How to Take Charge of Color in Your Garden

A future client sent me a note recently.  Her car needs struts, the garden will have to wait.  No, her garden will not have to wait !
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Garden Design begins in your head.  Much to resolve ahead of choosing the first plant, type of stone, etc.
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Choosing your color trinity, below, for starters.  For centuries, all the great gardens, now including yours, have an exterior color trinity.  Green-Brown-White is the most used color trinity, a never fail color combination.  More, it's never a repeat.  You get to choose your Green-Brown-White, while your soil, humidity, land shapes, predominant trees and more dictate how color is 'seen'. 
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If you're new to gardening this may seem the start of someone mentioning trite rules you must follow.  Headstrong about recreating the wheel?  Head on out, rawhide, snap that whip, you'll be on-the-road-again, over/over, until you come in from the cold.  Been there, done that. 
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Found this fabric, below, recently.  Made me smile.  A client, at first visit, already had chosen, without awareness, this color trinity, Green-Brown-White with subsidiary color, ochre.  Years later, we are still overdosing on her theme.  Plants, stone, house, barns, furniture, fencing, even her custom stationary.
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Another aspect I adore about choosing a color trinity, once done, color is, mostly, a no-brainer. 


Pic, above, here.
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Green and white have been chosen with specificity for my garden, brown remains to be chosen.  Adoring brown transfer ironstone, I must bring several of my favorite pieces into the garden, siting them different places for sun/shade, north/south/east/west, and pull the trigger for my perfect brown.
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One of many Garden Design layers, the color trinity, requiring zero funds.  Be aware, full brain amperage, with extra kicking in, required .  Once chosen, your colors, must be backed with full confidence. 
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Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Earlier this month our dining room finally painted.  Beloved is a yellow man, several yellows already in various rooms, but he is not a front-end chooser of specific colors.  Gave him 7-8 yellow choices, with chips, for the dining room.  Dining room is large, north facing.
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Walked him through the house, with the chips, holding them to the various existing yellows.
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Of course I had my favorite, but said zip.
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At each room with yellow, he easily axed some of the chips.
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Last room, dining room, and 2 yellow chips remained.
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He easily chose the yellow he liked for our dining room.
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A delicious funnel, shaped exactly like an armadillo trap.  Beloved choosing 'his' yellow.
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Ahead of me choosing color chips for him, I researched Mount Vernon, Monet, and Monticello.  Have been to all three homes, and knew they all had a good yellow, almost matching each others.  Nancy Lancaster was swirling in the mix too.
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Pic, above, here.
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Yes, Beloved chose, Pure Joy by Benjamin Moore.  My first choice.  I would have been happy with any of the chips he chose from.
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Pic, above, here.
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Almost 20 years ago I bought a vintage book with ikebana floral plates, done in color blocks.  Dozens of pages of  plates.  Choosing their frames, a no-brainer,  below.  More synchronicity, our dining room table is a large drop-leaf gate leg, and against a wall another drop-leaf gate leg table, folded down.  I bought them separately at antique shops long ago, realizing once in our dining room, they can be put together for larger gatherings, exactly as Monet did. 
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Pic, above, here.
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A portion of this story was skipped.  Several coats of kilz and primer were needed ahead of painting our dining room, once Pure Joy yellow was a first coat, and Beloved saw it, he freaked.
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Ever seen a feral cat brought inside, and they literally bounce off the walls?
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Have handled that situation. 
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This color 'freak' wasn't my first rodeo.
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In addition to choosing our 'brown', a subsidiary color must be chosen.  It will be one of our yellows.  Great joy in anticipation of choosing.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

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.

House & Garden Well Matched

Perhaps not your cup of tea, below, but a perfect cup of tea nonetheless.  Deer proof boxwood, evergreen, punctuated topiaried forms amongst the green meatballs.  Low maintenance, drought proof, no bugs.  Amusing, the slight stone dry stack retaining wall.  Great thought went into needing/not needing it.  We see which won.
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Trees lovingly pruned, small space, several rooms & hallways & walls.
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Huge invitation to enter with the pair of urns, graced with stone steps.
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Have a seat in the parlor, chairs/fence using black makes the small spaces 'larger'.
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House used wisely as the backdrop focal point.  Incredible restraint with the house, great simplicity, dozens of choices made, each with the answer, 'No'.  Modesty of the entire package, house & garden, displays a wise heart.

