DESIGN TO MESMERIZE

Lecturing in Aiken, SC years ago I stayed with DANCING COUPLE. This picture, below, of the many taken in their landscape continues to mesmerize. Their pond mesmerized in real time and I realized, only this week, designing to mesmerize is an element of landscape design.
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What mesmerizes in interior design? For me it's the enfilade of interior view to outside view. Still life of furnishings leading to the kinetic still life of landscape.
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I still marvel at seeing trees, blue sky, white clouds, breeze upon the surface of the water, koi rippling the water as they live their life and rocks lining the bottom of the pond.
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What design elements mesmerize you? In the landscape? Inside your home?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

LANDSCAPE DESIGN & GEORGE WASHINGTON

On a July 4th I stood in line to tour Mount Vernon. The day was hot, humid, crowded. Not much is open July 4th except Mount Vernon. MOTHER DEAREST stood in line while I careened between the walled gardens of George & Martha.
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It's fitting I fell in love with George Washington on July 4th.
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There are some things you should know about this gardening man. George's walled garden at Mount Vernon is the Pleasure Garden with plants from around the globe. Though he was fighting a new type of war George hired a landscape designer for Mount Vernon. Imagine. He boldly fought a war without advice but hired advice for his landscape.
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(men come to build sooner than to garden finely......as if gardening were the greater art...Pope)
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Martha's, much-much-much larger, walled garden is for the production of food. Without interpretation it's obvious this is a unique couple and George is an unusual man.
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While fighting the British it was not uncommon for George to study & implement English farming & landscape ideas. He was often the 1st to apply new methods from England on our soil.
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While fighting a war to create a new country it was not uncommon for George to write long letters to his construction manager at Mount Vernon explaining paint colors, methods, aesthetics, time tables & more.
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When George couldn't afford what he wanted at Mount Vernon he used fauxe. Best example? The exterior of Mount Vernon is wood, cut & painted, to look like stone.
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George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson were each avid agricultural & ornamental gardeners.
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What role did this play in their relationship to each other?
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Did you know John Adams & Thomas Jefferson, while working in Europe, spent 2 weeks together touring gardens in England? Though both were inveterate journal keepers, neither man wrote of the trip. Why? We know much about the Lewis & Clark expedition but I really, truly, madly, deeply want to know about those 2 weeks in England.
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Will stop here or embarrass myself by describing a screenplay of those lost 2 weeks. With darling Thomas involved you know it's a bodice ripper.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

LANDSCAPE PHOTO ALBUM

Stranded on a runway, fog, in Switzerland, returning from a garden tour of Italy Peggy Cannon, gardener & artist, was my seatmate. A short amount of conversation led to my landscape photo album being pulled out. Peggy sparkled and said, Oh I've brought mine too!

We were on that runway 4 hours. Four delightful hours of gardens, antiques, oil painting, clothes, money, books, personal business methods, travel, food, pets, parents, siblings, men, children, in-laws. Our photo albums spurred a deep intimacy & trust.

Why did I stop carrying my landscape photo album? Yesterday, while my broken email was being repaired I put together a new landscape photo album. 48 pics of my landscape, 4 pics/page, gorgeous.

The album is potently tucked in my purse as I type. Last night, dinner with PRIMITIVE GIRLS, you bet, they've already devoured my album. And yes, they've decided they need one too. To whip out. And share.

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These pics, all from my garden, are nice but only digital. It's delicious having pictures to touch, ogle, show off. Don't you want a landscape photo album too?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

VEGETABLE GARDEN: SHAKER STYLE

Shaker settlement Albany, New York, below.

Master Gardeners in Albany, New York recreated a Shaker vegetable garden. Raised beds with planked paths. Easy access to harvest & weed. And, an enclosing fence. Keeping animals & debris to a minimum. Painted blue. Nothing was done solely for aesthetics with the Shakers. Why paint the fence blue? Function? The spirit world. To keep evil spirits away or ask God's bounty upon their crop, or both, I don't know.

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Ann Lee, 1736-1784, founded the Shakers. It was disheartening to discover so little preserved about Shakers in Albany.

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Inventions of the Shakers: marketing packaged seeds, flat broom, washing machine, clothes pin, circular saw, apple peeler & clothes press.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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top pic from Shaker Heritage

LANDSCAPE DESIGN: WASHINGTON PARK, ALBANY, NY

Gertrude Jekyll, world's 1st landscape designer, said, When I design a landscape the FIRST thing I consider is what to put on the house.
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Near Washington Park Jekyll's edict is planted. And there's a thrilling roof. Stone shingles are larger at the gutter, tapering toward the ridge.
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Having something on your house does not always mean a vine. I prefer espaliered woody shrubs. No wires or trellis needed. Vines are often too much maintenance vs. an espaliered woody shrub. Nearby, below, what my LANDSCAPE DESIGN EQUATION advocates. When you create a landscape design begin with trees. What survives in a landscape? Trees, meadow & stone focal point. If you care about low maintenance, organics, sustainability with rainwater only, creating a realm of beauty to live amongst & leaving something for the future. TREES.

With age the trees have become more spectacular than the house, below.

Why is this painted brick, below, working for me? I used to hate painted brick. This painted charmer is near the homes pictured above.

And each of the homes edge Washington Park in Albany, New York. Yes, I was there during the tulip festival.

Original plan, below, for Washington Park. Much of the land has never been privately owned.

Below, the wisdom of what lasts in a landscape (trees - meadow) contrasted with the ephemeral (tulips).

Contrasts, another landscape design tool. Above, see the tree design? Canopy, understory, cone, weeping, horizontal, burgundy foliage, deciduous, evergreen, brown bark, white bark, grey bark.

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There is a template for landscape design with trees. I didn't learn the template in college for horticulture. No. Studied landscapes in France. They don't muck about, as the English would say.

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Pics of Washington Park from their website.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

1790's HOME & GARDEN: Albany, New York

Lecturing in Albany, New York last week I had the option of hotel or private home. Please. Observing how others live & garden inform my Muse (more about Muse in another post).
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All of a Tuesday NAUGHTY GIRL hosted me about Albany: Shaker gardens (more in another post), her friends homes & gardens, restaurants, Master Gardener public gardens, historical sites, and evading police twice on downtown bridges during the filming of Angelina Jolie's newest movie. NAUGHTY GIRL was good, indeed, for my Muse.
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APPLE SAUCE QUEEN, below, lives in this circa 1790 home. My 1st time inside a real 5-4&door.
APPLE SAUCE QUEEN had 4 minutes notice of our arrival. She & her husband were in the backyard gardening & caretaking a grandson. Spring, calm, beauty, love, laughter emanated from this trio as we pulled into their drive.

Have you designed shadows, above, into your landscape? Wish you could have walked upon this venerable stone path to APPLE SAUCE QUEEN's front door with me.

Immediately at the front door, above, original stairs, rail, floor, foyer.

APPLE SAUCE QUEEN & her husband stripped the flooring of layers of paint, above.

Each side of the foyer, above, with these doors. Were they to help caretake children, control pets?

The dining room, above & below, was a later addition. In the china cabinet, above, APPLE SAUCE QUEEN has a jar full of pottery, china, pipes, marbles & other misc. things found while digging in the garden. Some of the china is from China. Slow-witted me did not think to get a picture for you. Oops.

APPLE SAUCE QUEEN not only makes applesauce from her own apples but jams from her own blackberries, raspberries, strawberries & blueberries. Her grown children live close and she's able to caretake her grandchildren. Her love & joy with life is a delightful cloud to be enveloped within.

Why is this a fabulous landscape picture, above? Trust me, it is. APPLE SAUCE QUEEN was in the process of removing iris and planting vinca minor when NAUGHTY GIRL & I arrived.

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Many talk about low-maintenance few follow thru.

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Thank you NAUGHTY GIRL for this tiny slice of Tuesday.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

LAKE PLACID LANDSCAPE LECTURE: MIRROR LAKE INN

Away a week, lecturing in Lake Placid & Albany, New York. Flew into Albany, rented a car and drove to Mirror Lake Inn in Lake Placid. A portion of the drive was beautiful mythical Middle Earth. Chunks of ice larger than my car, emanating a sky blue from their heart, falling from stone hillsides. White birch trees yet to leaf, waterfalls flowing into lakes following the narrow 2 lane road.
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Below, a portion of Mirror Lake Inn. Did I mention it's in the Adirondack's? I guessed there might be a bear inside, below.

Details done right, below. I typically spec new shutters into landscape designs.

My room, below, is the bay window & 2 windows facing through the trees on the same floor.

Views, below, from all of my windows were spectacular. It snowed the morning I arrived.

Another view, above, from my window. Laying in bed or the Jacuzzi tub I could see the lake and snow capped mountains.

After walking around Mirror Lake I was glad to sit, above. With age I've come to adore Adirondack chairs. Great to set a glass of wine on one arm and a plate upon the other. All while being comfortable and visiting with friends.

Thursday is my favorite New York Times edition. I went into the local library, above, and read the paper while overlooking Mirror Lake and snow capped mountains.

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Perennially Yours was the symposium I spoke at. Kerry Mendez, garden designer, put it together for hands-on gardeners. One in particular stole my heart. At breakfast a woman said to me, I have a Japanese garden on the shore of Lake Champlain. A line to attract any gardeners attention. Her garden began the day the Korean War started. On that day she arrived, with her newly minted botany degree, in Japan. She was working for SAC, the Strategic Air Command. Japan was a 3-year stint for her.

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Somehow I've got to get to Lake Champlain to see her Japanese garden, and her.

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Cold zone gardening changes a person. No time to waste in a short growing season. I was the speaker but listening to stories over meals & during walks humbled me. Gave a new window into what gardening means as a companion in life.

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Landscape design doesn't change but how it's accomplished in the pattern of a life does.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

TARA'S TRINITY: AZALEAS, CAMELLIAS, HYDRANGEAS

When I knew nothing about gardening, moving into this house 22 years ago, I knew to copy a garden with matching conditions. Morning sun then shade. My Grandmother had azaleas, camellias & hydrangeas, something was blooming each day of the year. Maintenance? NILL. Beauty? EXTREME.

Can you see my A/C above? It's to the left. Why does this garden work? SIMPLICITY. The 1st rule of gardening is to COPY what works.

Alas, copying & simplicity are hard. Design tools I must relearn daily. It's human nature to want flowering plants, oodles & oodles of them.

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Designing, I make mistakes on the side of SIMPLICITY. It's easier to add plants, not take them away. Easier to maintain and afford, too. Most importantly, landscapes are prettier when simple.

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Simplicity is a gift. Elegance is refusal.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

AFTER THE STORM

Wind killed 2 people, destroyed many homes and left more without power for days. I read the Wall Street Journal & NY Times, not the local paper. It took a few days to learn the facts. I was home last week when the winds hit at 55 mph.

When I realized the devastation of the storm I walked my garden looking for damage.

I found beauty. Winds blew Chinese snowball blossoms into hedges, along paths and onto this birdbath. My garden looked decorated for a Mexican fiesta.

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I didn't rejoice in the beauty. I prayed.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

HIGHBALL SEATING

Who designed this incredibly smart, aesthetic & comfortable couch?
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Deep seating, perhaps it should be coined, Highball Seating?
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Three chairs create this couch. Where will conversation, and the chairs, go on a warm evening after Highballs?

I don't even know what a highball is but this couch is speaking to me.

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Imagine the fun of bringing this couch back to life with paint, cushion choices & fabric.

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Wish I had a covered porch or sunroom instead of open patio.

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This couch is a novel in 3 parts. Each narrative led by a different owner of the couch through the years. Events swirl around and upon its welcoming embrace.

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Saw it on Easter at Scott Antique Market. It's Ian Krost's, 770-468-4525, booth outside. He sells from his home location, in Barnesville, GA, too.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

POT STORIES

Whatever your style, make sure you buy pots so wonderful they can remain empty, if you choose. Studying landscapes in Scotland I intuited the Empty Pot.

Incredibly smart idea.

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Pots, above, were at Scott Antique Market on Easter. The vendors had no pricing and were away from their booth. Sorry I can't give the the pricing.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

NEVER NEEDS PLANTING

Serious about low maintenance? About beauty? The environment?

Place on a pedestal of found bricks or stones to the appropriate height. Place on axis with window views of your home or each side of a path's entry.

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Do these pass the estate sale question? Are these so wonderful they will be fought over at my estate sale?

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Imagine, no watering, planting, driving to buy plants. EVER.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara