YOU OWN THE SKY

LOOK UP & LANDSCAPE THE SKY. Questioning my sweet little garden a few hot, polluted summers ago,

WHY DOES THIS TINY LANDSCAPE CREATE THE FEELING OF INFINITE SPACE?

How can a landscape be tiny when it has the sky?

Technically you're looking at ceiling, canopy, understory, walls, floor....my garden room.

My garden life. I'm stealing-the-view. Some of the trees aren't on my property.

No matter the season.

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See the little birdhouse in the top pic? Cone shaped at the top it directs the eye upward too.

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It's an iron birdhouse from TJMAXX, on sale, near New Orleans, when I lectured at one of their parish libraries. After Katrina. Every chair filled. You should have seen their eyes. This audience that had lost so much. Their eyes full of excitement about doing something happy.

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Their landscapes were 'dragged off'. What does that mean? I didn't know either.

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After Katrina, equipment came into yards to remove fallen trees. As the trees were 'dragged off' they pulled away every bush, groundcover, perennial. Landscapes devastated by the storm were completely decimated by the clean-up.

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So many stories the news never covers.

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Anyway. Landscape your sky. It's been a tiny part of creating a nurturing life for me.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

THE QUEEN'S POT

Do you think this is an empty pot? At Glamis Castle, Scotland I wandered away from the group in the garden. A meadow & copse beckoned. Honestly, I thought it was off limits. Raising the siren call.
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Of course I went. Stopping first and investigating an area labeled, DO NOT ENTER. More about that happy adventure another day. On to the copse.
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In the frisson of meadow & copse, a pot. Tall, on a plinth. Big, you could bathe in it. Old, mortals could never afford it. Royalty? Obviously. And, GLORIOUSLY EMPTY.
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The pot was permission, YES, COME INTO MY LOVELY WOOD. I discovered an arboretum with every tree labeled and mature. I was walking in the pages of a picture book.
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No one from my group ventured into the copse. Those elegant trees were mine alone. One of the happiest moments of my life. This is when/where I invented, THE QUEEN'S POT.
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Tara's landscape design rule: your pots must be so incredible they can remain empty.
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Yesterday's snow & my Queen's Pot out the bay window.
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You can't bathe in her but she's bruised some men !
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

THE WELL-PLACED CHAIR IN SNOW

In the walled garden at Abbotsford, Sir Walter Scott's home, sat a well-placed chair. Its mission, aesthetic.
Place a chair in your landscape for aesthetics. Yes, a Tara landscape design rule.
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You'll find yourself there on a Saturday morning eating breakfast.
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When the 1st warm afternoon arrives you'll sit & have lunch.
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From a window you'll see a cardinal land on the arm and know, you're living a beautiful life.
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Imagine the picture,above, without the chair. A mush of snowy branches.

Yesterday, what it took to shoot a Southern Snow Storm.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T

ARE SHADOWS DESIGNED INTO YOUR LANDSCAPE?

BETTER THAN WALLPAPER. Like my shadows? Of course you do. I designed them.
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The epiphany of designing shadows was instant wicked potent delight.
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PLAYING WITH SUNBEAMS.
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Shadows to fall, fold, envelope, embrace & caress a landscape and you.
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Sensuous shadows alighting on interior walls of your home. Pitching art where there was none before.
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Hmm. I've never seen a landscape design lecture about creating shadows. Perhaps I should include it in my list of titles?
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Chair is in my summerhouse.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

WHAT INSPIRES & WHAT BORES

Vanishing threshold landscapes inspire me.
House, garden & life in perfect accord.
.......... INSPIRATION. Botanical garden glass houses BORE me when I'm in them. But their pictures resonate, later.

You can pick up a few ideas. Pots on a roof, above.

A dramatic display template to copy, above.

I wanted to go down the stairwell to see the heating system. No Entry...said the silly sign.

The path, above, shouting, Walk Thru & Go Away.

.................The inspirational picture, top, shouting, Stay--Enjoy Life.

Everyone 'WALKING THRU'. No invitation to STAY. Darling, this is BORING.

Enjoying the mechanics of drainage more than the expensively glassed conservatory landscape.

Ok, I was seduced by some curves!

Nice, above, but it's landscape design boredom.

Mechanical jewelry, above. A crank to open the glass roof. Who was the man placing beauty into its function?

In the States it's rare to see a beautifully pruned hedge, above.

Curves, above, are sumptuous simplicity.

Opposite side of sumptuous simplicity, above, amusement park chic.

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Have you noticed homes with AMUSEMENT PARK CHIC LANDSCAPES aren't really homes with a gardener?

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Have you noticed homes with SUMPTUOUS SIMPLICITY LANDSCAPES are the home of an exquisite gardener?

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Oh my, how quickly I traveled from What Inspires & What Bores, to, The Sacred & The Profane.

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Often, I have to 'SELL' clients less than they ask for.

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Steering away from elements of AMUSEMENT PARK CHIC. Knowing we all go thru the landscape design archetypes..............

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Yes, I'll write more of these things later.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Top pic via Euro Antique Market, remaining pics I took at Kew last month

VANISHING THRESHOLD: POTS ON ROOFS

Does it get any better than pots on roofs? What fabulously crazed person thought it up?
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Life is better living in a home with roof top pots-urns-finials, did you know?
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Enfilade = View from inside conservatory to outside architecture to landscape beyond.
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Pic from Kew taken last month during my lecture tour.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T

LATE VICTORIAN COLOR

Walking in London last month I saw this. Late Victorian tiles. Who knew? COLOR! PERMISSION! From curb to center of your house, vanishing threshold. Color, style, theme, intelligence, wit.
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Weedy looking 'weed' edging the path is Forget-Me-Not. Pure SOPHISTICATION.
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Can you imagine the blue blossoms spilling along the edge of the path? Calendar Shot.....
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This morning, watching the dawn thru my baywindow, I glanced up from reading the NYTimes. 'Oh my gosh, the sky is the same color as those pathway tiles in London.'
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A color splash lasting moments but still transmitting serotonins-dopamine-crack thru neural pathways.
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Does color affect you this way?

A WINTER LANDSCAPE--A LITTLE HOWARD'S END

Enter as I did. A gap in the hedge. No hint of what lies beyond. Curious? Standing in the gap, seeing a charming garden. A small Howard's End.

Echoes of the frontdoor................

.......in the back wall of the summer house.

More evergreen hedges, below, leading where? Mystery. A potager? Clothesline? Chaise lounge for sunning nude?

Flagstone terrace, not lawn, at the house. Extending the house.

This house doesn't have a back. Each side is delightful.

Lead horse trough now a rain butt.

All the sticks & browns soon to become blossoms, calendar shots.

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Winter's bleak chic more important than the ease of spring/summer blowzy caresses.

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I didn't want to leave this Howard's End-a new clip- world-life-feeling-energy-joy.

This dirt path is landscape design brilliance. A feeling of the country in the city & cementing the idea of being in another garden room. Leaving the garden through another gap in the hedge. Tara's Golden Circle: the ability to enter/leave a garden room through 2 or more doorways. A little design trick I observed in the best of old landscapes.

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This landscape is a several hour design class but you're busy. Thanks for taking the time to walk in the garden with me.

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I shot these pics last month at the Birmingham England Botanic Garden.

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Garden & Be Well, XO T

DESIGNING A B&B LANDSCAPE: COPYING KEW

Ric the Inn Keeper from Highlands, NC is ready to landscape his B&B. I'll drive up in March.

He has grassy areas and wooded.
I see Kew gardens at his B&B. Timeless, inviting, low maintenance, sustainable, serene.

Canopy & understory trees, shrubs, focal point bench, TaraTurf.

Contrasting: oval trees, weeping, conical, crooked, evergreen, deciduous, green foliage, yellow....

Ric, I want these pictures from Kew in your head before I arrive. I know you want more color. We'll place viburnum, rhododendron, mountain laurel, peony, antique roses, hydrangea, lenten rose, iris, on axis with views from the B&B.

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TaraTurf is fescue, moss, clover, crocus, dwarf daffodils, whatever the wind blows in. Are you that brave?

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I took the pics last month at the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew.

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Garden & Be Well, XO T

PETERSHAM NURSERIES & VEGETABLE GARDENS

How landscapes intersect with a home fascinate me. Petersham Nurseries in England occasionally opens the private garden of Petersham House, below. Does your nursery understand the relationship of house & landscape? Petersham's vegetable garden. A seduction. Peter Rabbit feelings, I want to nibble this garden.

Simplicity. Narrow beds to work in easily. Brick path for foot and wheelbarrow. Soil I want to roll in, smell & feel on my skin.

Tree branches & twine ALWAYS trump

store bought stakes & cheap green plastic ties.

If people saw what I did with their trash they would offer to BUY it back.

. No branches? Field gather from neighbor's prunings.

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This peak at Petersham House, landscape & vegetable garden make me want more. I want to see inside Petersham House.

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Does your landscape do that? Ask yourself, Are people salivating to see inside my home because of my landscape?

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photos from Petersham Nursery. Thank you Pigtown*Design for introducing me to them.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

LAKE RABUN & BRIDESHEAD REVISITED

I fell in love with College Boy. Watching Brideshead Revisited with Emma Thompson I learned more. I fell in love with College Boy, the charms of his family and this house, owned by his grandmother, Miss Louise.

Built on land in the shape of Florida, the house faces the lake on both sides.

Built in the teens the house had servant quarters, a delightful carriage house with storage for hay, 2 docks, boathouse, guest house, stone tunnel, a boiler in the attic, badminton court, extensive gardens & a summer house.

Spring water, still soft & sweet, for the house came from land Miss Louise owned further up the mountain.

We honeymooned here. Living in the big house by day, sleeping in the guest house by night. Much later I realized every picture from my honeymoon is of plants.

Stones for the house & fireplaces, 13 total, came from nearby.

Dining room, below, still has this furniture. Pics from the 1920's.

The chair, above, missing a spindle, now at the desk in my bay window. It's an American windsor dated 1897 on the bottom.

The big house is 1 room deep with 19 pair of French doors.

Lake Rabun from the back terrace.

Family dinners, birthdays, anniversaries, being with my dogs, reading, or lunch alone thru the years on the terrace, above, fill my spiritual well.

Jenny, my mother-in-law, at right, dead of breast cancer at age 57.

So many hours boating. I can hear the motor of these boats.

After Miss Louise died Jenny had the chairs, below, in her garden. They are now in my garden.

The best view of any lake house. Hidden in the trees.

My competitive Texas tennis days never translated into being a good waterskier.

I spent hours gardening at Lake Rabun. Its landscape designed by a professional. Slowly, intuitively, understanding its paths, evergreen hedges, stone walls, cut-fill, axis, and more. How each room interacts with the outside. How a person's life interacts with a house & its landscape.

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Miss Louise gardened here, her sister, Aunt Tillie gardened here, her daughter, Aunt Mary, gardened here. Jenny played. She taught me about picnics, music, books, nature, cooking, Peter Pan decadence, photography, films, bleak chic, dressing-up a cat, hiking and ultimately how to be myself.

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Marrying College Boy was fate's way of placing 4 mentors in my life, Miss Louise, Aunt Tillie, Aunt Mary and Jenny. And Lake Rabun.

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Lake Rabun is in every landscape I design.

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Brideshead Revisted doesn't miss a topic I've experienced at Lake Rabun. Separating from the charms of others, or a place, is never easy. You don't know what's on the other side. With age you learn it's freedom.

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Garden & Be Well XO Tara

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Family pics