"A garden is not a picture, but a language.", Henry Mitchell.


Pic, above, here.
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As time passes, above, I would prune the meatball hedges into simple hedges, no rounding, letting the rounded topiary shapes 'pop' more.  Better than my thoughts, it would be more fun being friends with this gardener, above, and enjoying it unfold through their head/heart/hands.
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Great joy in getting the call from a gardening friend, "I'm going to move that hedge by the house, and put a gate in the fence near ......"
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Irma update.  Hope it's the last.  Power came on last nite, att phone service came on while we slept, over 3 days without.  Beloved's team cleared, chain-sawed, raked, blew, etc. all yesterday.  We're back to a new normal.  Sunlight has changed with many large lost limbs, new scope for the imagination.  A Georgia Power team & a Tennessee Power team got our power restored, we're on the main drive in the historic district.  Side roads will get power today/tomorrow.  They had greater storm damage.

Forest Bathing

Nice sentiment, below, but too small.
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Long before cell phones, I knew what gardens provide.  More, I think tapping into my garden is what addicts hope to gain from drugs, alcohol etc.
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Going into my garden I forget what time it is, what day, hunger does not exist, and cuts/bruises are only noticed showering, later, when garden time is over.  Obviously, more than 'gardening' is going on.  Scientific studies are showing biological changes to our bodies taking place in gardens/Nature.  More than accounted for in placebo studies.
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Experiencing joy when time/hunger/Earth no longer exist is an experience of eternity here & now, says Joseph Campbell.  Do you experience this too, in your garden?  Wendell Berry takes these thought further.


Pic, above, here.

More than science proving Nature bathing changes us, I've noticed another strong change.


Pic, above, here.

Pace.  The pace of Nature & gardening are the pace of our bodies in relation to Earth.

 
Pic, above, here.

I do my best thinking, while in pace with Earth.  More, in that body/Earth pace, are the riches of eternity now.

 
Pic, above, here.


Pic, above, here.


 

More than myself, my home, above/below, must be bathed in Nature.



My home, above/below.





When I met Penny McHenry, she invited me to lunch the next day.  Driving into her property, above, my car was bathed, in hydrangea blossoms, both sides.
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Decadent blossoms, weighted & caressing & touching my car from front to back fender.
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More than meeting a new friend for lunch, already a gardener, I knew I had to have that.  Nature so abundant, cars, mine specifically, had to be bathed in blossoms.  Time passed, and without effort, or seemingly without effort, this desire became reality.
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If you've read this far, what is it you're wanting?
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Doing it?
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Hope so.  If not, why not?
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Letting Your Muse Play

For a week I knew Father's Day would be all mine, alone in the garden.  Anticipation was a drug.  Yesterday morning arrived, poof/voila, away he trotted and beloved time with Muse began.  The only concerns were possible snakes in the storage where I had to hunt/gather, and rain.
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Ahead of pulling the plastic back, below.  Cell phone clipped to hip, thick garden shoes on, I said to myself, You could die doing this.
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Hunting an old fireplace mantle, and a door to use as desk top, instead the first thing I found was a missing iron gate, below.  Tears erupted down my face.  Whoa.  Who knew it would mean so much, finding my missing gate.  Ridiculous yes, boo hoo, those tears, but they were hot and earnest.  Go figure, another learning moment about my relationship with my garden.



Carried the missing gate, below, to its partner that has been safely stowed the entire 2 years living here.



My previous garden, below.  Looking from sideyard, into backyard.



My previous garden, below, looking from backyard to sideyard.



Probably a year away from installing the gates in my new garden.  Their position already planned.  Other layers ahead of the gates.
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Time with Muse yesterday a gift.  Creativity is not linear thinking.  Alone, there were zero questions/admonitions, 'What are you doing in the garden today? ', 'When will you be done?' , 'Why?', 'No, don't do that.' etc.   Muse does not respond to that type of thinking.  Muse takes organically, all given from the heart, and sprinkles pixie dust from other realms.
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A twist on Rossetti's Blessed Damozel.  One lover on earth the other in heaven.  Muse, not bound solely to earth.
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Those days of anticipation about gardening yesterday?  If I had known the depth of joys to arrive, it would have been similar to anticipating Christmas, age 5.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO T
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Decadence at Garden Entry

The first time I arrived to Penny's drive, below, my car stopped as the hydrangeas lay heavy either side my hood.  Had to stop.  To take in what was happening.  More than greeting my arrival, I was being caressed.
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Garden Design's decadent greeting.
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Creating entryways in a garden, perhaps the most overlooked necessity.  Early into serious Garden Design study it was obvious, the more entry ways a garden has the better a garden is.
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Penny took it to new layers.


Pic, above, here.


 

If you've read my missives for a length of time, you know exactly what to do next.  Copy.
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Entry into my backyard, above, entry into my frontyard, below.  Hello.



Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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Pics of my garden, above, taken in my previous 30 year cottage garden.  Penny founded the American Hydrangea Society, and the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival in Douglasville, GA is a huge annual success.

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

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

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

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

Footprint: Power of Color

Without the matching column, below, the house ends at the corner.  With the column's matching brick color, the house ends at the column.
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There should be a technical term, a word, describing this phenomenon.  It doesn't have to be matching materials, merely color.  The power of color.
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Using color to expand the footprint of the home, the shutters, front door, siding/trim, are all fair game choices.  Each situation dictates a more-correct choice from the trinity of choices.


Pic, above, here.
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Brick column, above, seems newer than the home, the brick is smoother than brick on the home.
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Perfect choice for stone step, above, its color melding into the garden, and rough hewn edge adding welcome/warmth verses a saw cut edge, in this situation.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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Off topic, below.


Pic, above, here.

Found this, above, a few days ago.  How could I not think of my best ever older boyfriend, by decades, crush.  Studying historic gardens across Scotland for 2 weeks, our group of 23 stayed in small hotels, most had been a hunting lodge, or some other interesting thing a century or 2 ago.   Since it was Scotland I had bought a bottle of Laphroaig.  After touring all day, our group would retire to fluff & puff for dinner, meeting in the parlor before dinner for socializing a bit, before the splintering off to our tables.  First, I must mention my best ever older boyfriend was quite married, and his wife, and her sister, were in our group.  Adored them too, his wife adored me for taking her husband off her hands for a few minutes at breakfast and dinner.  Heading to the parlor before dinner, my roommate & I would be carrying a tea cup.  
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Sitting on the sofa, in the parlor, talking with friends, I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders from behind, then best ever older boyfriend dipped his head low over me.  He squeezed my shoulders quite tight, whispering into my ear, "Tara you're alright, you're just alright."
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Best ever older boyfriend had an instinct.  Doubting my tea drinking, he was leaning in to smell my tea cup, and definitely got the mystery solved.  The color of strong tea, it was, of course, Laphroaig, neat.
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Seeing the quote, above, brought back those halcyon days with best ever older boyfriend.

Classic Garden Design: For Every Price Point

They got the memo, below, siting urns on plinths.  Sitings, below, work equally well at gate keeper's cottage, head gardener's home, mid-century brick ranch burger, a new Spitzmiller & Norris.


Pic, above, here, Stoke Edith House.

Never think elements of garden design are not for your home, counterintuitively, classic Garden Design works at every style & price point.
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Needed a huge stone plinth with ball finial at a client's project, to match existing.  Huge.  There was no budget for it.  Got it anyway, and with great age.  Built exact replica, to scale, using wire mesh meant for concrete road paving, used a glass ball from a light fixture, planted English ivy.  No one the wiser, OUR stone plinth, not stone.
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Garden Design rules work everywhere.  It works if you work it.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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It is gift & curse knowing what to do in gardens.  Driving thru any neighborhood, my 'eye' fixes everything.  No shutting it off.  Excepting rustic, farm, Nature, the beach, Stone Mountain, wide open prairie.  Already perfect.  The 'eye' is content.

