon production of crops/livestock, solely, not success of farms & communities, even less, healthy soil, safe drinking water.    
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Depressing, above, yet liberating and joyful to 'see' and step away from the industrial complex, more, empowering.
Note, below, from Willie Nelson, he saw all the above, 3 decades ago, deciding to help & stay strong and positive.

Friend Welcome to Farm Aid! Whether you're a farmer, a music lover, or someone who cares about good food and family farmers, Farm Aid has something for you. Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and I serve on the Farm Aid board because we believe that when family farmers thrive, we all thrive. Family farmers are stewards of the land and grow the kind of good food that we all want. And successful farms strengthen their communities - they are the true economic engines of our country. We've come so far since 1985. Over the last 30 years, Farm Aid has inspired more people to care about where their food comes from and the family farmers who grow it. Stay strong and positive, Willie Nelson Farm Aid email: hello@farmaid.org web: http://www.farmaid.org/

Pic, above, via here.

Plates, above/below, I had thought, for decades, 'boring'.  Then, 'saw'.  The patterns, prayers of thanks and method to daily honor what is so freely given, to us.  USA constitution had considered these prayers of thanks, inalienable rights, "

Natural rights are those not contingent upon the laws, customs, or beliefs of any particular culture or government, and therefore universal and inalienable (i.e., rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws).

Natural and legal rights - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_and_legal_rights"                                                              .

Pic, above, via here.

STANDING WITH FAMILY FARMERS

Farm Aid works year-round to build a system of agriculture that values family farmers, good food, soil and water, and strong communities. Our annual concert celebrates farmers, eaters and music coming together for change.

Pic, above, via, here.
Found/bought a platter in the pattern, above, it is a scene of agriculture sustaining an entire community.

 

A friend recently bought a home and moved to Saint Simons Island and posted this picture, above, of a sunrise, including this line of poetry, "The holiest of all holidays are those kept by ourselves in silence and apart; The secret anniversaries of the heart..."   Without a garden I doubt I would have understood its meaning.  In my garden I celebrate secret anniversaries, by the hour.  My greatest root of 'strong & positive'.  
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“It’s mighty hard right now to think of anything that’s precious that isn’t endangered,” Wendell Berry told Bill Moyers. “There are no sacred and unsacred places; there are only sacred and desecrated places. My belief is that the world and our life in it are conditional gifts.”   “People who own the world outright for profit will have to be stopped; by influence, by power, by us.”            "  
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Amazing words from Berry.  They call poets, canaries in the coal mine.  Berry is a poet, and "fierce laureate of the natural world."  
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A current article, below, about industrial farming, including foreign refugee workers in a small USA town. Workers, brought in as refugees, needed as low paid workers for industrial farming with taxpayers subsidizing the rest of their needs. Ironic, USA family farms paid living wages, and created communities which were the backbone of USA, and without killing soil/poisoning water supply.  Until I read Michael Pollans's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, Cargill was not on my radar.  Not so now.  Cargill is all about corn, and Pollan manages to make corn sexy.
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In the Minneapolis Star-Tribune  recently:

"Cargill will change its hiring policy — allowing employees to be potentially rehired 30 days after termination, not 180 days — in response to a walkout by Somali workers in Colorado.

After a dispute over Muslim prayer time, about 150 employees at Cargill’s sprawling Fort Morgan, Colo., plant didn’t show up for work for three days — grounds for termination. They were fired. Some of those workers claimed they weren’t allowed to take prayer breaks, while Cargill claimed that it was still following its policy allowing the breaks.

Minnetonka-based Cargill said in a statement Friday that it will change the hiring policy at all of its North American beef plants, allowing former employees terminated for “attendance violation or job abandonment” to be considered for rehiring 30 days after being fired. The workers would have to reapply for their jobs.

“We believe the change in our beef business policy related to how quickly a former employee may be eligible to reapply for positions at our beef plants is a reasonable update to something that’s been in place for quite a few years,” Cargill Beef President John Keating said in a statement.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has been representing many terminated Somali workers, said it welcomed Cargill’s change in hiring policy, though it criticized Cargill’s prayer break policy as ambiguous."

Again, Cargill, and others in the industrial farming camp, need cheap refugee labor, salaries paid are not a living wage, the USA taxpayer fills out the rest in welfare payments.  Don't mean to paint Cargill as a 'bad company'', but it's been obvious to Willie Nelson & Wendell Berry, for at least 3 decades, this is exactly where leaving the family farm was headed, the path of unintended consequences.   

A book list, helping to move from industrial farms to family farms.

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Wendell Berry's books.
Tara Dillard's books, ornamental horticulture producing crops yielding up to 80% greater.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver.
The Omnivore's Dilemma, A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan.
The Garden in Winter, by Rosemary Verey.  Ornamental horticulture yielding crops up to 80% greater.
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What do ornamental horticulture gardens have in common with agriculture?  Pollination.  Pollination.  Pollination.  A factor increasing crop yields by 80%.  
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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With more time, this should include new scientific studies about Nature & our health.  Nature & our biomes.  Without which, of course, we die or live in disease.  But I have a residential garden needing a hot tub sited !  Need time & every brain cell to create the most usable yet elegant hot tub known to mankind.  

Naomi Watts & Liev Schreiiber: Hamptons Garden

Hooked on Houses posted,

NAOMI WATTS & LIEV SCHREIBER SELLING HOUSE IN THE HAMPTONS

     What's 'wrong' in these 3 pics, below?  Hint, it's the same issue in all 3.  Changing wrong to right costs no more money, than creating the 'wrong'.







Hedges should not have naked bottoms.
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Prune evergreen hedges slightly narrower at the top for proper sunlight distribution, creating hedges lush green from base to top.
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Best, prune by hand.  Next best, prune with electric shears, finish with selective hand pruning to allow dappled light into hedges for dense growth within each plant.  Solely shearing hedges with electric shears creates hedges naked inside with a thin veneer of foliage.
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Interiors of the home are turn-key pretty.
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Pics, above, and more pics of the house, here.
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Garden & Be Well,    XOT