How to Tame Trouble

Met a new client last nite with a no-mans-land of trees/ivy/invasives/drainage ditch/weeds.  Its ownership 'looks' like it could be their property or their neighbors.

What to do is quite easy.

An entry & path will instantly take ownership and tame the trouble.
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Clearing invasives, controlling ivy/weeds, planting desirable understory trees & etc... will take a bit more time.  Happily, now there is a road map.
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Garden & Be Well,             XO Tara
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Exciting times, their brown brick home with brown shutters will soon be WHITE !
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Pic Litchfield Hills, lost provenance of photographer.

How to Hide an Eyesore

If you have an eyesore place a focal point nearby.

Trying to hide the faucet would have drawn more attention to it.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken at jobsite earlier this month.  Most often, hiding eyesores does draw them greater attention.

So What is the Most Important Element of Architecture?

A small handful of homes during my decades of garden & home renovation have packed a surprise.

They appear 'normal' when I park at the first visit.  Knocking at the front door the surprise is apparent.

Saying to myself, "......this home is HUGE."
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The reasons must be many for the illusion.  Top of the list is, proportion.
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Ironic, architecture & life have so much in common.  Proportion.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pics taken at job site, same home as previous post.  Perhaps this is the magic ingredient of architecture engaging Thomas Jefferson........1789 Mar. 24. (to Joseph Willard) "We have spent the prime of our lives in procuring [young men] the precious blessing of liberty. Let them spend theirs in shewing that it is the great parent of science and of virtue; and that a nation will be great in both always in proportion as it is free."

2 Types of Garden Design

The underbelly of my profession sometimes falls under the heading of design-build-maintain.

Aka, fox-designing-the-hen-house, cliche.

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Low front windows?  Sure, design shrubs growing to 15', they'll need pruning 2x/year.  Why design groundcovers, mulch needs replacing yearly.  And the list grows: mowing weekly, fertilizer & chemical treatments, irrigation, annual beds.

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This type of landscaping has its place.  Yet this type of landscaping is hardly low-maintenance & frugal.  It just 'appears' to be.  Mr. Testosterone-on-wheels-mow-blow-go-commodify-all-I-touch is happy to put you on contract.  Again, this type of landscaping has its place, I get that.  

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Why mention it?  Because it's incredibly sad to my heart.  Historic garden design feeds the soul, pollinator habitat, doesn't poison ground water, increases property value, reduces hvac expense, reduces maintenance, has little yearly expense,  & etc....  

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic taken at jobsite this month.  I didn't do the original design decades ago.  We've recently replaced mulch with groundcover at the foundation.  Luckily part shade slows her plantings from fast growth.  So, we did not replace them.

Life Demands Simplicity

Children, grandchildren, caretaking elderly parents, a beach house.  And, a husband.

Time for a needy garden?  None.  

 Have been working with this garden & in awe of her simplicity for over a decade.  Most important, she's always known she did not want her garden to have 'flowers' as the focus.  Greens & shapes are her 'thing'.  Humbling, she began where I took decades to arrive.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Why exactly would garden centers wish you to have a garden like hers?  Not much to sell you thru the years.
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Sadly, French doors in top pic are new.  Never fun to spend money on infrastructure.  Bling is more fun.
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Lucky me, yet another Southern matriarch to work with & know.  Why is that special?  Enjoying their knowing laughter about life.

Linda Maddox: Kitchen Renovations

Wish I had known, from the start of my career, to take pics of all the powder rooms I've seen.

This powder room tops my favorites list, and is being renovated into a butlers pantry.  

A peek at the 'before' kitchen, below.

I've worked with this client's garden several times thru the years.  Ironically, it's my own team doing the gut renovation for the kitchen, powder room, & mud room.
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Kitchen plans were drawn by Linda Maddox.  What she configured has left me in awe.  Will show off her talent, and that of my team, when it's done.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics taken at jobsite last month.  I see 'big name' kitchens often and know Linda Maddox could do a reality show with any of them and most likely win.  Have never met her, nor seen a completed kitchen of hers in person but what I saw with the plans at this site, oh my.  She doesn't know it yet but we will meet at some point this year!

Choosing Happy

"The more you try to fathom it, the more fathomless it is revealed to be.  No matter how much of your self you are able to objectify and examine, the quintessential, living part of yourself will always elude you, i.e., the part that is conducting the examination.  Thus you do not solve the mystery, you live the mystery.  And you do that not by fully knowing yourself but by fully being yourself."   Frederick Buechner

I was once afraid to create the garden in my imagination.  Deed restrictions & a spouse both parroting, "You can't do that."
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Death of loved ones, infertility treatments, little money, alcoholic spouse, blah-blah, whatever, yawn.  Unhappiness grew too deep.
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Oh my the blessings of unhappiness.  I CHOSE to be happy.  Created my garden.  Grace entered.  Now, decades of joy.
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Many of you already know, because you live it, happiness is a choice each day.  No matter the circumstances.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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In my career I meet so many on the cusp of choosing joy.  Though they don't know that's what they are choosing, yet.  Ironic, these thoughts come from meeting a 50+ woman angry at the world & demanding from the world ease & support.  Without working for it herself.  She is a joy to behold, in gratitude her life is not mine.  More, she is humbling, I could be her but my unhappiness grew too great to carry.  It's all in our choices.  Happiness harbors power.       
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Pic via 5th & State.

Garden Jewelry: Windows

This kitchen was a 1980's time capsule at my first visit earlier this year.

With kitchen & house renovations complete I was back at the jobsite this month to fine tune garden plans.

The kitchen window is new too.

From the garden, below, the window is pure jewelry.

The bricks were saw cut to enlarge the opening, barely visible, and soon the bricks will be lime washed.
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Exciting times, I've never worked with a window so stunning.  Sure, we'll have cobblestone edging & a stone terrace but the window will still be the focal point.
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Have known for years exterior lighting is jewelry for the garden, now windows are added to the list of jewels.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pics taken at jobsite this month.

What Can You Do With a Blank Wall?

Along the side of her home she wanted to know about plant spacing.  Move them closer, prune larger, replace?  Perhaps none of those I said.  It's easy spacing for routine maintenance,  pressure washing or painting.

We decided leave-well-enough-alone!

Next.  What to do about the blank wall?  Espalier a shrub, plant a small tree?

Yes, the wall needs something but let's keep it simpler.

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Her home is historic Williamsburg, we are sourcing a reproduction wall mounted sundial now.  Of course it can't be too small.  Scale matters here.

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Fun, the hunt is on.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken at jobsite this month.

How to Get Guests to the Front Door Instead of the Back Door

Welcome to the front door.   Many park here, below, the family parking court, then walk to the back door.

Perhaps a pair of historic marble urns at the granite step?  An invitation of welcome to the front door.  Not in the original plan but something shouting possibility.

By car, above/below, a drop off at the brick path.  Another possibility shouting!

Front door, above.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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History & subtlety are major goals in this garden.  For decades I've known if mistakes are made they must be on the side of Too Simple.  Easier & cheaper to add something later than to undo paths, trees, bushes....  This isn't a mistake merely the garden speaking its wisdom and us paying attention.

Humility in Teamwork for a Garden

They gathered under the mulberry tree & I knew to stay away.

I know the value of their collaborations without me.  Homeowner, crew chief, general contractor.

Don't want my strong personality to discourage new ideas.

After their gathering, there are plenty of moments to walk & talk with each of them.  Of course we meet as a 4some but getting their unfiltered ideas is precious to the garden.
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Humility.  Odd how easy it is to be humble for a garden.      
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken this month at a jobsite.  Amazing how often an off-hand comment is the 'exact' magic a garden needs.  This garden also has Silent Partner.   By far the team member with the most humility.

Furniture on the Porch

Hydrangea 'Tardiva' are so easy you must

really plant enough to give blooms away.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pic taken at jobsite this week.  H. 'Tardiva' begin blooming in August and will grow into a small tree in full sun where they thrive.

Before + After: Path & Hedges

Hedges + paths are designed, and installed, before the borders.  Hedges + paths are the backbone-skeleton-workhorses of the garden.

Hedges + paths, above, 2 years ago.

Yesterday, above/below, with borders filled-in.

Follow this garden design rule and you'll save labor-money-time.

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TIME, more important than labor-money.  No person can manufacture more time.

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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

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Bottom 2 pics taken at jobsite yesterday, top pic taken 2 years ago.

Do you really know what you're looking at?

Young fruit trees, meadow & guilds.

Targeted plantings to increase pollinators to the flowering fruit trees.  Increasing fruit production 60%-80%.
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Pollination guilds have been used well before Christ's era.  Without them, people could die.  How did we lose this basic knowledge?  Worse, today, meadows & guilds are sprayed with weed killers and fruit trees are genetically modified to be resistant to those weed killers.
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I'm a proponent of fruit orchards & guilds for schools instead of vegetable gardens.  Much easier to caretake, greater lifespan, & pollinator habitat is increased.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pic taken in client garden this month.  Jefferson followed us across the acres!  He knows it is all about him.  A bit more about guilds.

Subsidiary Focal Point

Tucked in 'as if' it were being worked.

Subsidiary focal point.

Yes, this client is waltzing with her garden now.  Leading too.
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She surprised me with this little cart.  And was correct, never seen one before.  Years of fun ahead with this cutie.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pics taken this month in client garden.  We've worked almost 3 years to get to this point.  Pure play.  Of course plantings still arriving in layers too.

On the Porch: Table Toppers

The clay in her county is well known for its pottery.

Her bouquet of comfrey reminds me I've never once planted it myself.

The wicker arrived from a local junk shop a couple of summers ago.
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Her childhood and most of adulthood were in subdivisions yet on acreage she wields latent powers, including the placing of livestock fencing.
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Profoundly miserable in the subdivision, what if she didn't follow her soul to this acreage, instead going to a therapist?
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pics taken at jobsite this month.  Watching her is to bear witness.  Providence in action.  Humbling.    

Do You Know When to Edge a Gravel Drive?

Soon the crape myrtles will arc & touch over the gravel lane.

Designing this century old property back-to-its-history the edges of the gravel lane, above, have been designed with extreme concern.  Perhaps you think they are undone?  Not considered?  Messy?  Amazing how subdivision landscape design taints perceptions.  I can see Flannery O'Conner walking down this lane not a curbed concrete ribbon in one of today's subdivisions.
 

Yet, at the end of the crape myrtle lane, above, a parking court is tucked in with neatly clipped hedges & gravel edged with cobblestones.  Formality.  Bang.  Huge garden design decisions not meant to be 'noticed', but, deeply intuited.  Even by those not interested in gardens.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pics at jobsite last week.

Overdose on a Theme: Coke

  We knew the red table was perfect.  

In context, above.  Overdose on a theme.

Out of context, above.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pics taken last month shopping with client.  We knew another layer had arrived for her property and had a successful day at Scott Antique.  Ironic, how many times have I passed things by because I saw no context!
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Remember well when I could not tolerate any garden design rules.  Any.  Now, quite a few are my favorites.  Overdose-on-a-theme is at the top of the list!

Work in the Barn

Left open with intention.

Come inside.

Unfinished & mostly empty, the old barn has pulled us inside for over 2 years.  Structural & mice & wind & electric & rain & heating & flooring issues are done.
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The completed list is a definition for 'beloved'.
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Big plans.  Of course you will be kept in the loop.  And I'm sure, one day, invited.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pics taken at jobsite this week.  Incomplete, the power of intention is already producing results from this space of grace.  Often I design the Poverty Cycle into plans.  This barn is literally historically from America's poverty cycle.  Top pic is instructive.  Do I include that much integrity of personal character from the hand-heart-mind that built this barn?  A rich thought, humbled by a barn.          

Desk & End Table on the Porch

Perfect place to get a few things done on the laptop, a quick lunch, perhaps a grandchild coloring?

Maybe it's only an extra chair.

A magic table:  end table AND desk.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken yesterday at jobsite.  Did you notice the garden view in the top pic?  Decades of experience, studies in historic gardens across Europe, college, seminars, knowing  simplicity is the 'skill'. .