Tone Change: Basket

The basket, below.  Changes the tone, with intellect.  A bit light hearted, a little sassy, nice narrative, good textural contrast.
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Lightweight, easy to use.  Keep plant in its nursery pot, no worries.  If the bottom rots away, who cares, basket still perfect for your needs.  Use whatever rubbish at hand to raise potted plant to correct height.  Spanish moss at the rim, if needed, to hide the pot.
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Best place I've found these baskets?  Thrift store.  Especially the 'laundry hamper' round (classic) or rectangular (modern) baskets.
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Brought one home last weekend, $5, best find ever, about 4' tall, round & tapered toward its bottom, the style depicted in 18th century French toile fabrics/wallpapers.  Go me !!
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Destined for the front porch atop a table, sourcing the perfect plant after Thanksgiving.  Anticipation.  Oh my.


Pic, above, here.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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No, not all laundry hampers suitable, many rather repulsive.  You'll know.  You've got this.  Enjoying buying for my ca. 1900 American farmhouse.  Much not suitable, would look stupid.  Another reason to choose a theme, and overdose on it.  Shopping easier, faster.  

Design: Binary Thinking vs. Jungle Thinking

At the front end of having a garden, finally, after college graduation, not counting the garden whispering decades prior, from birth to 22 years old, I knew if I loved a plant, it was the right plant to acquire and put into my garden.
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I was so happy, get plant, put into garden, next please !  Worse than a Labrador chasing a stick.  Much worse.  Growing up with a Texas'tude, making it my own, Tara'tude, works in many/most situations, total fail in tiny amount of others.  But that tiny amount, a mushroom cloud, Fail.
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Binary thinking did not create a beautiful garden.  How could Tara'tude know it had approached a multi-layered nuance of perfection, eons old?
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Binary thinking?  If I think a plant is fabulous, it will make my garden fabulous.  Binary thinking, closed loop, fiasco in the making.  "If you want to understand how a lion hunts you don't go to the zoo, you go to the jungle."  David Sable.  Binary thinking, about creating the garden of your dreams, literally what you've saved to Pinterest, keeps you at the zoo.  So long as you are in the zoo, those who've marched on, to the jungle, see.  Your mushroom cloud isn't the elephant in the room to us.
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No worries, the jungle also taught us to be matriarchs.  We benevolently await, nurture, and enjoy anyone leaving the zoo, walking into the jungle.  If you've read this far, welcome to the jungle.  "No truly great thinker is siloed in a small territory."  
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Here's what I know, too, about gardens & binary thinking.  Remember, these thought processes were my mushroom cloud, until I saw exactly where to enter the jungle.
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Taken from, Creating a Growth Mindset, by Carol Dweck, "You don't believe in growth, you believe in right and wrong and any suggestion of change or adaptation is considered a criticism.  Challenges or obstacles tend to make you angry and defensive."  "Blame is a big part of the fixed mindset."  And, oh my, didn't all those pretty gardens cost a lot to create?  That was my excuse, my blame, not enough $$$.
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Blessedly I wanted a beautiful garden more than I wanted to be right.  Providence entered, 1985, when I bought myself a birthday present.  A garden book.  Little knowing , English Cottage Gardens, by Ethne Clarke, was my portal into the jungle.  Pics and writing devoured in a long afternoon, the epiphany arrived before sunset.  Gardens are not about plants, Gardens are about backdrop.  The house, the country side, your neighbor's air-conditioner.  At those points you enter the jungle.
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Great Dixter, below, is great backdrop.  Same garden, below, would not be so wonderful at a mid-century brick ranchburger, worse, in winter.  In winter, below, historical oast houses take the stage, a ranchburger, no.  Enter the jungle.  What do you need to do to create your mid-century brick ranchburger into a stunning backdrop?  Color, light fixtures, window treatments & views into them from the garden, where to place proper evergreens for beauty in February, create flow with paths and lawn, solve every slope issue, put focal points on axis from inside the house, perhaps a new front door, moving the foundation hedge out from the base of the house, create 3-D elements on the flat walls, for starters.  Jungle thinking !    


Pic, above, here.



Pic, above, here.

Both Great Dixter garden rooms, above/below, would be a mushroom cloud fail at most USA subdivision homes, in a front yard.  All those pretty flowers, above/below, are beautiful 2-4 weeks/year, many months of the year they are herbaceous, disappearing.  Worse, these garden rooms are high maintenance, needing, dead-heading, dividing, weeding, all for a measly 2 weeks of glory?  Not a viable option for most.  Except for me during my days living/thinking in the zoo.  Sure, I was the perennials queen, planted them with exuberance, got on the board of the Georgia Perennial Plant Association, yet seeing my garden, it was not fabulous.  Every perennial above/below you can be sure I've had.
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Once in the jungle I knew, for me & my time/money, no more perennials, only flowering shrubs, trees, groundcovers, bulbs and my house as backdrop.


