Copy Valentino

Copy, it's the 1st rule of Garden Design.  Check the ego, earn your Cheshire Cat smile, once realizing, there is no such thing as copy-exactly, each site is unique, hence the algorithm proves you a genius, each time you copy.
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Valentino, below.  Yes, 'that' Valentino.  More than clothes, his gardens.  At his home outside Paris, Château de Wideville, below.  In your garden, you are safe to copy anything Valentino does.  After all, it's the exact method Valentino uses, copy-copy-copy.
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Catching a hint of Furlow Gatewood, below, in Valentino's garden?  It's no accident the pots, below, have cone shaped evergreens contrasting with the weeping focal point.  Classic Garden Design.



Garden Design course, below, moving from formal at the house, to less formal, and though not in the photo, below, I know a Wild Wood ends the progression.



" at the Love Ball, the estate got a fairy tale makeover courtesy of famed set designer Alexandre de Betak, who created a magical, Dr. Zhivago-inspired mise-en-scène. Bryan Ferry performed, and guests such as Carine Roitfeld, Stella Tennant and Daphne Guinness were treated to a unique fashion show featuring one-of-a-kind dresses from 45 international designers. Mistress of ceremonies Anne Hathaway wore Valentino, of course. ", from, pics too, Valentino Garavani Museum.    

Why didn't I think of this?  A Dr. Zhivago-inspired mise-en-scene themed garden party?  And, every bit a tax deduction.  What I would really like to know, is how they mow perfect stripes, below, at the stone focal point.  Do they move it ahead of mowing?  Amusing, I really don't know how they do it.



Wish we all had Valentino's gardeners, in our own garden.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Furlow Gatewood, below, just in case you missed the iconic shot.
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Pic, above, Veranda.

Subdivision vs. Manor Home Landscape

Subdivision home vs. Manor home landscaping.
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Do you see both within the landscape, below?  Which elements are the manor home plantings, which elements are the subdivision plantings?
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Easy change, below, to go from USA gated subdivision plantings to historic European manor home.



Pic, above, here.
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Once you 'see' the change, above, and understand 'why' the change, you won't/can't ever go back to this moment, not knowing what is off-kilter, above.  More, you'll realize how much easier, and affordable, historic manor house gardening is and why it's more than 'gardening' but an intellectual pursuit within your quiver of life skills.  The gift of stewardship vs. amusement, conviction with humility.
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Replace annuals in the pot with a simple mushroom top evergreen, matching what is already in the garden.  Replace annuals at the door with another row of evergreens, matching what is already in the garden.  Done.
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Annuals, above, are vestiges of ca. 1983 high-end apartment complexes across Atlanta, GA.  Still a beautiful garden design conceit, for that niche.
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Historic manor house gardening is the ultimate status symbol, and eco, and sustainable.  If you like eco/sustainable you don't even want to think thru the footprint of cell-pack annuals upon this dear sweet Earth.
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Garden & Be Well, XOT
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Why the drama of conviction with humility?  Remember well, in my early 20's, degreed engineer, no horticulture degree yet, and heading to the garden center with a mission, I was going to buy flowers & a few bushes, come home and plant everything, creating the best landscape ever seen by mankind.  My heart/efforts were in such earnest, what else but smiling in memory?  That garden?  Worst ever seen by mankind.  The 1st major humbling in my life.  Humility arrived, thick, upon that garden lesson, I had wanted my pretty garden so badly, THAT DAY, instead, whooped by a mere horrendous garden.  Oh my the humor of it.
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1st visit to many of my clients thru the years?  There is so much laughter.  Bearing witness to conviction without humility.  It's human nature, to begin gardening with conviction, humility not upon the horizon.

Front Door: A Course in Beautifully Scaled Details

Off the edge of perfect, below, beyond perfect.
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Have never understood the predilection for oversized lights at a front door.  Studying historic gardens across Europe for decades, diminutive lighting, compared to USA, is the memo.
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Tara Turf, below, to the foundation.  Alone, enough to instigate a nastygram from any HOA.  Here's the deal with Tara Turf, it's a rich way to live, according to Providence.  And me.
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Opulent patina, not pressure washed away, on the walls, below.



Pic, above, here.
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Who knew I would ever think a collection of little green meatballs was charming?  Indeed, these are.  Here, they are a whimsical pun.  You already thought the same thing, right?
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The pair of small spheres.  Swoon.  Their plinths, double swoon.
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Notice the climbing roses?  Not the physical plant but what they do for the design.  Taking very little space, espaliered, they give maximum lush.
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Tiny gravel, above, color of the house, drifting into most-of-a-circle tiny flagstone, again colored to the house, terrace.  With no edging between gravel/plants or gravel/flagstones.  Your already picked up on this huge detail, edging, right?
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Enfilade, above, is something we have at our ca. 1900 American farmhouse.  Ours, 80' long, with heart of pine floor, I'll have to figure out how to get the shot, we even have the trees in back, but our pond is behind the trees.
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Our house, now, has a small gravel parking court in front, we kept the previous owner's half-round of bricks at the front steps.  Unbelievable, the vernacular language is the same, this home, above, and ours.
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This front door, above, says the most important thing, "Welcome."  And, "You want to come inside, this house is interesting, the people who live here I want to know and see more, the garden, and....."
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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Beloved is a pressure washing fool.  One of these days, at present I leave the premises when he pressure washes, I will stand my ground, and instead of crime scene tape outlining a body on the ground, Beloved will pressure wash around my body on the wall of our home.  If this were our home, above, I know his pressure washer would have something 'wrong' with it each time he tries to use it.  Buy a new one?  It would have something 'wrong', always, too.

Choosing Color, Downsizing, Staging

She moved into her forever home many years ago, and finally, what she always knew, arrived.  Children out of college, grandchildren growing, the large family home/garden, too large.  Downsizing is her imperative.
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The house needs painting, the orange brick never looked 'right' with the white trim.  Yesterday, I chose new colors for trim, shutters, gutters, porte-cochere ceiling. and the front door.  (Shutters will be Iron Mountain, #9, below.)


Pic, above, here.

Her proclivity for birdhouses and interesting garden subsidiary focal points, will be removed.  House & garden simplified to their bones, creating a boutique hotel 'feel', "Welcome, it's beautiful here, everything is done for you, relax, enjoy the good food, sleeping here a heaven, etc."

  

Pic, above, here.

A woman with many incredible collections, most will be boxed, much donated, little will remain, below.

 

Pic, above, here.

The process is stressful upon many layers, chiefly, the unknowns.  Once staged, I told her she will miss the more personal art/photos that are in storage, yet once moved, she will prefer living in the 'staged' type decor, with some of the personal tossed back in.  More, she will not regret anything donated.  And to expect, once their new home is bought, to be able to donate more furniture & 'stuff', and finally, once moved in a few more things can be donated.  Culling has a definite pattern over time.  Ironic, 'seeing' at each layer is quite clear, yet all layers cannot be seen up front, it is the unknowns at play.
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I asked if she was willing to sell all of her furniture/rugs/art if the buyer offered.  Whoa, her 'yes' was fast, and with a smile.  Good, that helps in the staging and what goes into storage.
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She has a day job, they own their own business, and her grown children's/grandchildren's stuff-stored-at-mom's must be downsized to zero.  Most of her husband's downsizing she'll be in charge of.  Both facts a layer of stress.  I told her, though she's the boss of this move, she's going to need her family pulling together as a team.  Huge pause then laughter.  She knows it will be herding butterflies.
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She's already begun the process, and it's a wild chaos.  We walked her entire interior and garden, discussing keep/donate/store.  A good morning.  Now she knows the chaos is not reigning, it's merely part of the process.  Too easy to feel overwhelmed and not in control.
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This has been a wild spring for clients calling and telling me they are downsizing.  Then, worse, a friend, really 5 friends stopped for my garden/lunch last Monday & no I didn't make lunch we went to a charming cafe in the town square, told me one of my favorite gardeners, Helen Dillon, in Ireland, will be downsizing & moving.  Helen's garden was the only reason I went to Ireland to study historic gardens.  I'm still processing the potential loss of Helen's garden, you can see it here
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Tiny Potager

Moving into our ca. 1900 American farmhouse, almost a year ago, projects in the garden here/there, show wildly decadent rich soil.  1st opportunity of its kind, in my life.
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Then there's The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan.  A loving book following 4 meals backwards, in USA, to their origination.  Oh my what I didn't know about the industrial food complex.  We're flucked, as a friend is prone to say.
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Against that flucking, a strong desire for at least a minimal potager.  Is it too much to ask, tasting real food?  Our day jobs don't allow much time for more than a tiny plot this year, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, radish, a few herbs of course.  Deer are ubiquitous and wind.



Pic, above, here.

We'll gather sticks, above, this weekend from our woods.  The entire potager, at most 12' x 4'.  A wrap of fruit tree netting.  Done.
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Zinnia seeds too.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Of course the patch we have in mind, Beloved must till.  I need to start brewing fertilizer tea from the coop.

Simplicity vs. Cliche

From forever I've learned best from completed problems, pictures & places.  Copy the best, copy what works, saves time/money.
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Simplicity, below, at top form.
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Easy, you think, they've got the money for 'simple'.
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Not so fast.  More than money, below, their landscape is rich in wisdom.  Garden Design of the ages.
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When you have a natural focal point, frame it don't compete.
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Had the good fortune of learning this while studying historic landscapes in northern Italy, Lake Maggiore, to be precise.




Pic, above, here.

Garden design cliche, below, when there isn't as much money, space, nor existing natural focal point, as, above.
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Yet.  Life's riches are no less precious, below, than, above.
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Good garden design is not about money, it's about using your full intellect.
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How would you garden design a richer life, below?  Seriously, what would you do to the garden, below?

  

Pic, above, here.
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What would I do, above ?
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I would remove all porch railings, add a stone step between porch columns, take out foundation plantings, placing those foundation plantings along the sidewalk at front, and add more along the sides of the home, about same distance as those at the front.  For starters.
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As is, this home is already pulling me inside, imagine if the landscaping were good too.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Beautiful Gardens Have No Chores

There are no chores in a garden.  If you think a garden must be worked at, that is your privilege.
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 “It may be that when we no longer know which way to go that we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.”  Wendell Berry 


Pic, above, here.
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“The teachers are everywhere. What is wanted is a learner.”
— Wendell Berry

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I travel farthest in my garden.  Beauty & epiphanies a chief delight, or perhaps the intellectual challenges.  There is nothing like using full brain power, and still, a chicken, outwits supposed IQ.  If your garden doesn't make you laugh, well, I can't imagine that type of garden.



Pic, above, here.
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"Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup." Wendell Berry
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April garden chores?  Chores?  Really?



Pic, above, here.
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"Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do". Wendell Berry
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What a day, below, Nancy Lancaster is having.  Arrayed in play clothes with Providence.  She's got her favorite wheelbarrow, beloved dogs, best clippers, plenty to occupy hands & heart while the brain flies, often into magical realms.  Hours spent, below, time nor hunger relevant.  Garden time.



Pic, above, here.
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"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." Wendell Berry
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In my garden there are no chores.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T\,
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“As I have read the Gospels over the years, the belief has grown in me that Christ did not come to found an organized religion but came instead to found an unorganized one. He seems to have come to carry religion out of the temples into the fields and sheep pastures, onto the roadsides and the banks of the rivers, into the houses of sinners and publicans, into the town and the wilderness, toward the membership of all that is here. Well, you can read and see what you think.”  Wendell Berry

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“Always in the big woods when you leave familiar ground and step off alone into a new place there will be, along with the feelings of curiosity and excitement, a little nagging of dread. It is the ancient fear of the Unknown, and it is your first bond with the wilderness you are going into.”  Wendell berry

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1995 I spent intentionally dervishly gardening.  4 friends with dire health, many prayers to pray.  At the start of 1996 all 4 already buried.  Praying for G*d's will, indeed, earned.
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“This, I thought, is what is meant by 'thy will be done' in the Lord's Prayer, which I had prayed time and again without thinking about it. It means that your will and God's will may not be the same. It means there's a good possibility that you won't get what you pray for. It means that in spite of your prayers you are going to suffer."  Wendell Berry
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Ca. 1982 I witnessed a customer cuss/yell/pontificate at my manager, ending with, "I'm closing my account."  Dear Elizabeth Purcell, tiny, 90lbs at most, deeply elderly, wildly sharp, replied softly after a significant Southern matriarchal pause, adjusting her thick glasses, looked up, with every soul in the room frozen, "That is your privilege."  The young, sallow skinned, girl, turned in her painted on blue jeans, and left, without a sound.  Vanquished.

Beautiful Gardens Have No Chores

There are no chores in a garden.  If you think a garden must be worked at, that is your privilege.
.
 “It may be that when we no longer know which way to go that we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.”  Wendell Berry   


Pic, above, here.
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“The teachers are everywhere. What is wanted is a learner.”
— Wendell Berry

.
I travel farthest in my garden.  Beauty & epiphanies a chief delight, or perhaps the intellectual challenges.  There is nothing like using full brain power, and still, a chicken, outwits supposed IQ.  If your garden doesn't make you laugh, well, I can't imagine that type of garden.