Picture: Garden Design Course

Pulling the gate/columns forward, below, welcomes you from the wide world into their private world, elongates the entry, and adds a foyer to the front door.  Painting the columns same as the house adds them to the footprint of the home, enlarging the home's territory.
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Painting the columns a different color, or if they were stone, still adds good features, excepting they become part of the garden, not the house.
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Great wisdom leaving the tops of the columns empty.
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Front door & light fixtures chosen well, they make the house seem taller.
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Note the gutters, below.  Copper color, not the brick color.  Well done.
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Roof, below, is like jewelry for the house.
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Repetition of square shapes, below, highlights the fabulousity of the tall round urns at the windows.  Super contrast.
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This garden design has been done for centuries.  Have seen it on several continents, and at all price points.  Done it myself, more than once.  Looks fresh & new with each reincarnation.
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Even the front door handle was chosen with care.  Drapes vs. blinds, again, well done.



Pic, above, here.
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Copy, enfilade, axis, cross-axis, color, contrast, repetition, flow, welcome, focal points, ceiling, walls, floor, simplicity, has all the right Garden Design rules checked.
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I have a weakness for Garden- Design- Course in a single picture.
Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Walled Orchard

With an engineering degree backing my horticulture degree there is always an element of wishing I had been there at construction while studying historic gardens across Europe for decades.
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About 4 years ago a client said she wanted a walled orchard.
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Oddly, I knew where it should go, how it should look, how big it should be, how many gates it should have, and what each gate should look like.
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The Orchard is coming into its own this year, and will be ready for showtime pics next year.  I've taken pics starting with virgin pasture.
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Sideways learning.  Knowing, with confidence, how to design the orchard.  Century old bricks, each gate custom.  Yes, the expense matches its wonder.  Building a pool or walled orchard, without confidence, I would have to step away.  Too much money on the line, for mistakes.  More, it's building someone's dream, one they will have to live with.  No margin for error.
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Pic, above, here.
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       "He started to worry though that he would get stuck in a job doing something he didn't believe in, so he quit and moved to Spain with his wife and he started to write poetry."            .

I come across sentences, above, humbly pausing.  Deciding to pin the safety of life's earnings upon a garden design career, with huge blow back & fear mongering from family.  Even years of pitiful earnings, never swayed my choice.  After 2008's debacle to the economy, and my career trajectory stronger/better, all the previous years mount into decades, it's obvious, best choice ever.
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Joseph Campbell is right, Follow your bliss.  When you get into the pure groove, all types of unseen hands, the universe itself, partakes in your bliss, along the way you get private acknowledgements that you're indeed in your groove, someone asks you to design/build an old orchard, oddly you know exactly what to do, and already have the experienced talented team to execute.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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There was a question about the orchard, one of the corners too close to the gravel lane.  One of my favorite aspects, the lane evolved around the orchard, not the reverse.    Corner & lane built as designed.

Designing the Faux Path

Many times I've used a bit of woodland, buffer between neighbors, as a faux focal point. Occasionally, space allows for this much meandering path, below.  Most of the time, the path is a few steps leading to a faux gate.  In each interpretation the path is 'real'.
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In the moment, below, Nature's yearly leaf fall.  Took me an ancient amount of time to realize, the trees are fed and enriched by letting go.  And the same is true for us, if we'll let go.  During senescens the color of photosynthesis is lost, and the true leaf colors appear.  Another story written in plain view, by Nature, another metaphor.  Beauty in letting go.  


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Pic, above, here.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

The Language of a Garden's Entry: Not What You Think

Are you aware there is a classic repertoire of garden design language?  You know, the one without words.

A witty welcome, below, shouting, 'Come in'.  Restraint, grandeur, provincial, elegant, color, while informing reams of information about the house and its owner/s.



The language of garden design is quite simple, contrasts.  Simplicity with decadence, rustic with formal.



