Tara Template: Loutrel Briggs

Loutrel Briggs, designed Mrs. Whaley's Charleston, SC, garden many decades ago.  Had the good fortune to see this garden not too long after Mrs. Whaley passed.  Remember, Christopher Lloyd's thought, "The garden dies when the gardener dies."
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Mrs. Whaley's garden lived greatly, still, at the time of my visit.  And, Loutrel Briggs lived even larger.
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My pics of Mrs. Whaley's garden are safely ensconced in slide form in a box next to the arc of the covenant in a warehouse several types of plane trips away and a few jeep rides, finally, carried by donkey to the exact correct warehouse.
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Don't let the 'flowers', below, fool you.  Here, they are a distraction from the pure brilliance of Briggs' design.



Pic, above, here.

A tiny city garden, above/below, Briggs' garden is exterior architecture, with 12 mos. of interest.  Better, it functions as pure residential architecture, an extension of the home's living space.

 
Pic, above, here.


Pic, above, here.

A dear friend gave me, Mrs. Whaley & Her Charleston Garden, paperback, it had been given to her, and she already had it in hardback.  Since then have given this book, used/paperback/excellent condition, to many friends.  I know I'll be giving it in the future too.  (Garden Book Ministry.  But that's a Tara Template I've not gotten to yet, along with Lunch Ministry.  Brunch Ministry is perhaps the funniest Tara Template, and will share it soon.)


 
Order Book, above, here.

What is the Loutrell Briggs?  At its core, a rectangle with indentations.  A rectangle enfilade of varying intricacies.  The Loutrell Briggs can be tiny or huge, showy or elegant, low or high maintenance.


Pic, above, here.

Loutrel Briggs rectangle, above, has its open enfilade at bench, with intricacies as the enfilade reaches the mirror pond & parterres.  Love this version, above.  Every layer pays the rent.  Elegant in all seasons, very little maintenance.  Usable for children's games, and adults swilling cocktails at a soiree.

 
Pic, above, here.

Loutrel Briggs, above, in a series of connecting rectangles.  Wide-open to fully-parterred.  You go Loutrel.  Notice where symmetry falls away with dictates of space yet appears symmetrical?  Faux symmetry.  Potent arrow in my Garden Design quiver.




Have probably done Loutrel Briggs a dozen times, or more, thru the decades.  New, fresh each iteration.  This Loutrel Briggs, above/below, I designed last year for a historic home in downtown Atlanta.  Young couple, professionals, young children, dogs, the full monty.  She wants chickens, place to entertain, and for kids to play along with a potager.  She had seriously good classic cookbooks in her kitchen, (personal peculiarity, judging someone by their cookbooks not their range).  Alas, her kitchen is at the 3rd story of the house, too far to casually go snip a little rosemary or basil.  Her potager, in pots, lining the deck off the kitchen.  Yes, drip irrigation.

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I never have a problem copying brilliance.  Loutrel Briggs, brilliant.  Of course, he was the 1st, I knew of, to grab the rectangular landscape with indentions & enfilades, keep it simple or tart it up, but use it, use it, use it.
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Goes past Christ's era in application, thank you Loutrel for exploiting it.
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Now, you can too.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Tara Template: Checker Board

Checker Boards are FAST.  Fast.
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Many layers of Garden Design are slow to medium, getting there.
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Not a Checker Board.
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I designed this pool, and its garden 4 years ago, below.  Checker Board photo was taken before we finished installing the plants.  FAST !  A little cheating, Checker Board going into sod, quite the shazaaam fast.





Pic, above, I shot in Susanne Hudson's garden.  Shade.  Checker Board with evergreen groundcover.


Pic, above, I shot in a client's garden.



More pics, above/below, I shot in Susanne Hudson's garden.  She decided her shady Checker Board needed to extend beyond the fence.  12" concrete squares.



Before & After, below.  Checker Board I designed, installed for client.
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Interesting, knowing where to place a Checker Board.  Client, below, had a drainage issue in this zone, and this zone is used during monthly neighborhood parties with kids, parents, dogs, margaritas.  .
What to do?  Checker Board.  Of course.  (Muse certainly entertains.  Until drawing their garden had zero clue a Checker Board was the solution.  Go Muse !)



This client, above/below, was vision-quest-challenged.  I only let you know, because many people are.  Easy fix, set up a dry run, below.  Windy day, Nature had her fun, yes?



Remember, this zone, above/below, had a drainage issue, the pics don't show the Caterpillar contouring the water into a proper swale, drainage issue solved.





Stone pavers, above/below.  Sod.  INSTANT.


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Perhaps you want to commune with Muse, maybe a Checker Board is in your garden, waiting to be revealed.
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Don't know how to commune with Muse?  Correct, it's not an instant relationship Muse provides.  Muse is met at the altar of grace, joy, humility, letting go of character defects offensive to Muse, while being fearless in taking what Muse gives to all.  Take.
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Garden & Be Well,    XOT

Tara Template: The Well-Placed Chair

Touring historic gardens across Europe for 2+ decades, it took only one trip to 'see', The Well-Placed Chair.
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Most gardens had a chair, simply put, creating a still life.  Never seemingly pre-planned.  Serendipitous.
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Noted.
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Copied.
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Every garden needs a pair of matching chairs, comfortable, interesting, sited as a layer of still life.
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Chair, below, in my garden.  Flower petals appear photo shopped, they aren't.  Better, how many times have I sat in the chair for a phone conversation or lunch, and hummingbirds whiz overhead.  How many more times would I be upstairs, look out a window and see a cardinal or blue jay perched atop the chair?
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More than creating a still life, the Well-Placed Chair creates a well lived garden.  How could I have given to myself the gifts Nature has given, in tandem, with the Well-Placed Chair?
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Don't you want it for yourself ?





Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.


Pic, above, here.
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Where to find a pair of Well-Placed Chairs?  Garage sale, thrift store, antique shop, estate sale.  If they don't match each other, go you.  Paint them the same color.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T

Tara Template: The Potted Grid

The potted grid, below, created centuries ago.  We have the good fortune of drip irrigation.
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A statement piece, easy, big impact, little input.
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Melds historically, and modern.
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No matter your Potted Grid, it will be unique.








Pics, above, here.
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Decades, I had a belief about copying gardens.  Only a failure would copy a garden.  My ideas are better & new, (quite a precious trite youth, bless her for getting me here).  Garden Design is COUNTER INTUITIVE.  A copied garden is unique and fresh, EVERY TIME.
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Promise.
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Every site is unique, your application choices are unique, every day's weather is unique, each day's passage is unique by the split second.  Garden Design is following the best recipes.  Same script, different results, each time.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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Went to a famous rosarian's garden, Anna Davis, used her garden in one of the books I've written.  On her deck, off her kitchen, Anna did a riff on the Potted Grid.  Over a dozen large terra cotta pots, stuffed with roses, not in a grid, but a Mosh Pit of the Potted Grid Template.  Yep, it worked.  Apologies no pic, it's not online, and my pics of her Rose Garden Mosh Pit are amongst thousands of slides I've taken.
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Anna's Garden, above.
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Hot, humid day we 1st visited Anna, she was welcoming with her time in touring us thru her garden, and refreshments in the kitchen afterward.  Ice water and glasses were waiting for us on a tray, the ice water pitcher a classic fat bellied silhouette made of sterling.  Beads of sweating dripping along its sides.  Looking at it made the heat/humidity go away.  Guess what I did?  Yes, you know I did.  Began the hunt.  Took a few years, found almost her exact pitcher to use in same situations.  Mine, plated, but a good plate, it had been a golf trophy in the 50's from a course in Massachusetts.  The engraving gorgeous.  Fond memories of Anna's garden each time it's used.
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For longtime friends reading, of course it was Penny McHenry with me in Anna's garden.  Better, we all knew it was a 'lifetime' good day.  My good fortune in those, quite deep.

Tara Template: The Table

Following historic Garden Design rules, creates wildly unique gardens from the same templates. Every time.
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Sure, ignore historic Garden Design rules, go commando, walk off the reservation, reinvent the wheel, hello ubiquity.  Worse, aside from frittering money.  Time.  Life's precious commodity.
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Who have I become?  What happened to that young woman?  The one who needed perennial borders, shocking amounts of hydrangeas & gee gaws galore, first?  No longer a young woman, joyful victory, fully bloomed woman, humbly remaining a young gardener.  My life, To Sir With Love, lived into, Thomas Jefferson.  Hungering for more.  More, than the young woman who merely thought she hungered.
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Tara Template: The Table
















All pics, above, here.
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On August 20, 1811 Thomas Jefferson wrote to Charles Willson Peale, “I have often thought that if heaven had given me choice of my position & calling, it should have been on a rich spot of earth, well watered, and near a good market for the productions of the garden.  “no occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, & no culture comparable to that of the garden. such a variety of subjects, some one always coming to perfection, the failure of one thing repaired by the success of another, & instead of one harvest a continued one thro’ the year. under a total want of demand except for our family table I am still devoted to the garden. but tho’ an old man, I am but a young gardener.”  Monticello Blog.  
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To Sir with Love

Lulu

Those schoolgirl days of telling tales and biting nails are gone
But in my mind
I know they will still live on and on
But how do you thank someone, who has taken you from crayons to perfume?
It isn't easy, but I'll try

If you wanted the sky I would write across the sky in letters,
That would soar a thousand feet high,
To Sir, with Love

The time has come
For closing books and long last looks must end
And as I leave
I know that I am leaving my best friend
A friend who taught me right from wrong
And weak from strong
That's a lot to learn
What, what can I give you in return?

If you wanted the moon I would try to make a start
But I, would rather you let me give my heart
To Sir, with Love

Songwriters: Don Black / Mark London

To Sir with Love lyrics © EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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To Sir With Love, the movie, made quite an impression watching the first time as a teen.  More amazing is the source my life was given, as mentor, my Garden.  To Garden, with Love.

Garden Design Class in a Single Pic

Hello gorgeous, below.
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You got me with your almost brutally modern architecture, smashed into historic Garden Design.
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Then you dropped those orbs with a glint of art nouveau reverie taking a ride with Tinkerbell.
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Your furniture borders on cliche excepting it's an ode to cubism.
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Well do I appreciate the hands & intent pruning, a cocky marvel, to those who know.
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Finally, ending with how lush can you be with the smallest amount of input.
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You're darn tooting I want to see the rest of the garden.
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Pic, above, here.
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Adore garden pics telling a story, and teaching a Garden Design class.
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What do you see, above?
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T

It's What We Do With What We Have

Across the years, somehow, this garden, below, reaches deep within, and holds me dearly.
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The fence is so much more than its parts.
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You seeing Pablo Picasso & Georges Braque, or my favorite Kurt Schwitters too?    
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Perhaps you see a fence made from junk, the best a poor person could do?
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Not me.  I see the best within the human spirit.  Means may be meager, yet the end soars.  In the making those means are made golden.
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Perhaps that is why this garden wraps its arms around me.  Connection with a kindred spirit.
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And thus we've arrived where E.M.Forster wrote, myriad volumes, upon a pair of words, "Only connect."
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Pic, above, here.  1-west-virginia-1938-mpwolcott-library-of-congress 
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Dignity & truth abide, above.  Of course Forster, in, A Room With A View, "It is so difficult – at least, I find it difficult – to understand people who speak the truth.  ", writes of humanity, not merely those he prefers.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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Today's Garden Design assignment: Design your garden with the core of your dignity & truth, conveying who you are.   Shoot a pic of this newly designed garden, next, push the pic a century forward, you are long buried, will viewers know who you were, from that lone pic of your garden?
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Seems a bit extreme, yes?  Why should Picasso, Schwitters or Forster have all the fun, with their art?  It's all there, for you, too.  Only connect, within.

Red Queen Thinking: Get Where You're Going

Extreme example, below, designing views into your windows.
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Where to begin your Garden Design?  Why, of course your Garden Design begins in the middle, of your house.  Looking out into the garden from every window.  Yes, this is Red Queen, Alice in Wonderland truth.  Naturally, will finish with the Red Queen, you must create a double axis and design views into your windows, from the garden.  Story gets better these are 'my' garden design rules.  You know, all those decades of empirical data points gathered traipsing across Europe studying historic gardens.  Now, you're in the story, and it makes me laugh, you're understanding my Red Queen dictums.  And doing them too.  Beautiful garden, beautiful life.


Pic, above, here.

In my house, below, Garden Designed from inside to outside.  Bay window, pot on plinth sited directly upon middle row of glass panes.



Pic, above, shot by me in my garden.
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Pic, above, shot by me in my garden, same bay window.


Pic, above, shot by me, same window.


Pic, above, shot by me, same window.
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Exactly where your Garden Design should begin, above, the middle of your home, looking out the windows.  "I don't know where to start.", is the refrain.  Common, common, alas, common, and Red Queen of Alice in Wonderland has the answer.
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Pic, above, shot by me in my garden, same window.
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Lamp, above, now in the dining room, blue/white, above, now in the central hall, lamp at back right, above, now in the laundry room kitchen, and the beat goes on, as Sonny Bono sang so well.  Less than 6 mos after moving from my cottage, above, had to have a heart-to-heart talk with myself.  Self, you cannot 'remember' where everything used to be, everything is now in its right place.  Twenty four hours later, after much focus, those memories let go of me.  Too exhausting.  Loved my cottage, and now, love my farmhouse, though not Tara'ized yet.
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Moving from my home of 30 years, pics above, has been wildly beyond expectation.  From cottage I built ca. 1986, to historic ca. 1900 farmhouse.  Zero clue this lone fact would be a 180.  What was I thinking?  Data still arriving, and Red Queen of Alice in Wonderland, having great sway, at present.  No worries, a plodder, no fear to pull a trigger.  Beloved doesn't get this process, asked me while riding in the Gator to the pond last month, "This blah-blah has to get done, it is a mess, looks terrible, you need to get rid of xyz and etc."  Red Queen, slowly turned her head toward him, "I'm not to that layer yet."  No, you don't want to know the look on Red Queen's face, or her tone, nor what she was thinking. "Can't you SEE the layers? "
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Garden & Be Well,     XOT
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Want more crazy?  Inhale the Red Queen of Alice in Wonderland, you'll begin the garden design of your dreams.  Promise.  Why else would I expose crazy thinking?  It's to give away the best story ever told.

MLK: Mission Statement for Living

"If you want to understand how a lion hunts you don't go to the zoo, you go to the jungle." David Sable

Going into the internet, first time, zero clue to anything about it excepting what I had read in newspapers or magazines or heard on tv.
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Lovely afternoon.  Hooked.  Two memories of that 1st voyage, discovered in-depth writings of Martin Luther King, and, bought an airline ticket.
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Yesterday, serendipitously, found a well defined description of those thoughts written by Dr. King, yet never written into a journal, saved, or printed.
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"  His (King's) enduring ethos, at its core, is nonreligious — rather, it champions a set of moral, spiritual, and civic responsibilities that fortify our humanity, individually and collectively. "   Here.
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Pic, above, here.

My first study tour of historic European gardens 2+ decades ago, tossed me directly into a new world, hitherto unknown, in relation to landscapes.  People cared about the landscapes they created for themselves, not merely for themselves, or even first for themselves, but as a civic duty to community and neighbor.  Going deeper, even a duty to who will own the home/garden after them.

 
Pic, above, here.

Continued studies abroad with historic gardens, intuitively realized their landscapes went beyond a duty to self and community.  Their landscapes included duty to Nature.  Spirituality.
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"His (King's) enduring ethos, at its core, is nonreligious — rather, it champions a set of moral, spiritual, and civic responsibilities that fortify our humanity, individually and collectively. " "
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"Nonviolence … does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding. The nonviolent resister must often express his protest through noncooperation or boycotts, but he realizes that these are not ends themselves; they are merely means to awaken a sense of moral shame in the opponent. The end is redemption and reconciliation. The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community, while the aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness."  Dr. Martin Luther King.
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Too often, stories of HOA's, shared with me are not under the heading of redemption, reconciliation & beloved community, but tragic bitterness. Incredible mission statement for living, above.
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Was excited to come across these beautiful words again, as Dr. King wrote them, and wanted to share.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Top pic, amuses no end.  Did not like, could not abide, too stupid for me, topiary forms in the garden.  Now, I understand their iconic use, and why.  Love, when appropriate, topiary in the garden.  Looking at the picture, admire the garden, and smirk kindly at the person I used to be.  Isn't it amazing how fast we see quirks we used to have, within others !!

Brain Pickings: Rachel Carson & Dorothy Freeman

Most of the historic gardens I've studied across Europe for 2+ decades are farms.  Never anticipating I would be designing a single farm garden.  Majority of my work, to date, has been in subdivisions attached to large cities.  Learning at the historic farms, best ever choice.
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Farm, below, quite typical of gardens I've studied.  Great dividing line of farm & formal at the ha-ha.
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Pic, above, here.

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, published when I was a small girl, made the tv news.  That black/white screen bearing witness to MLK's murder, Vietnam, a President shot, the Texas Tower Shooting, and race riots.  Well before the age of 10, all this stuff plastered tv news.  Nope, in the wisdom of a 6'ish year old, Rachel Carson, was just another bitter story.      

 
Pic, above, here.

Time passes.  Of course I learn she's done something quite wonderful.  And I had to study at those historic farms, learning how to insert Nature into subdivison landscapes.  Nature, my great love.

 
Pic, above, here.

Until this year, Rachel Carson remained a 'persona'.


Pic, above, here.
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Following a short rabbit hole of diversion, I discovered Rachel Carson the person, today.  A dear friend, at lunch yesterday, Brio on Peachtree, shared with me something wondrous that had happened to her.  Before the sharing I knew something was different, she was luminous in her beauty, radiating peace.  A terrible bitterness she had carried, over 2 decades, lifted.  Gone.  Whew.  What a lunch we had and I don't mean the food (wedge salad &lobster bisque).  
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I don't see my friend often enough, at least once a year we try to spend the nite, sharing the same bed, not wanting to miss a moment of time with each other, talking till way too late.  This friendship quite important to both of us.  And it has had its moments of angst, nevah you doubt, but never an option to part.
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Brain Pickings had an intriguing link about a friendship, a deep friendship between a pair of grown women.  With memories of yesterday's lunch still glowing today, you know I took the click bait.
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Rachel Carson is one of the women.  This article about deep friendship, turned Rachel Carson the persona, into Rachel-the-person.  A nice read of depth, as only Brain Pickings does, I finished the article with moist eyes.  And, clicked afterward to buy her books.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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If you don't take my click bait, above, here's an excerpt:

"In September of 1963, shortly after her testimony before President John F. Kennedy’s Science Advisory Committee became instrumental in the first regulatory policies on pesticides, Carson wrote a stunning letter to Freeman. It contained a contemplation of her own mortality so profound, so poignant, so tenderhearted and transcendent that it could only be articulated to the person who knew her heart most intimately. She writes:

Dear One,

This is a postscript to our morning at Newagen, something I think I can write better than say. For me it was one of the loveliest of the summer’s hours, and all the details will remain in my memory: that blue September sky, the sounds of the wind in the spruces and surf on the rocks, the gulls busy with their foraging, alighting with deliberate grace, the distant views of Griffiths Head and Todd Point, today so clearly etched, though once half seen in swirling fog. But most of all I shall remember the monarchs, that unhurried westward drift of one small winged form after another, each drawn by some invisible force. We talked a little about their migration, their life history. Did they return? We thought not; for most, at least, this was the closing journey of their lives.

But it occurred to me this afternoon, remembering, that it had been a happy spectacle, that we had felt no sadness when we spoke of the fact that there would be no return. And rightly — for when any living thing has come to the end of its life cycle we accept that end as natural.

For the Monarch, that cycle is measured in a known span of months. For ourselves, the measure is something else, the span of which we cannot know. But the thought is the same: when that intangible cycle has run its course it is a natural and not unhappy thing that a life comes to an end.

That is what those brightly fluttering bits of life taught me this morning. I found a deep happiness in it — so I hope, may you. Thank you for this morning.

Rachel  "

Front Door: Well Placed Pots

Well placed pots, below.  Aaaah, the front door, and landing, have space to breath.
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And a well fought battle, for simplicity.
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There's more, below.  Did you see it immediately too?  Ok, huge hint.  Goes under the heading of Cultural Anthropology.
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No?  Another hint?  Subhead, under Cultural Anthropology, Socioeconomics.  Got it now?
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Garden Design, below, blares its socioeconomics & cultural anthropology of this fine tuned realm within Garden Design layers.
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What does this Garden Design and maintenance tell you about the socioeconomics & cultural anthropology for this tribe of people, living in the home, below?



Pic, above, here.
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Beautiful display, above, of the socioeconomics & cultural anthropology of hedge pruning.  Here, above, the 'hedge' is Vertical Lawn, and a vine.  Am using 'hedge' flagrantly.
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Men, with ladders required, above.  Perhaps there's more to this home, higher hedge covered walls at the back elevation, and a cherry picker is required for pruning.
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In most gardens the socioeconomics & cultural anthropology of Garden Design pruning is pruning at chest height.  No ladder, no hired labor, do-it-yourself.
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Yes, an exquisite delight seeing the pruning, above.  For its rarity.
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Garden & Be Well,    XOT
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A friend moved from suburbia Atlanta to rural Georgia 2 decades ago, into an antebellum home.  At the time, thought she was crazy.  She said something memorable about the antebellum home purchase, "It comes with a cherry picker."  Recently, they've sold that home, cherry picker included !

Saul Zaik: Integrated Indoor & Outdoor Spaces

Zipping with speed thru pics, this deck, below, stopped me.
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A hearty bravo to the brainwave.  Then, overdose-on-a-theme, the roof !
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Another bravo to whoever designed the interior of this home, from my favorite vantage point, the garden.  Landscaping along the windows is a bit odd, glass rectangle edged with ferns, creating a terrarium'ish style.  What to do instead?  (First, replace sofa with a pair of similar styled chairs, that turn 360.  Why the fortification of sofa only looking in?)  Remove ferns & existing path, replace with bluestone rectangles, sized in width from outer edge of deck, fully to the house, scaled in length to each window, spaced the same distance apart as the window frames.


Pic, above, here.
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Color of patio chair, echoed inside with the bowl, and dark gray from chimney top to foundation.
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Next.  Axis looking into the home is marvelous.  What is its opposite axis?  Double axis.  If you have a focal point in one direction you must have another in the opposite.  Has me curious.
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Lawn & large shrub at corner are thriving, sculptural.
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Almost a Garden Design course in a single pic.
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Garden & Be Well,    XOT
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Notice the gutters at the roof line?  Great example of darkish color rising up into the roof.  Too often, gutters are painted much lighter than a roof, pulling the height of the roof lower.  Another counterintuitive Garden Design layer.