Pic, above, here.
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My journey from binary thinking in a silo, to fully fledged member of the jungle, is never dull, nor stops.  More, it has brought an authenticity, an ability to traverse worlds within worlds.  An abiding joy, a grace and atonement.  "We're not particularly well integrated.  One of the curiosities can be the differences, rather than the similarities, between people walking down the street--differences in expectation and privilege, in wealth and opportunity.  It's not tension or aggression, but a kind of guarded indifference.  We coexist rather than create communities."  Anthony Minghella.  'The more we go inward the more we outwardly connect', don't be afraid of the jungle.  You'll discover it to be the most incredible community.  Scare yourself, what it gives in return is beyond measure.  The pearl of great price.  Selfishly, when you do, I want to see your garden, and know your journey.  Your mushroom cloud fails too.  
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Adore the laughter with others in the jungle, sharing their fails !
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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Ok, I'll give you 1 particular sentence from a friend's journey in the jungle. "I had no car after the divorce so worked at the dry cleaners nearby, I could walk to work, one morning opening the drive through window, there were 3 cars already waiting, each with a man, I was dating all 3.   Yep, the story gets better.  In addition to money issues, she has cronic health issues.  But, oh my, you should see her garden.  Through it all, you should see her garden.  

Hedging Properly

Almost on the edge of 'too busy', below, for me, the landscaping calms the interior.  I think the windows slide up far enough for ease of walking inside/outside.  Vanishing threshold of interior/garden, perfect.
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But that's a rabbit hole, and not where I'm going with this garden, below.
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Millions of mid-century to ca. 1990 ranch homes across USA, have the same landscape, below.  Except they don't know it.  Those millions of ranch homes were sold with a ribbon of green meatballs spanning the front foundation, and since then, those plantings have been pruned into a gruesome story.
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Plant abuse, millions of those green meatballs want to be tall & wide bushes or trees.  Faithfully, decades of hacking, keeping them in line.  Literally.
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Won't go any further, too gruesome, you know the game, seen it your entire life.  In defense of that ribbon of green meatballs, they are required by law to close on new construction.  However, they did not have to be in their particular configuration.
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Using those same gruesome hacked green meatballs, dig them up, in winter, planting them in a tapestry hedge away from the house, exactly as, below.  See it?  Millions of those ranch homes with foundation green meatballs face the street, and worse, are not too far from the street.  Poof, cars gone.  Double poof, toxic fumes/particulates dramatically decreased.  Triple poof, noise reduced.  Quadruple poof, privacy added.  Quintuple poof, aesthetics added, property value increased, no more looking at neighbor's homes.  Sextuple poof, lifestyle enhanced.  Septuple poof, many will have reduced HVAC expenses blocking summer sun-winter winds.  Octuple poof, pollinator habitat increased by a logarithmic factor.  N-tuple poof, maintenance reduced.  Let me know what I've missed.
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Odd to imagine so many millions of people choose to live with a gruesome green ribbon of meatballs, instead of using what they have, differently.  I hear Anne of Green Gables, "With a little imagination."


Pic, above, here.
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More than secular, all of the above, the Divine.  G*d Almighty first created a garden.  Garden, above, is biblical.  Quickly with gardens, Sacred vs. profane, surfaces.  Amazing, keeping green meatballs, yet moving them, transitions profane, to Sacred.
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What began planted by the rules of filthy lucre, hacked & ignored for decades, can become Sacred.  Power of intention, indeed.
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In metaphor to moving those gruesome green meatballs I hear Charlton Heston, "Let my people go."
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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(Paradise | Define Paradise at Dictionary.com

www.dictionary.com/browse/paradise

heaven, as the final abode of the righteous. ... late 12c., "Garden of Eden," from Old French paradis "paradise, Garden of Eden" (11c.), from Late Latin paradisus, from Greek paradeisos "park, paradise, Garden of Eden," from an Iranian source, cf. Avestan pairidaeza "enclosure, park ...)
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(Daily Bible Study - What Is Filthy Lucre?

www.keyway.ca/htm2010/20101022.htm

Oct 22, 2010 - The English word "lucre" originated from a French word, lucre, which itself originated from a Latin word, lucrum, which meant to gain, or to profit ...)

Control Amongst Chaos

A scintilla of control, below, amongst the rusticities.  Perfect.
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Does the scintilla jump out at you too?


Pic, above, here.
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Formally clipped boxwood, above, without ego, no fear, total matriarchs, framing perennials, climbers, flowering shrubs for their turn owning the stage.
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Take this vignette into winter, and a dusting of snow.  Oh my, those matriarchs know what they are doing.
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Gardens must be designed for winter, before the ease of late spring/early summer.
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More good design in this garden, above, but won't take that path at present.  Photographer perfectly captured the scintilla of control over chaos so brilliantly.
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Have you already figured out the percentage of control to chaos, above?  No?  Hmm.  Get to it.
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These matriarchs, above, teaching a pertinent tale.  Wild chaos can reign, in beauty, with a hint of control.
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Adore the temporality of this particular moment.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Easy Garden Furniture

Furniture in the garden has intrigued me from childhood.  Thankfully, my parents had a cool iron chair, I adored.  Bought new in the 60's, it had arms, tall back, detachable iron 'bonnet', separate foot rest, it turned 360, rocked, and had nice cushions.  I rocked, whirled, read books, and even napped, with my orange marmalade cat, Tigger, in that chair on the screened porch with deep overhangs, Galveston Bay always hot/humid.  Most memorable moment in the chair, awakened from a nap by a loud chorus of tree frogs.  Looking around, none visible.  Still, the chorus.  Found them, by the 100's, rimming the underside of the chair cushion.  Managed to hop out faster than an Olympian, without harming a single tree frog.  50 years later, I cannot see a tree frog without thinking of that chair.
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Time passed, mom gave the chair away.  I see those chairs occasionally in advertising, or at antique shop.  None, complete with bonnet & foot rest.  A good thing, I would probably buy the chair, if it were complete.
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Dad had the worst end of the deal with that iron chair.  Cleaning the patio, hosing it off, he had to move the chair at least once a month.  Maybe it was him, glad to give the chair away.
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Now, easily moved garden furniture is the hunt.  Aside from lightweight, it must have arms, a back tall enough to rest the head back, and nap.  More than the personal, garden furniture must leverage having friends in the garden.  Create a setting for conversation, laughter, lingering.  Especially after meals.


Pic, above, here.
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Have the good fortune of sourcing 3 of the wicker chairs, above.  Each for a song.
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Amusing to see Freud in a photo new to me, attracted by the outdoor furniture, round circle of iron in the railing contrasting so well with squares of the French doors, and those chows.  Freud.  Not my cup of tea, more Jungian.  Thankful for both.
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That balcony.  So much narrative, without a word, wisely playing backdrop.  Yet, take away the man/dogs, the backdrop narrative immediately jumps forward, owning the stage.
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These are the things I design in gardens.  Some, too rich, think it's all about a few bushes and a little garden furniture.  Those, are not my tribe.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Cluttered and Sparse

Notice the straw basket, below?  Used as accent inside, and in the garden.  Dropped a load at the thrift store last weekend, ending with the obligatory slow aisle walk.  Two incredible baskets, with eye dropping low prices, brought home.
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Cozy garden room, below, draws me in.  Makes me realize my garden materials yard should be merchandised a bit.  While our garden is undergoing macro work, I wander into the materials yard, about 2x/month, knowing it fills me with joy, and strength.  Surveying what remains of my 30 year garden, anticipating how it will all be used in our ca. 1900 American farmhouse garden.


Pic, above, here.


Pic, above, here.
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At the same time this garden room, above, has my heart.  Spare, all year interest, little maintenance.
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Will create both garden rooms, cluttered & sparse, yeah, providing joy to 2 parts of my brain.  Only dozens more to go, life is good.
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Garden & Be Well,    XOT

Front Door Garden Design

One reason, below, I must see your home interior before being able to design its garden.
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Was it obvious, at first glance, below, the problem?
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A dark foyer.
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Many houses I've designed the 'matching' glass door.  We source the door to match the existing front door, and our carpenter cuts away the panels, replacing with glass.
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Have never tabulated a list, but so much about Garden Design does not involve plants.


Pic, above, here.
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Have had the opportunity to walk into several big box stores this fall, always going in via the Garden Center.  Vulgarians at the gate have won.  Literally.  Greetings via shelves, rows of shelves, dedicated to chemicals, and seemingly innocuous fertilizer.  Beware, n-p-k fertilizer is toxic to ground water, kills earthworms, kills mycorrhizal fungi on roots.
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Had a knowing laugh reading Schopenhauer yesterday, "When we read, another person thinks for us; we merely repeat his mental process.........read themselves stupid."  Yep.  Me.  At the front end of gardening I read myself stupid.  Realized popular garden writing wasn't for me, went back to college for horticulture degree, more stupid.  To the core of my DNA, knew it was stupid.  Thus began decades of studying historic gardens across Europe.  No more books, foot on Earth.
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Then to Machiavelli, "A wise man ought always to follow the paths beaten by great men and to imitate those who have been supreme, so that if his ability does not equal theirs, at least it will savour of it."
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On to Seneca, "Men who have made these discoveries before us are not our masters but our guides."
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Further with Farnum Street, "We need to digest, synthesize & organize the thoughts of others if we are to understand....It's how we acquire wisdom.  How we acquire foundational knowledge.....Without this foundational knowledge we are unable to separate the signal from the noise."
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Vernacular Design