Pic, above, here.
.
"Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup." Wendell Berry
.
April garden chores?  Chores?  Really?



Pic, above, here.
.
"Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do". Wendell Berry
.
What a day, below, Nancy Lancaster is having.  Arrayed in play clothes with Providence.  She's got her favorite wheelbarrow, beloved dogs, best clippers, plenty to occupy hands & heart while the brain flies, often into magical realms.  Hours spent, below, time nor hunger relevant.  Garden time.



Pic, above, here.
.
"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." Wendell Berry
.
In my garden there are no chores.
.
Garden & Be Well,   XO T\,
.
“As I have read the Gospels over the years, the belief has grown in me that Christ did not come to found an organized religion but came instead to found an unorganized one. He seems to have come to carry religion out of the temples into the fields and sheep pastures, onto the roadsides and the banks of the rivers, into the houses of sinners and publicans, into the town and the wilderness, toward the membership of all that is here. Well, you can read and see what you think.”  Wendell Berry

.
“Always in the big woods when you leave familiar ground and step off alone into a new place there will be, along with the feelings of curiosity and excitement, a little nagging of dread. It is the ancient fear of the Unknown, and it is your first bond with the wilderness you are going into.”  Wendell berry

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1995 I spent intentionally dervishly gardening.  4 friends with dire health, many prayers to pray.  At the start of 1996 all 4 already buried.  Praying for G*d's will, indeed, earned.
.
“This, I thought, is what is meant by 'thy will be done' in the Lord's Prayer, which I had prayed time and again without thinking about it. It means that your will and God's will may not be the same. It means there's a good possibility that you won't get what you pray for. It means that in spite of your prayers you are going to suffer."  Wendell Berry
.
Ca. 1982 I witnessed a customer cuss/yell/pontificate at my manager, ending with, "I'm closing my account."  Dear Elizabeth Purcell, tiny, 90lbs at most, deeply elderly, wildly sharp, replied softly after a significant Southern matriarchal pause, adjusting her thick glasses, looked up, with every soul in the room frozen, "That is your privilege."  The young, sallow skinned, girl, turned in her painted on blue jeans, and left, without a sound.  Vanquished.

Edith Wharton: Voids & Masses

"Proportion is the good breeding of architecture.  It is that something, indefinable to the unprofessional eye, which gives repose and distinction to a room:  in its origin a matter of nice mathematical calculation, of scientific adjustment of voids and masses, but in its effects as intangible as that all-pervading essence which the ancients called the soul."  Edith Wharton



Very nice fix, above, to scale, proportion, flow.  Yet there is an added design element not abiding to the rules of scale/proportion and landed onto the terrace from Mars.
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Which is the good fix?  Which is the ill conceived addition?
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First, brava to the terrace design flanking the entire back of the home, flowing in vanishing threshold from every window/door.
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Yet, that is not the 'good fix'.  Adding the checkerboard 'path' to the terrace is the 'good fix', a genius fix.  I sense it was not in the original design, yet makes the original design magic.  A nice reminder of, 'A landscape can be installed in a day, a garden takes a lifetime.'  Many layers of nice thought, above.
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Yet one zone, above, is awkward.
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Have you nailed it yet?  It was more common at the front end of the trend, but has tamed itself in recent years.  The fireplace.  Oh my.  It's a fireplace with a house, not a house with a fireplace.  Fireplace monument to the gods.  The monolith floating in space at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey, ca. 1968.  A fireplace with no soul, merely a good salesman.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T



Pic, above, from the movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, here.  Remember well, and not understanding seeing 2001 at its premier, not far from the Astrodome & Gulfgate Mall.  Oh my the joy of growing up shopping there, especially, Sakowitz.  Their clothes & shoes, and their fabulous decorations at Christmas.  Neiman's was a wannabe back in those days !  Odd to learn, just now, below, Gulfgate housed some of NASA before it could be completed for workers.  Helping mom choose dad's crypt the salesman shared his story of painting NASA buildings as fast as they could because NASA workers were sited all over Houston/Pasadena awaiting their buildings.
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Wikipedia, "It was the first regional mall in the Houston area, opening as Gulfgate Shopping Center on September 20, 1956 with Joske's,Sakowitz, Weingarten's, J.J. Newberry and W.T. Grant.^[2] The architects were John Graham & Company.^[3]

Gulfgate Kiddieland opened in the mall on March 21.^[4]

