Beyond the Obvious: This Gate's Full Mission

Born a Garden Whisperer, holes were left in that primordial gift.  Holes created before birth, when thousands of years of Gardening transitioned from pastoral to industrial, less than 200 years ago. 
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Decades of my life passed before I knew anything was missing.  True to form, lacking knowledge about gardening never stopped me from knowing what it was all about.  The grand gift of Providence to all.  We are set on this garden of Earth, soil, plants, sun/moon, livestock, pastures, weather, poof, we're each an expert.  It's just dirt, right?
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For the few choosing to seriously Garden, realization arrives, in our industrialized era, we have no vocabulary to describe gardening.
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Little time to go deeper, instead, will give you a huge hint about what our era has lost.  Providence never separated horticulture from agriculture.  Still doesn't.  We separate it at our own peril, and do.  Mostly without realization.  No judgment.  How could I?  Lived decades, seriously Gardening, before awakening.
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All of the, above, is about the gate, below.  Secondarily about its brick wall.


Pic, above, here.
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So, the gate, above.
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Pretty, is obvious.  It's form chosen with love, care, purpose.
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Go further, to its function, look past its form.
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Can you tell me the gate's diligent purpose in function?  Beyond the macro, to the micro.
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Seriously, why is the gate formed to function exactly as it is?  Beyond pretty, there is serious business taking place with this gate.
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How did I discover the purpose of this gate's function?  Working for a client, on a farm.  As Providence intended, discovery working from a pastoral life.  Not that industrialization is bad, but the lifestyle of stewardship pastoral living conveys into us has been lost, in the macro, and too much of the micro, with industrialization.
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Getting to the understanding of this gate, and its function, was deeply humbling.  What else am I not
seeing?  If I didn't get-it about this type of gate for so many decades.
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Wildly tempted to not tell you, here, the purpose of this gate's function.  Wanting you to think for yourself.  Not a bit of arrogance, more, sharing in how I adore to learn.
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My grandmother would have known exactly why this gate has its form for its function.  Born early 20th century, raised on a farm, pastoral.  She was living fully in the industrialized era by the time I was born.
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No.  You figure it out.  The gate's full purpose.  My gift to you, figuring it out.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Would not have figured it out myself, without having clients on farms.  Once discovered, OBVIOUS, basic.  Simplicity of answer, a life epiphany.  Pastorally, the answer is 1st order thinking.  Industrialized, I could not have answered it, without dipping into pastoral.  What more have we lost, living industrialized?
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Remember your math book from high school?  It would have a few of the answers at the back of the book, so you could check your work, but not all.  Ha, this is one of those.  The answer is not down here, it's for you to own and enjoy.
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Pic, above, a gate in my garden.
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This gate, above, would be no good, for a potager walled garden.  Chickens can get thru.  Lose an entire crop of seedlings?  Damage beyond repair dozens of crop plants?  Not an option, when the food you grow is mostly the only food you have.

How To See A Gate

Designing gates vs. seeing gates. 

Does this gate have hog wire at the top?  Is hog wire needed?  To keep the chickens in, or out?  Coons, possums could easily climb over.
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Why is the bottom of the gate solid?  Am I looking into the garden or out?  Is it to create mystery?  A lure?
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Is the gate teak?  Historic wood?  Vintage?  What type of hinges?  Open in, out, or both?  The doorknob rescued or new, perhaps new & custom?
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Does the pattern at the top match the moulding of the dining room ceiling?  Is the top pattern repeated in a vintage rug?
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Who is capable of making this gate?  Repairing the gate?
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Age the gate or stain it?
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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No money & your heart pounds for this gate?  How will you create it?  Not a financial problem, in the least.  Pure intellect.
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Total disdain for, "I can't afford that."   Total.
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Found the gate via It's About Time

Edwardian Simplicity

Pecan Orchard needs a gate. A simple gate.Visiting an English country house & garden I fell in love with this gate.

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Simple, but not.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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This gate starts a conversation, Pecan Orchard needs a taller/wider gate. The garden, above, typically English, a wildwood beyond a gate luring you away from the formal garden. Wondering, finally, if you'll find Sirens, Nyads, Dryads, Satyres.... The last 2 sentences summing up the best of Landscape Design !

Making the Disliked Desirable

Flipping thru Pinterest I see this gate, below.
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Can you guess my 1st thought?  It was immediate.
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"I don't like the gate, but I want to work for the person who owns it, design their garden, using the gate, and it's so stunning within the Garden Design, I must have a gate made similarly with my own farm/garden tools."


Pic, above, here.
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More than this gate, above, most of my life answers, are in the garden.  I was born with the need to challenge no one but myself, an arrogance, but a truth.
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At some point, maybe 2 decades ago, I realized when I had a 'life' question or choice, no matter its topic, I must mentally verbally formulate it into a sentence, properly structured, go into the garden, work a project for at least an hour, with no more thought of  'the question'.  At the end of the time, I know the answer.  Don't know when it arrives, or how, but the question put into my Garden's embrace  is answered.  Same thing happens designing gardens, when I'm done, I know I've been with Muse.
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What a lot of bother about using the heart instead of the lizard brain !  Perhaps it's the left/right brain thinking, to the max.
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Whatever.  The challenge of designing a garden for this gate, above, to become desirable, greatly snags my attention.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Gate Is Born

Her gate has to let a horse & carriage thru, we left a 12' opening.  Before choosing the new gate a new drive was in use and a new vista beheld.  Unexpectedly, this gate became, almost, a front entry view.  Deer are an issue plus I wanted a bit of mystery & enchantment.

Yesterday, above, her new gates. 
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I perused dozens of pictures, sent 3-4 to the owner, voila-poof, she chose my favorite gate, top pic.
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Of course it came with no dimensions/details.  Our carpenter, Magic Man, scaled it to the site.  He used the curve a fly-fishing rod makes to judge the correctness of his top curves.  He asked me a few questions about proportions. 
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You normally don't see unfinished pics here.  But the work, above, of Masonry Man & Magic Man is enough to speak for itself.
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More pics as this project continues.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Top pic found online, did not keep the origin.  Had no idea I would be showing off with it.  Love, love, love the pace of this project.  Love more the team I'm working with.

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

STREET VISIT WITH A CLIENT LANDSCAPE

SHIPMEN invited me to a picnic yesterday. Thought you would like a few street views of their landscape. Path & perennial border, below, led them to hire me. Years ago.Don't you love this hint of entry, below, luring you further? SHIPMEN purchased their neighbor's backyard and extended their garden beyond the entry, above. A few steps further, below, and you see their gate.

A few steps more, below, and you realize the entry is an ENFILADE.Entering the gate, above, but before arriving at the 2nd gate, welcoming urns of geraniums. Notice the lattice walls, below, painted black. Perfect.

Sneaking thru their garden, because I could, and I knew you would want to peak into their conservatory, below. A hint of one FETISH.

SHIPMEN adore antique chandeliers. They're shipped home from across the globe.SHIPMEN use their conservatory for dining & plant propagation. It's not for show.


Leaving thru the same gate, above. These were only street views. Tempted to see more?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

ENERGY BURSTS THE DAMN

Several women have hired me to open the plantings in front of their home. It's obvious change had occurred in their life. What? Seeing more change inside their home. Sensing a damn spilled forth. And their garden must respond. Must channel the flow. A flow of pure energy.

Below, my damn burst 5 years ago. It was obvious where to open the garden. On direct axis with the bay window. What had been a solid hedge, below, became a hedge with a permanently open gate. Robbins egg blue! Stone steps were added to the gate and front door.

Inside I made-over the mudroom. Adding antique drawers, and shelving with glass doors. Moving sets of china from the attic to the mudroom and onto the antique shelves. Organizing all of my wrapping materials into one of the large antique drawers. Putting paper plates, napkins, and plastic utensils into another. Pet supplies fill the last drawer.

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David Stevens put in the stone steps & COLLEGE BOY put in the gate. NAVY MAN from across the street helped bring the antiques into the mudroom. Ugh. I prefer my girl power but sometimes manliness is necessary.

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And the garden. I adore going thru the Robbins egg blue gate. Even if it's only with my eyes while sitting inside.
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What was the burst damn of energy? Don't know. As with my clients it is received with joy and honored as grace.

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May your damn burst with energy this year.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

At The Gate

From the Tea Olive Terrace, below, looking into my backyard. At the same gate, in my backyard, below, looking into the Tea Olive Terrace.

Double Axis: 2 views fabulous. A fabulous view in 1 direction must be fabulous in the opposite direction.

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There are no exits in a garden, only entries.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken last week in my garden. See the template? A Trinity of the Ages: Path, Gate, Boxwood. Ramped up: painted gate, gravel path, blooming hydrangeas.

Gardening For Children

I don't believe in Gardening For Children.  A fully formed adult, gardening from their heart will attract children.  Children of all ages, from 1-100 years old.

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What child doesn't want to peek thru this garden gate?

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Yesterday, a neighbor child, about 6 was in my garden, he didn't know I saw him.  He found my Secret Garden gate.  Promptly, he hit it with a stick several times and said, "Cool, a gate to nowhere."  Then he poked that stick at many plants, carefully, deeply perusing.

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Shazam, he ran back to his own garden.

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 This type of garden also affects grown women.  I've never had an open garden/tour without a woman, manipulating a private moment with me and she cries.  Hard.  Tears ending with our arms around each other. 

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I know where those tears come from.

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She's recognized I've let my 8 year old self out to play, with permission.  And she has buried hers.

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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

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Pic taken in a client garden last week.  Another gate made by Magic Man.  Yes, you do want to go thru.

One Hat Secret Every Gardener Should Know

Since the start of my competitive tennis days, ages 11-17, I've worn hats.  Back then it was the canvas tennis hat or terry.  Along with cotton footies swinging their colored balls at the back ankle, always wearing a white tennis dress flashing a bit of ruffled panty, with a mere hint of color. Colored tennis dresses had just come into style, of course I wore only white.
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Moving forward to the start of my Garden Design career, again hats.  Wide or extra wide broad brim straw hats, along with a few quite dashing wide brim fabric hats for winter. 
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If you look in my little work van, you'll find measuring wheel, drawing board, Wellies, measuring tape, flags, florescent string, pencils/erasers, paper, and a straw farmers hat, hanging by a vintage wide silk ribbon.  That farmers hat is the emergency hat.  Perfect for sun,  strong wind, or a few wet sprinkles, and I've forgotten to bring a well chosen hat.


Pic, above, here.
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Decades pass, rather an expert on hat styles, use. 
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Pic, above, here.
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"The Rancher by Stetson is a classic straw cowboy hat. It has the tallest crown of all the Stetson straw cowboy hats at 5 inches. Available up to size 8. This 10X Straw hat has a 4 inch brim. Famous Words of Inspiration...""A book of quotations, can never be..."
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Leaving town after my father's funeral, heading to the back door with my luggage, mom asks, "Do you want your daddy's hat?"
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Dad's straw, stained gardening Stetson still resting where he last placed it.  Where he always placed it, for decades.  On the patio table, at the back porch, by the windows where we have eaten breakfast-lunch-dinner since 1966.  Of course I wanted it.  Rolling my suitcase, I grabbed dad's Stetson, plopped it on my head.
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Reaching the Delta gate, about 10pm, there was a delay with the flight.  Still wearing that Stetson, standing in front of the gate agent, asking about my flight, the tears flowed, I couldn't take one more thing.  Just had to get home.  Through the tears, "My dad just died, and I've got to get home."
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The gate agent walked around her desk, and full body hugged me, and began crying with me.  Telling me she has lost her father too.  Both of us, tears drenching our faces, dripping onto our clothes. 
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Good news, the flight delay wasn't long.  Once on the plane, obvious the gate agent had upgraded my seat.  Bless her for that, and her crying hug.
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Don't remember how many days I was home before I went into a garden, client's or my own, can't remember, and grabbed dad's Stetson.
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More than wearing dad's Stetson, I got an education about hats.  I had been wearing the wrong hats for my entire Garden Design career.  Wide brim straw hat keeping sun off was my hunt.  Dad's Stetson took it to a new level.  Wide brim of the Stetson is curved up slightly.  Providing shade, with clear eyesight lines through out a garden.  Literally, upon discovery, I heard Jed Clampett, "Well, doggies."
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Stetson, above, is the style I inherited.  Have since bought another, love them.  Both, on the hall tree at the front door.
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Get you one !!
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

A GATE IN THE FENCE

A 15' span of fence received a gate. Instead of the woodland path dead-ending into the fence it continues thru a new entryway. Above & below, with my back to the new gate the camera shoots along the woodland path.

Below, turning my back toward the chair (above) while feet stay in the same spot, looking thru the new gate into my backyard.

Below, viewed from upstairs the chair is a focal point from many axis.

Larger leafed azaleas are tougher than small leafed azaleas.

Above, azaleas following the focal point rule, Just Let It Touch.

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Garden Goal: standing still shoot a garden picture to the left, then shoot a garden picture to the right. Your garden must be both directions beautiful.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

How to Move Your Foundation Plantings While You Gain Your Life

During a time of life turbulence a quote appeared, without seeking, reading a magazine, It's Safe to Let Go.
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Wow, what a concept !  I'm not in charge.  Instead of clinging to that fantasy, Let it go.  Afraid to let go?  Don't be, it's quite a flight.  The ride of your life.
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Realizing it was said, too, in a movie, Out of Africa, "Let it go, this water belongs in Mombasa anyway."
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Moving away from that particular personal era of life, and into the land of green meatball foundation plantings.  You must realize, they are connected.  Literally connected.  Have been hired by several women thru the years, not many, merely several wanting to get their landscapes to match their hearts.
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Amazingly, all of those women had a hedge at the front of their property.  Hedges that I designed to open, Welcome, come in.  More amazing, during those years, being hired by hedge women, never realized I was part of their tribe.
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First epiphany, for me, pull foundation plantings away from the house.  Rather obvious, having studied historic gardens across Europe.  Years, I had my hedge, without a gate, similar to, below.
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Happy, content, thriving, adored having that hedge moved, opened my home, gave breathing space, birds/butterflies more numerous.  Finally, enough of filling the spiritual well, notice I created that fertile ground for myself, my well overflowed, epiphany arrived, put a gate into my hedge.  Just as I had done for clients. 
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Heads-up, none of this stuff works unless the epiphanies are your own, and you'll know.  Not exactly burning-bush moments but you will have the knowledge downloaded into your heart/DNA, and understand.  Still doubting, still unsure?  No worries, it's safe to let go.


Pic, above, here.
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My front yard hedge, below, after putting the gate in.

 
Pic, above, shot in my front garden.
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Pic, above, shot just inside my front hedge.
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Not snow, above.  Better, Chinese snowball blossom petals.  Caressing my plants, gravel, furniture, home, LIFE.

Playing with my front hedge at the street/curb, below.  Adoring rustic, pastoral, my garden drips abundance, upon many layers.
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Pic, above, shot in my front garden.
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Looking at my front hedge, below, from inside.
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Pic, above, shot in my front bay window.
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Standing in my front yard, below, inside the gated hedge, looking into the same bay window from, above.
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Pic, above, shot looking into my front bay window.
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It does take a lot to get here.  Where?  Vanishing Threshold.  What exactly does that entail?  Knowing it's safe to let go.  Your garden is not in your head.  Your garden is in your heart.  Waiting for you.
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About being safe to let go.  You'll have the privilege of relearning it many times.  Each time, more riches.
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It was good fortune, knowing to turn to my garden, letting go.  Deeper than good fortune, an action going back centuries with many, each learning themselves, taking their own action steps of facing the fear, letting go, discovering the abundance of Providence.
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"In building this horticultural paradise, Tradescant presented nature as a book that man might read like the Bible.  He understood the world in the same way as Johannes Kepler, the brilliant German mathematician and astronomer, who had described it as 'the very Book of Nature in which G*d as Creator has revealed and depicted His being and His Will with Man in a wordless tract'."  Andrea Wulf & Emma Gieben-Gamal.
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Imagine my surprise, reading those words, above, last week.  Letting go, too many times to count, tumbling into the best rabbit hole, ever.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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"Christopher Wren believed harmonious proportions came from mathematical laws underpinning Nature."  Wulf & Gieben-Gamal.
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Until reading, This Other Eden, by Wulf & Gieben-Gamal, didn't realize Christopher Wren, architect, was Garden Designer also.
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Foundation plantings are a holy grail of USA landscaping.  It's safe to let go.  Do you realize what I found, moving my foundation plantings?  What words would you use?  What does your intuition tell you from reading this post?   I know what I found.  My life.

Designing an Enclosed Fruit Orchard

Working in the orchard, below, at a client's last week, edging fruit trees, their guilds, and a few vegetable patches.

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A young orchard it has finally grown into some maintenance issues.  Client mentioned earlier this year she sees her man mowing in the orchard so fast she's sure he's going to sling himself off the riding mower.  Aside from asking her to youtube it, I was thinking it might be fun to mow the orchard fast too, once.

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Parked my little work van just outside the gate, below. First time noticing this framed view.

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She hadn't put in the pasture fence or sheep barn when the orchard was built.

Wrote a note on my drawing board for the Orchard, Listen to the Genius of the Place.  

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Working at my desk, below, I heard a stadium full of people shouting bad ideas.  Sadly, they were all my own.  

Disgusted with rotten ideas, I said to the orchard, "What would David Hicks do?"  

(Hicks' gate, below, had already inspired the gate, top.)

Pic, above, from here.

Immediately, David Hicks answered, I was out of my chair placing flags/tape. taking his dictation.

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Hicks said to put flags/tape at the walls first, below.

David Hicks then said to place flags/tape at the fruit trees, below.

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  Spooky, below, just googled pics for David Hicks garden.

Pic, above, from here.  

Another surprise, above, from David Hicks garden.  Flying buttress.  I designed flying buttress into my client's Orchard after seeing them at an antebellum cotton warehouse in Atlanta, now a restaurant.

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Pic above, from, News From Nowhere, in David Hicks garden.

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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

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My pics taken last week.  Still abiding in our new garden.   Patiently waiting for layers of work to be completed, in proper order, before we can gravel the parking court, drives & lanes, finally shaping the pleasure garden, orchard, potager.  

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Orchards, historically, were enclosed for several reasons.  They allowed earlier & later harvests, extending growing seasons, and kept predators out.  Including people.

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Studying Sir Walter Scott's historic garden in England, was amazed to discover his orchard walls were double built.  Boilers placed at the corners distributed steam into the walls, adding length to growing seasons.  

Depth in Simplicity

Simplicity. Flat wall softened into 3-D with: light fixture, bell, foliage, arbor. Kinetics of bell, gate, foliage, light, invitation for eye & foot. Repetition of color. Just inside the gate, below.

Piquant surpise, below, look closely, an outdoor shower.

Not far away, below, more depth in simplicity with stones in the wall.

Surprise, a second gate, below.

A curve, using iron instead of brick & wood amplifying depth in simplicity.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken in Athens, GA last month. Same Italianate garden as previous posts. Begun in the 70's this garden is still evolving, enjoy walking thru it. A landscape design class could be taught here.

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Notice the diminutive light fixtures? Perfection. Leaving intact a design feature of th Edwardians.

EXPANDING ARCHITECTURE

Welcome, below, begins at the gate. Imagine the landscape, above, without the gate/arbor/fence. Much smaller. Expand your architecture, leverage your welcome.
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Resist temptation to use a property line for fencing.
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The more entries a landscape has the better a landscape is.
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Placing a gate on axis with your frontdoor creates an enfilade, a view thru to a view. Most desirable.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic on Lane Realty, via, Hooked on Houses.

Free Garden Design Class: Flow

 “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.”

— John Muir, 1838-1914, American naturalist, author, and wilderness advocate

Arriving at jobsite yesterday morning, below.  Already knew: 3 generations, 80 - 7 mos., gather here, 400+ acres, cattle, 3 acre lake, view a mile deep from the back porch.

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Matriarch wants a new gate, below, patriarch a stone column.  Will match stones to the house, field gathered from the property, smaller stones as plinth with fieldstone topper as done a century ago.  Sourcing historic farm gates from England making every effort to keep this gate's frame & let an iron monger copy our new (old) idea.  

Do you know what an Alice In Wonderland house is?  They get bigger the closer you walk.  That's this house.

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Go slow reading this, v e r y s  l  o  w.

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What is missing, below?

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Flow.

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Cole Porter wrote about this house, don't- fence- me- in.

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Coming off the right side of the porch, I've put steps.  

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This door, below, leads to the kitchen.  What do you think I designed here?

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Seriously, design this, right now, in your head.

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From the corner of the front porch, and along the entire side of the house I've put in local gravel, 26' wide, straight to the foundation of the house.  A priority making things simple for the matriarch & matriarchs she's raised.  Aside from being historic they must unload groceries easily from their car.  

What else did I do, below?

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What would you do?

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Remember, Cole Porter.

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Have sited fieldstone steps, gathered on site, into hillside.

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More about 'exactly' where they go in another post.  Very easy, stay tuned.

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View, below, from the back porch.

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Have removed the 1st fence, not needed for cattle anymore, and put a gate, needs to be sourced, into the second, with a stile too.  A path of invitation to the lake, adding a flagstone terrace, fire ring, and Old Town canoe with tiny motor attached.

Do you see, below, Cole Porter again?  Where?
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Help, I can't get on/off the porch at the side of the house.
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At the open end of the porch, below, I have put in steps.

Fireplace, and 2 pair of French doors are inside this screened porch.

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Help, I can't get out.

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A pair of screen French doors have been designed into the far right panel, on axis with an interior pair of French doors, with stone steps.  You knew that, right?

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 You should be in the swing of this 'flow' thing.  Finish the song.
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1 thing left to do, below.
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What is it?
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A pair of steps off the left side of the front porch.
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Voila, FLOW.
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Garden design, for plants, must be vintage with no maintenance.  What do you think I did?

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Sleep on it.  Will post the plant design soon.

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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara

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Pics shot at the jobsite yesterday morning.

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This patriarch is one of the closest copies to John Muir I've met, though he looks exactly like Deke Slayton, who lived around the corner and my dad designed booster rockets for, with Wernher von Braun, and trained at the controls .  The matriarch?  I bow low in praise of her.  Met one of the matriarchs she produced, close to my age, at a jobsite we shared, and how I came to the work.  Matriarchs are a special love of mine.  Yet many do not produce matriarchs themselves.  Odd, yes?  When women of a certain age have not crossed into the matriarch zone it is Joseph Campbell, 'if you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere.'   Discovered Garden Design 'flow' at Lake Rabun, the family home I married into/out of.  Would marry that alcoholic again solely for what I learned about Garden Design at Lake Rabun.  Driven for Garden Design?  A bit.  Toss in decades of studying historic gardens across Europe.  Yes, I was anal enough to add a motor to the Old Town canoe !

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Flow is done in a Garden Design first.  Not plants.

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Please pass this post to any of your friends who are interested in Garden Design.  It's that important, aka it took me 30 years to be this simple, and sure.  And, my work for Hedgerow Farm.  

For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

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Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

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Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

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Construction by Award Winning

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.