Ralph Lauren, below, more vernacular than the locals.
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Vernacular, single biggest surprise moving into our ca. 1900 American farmhouse.  Moving from a Cottage garden, 30 years there, knew it would be different.  Though correct, missed 'how' different by leagues.
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What does that mean?  Most of what I brought from my Cottage Garden to our ca. 1900 American Farmhouse garden, looked s-t-u-p-i-d.  Two truckloads of Cottage Garden went to the local thrift store.
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Did you see Leonard Cohen's obit in NYTimes today?  His song lyrics vernacular to the human condition.  He gives to his readers/listeners more of their own DNA.  What he gives to other singers of his songs?  Too wild.  It IS their song.  And, that is art.  Leonard's special art, beyond his writing.
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No, your garden doesn't have to solely choose the vernacular of your home's architecture, if you have a deep vernacular within yourself.  What does that mean?  You like all things French, overdose on your French theme.  Overdose.  Timidity shows.  Better to wear your heart on your sleeve than expose a lack of resolve.
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So, Garden Design rules.  Most, simply excuse them into oblivion.  Drive thru any neighborhood, no matter the price point, proof, rest my case there.  Using historic Garden Design rules, liberates you into your own vernacular.
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Is this easy?  No.  You must be broken to bits, and put back together, before you understand, it's easy.  Only then, has the vernacular of your DNA been allowed to surface.  


Pic, above, here.
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Garden & Be Well,  XOT

Garden Design: Design in the Silence

Garden Room, below, designed around the Grace of silence, speaking volumes.


Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Many compulstions to have in a garden.  The best compulsion?  Simplicity.
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Garden & Be Well,     XOT

Garden Design Course: In a Photo

More a Garden Design course, below, than simply another garden.  What can you label, below, as the Garden Design 'rules' followed?  Decades I've taught at the local college and Atlanta Botanical Garden.  Never, ever, tire of this phase of Garden Design.  Name it to claim it.  If you know what you are looking at, and can name it.  YOU can do it.
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Color, contrast, flow, layers, mystery, expanse, minutia, shapes.
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Color, did you know green gardens are the 'fastest' to look like something?  Green gardens are also calm, less drama, perhaps best said, more of the right drama.  Then, within the green are myriad greens.
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Contrast, big leaves next to small leaves, rounded shapes next to cone shapes, woody plants next to herbaceous.
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Flow, the pathway has me, feet want to travel, finding what's around the curve, mystery.
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Layers, all checked, pocket of open sky, canopy trees, understory trees, walls of tall bushes, wainscoting of medium bushes, low bushes/groundcovers are flooring & carpet.
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Space too large, 100's of acres, a garden room similar, below, nearish your house will warm & own the expanse.  Space to small, neighbors homes jutting into your face, a garden room similar, below, around your home, creates a huge landscape, eyes drawn to the expanse of canopy trees and sky, which is infinite.
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Minutia of hair like foliage, velvet like moss on the trees, chartreus with dark greens and etc.  Drama change for winter, the garden, below, holds together in all seasons.


Pic, above, here.

Understanding the Garden Design 'rules' and principles, above, please tell me this makes you laugh, below, in the 'knowing' what they've done, below.  Well done, dramatic pairing, fun drama with Garden Design 'rules'.

 
Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, I shot yesterday in our garden.
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Yesterday, my harvest table was finally unloaded from the truck.  Temporary location while 'macro' garden construction is completed, you know, drilling a well, graveling drives, renovating sheds, adding a porch, and too much other garden infrastructure keeping me away from my beloved 'micro' gardening.
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Laskett immediately on top of harvest table, owning it.  Behind him, the materials yard awaiting its new barn.  Yes, chaos of materials yard getting on my last nerve.  Alas, at least another full year before it's cleared.
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Harvest table denotes 1st move into my shed, Beloved using my shed until his barn built.  "Where is the Gator going if you put your harvest table there?", Beloved asks.  "No, they both won't fit there.", he responds to my answer.  I smile in return, thinking, "Go away, I've got this."  Poof Beloved's gone, I arrange table, Laskett & I do what we do so well together, bask in each other's adoring presence, Laskett affirms every thought in my head.  Sitting a moment to shoot table/Laskett/setting sun, I glance at the open space for the Gator, with a smile.
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With great pleasure, I walk to the gravel drive where the Gator is parked, crank it up, pull it into it's new space, 2' to spare, turn the Gator off, pull the brake lever up enjoying its sound, surveying the Gator's new domain.  Beloved still working in back at the pond, Laskett & I walk to the house, gardening day done.
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Best irony about my shed, it's a century old, Beloved moved it last year, renovated it, new walls, new window, new door, new floor, added a tin roof to two sides, and it's my shed.  We knew up front he had to use my shed for many of his things, many, until his barn is built.  Has been a great chapter getting here, I'm not in that chapter anymore.    You've already noticed this new chapter title, My Shed.
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Thought you would appreciate a little raw reality gardening.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO T

  
    

Reducing Electric Bill Summer/Winter: Trees

"The loss of trees in the planet's water cycle is critical to the advancement of climate change.  their removal exposes land to the drying effects of the sun.  Trees also play an important role in absorbing greenhouse gases."  NASA
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Trees are pollinator hosts, and feeders.  How much of our beneficial gut biome is dependent upon bacterias dependent upon trees further up their life stream?  Watershed management from trees in incalculable.  
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This isn't about climate change, here, trees are about money.  
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Early in Obama's tenure, he said in a speach I saw, not something I read, Americans should be paying more, a lot more, for energy.  Almost double.  He got my attention.  That fall, I planted 2 more deciduous trees, deftly targeted, and not small, they arrived in their 35 gallon pots, about 8' tall.  Years earlier trees were planted to shade my home from the afternoon thru setting sun, deciduous, once leaves fall bright sunshine helped heating.     
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Once the threshold of 'affordable' energy was threatened, I was more than willing to shade my beloved mid-morning sun.  
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In our new house, ca. 1900 American farmhouse, it is a classic of energy use for its era. Coal.  We have 4 coal fireplaces, none working.  More, it's a central hall design, 9' wide X 50' long, 11' ceilings.  Rooms along each side 'had' a door leading into another room.  Odd, yes?  Each door into the central hall has its original thick, tight fitting door threshold at bottom.  Not something I wondered about, until living through our first winter.  Flash, epiphany.  Our home was designed for all the central hall doors to remain closed in winter, the central hall was not heated.  Passing from room to room, via their interior doors.
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In summer, the central hall, aka dogtrot, pulled the breeze, cooling the house.  Several century old pecan trees remain, none properly sited for cooling in summer.  An evergreen magnolia was planted at a western flank within the past 2 decades.  Oh no.  Plenty of blocking against summer sun, alas, blocking the winter sun too.  How we wish that magnolia were an oak.  Money in the bank if it was.  
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Trees.  It's really all about trees.  How trees aid water in the forest vs. suburbs, here.  Including how trees remove toxins & metals too.  I know you're busy, save to read the link later, it's that interesting.


Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.

Gingko tree, above, commonly lose their leaves in a day.  And that day has the fragrance of cooking sugar.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Jekyll Island, Driftwood Beach, above.  Have never been to Jekyll Island and not seen a bride/groom/photographer coming/going from Driftwood Beach.  Finally, walked Driftwood Beach this year, 1st time.  Only one word comes to mind, to describe being on Driftwood Beach, Sacred.
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Trees.

Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Small Space or Budget: Best Garden Table Shape

When space or funds are limited there is, indeed, a best table shape for your garden.  Choices.  I believe in creating life choices.  Trickle down theory, you must choose a garden table giving you choices.
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This seems a small point, it's not.  "Try not to THINK so much!", Doctor Rawlins told Jim in, Empire of the Sun.  Lucky me, all things garden, it's my job to think so much.
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When funds or space are tight in your garden, choose, below, a square or rectangular table.  Easily pushed next to your house, deck rail, a fence or wall.  Buy 2+ and place them end/end for a harvest table.  Choices.


Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.

Often, a client will have a round table when 2 rectangles will be better.  Most often the 'left over' round table, is used next to a garden bench, adding a couple of chairs and coffee table.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Love the round table, above. see lots of CHOICES with it !

Why Fall Planting is Best

Fall is for planting.  A longer window too.  In my zone, 8-7B, have not lost plantings from late September through Christmas, bought from nursery.  Beware nursery bought plants after Christmas, they have residual fertilizer activity and not hardened against the cold.
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Beware, too, camellias kept in covered greenhouses.  Nurseries keeping the blossoms 'pretty' for sale, yet weakening them to cold.  Won't kill them, typically, to the ground, yet camellias bought in fall from a covered greenhouse, then planted ahead of a hard freeze will burn significantly.
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Story line changes for fall & winter planting for plants already growing in your landscape.  Acclimated, I move them in winter.
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Another fall-is-for-planting fact.  Best plant sales of the year are ahead of Thanksgiving, clearing space for Christmas trees.
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Roots grow better in cool weather, better at getting established, versus roots being the workhorse for water transport to foliage during spring & summer.


Pic, above, here.
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I know, it's counter intuitive, fall-is-for-planting.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Monty Don: Innocence Has Been Sold

Garden tours in Atlanta became dicey about the 90's.  Not that gardens chosen were bad, inferior, worthy of complaint.  Yet, Garden Whisperers 'knew'.  Something new had arrived, alas, something of the old had disappeared.  



In the mid-90's touring an Atlanta, GA technically correct and considered lovely garden set in a street of McMansions I saw a friend who was on the Garden Tour committee.  Telling her of all the gardens already seen and my favorite parts, I looked around at the garden we were in and said, "These people are cold, I don't want to know them.", she said, "Oh, you've met them.".  Never met them, was sad to see their personalities writ large in their garden.  My friend said they were the most difficult homeowners to work with putting the garden tour together.  She said their garden would not be a 'repeat', ever.
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Why was their garden 'cold'?
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Reading Monty Don, A French Garden Journey: the Road to Le Tholonet, in bed last night, Don described my experience in the 'cold' garden many years before, and why, "They are still lovely and essentially unspoilt.  but there is a kind of self-knowing quality to them that was not there forty years ago.  The innocence has been sold....."
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Exactly, the 'cold' garden was totally paid for, not an ounce of 'magic', there was 'a sleekness and order that only money can buy'.  "It was like a fine-set face made puffy and bloated with years of ease."
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That last sentence had me laughing out loud, go Monty go.  Especially, 'years of ease'.  I have many clients with weekly lawn care and I always tell them they must take care of a certain area, by themselves, zero help.  How else to be connected to their garden?  Most things that I can do in my garden, I do.  Knowing, hiring out work I can do would become habit, and remove one of life's chief pleasures, and honor.  Working in my garden is, Washing of the servants feet.  Honoring, Nature.



Pics, above, The Gardens of Chateau Val Joanis.
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Garden, above, is not a 'cold' personal garden.  Yet, it had once been a richly warm residential garden, now, a commercial garden.  Don used this garden, above, in the chapters where I took his quotes, above, from.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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Kayaking, 1st time ever, this summer in the salt water marsh of Saint Simons Island, we reached a sand bar our guide wanted us to park at, and walk a bit.  Docking my kayak on the steeply sloped beach, the guide was quickly placing his hands on my arms, making sure I didn't fall awkwardly getting out of the kayak.  A very quick, "No, thank you."  He continued trying to help me, "No really, step away, thank you."  In the end, he did not step away, and kept both arms spread as if we were about to begin a ballroom waltz.  Ugh.  Nope.  Hope I'm well into my 90's still getting out of a kayak on a steep beach, by myself.  It has begun, I saw it with Rosemary Very during her 2 visits to Atlanta, many years apart, the transition from physical power to feminine power.  Great topic, Feminine Power, no time to go further now.

Simplicity of Narrative

Last question, finishing a Garden Design, What can I take out and it holds together?
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There is so little here, below.  Yet overwhelmed in layers of narrative.  I see a story/stories, below, you must, too.
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Not, simple-gardens-are-the-best, it is simple gardens including narratives of classic aesthetics across the ages, tied to the life of their home's interior, and owner, with an ease of maintenance, those are the gardens lasting centuries.


Pic, above, here.
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Front door, above, reminds me of a story I was told by a friend, decades ago, in Savannah, GA.  The story teller lived in the historic district.  The story told happened ca. 1950'ish.  An elderly widow lived in elegant deep decay in a large historic mansion.  Her handy-man, an African-American, took care of her, the house, garden, and it was well known he brought her food from one of the best restaurants, he waited tables there several nights a week.
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More, they lived outwardly their proscribed rolls. Yet, within her home they were lovers, in a committed relationship.  Further, the city knew, yet lived the lie.  Protecting both, beloved members of their community.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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The lady in the story, born 19th century, lived the story in 20th century, I'm telling you in the 21st century.  Her home still standing.

Deer & Armadillo Fencing

Two members of the Garden Design team, for my space at our ca. 1900 American farmhouse, control many choices at the front end.  Third member of the team is wildly controlling too.
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None of this overlooks a fourth controlling component, aging in place, me.
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For decades I've had the honor of older women, into their 70's plus, hiring me.  Their landscapes must be beautiful, and fully turn key.  Tough plants, easily maintained with minimal unskilled labor.  Check.
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Back to those original members helping design my new garden, deer, armadillo and the weather: brutal heat, humidity, drought, rains, occasional 0 f, strong winds throughout every season, and, the worst, a freeze in April after weeks of warm days.  Check.
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Oddly, with all the constraints, above, (after achieving acceptance) it's easier to create a Garden Design.  Fewer choices.
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Southern Indica azaleas will be many of my hedges.  Sun/shade, deer resistant, drought tolerant.  Better, their height & growth habit, below.


Pic, above, here.

Deer don't bother much with what they cannot see, they keep on walking.  Outside my garden, deer will see this, below.  Delightfully, more than solving a deer issue the azalea hedging will block views of the street/cars, and create garden rooms, walls.

 
Pic, above, here.

If deer were the only problem, azalea hedging would be deterrent enough.  Armadillo dig for worms/insects with their clawed feet and tapered snout.  Around since the dinosaurs, armadillo are not smart in expected ways.  Simple wire fencing at ground level guides them away, they won't dig under.
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I fully expect to be the first human to experience the first self aware male armadillo, who tunnels under my wire fencing, releases his pheromones to Pluto, and his harem arrives, delivering their typical 4 identical offspring with each pregnancy.
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Wire fencing, below, will be built, azalea foliage to grow thru, and obfuscate its presence, and armadillo.


Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.

Had to include this pic, above, the pruning is amazing.  Foliage/blossoms from top to bottom, achieved with pruning tapered, wider at bottom than top.  Then, the subtle change in height from left to right, as the Garden Design dictates need.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Hardest Question Asked

Designing the garden below, is it apparent at 1st glance once half the garden is designed, all the garden is designed?


Pic, above, here.

Beginning a Garden Design  on paper, a typical subdivision home/lot, once a quarter of the drawing is done, the plantings design is essentially completed for 100% of the drawing,
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Great example, below.  Once an allee of rectangular evergreen meatloafs were chosen half the space is complete.  I especially like their existing canopy trees, below, left in place no matter their asymmetry.  Creating a park-like walking avenue, with great geometry, yet sprinkling of Nature.  Good fortune being able to keep existing mature plantings, they age a new Garden Design.
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Notice the gravel, below, lapping at the base of the canopy trees?  Perhaps the greatest of their design choices.  Why?  Allows the axis of the avenue, from the house, to flow.  Boxing the trees, at their base with a square of cobblestones is poor punctuation, no longer a flowing avenue.

 
Pic, above, here.
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I don't think of plants first when beginning a Garden Design, I think of axis, flow, shapes, color, focal points, materials, finally, heights, layers and specific plants.
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Plants are the last thing I choose in a Garden Design.
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So.  When I find myself in a situation, socially, at someone's home I don't know, (which I try to avoid) they discover what I do for a living, they obviously truly don't care about Garden Design but wish to be polite making small talk about their landscape, and get a little free advice about a plant in the throes of death, arrives the DREADED question, after much build up, ta-da, they ask, "What plant should I put here?"
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I smile, nostrils flaired from earlobe to earlobe, feeling rather like a donkey with someone putting a heavy load on my back, and all I wanna do (thank you Sheryl Crowe) is buck their question to the moon (thank you Honeymooners).
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Honestly, "What plant goes here?", begins to cover what my eyes/mind/heart see?
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How do I say, "You'll need to move these, gesticulating gracefully with hand/arm upon half their realm, put in a flagstone path, 8' wide, on axis from that window, leading to a focal point at least 4' tall, on cross axis from........ another path beginning there.........leading to a roundabout........and there is your double axis to the subsidiary focal point....., after we decide your exterior color trinity......see into those windows upstairs and the 2 over there downstairs we need to change the interior design so it's gorgeous from the garden view and not showing.........the fence must be stained 2-3 tones darker than one of those trinity colors...........the windows there, & those too, must become French doors.....your deck is already old, great timing I'm here you would have probably rebuilt a similar deck, it needs to come off, with stone steps from the new French doors onto a new stone terrace extended beyond the end of where the deck was...........now it's obvious your patio furniture must all be replaced.......notice the myriad pots you have sprinkled about they need to be replaced with larger pots and a style/color chosen, I have 2 great resources at the merchandise mart you'll love them.....light fixtures on the house must be changed, you'll adore Laura Lee lighting they're online, flowing with the theme of your garden......oh, forgot to mention you must pick a theme for your garden and then overdose on your theme, of course all of this must flow from the front of your home........so, back to your question, we don't need a plant PUT HERE."
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Continuing my donkey grin, I typically say, Take the plant out when it dies, and let the other plantings grow to fill in.  And they are well confirmed that Garden Design is a ridiculous profession.
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Pic, above, here.

Question?
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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Pic, above, here.
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How many dinners, during childhood, did we sit down to the table, and dad had the Honeymooners on?  He loved to hear, Jackie Gleason say, "How sweet it is."  If we were talking, he would hold up a hand for silence, once Jackie Gleason was about to say ....
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Beloved played golf in high school.  He attended a major pro-golf tournament sponsored by Jackie Gleason, and has all the golf greats, of that era, autographs in the playbook.  Finally, close enough to ask for Jackie Gleason's autograph, it was not happening.  Jackie Gleason was wildly, happily, drunk, being driven to the clubhouse in a golf cart..
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All of the, above, happening at someone's home, on a tight budget, they obviously are newly thrilled with gardening, what fun !!  They get the, use- mostly- what- you- have-, hunt/gather, DIY, Garden Design and the entire evening has flown by, and they've ignored all their other guests !  No donkey.
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Yes, I see gardens intact, completed.  Designing them is taking dictation from Muse.  More, the dictation is at myriad price points, from no budget restraints, to total budget restraints.  No budget, love the pun.  My peers do the same, how we love our time together.  Conversation in our own shorthand language.  Time ceases to exist.  We've dipped into that joyful realm of eternity- on- Earth Joseph Campbell mentions.

Modern Garden Design

Modern Garden Design, below.
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Where are you on the pendulum, liking/disliking, this modern style Garden Design, below?
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Garden Design has not changed since well before, oodles of centuries, Christ's era.
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In my 20's I abhorred this style of Garden Design, below.  Too smart for that boredom.  A brain full of horticultural knowledge.
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Fully living, without awareness, thereby proving yet again in a new era, "Men come to build stately, sooner than to garden finely as if gardening were the greater perfection."  (The works of Alexander Pope, esq., with notes and illustrations, by ...

https://books.google.com/books?id=shcrAQAAIAAJ

Alexander Pope, ‎William Roscoe - 1847 - ‎Literary Criticism

Alexander Pope, William Roscoe. becomes on the instant, from a ... For the honour of this art," Lord Bacon says, " a man shall ever see, that when ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come to buildstately, sooner than to garden finely ; as if gardening were the greater perfection." — Warton. The taste in gardening, like all ...)

Pic, above, here.
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Heijlo, 1789, Archief Alkmaar, above.
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The simpler a Garden Design, the greater its Wisdom.  
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No ragrets the time nor money getting me to this simplicity, above.  Find it amusing, still, memories of strongly disliking Garden Designs, above.  
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Midnight on a too recent Saturday, sitting with a friend in a hospital emergency room, watching, We are the Millers, keeping reality at bay, while tests were being run, iv's inserted, shots given, pain endured.  Laughing yet again at everything, even laughing ahead of favorite scenes about to show.  News, not good, needed an ambulance to carry my friend to another hospital.  Greatly appreciative of that laughter, time in denial of reality.

We're the Millers Featurette - No Ragrets (2013) - Jennifer Aniston ...

▶ 1:33

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjkLKKgOMRY

Aug 9, 2013 - Uploaded by Movieclips Coming Soon

We're the Millers Featurette - No Ragrets (2013) - Jennifer Aniston Movie HD A veteran pot dealer creates a ...

Fear of Color

My sister, older than me, loves pink.  PINK.  Sadly, she lives in a gated neighborhood.  Not much pink, if any, legal in that controlled universe.
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Saving colors on Pinterest I save a lot of pink, wishing it was hers.
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There's more, she has little pink inside her house.  Don't know why.
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I do know, when time passed, and the day arrived, my starter home finally needed painting, I felt the need to 'conform'.  Painting it a color that made me happy?  Oh no, can't do that.  More time passed, my starter home needed painting again.  Time had finally given strength, to be me.  On went the Monet green paint.  Wow.  Made me so happy.  Who was that person, conforming to the grand void of worrying about what other people think?
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Where does 'color' fear come from?


Pic, above, here.

When the several billion dollar lottery comes my way, I know exactly where some of the money will go.  A country house, above, and a town house, below, bought for my sister.  With plenty of cash for her to do the interiors, maintain a staff & her new pink lifestyle.


Pic, above, here.

Truly, I'm curious to know my sister, as the woman living with her pink.


Pic, above, here.

Yep, I see us, above, lounging by her country pool, drinking tea, dogs wearing their pink collars, and I finally meet my real sister.  Mom looking on, saying, "You 2 are ridiculous.  What are we doing for lunch?"


Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.
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When it comes to your favorite color, are you afraid to dive in?  Don't be.  Trust it.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

3 Gardens: What Changes Would You Make?

Three Garden Design 'changes', below.  Each gorgeous home/garden, snagged the attention of Muse at first glance, below.
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Scroll thru, below, does your Garden Design 'eye' see instant changes to be made?  Never meant to bash a Garden Design, simply to make living better, or accentuate architecture with Garden Design as the tipping point.


Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Top pic, above, beautiful home wildly close to the road.  Remove foundation plantings, add steps to open up front porch.  Plant an evergreen hedge at the sidewalk, growing to 4', and add a simple gate, matching the style of the home, at the front walk.  Greater privacy, a sense of greater space, better views from the house, and buffering from the toxins of passing cars.
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Middle pic, above, incredible quality, gate, pierced brick wall, plantings, urns.  Site urns a bit wider, their scale demands more space, once moved the gate/columns appear more generous, not so tight.
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Bottom pic, above, a tightly packed neighborhood, yet the porch is mostly private.  Go team.  To add the illusion of a larger garden, stain the fence 2 tones darker than the kaki from the porch floor.  I would also espalier sasanqua next to the fence.
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What did you see?  What changes did your eye want to make?
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Changes mentioned were merely the basics.  Making further changes I must know the owners, and see inside their homes.  Excepting the middle pic, it would be 'done'.  Did you notice the urns in the middle pic?  Reminds me of a recent client, her husband started pressure washing in their garden, and she caught him, and stopped him, before he removed the patina off every focal point.  Funny story now, only because everyone knows it was not funny in the moment, poor husband.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T