In the early 1960s, while the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) was under construction in the Clear Lake area, NASA personnel opened temporary offices in center in about 3,000 square feet (280 m²) of floor space donated for the purpose by the Gulfgate management. MSC had a continuing operation there until additional office, engineering and laboratory space could be leased and made ready for occupation. Operations at the Gulfgate offices were largely concerned with procurement, personnel and public affairs.^[5]

The shopping center was enclosed around 1967 and, after years of decline and competition, shuttered in 2000. In 2001 the original mall and the former Mervyns (across Woodridge) were demolished and redeveloped into a strip mall configuration, anchored by H-E-B, Best Buy, Office Depot, Marshalls, and Lowe's "

Take it Easy, Mon

What is your landscape to you?  What role does it play in your life?  How does your landscape leverage your life?  Is your landscape a monthly check to someone else?  Is your landscape full of chores?  Your landscape informs the world of your views, what information is your landscape telling me?  Have you ever thought to ask yourself, "What does my garden say about me?"  Are you to be patted on the head for keeping the HOA happy with your landscape, and no more?  
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This spring, for your landscape, choose your own perspective.
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This perspective, below, is my favorite idea of a landscape.
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In a word, do you know what that perspective is?



BACKDROP
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I want my garden to be the backdrop to my life.
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Who wants a garden, typically installed by the builder, to be endured?
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A garden backdrop to your life is leverage, joy, and grace.
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Green meatballs are usually a negative, yet look how many green meatballs are behind Tory Burch, above.  How smart her urns, never need planting or watering.  Ever.
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Green, brown, white is the most successful garden color trinity for centuries.
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If you maintain lawn/bushes, why not choose them as beautiful backdrop?  Delight in thinking, how to go beyond builder installed plantings, how to make magic from HOA rules.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Obviously this post is about certain ages of life.  Have had several clients this year, moving from their many decades family home, into retirement communities.  All of them, landscaping is provided & maintained as part of the 'package'.  All are in their 70's.  Each of the phone calls quite hard for both of us.  Life must be faced, and they are doing it in grace & elegance.

Don't Design Bifurcate: Interior & Exterior

For years I would write the editor of a specific interior design magazine asking why they would show beautiful interiors with terrible views out the windows.  No reply, ever.
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However, the month arrived when that magazine had every interior photograph edited/photoshopped to its exterior views with a brightness as if a glare of a beautiful garden, all the ugly views, poof/gone.  And, the magazine has continued editing exterior views for years.  Nice story, yes?
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This, below, is not that magazine.
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Great interior, yet a bifurcation of decorating styles, life choices, from inside to outside.
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What to do?



Quick thought, without seeing the rest of the home's interior, stain the deck a shade, or 2, darker than the walls, above.
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Poof, interior/exterior no longer bifurcated.
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Another solution, add a shutter to lower half of the window, leaving only vistas of sky, trees, birds...
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Money is no issue solution?  Enlarge the deck, choose a new rail, stain same color as walls, turn window, above, into French doors, fix a drink, put a new album on the turn table, enjoy.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pic, above, here.

Florist Style in Garden Design

Florist Style.  Don't know what else to name it.  An assemblage of flowers or plants arrayed as if outside a florist shop, a charming florist shop, but in your garden.
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New client yesterday, and she's quite a challenge.  Children, grandchildren, she & her husband own their own business, and they have 3 homes, plus lots of travel.  Aside from mow-blow-go she has little to no garden help, unless it's the Gator.  And, she wants a delightful garden 'show' on her deck at the main home.  The deck is raised allowing for drip irrigation.  Thankfully.
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Florist Style for her deck.  Galvanized florist canisters for cut flowers, & plastic pots of flowering plants bought at the grocery store or a nursery, slipped into canisters too.  The story grows better, she loves ornamental grasses, I'll design a large prairie style grass garden for her to enjoy, and to have plenty for cutting.



Pic, above, here.

Her deck is large, and can handle several large evergreens, below.  Once they become 'tired' they can be retired to planting in her newly designed/designated cutting garden.

  

Pic, above, here.

Very little, below, yet confidently setting a 'tone'.  Exactly the top merit of Florist Style Garden Design.

 
Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.

Before our appointment I was at another appointment, with her sister.  Sister mentioned a place with an international supply of construction pieces from historic homes.  She showed me a few pics of the shop & I got the name & wrote it down.  Perhaps my new client can find a piece like this, above, for her Florist Style.
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New client mentioned a grown son and their gardening relationship since he was a boy, I'm sure she'll send him this post, for perusal and approval.  Too fun.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO T