CHOOSING A PATTERN

Your landscape should be a Vanishing Threshold with your interior. Pattern in the gravel? What to choose? Look at your: dishes, wallpaper, fabrics, art, furniture, etc. Repetition is a huge landscape design tool.

Love this gravel. Elegantly tiny and a receding brownish color. Too often gravel is too large. Large gravel looks commercial. Think parking lot. And gravel too bright, think whitish, overwhelms most landscapes becoming an unintentional focal point.

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Oh dear, now you've seen my work shoes. Ugh. But it was important to show the the scale of some gorgeous gravel. Can you hear this gravel as I walk? It's a delight.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT BEING IN A RELATIONSHIP

Every element of the landscape must be in a relationship with each other. It's what the best landscapes have in common.
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Do you think it's an accident the gravel drive and raised bed, below, casually touch? Why isn't there cobblestone or brick edging? Why is the focal point, above, placed exactly so? Why is the focal point of a subtle color? Why is there so much 'empty' dirt? This is a transition zone from the wild wood to the formality of the home, to the right of the gravel drive. Curious?

Each stone must be placed in relationship to the landscape. Each stone will tell you how it wants to be sited. Which is its top, side, bottom. Do stones talk to you?

As the tree grows its roots take life from the land returning beauty. Simple grace, form, function, and powerful.

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The flowers 'just touching', and in relationship with, the stone, the tree.

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The statue, tree, & stone, above, near the frontdoor of a home. The statue is on axis with the frontdoor. The tree, stone & flowers are subsidiary focal points to partake, if you're observant.

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I cannot divulge this landscape. The owner has hired me to write about the home & garden. Once the owner's timeline is complete I'll trumpet details & pics.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

WHEN A MAN LOVES

Men come to gardening with single-minded love. Rapture? Mostly. Roses or hosta or conifers or ponds or daylilies or lawns or daffodils. Once seduced they want the entire landscape. Women, mostly, come to gardening wanting the entire landscape.
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HE came to the landscape in its entirety. A few of HIS daffodils, below. HE designed the road, sculpted the trees, & planted daffodils; contoured to follow the land.
Driving with this man thru his land as he shares its stories is to share in a benediction. Not once saying 'my' land, always 'the' land. Honoring his good fortune in being its servant.

Wicked & knowing, HE made sure my trip home was perfumed with a portion of his delight in his landscape.

Little did HE know their beauty & fragrance would inaugurate a new teapot. A birthday gift from my Mom.

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Is any of this a big deal? What is remembered thru time? A friend's love for their garden, a sweep of daffodils in spring, the gift of beautiful, fragrant flowers, a Mother's perfect gift to her child.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

FOCAL POINT: CATS IN A TREE

The rule is, One focal point per area. Subsidiary focal points allowed. Subsidiary focal point example? A cast-stone cat in the trunk of a holly tree.
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Near the frontdoor of my appointment yesterday I tried to get a pic of the stone cat. Someone got jealous.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

PROPHET WITHOUT HONOR: The Old Garden

HIPPIE CHICK said, Yes, to the open garden before the cottage & landscape were complete, below. Lawn, plants, stones, mulch, focal points, above, are hours old. HIPPIE CHICK wanted a landscape from the 1910's-1920's-1930's-1940's-1950's.

Knowing to use rocks as jewelry, urr, low columns. HIPPIE CHICK loves rocks.

Clothesline is new, custom made, based on memories. Rust color by choice. Tucked behind the new cottage.

Using what HIPPIE CHICK had on site. Her bench placed with the Tara Rule for focal points, Just Let It Touch.

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Pots on the stone wall, about 5. Lined up & planted with geraniums. A style derivative of Italian landscapes.

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I'm incredibly happy with this landscape. It doesn't look designed. It's eco, organic, sustainable, classic, low maintenance, no watering once established. And looks old immediately. Exactly what HIPPIE CHICK asked for.

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But, oh dear, my contractors. Wonderful men. Not wanting their work to look like some 'old' landscape. Me, turning into DOMINATRIX WITH A WHIP, demanding specific placement of rocks & plants. Making it look as if HIPPIE CHICK, past age 70, did everything herself decades ago.

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Why is this incredibly wonderful style of landscaping DERIDED?

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I didn't create the style, it's decades old. Why did it fall out of favor?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

FINIAL FETISH

It's not much but it makes me happy. Rabbit finials. Knowing only I wanted finials on the arbor the search began. Found the pair of cast aluminum rabbits at Lowe's. Painted Robbin's egg blue they match all the other metal in my landscape.
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The arbor, stained faded green, matches all the other wood in my landscape.
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Overdosing on a theme; it's a Tara rule.
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Finials? They're a fetish.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

COMING HOME: VANISHING THRESHOLD

Often when I'm hired, during the initial phone conversation, a client will say, I hate coming home. A sentiment understood. I, too, used to hate coming home. What changed? Jung, Life is about getting our outside to match our inside.
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It's literal & metaphorical.
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CHOOSE TO LIVE A CERTAIN WAY. Garden & home flowing in a Vanishing Threshold of beauty-energy-grace with life.
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Above, so rare. A magazine shot of an interior in vanishing threshold with its landscape. Peek out windows & doors of interior magazine shoots. Closely. You'll notice they've airbrushed the outside view.
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Vanishing Threshold begins in thought, then inside your home, then outside in the landscape. In that order.
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Landscapes begin inside the home. Not outside.
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Photo, above, is a masters class in Vanishing Threshold. It didn't happen by accident. The owner CHOSE to make it happen. Why don't you?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Thank you La Dolce Vita for posting this pic from Traditional Home.

LANDSCAPE PHARMACOLOGY: TREES

A Scottish study concluded, living in eyesight of a landscape extends life. Not gardening. Seeing. How much better seeing a beautiful landscape? Landscape pharmacology? If musical pharmacology exists, so does landscape pharmacology.

When beautifully landscaped gardens surpass their owner, what survives? Trees.

Creating a landscape? Begin with what it will end with. Trees.

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How the French do trees: a large variegated leaf tree, a weeping tree, a large cone shaped evergreen tree, a burgundy foliaged tree. At the minimum.

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In my garden today, above, cherry tree (pink) & Chinese snowball.

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For a couple of weeks I'll be living, in a subdivision, amongst beauty dating past centuries of Chinese scrolls. And the beauty is alive. Not a scroll painting.

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Without modesty, I'm hearing in my head, Peter O'Toole as Lawrence of Arabia, I DID IT.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

FETE IN THE GARDEN

Unbeknownst to me, while designing en plein air, CORPORATE WOMAN, was preparing a fete. Several salads, cheeses & breads served on antique blue/white platter with antique sterling. Enjoyed in the garden swinging on her daybed from the ancient oak.

My hat landing in the the meadow at our feet. Violets blooming at the brim. Appreciating the sublime. When life is a still life.

Appreciating her DEAR HUSBAND who lovingly takes the cushions in/out for her. Without being asked.

Choosing carefully where to place the bacchanalia. Laughter, sun, soft spring air, life, fragrance, timelessness, discussing the garden plan, sharing life stories.

A gift CORPORATE WOMAN shared with me, her joy. Her love of family, home, food, books, antiques, travel, art, story telling, and her garden.

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Humbling.

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Am I fully realizing the joys in my life, and sharing them?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

DON'T PLANT THE POTS

EXTERIOR WALLS SHOULD BE 3-D IN AREAS. A wall fountain, a birdhouse, exquisite shutters, espaliered plants, a vine, art. Whatever ties in with your interior design. Low maintenance, above, means don't plant the pots.
..............HOW?
* In the 1/2 face use an artful arrangement of pine cones + Spanish moss.
* Put a bonnet on the woman with an arrangement of dried hydrangeas + spike of dried
butterfly bush blossom.
* Give the bearded man a circa 1960's NASA crew cut of clipped twigs from a nearby tree.
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You get the idea. I'm curious what you've come up with.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

WHY DO MEN STOP WOMEN FROM GARDENING?

More than a handful of women have 'SECRETLY' hired me to design their landscape. WHY? Why do men stop women from gardening? Mostly they don't want their lawn changed. What is the most harmful feature of American landscapes? THE LAWN. Fertilizer, chemicals, water, gas powered lawn-mower. What are the other reasons? Change. Not wanting change.
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LOVELY called for a design and explained she & PRICKLES, her husband, were retired. PRICKLES is always home. How could she hide me? We covertly planned lunch. PRICKLES, LOVELY & I had a delightful lunch, and as expected, PRICKLES went to the basement to play on his computer. LOVELY & I walked her garden and I did her landscape design. With feverish searching eyes LOVELY scanned her kitchen & family room for signs of PRICKLES before paying me in cash.
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PEONY wanted a landscape design & told me up front her husband, GOLFER, must never know. Could I come during a very specific time? PEONY had a lovely landscape but wanted a good tweaking. Knowing his golf schedule she timed my landscape design to the minute. With feverish searching eyes, and paying cash, PEONY made sure I was out of her driveway 1/2 hour before GOLFER was due home.
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CHEF recently bought a circa 1960's home on acreage. The previous owner's landscape crew, TESTOSTERONE ON WHEELS, showed up. CHEF told them how she wanted it done. No ma'am that's not how it's really done, they said. CHEF said, Well, there's a new sheriff in town. Weeks later, CHEF asked TESTOSTERONE ON WHEELS, again, to mow according to her tastes on her property. You know where this is going don't you? TESTOSTERONE ON WHEELS was summarily fired.
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When I began to garden COLLEGE BOY said, You can't do that. Like an idiot I listened. After 3 years of 'partially' gardening, with fabulous results, I began to garden in earnest. Without telling COLLEGE BOY anything I began to garden from my soul. In exchange I do all the gardening myself and pay for it myself.
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More stories but this post is already too long.
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What have we done, as a society, to let anyone (male or female) think they can stop another person from gardening?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

AND THEY LOOK THIS GOOD? FREE DESIGN

Look closely. A pair of picnic tables create this dining room. Design for any budget.
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Why is this garden room inviting?
* Timeless
* Speaks, Welcome, without words
* A shady respite
* Seating
* Complete room: (ceiling) canopy & understory trees, (walls) of shrubs in contrasting foliage
colors/sizes, (flooring) of gravel
* Works for one or a group
* Outdoor ceiling fans on 6"x6" posts can be added to keep mosquitoes away
* Copied, it will be unique at each site
* Not too big, not too small
* Low maintenance
* Can't find matching tables or chairs? Copy the French: paint or stain everything the same color

Pic from Velvet & Linen