Designing an orchard next to this garden room, above, is obvious or at least it should be.
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I've known this fact for decades, since 1st studying historic gardens across Europe.  Only later, much later, an embarrassing slug's pace, did the epiphany arrive, Providence never separated agriculture from ornamental horticulture.  They are entwined, they are one.
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Amusing, and sad, how many elementary school gardens are planted with vegetables & herbs, without their contrasting ornamental garden.  Why sad?  It is the ornamental garden adding up to 80% increases to agricultural yields.  How?  Pollinators.  Worse, the full language of a garden is not passed to the elementary school students, nor their teachers.
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Another way to look at the top pic and garden design?  Most often, in USA, a stone wall leading to an estate or high-end gated neighborhood is fabulously planted with a cornucopia of ornamental plants & monoculture lawn, everything irrigated, chemicaled, maintained.  Ironically, copying the best high-end apartment complexes.  Often, also, a piece of farm acreage purchased to construct a fine home, builds a couple of stone plinths connected with a gate then a few plantings tossed in.  Their new neighbors wondering, "Did that land sell-out to build a starter home subdivision?"  
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Oh my, the language of garden entry ways.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T
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Pics from NaramataBlend.

Overhearing a Garden Conversation

The BBQ restaurant was closed every time Beloved & I drove by, since June.  Yesterday, the parking lot was overflowing.  Of course we parked.  Stood in line, finally sat down to eat, and it was worth the wait, literally & figuratively.
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Then, amongst the din I could hear conversation behind me.  Gardeners, of a sort, not mine.  Past middle age, it was obvious they were thrilled knowing a few botanical names, and what a plant tag suggests or the obvious stated at a master gardener lecture.  Excruciating.  Their gardens, good gardens acceptable to every mow-blow-go crew across USA.  Foundation plantings, lawn and the incurves/outcurves a good college teaches about garden design.  Aka, everything sending me to study historic gardens across Europe for 2+ decades.
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The closest comparison would be describing the Grand Canyon as a 'ditch'.
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Gardens say so much, below.  This narrative, below, has been written for thousands of years.  Gardens lasting centuries?  This is their trinity, below.  Woodland, meadow, stone focal point.  Another way of saying the same thing, high density next to low density.  Yet another narrative, below, maximum pollinator habitat.



Pic, above, here.

Fruit trees, meadow, below, woodland.  Bucolic, and maximum pollinator habitat increasing fruit yields by 80%.  Tall meadows for fruit trees are correctly named, guilds.  The path scaled for wheelbarrow & gardener.



Pic, above, here.

Vanishing threshold, below, garden & house.  Enjoying both.



Pic, above, here.

Vanishing threshold, below, a proscenium for meals, alone time, or tete-a-tete.

  

Pic, above, here.

 

Gardening many years ago the epiphany arrived, "You choose the plants in your garden, choose the people in your life."  Memo received, people ejected.  Zero regrets.



Remember, when the leaves fall they enrich the tree.



Sometimes I wonder how G*d has time for other people.  Really, another lesson, for me, pinpoint accuracy, no less?


This bothers some people, above, in my life.  Really?



In the South, Bless their heart, covers this one, above.  What covers it in your region?



No matter how hard I tried, it wasn't real, decades passed, finally, I saw.  This one is a lot of fun, with kindred spirits.  Much laughter.



Saying 'no' is often more important than saying 'yes'.






These lessons, above, are writ large for each of us, yet whether we see them or not is on our own shoulders.  Once seen, garden lessons, oh my the laughter, realizing the years of not seeing.





A lifetime exists, daily, in my garden.  Having lived too many years for 'tomorrow' and losing all that was gained, everything, I live each day.  With zero fear about this choice.    



In my city garden, above.  I set the stage for poetry, music, lessons, narratives, etc.  Tell you how to dig a hole & plant a hydrangea macrophylla?  You're smarter than that, the Grand Canyon is not a ditch.
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More, the path, above, led into my backyard from the sideyard, in a cluster home subdivision, the lot 8500sf.  Yet, my garden gave me acres of joy.
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Today, my gate, above, waits with its twin on a pallet next to the dairy cattle pasture & lake.  Living, less than a year, on our little farm built ca. 1900.  Outward validation of learning the lessons, above, knowing more are on their way.
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No worries, I have my garden.
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And, you should see the stars here at nite.  They are like a blanket lightly dropping down and wrapping your shoulders.  Never considered the stars when buying our farm.  Yet, out they come, a present.  A benediction.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara