LAVENDER HILL

AUNT is finally ensconced upon her 100+ acres. I helped design her previous landscape.

This landscape: sunny, dry, windy, large. AUNT, a busy woman, has a great eye & depth of feeling. Understanding the constraints? Design a landscape to inspire & feed the soul.

Low maintenance.

UNCLE is on the tractor, a crew weed-eats the edges. At lunch, below, mixed greens+roasted walnuts+goat cheese+strawberries+blueberries, and artisanal bread, I asked AUNT, What do you miss about your other garden?

It was on acreage too and included a small walled garden, vegetable garden and fruit orchard. She missed, Having a little place to take care of without help.

Reclaimed timbers in the living room, above. Seeing her furniture in a new home. Some of the pieces inherited from her mother, MISS LOUISE, and, aunt, AUNT TILLIE. Mentors to her, and me.

My own home & garden with things inherited from MISS LOUISE & AUNT TILLIE. Their gardens within us both. Their love too.

A guest bath, above. I recognized the mirror from AUNT's previous home.

A bedroom, above. With AUNT TILLIEs vanity & MISS LOUISE's mirror. Great light and views 180 degrees while laying in bed. Garden views. Wanting so much to get this landscape right.

Portions of the home are 1-room deep. Views of acreage spanning north-south.

A bank of 5 pair French doors, above. (My little camera couldn't shoot them all.)

AUNT's previous home had a stunning dining room window too.

Dining room, above, is not finished.

Clothes line, above, will be stained the trim color of the home. And French lavender planted. Screened porch, above, off the main rooms + kitchen. AUNT, a wonderful cook, wanting a tiny spot to charcoal grill & herb garden. AUNT wanting herbs in large pots. Of course, they'll go here nearest the kitchen.

On the way to AUNT's property, herd of decorator cows.

Trees + evergreen shrubs, the bones, are already placed. My job? Flowering, and fragrant, shrubs + trees sequenced to have something different coming into bloom every 2 weeks.

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Magic? All landscapes NEED magic. Don't you want your soul stirred? It's the shaking of our soul, at least mine, taking me into the garden.

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This site perfect, front to back, for lavender. Sunny & dry. Low maintenance. Fragrant. And those winds? They will scent the air with lavender even when not in bloom. The winds are strong enough to rub lavender leaves against each other.

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FRENCH LAVENDER. Will use a few Spanish lavender too. Spanish lavender blooms before the French, are darker purple, less fragrant, & look like butterfly wings.

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French Lavender is the magic of AUNT's garden.

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AUNT is already living at Lavender Hill. Thoughts of a garden are that strong.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

MISSIONS & PAINTS & OBITS

Faded green, color-matched from a House & Garden magazine picture circa 1990's. The home was in England, owned by a couturier to the Queen. My trim had been white. (Blinds, above, are always open but lowered to prevent birds smashing.)

Antique iron gates, Egyptian, late-Victorian, arrived rusted with hints of Robin's egg blue. It became the color for all the iron in my garden, above.

This chair, above, arrived, from Wal-Mart circa 1990's, already stained. Ick.

Original stain finally wore away and I stained, above, the chair Saturday. You knew, of course, I do these chores myself? Then, as it dried on the patio the rains came.

Choices had to be made, above, painting this iron gate with wood post. Stain the wood, as all the wood is stained, faded green, or go with Robin's egg blue? After that, choosing the bird's color was easy.
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Robin's Egg Blue: from Lowe's color matched, Olympic exterior oil gloss, base 4-73704, B57-3, Kingston Aqua exterior gloss oil, 101-24 102-28 103-3 Flat egg Sat s/g gloss. Note, they don't sell oil anymore.

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Faded Green: from Lowe's color matched, Olympic maximum, Deck Fence & Siding Stain. 100% acrylic Latex Formula, clear base, custom color, manual dispense 113-5Y40.5 115-2Y1.5 114-2Y47 102-1Y8.5

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Staining teak or an arbor aren't easy choices. My regret was waiting to make choices. The colors never bore. They are different in shade, sun, morning, evening, rain & etc.

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Painting & staining in the garden completed the interiors of my home.

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I live from the center of my home to the property line. Before, I only lived from the center of my home to its walls.
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A delightful obituary in the NYTimes Tuesday for Edward Durell Stone, Jr., landscape architect included, ...Most recent honor , the ASLA Landmark Award co-sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Presevation for PepsiCo's world headquarters in Purchase, NY was particularly gratifying. Designed over thirty years ago, PepsiCo's corporate campus was recognized for its excellence and inspiration to its people and their purpose.

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Why do anything less for yourself?

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A home & garden to inspire your daily life & your purpose in this world.

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Reminds me of something from Oprah magazine, What is your life the answer to?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

GARDEN SHOPPING

Will stain lattice boxes, wall brackets, & white lantern green to match the rest of the wood in my garden. Chickenwire cloches will be painted Robin's egg blue to match other iron. Tiny blue/white pots, above, were only $1. Bought all they had, only 4.

Hope you already know about Marshall's & TJMaxx for your garden. Granite gravel, #89, along with other bulk materials is available from Stone Forest.

For plants, locally, try: Buck Jones, Land Arts, Wilkerson Mill, Piccadilly, Goodness Grows, Ashe-Simpson, Pikes, Hastings, Habersham Gardens, & the ubiquitous big boxes.

Good pots, don't buy any other kind, are a specialty at Four Seasons Pottery.

Garage sales & rescues are necessary to every good landscape. Scott Antique Market, 2nd weekend each month, helps you create magic in your garden.

Nursery, 4 pics above, I shot in England at an estate garden open to the public. A fantasy. Where we all want to shop for plants, service, accouterments. Instead, gardens come together via hunting & gathering. Much hunting & gathering.

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It's odd, gardening is a multi-billion/yr industry yet so difficult to shop for.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

PLINTH, TALL & BOLD

Tall plinths are uncommon in gardens. Even less common for purchase. Do you know what a plinth is? Pedastals are plinths. I shot these in a private garden in England. Plinth, above, is a repurposed column. What a fun day it was capping the column with its focal point. Wish I had been there for the excitement.

In comparison to the first pic, not tall, but this plinth is taller than the average plinth in America.

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No budget for a plinth? Stack stones or bricks and make your own.

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My eyes are forever scouring junk piles for treasures. I rescued a plinth once, regrettably not tall but it is late Victorian and quite heavy, made of iron.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

GARDEN VIEW FROM THE KITCHEN

The tiniest area of this kitchen has 2 windows overlooking the garden. Thru plates on the windowsill, above, one of many tool bouquets, below, throughout Susanne Hudson's garden.

Carriage house view from the kitchen, below, and an arbor over the grill.

Gravel paths (granite gravel #89), above, connect house & carriage house.

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Garden & Be Well, XO T

DINKY STINKY

Beautiful homes with dreadful mailboxes are a particular pet peeve. They have such a Pin-The-Tail-On-The-Donkey picaresque quality.
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Susanne Hudson says, Dinky-Is-Stinky.
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This gorgeous house will soon have a new mailbox & planting. Graceous lawn will envelope the new mailbox & a vine will grace its exterior.
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No more dancing the Dinky Stinky.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

DELIGHTING IN PEELING BARK

Arching entry to my back terrace a pair of crape myrtle 'Natchez' delight daily. Especially July 4th when their bark begins peeling. Though this year they were 4 days early.
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Not only visual it's soothing, mesmerizing, slowly pulling strips of bark away. Have you ever peeled crape myrtle bark? Is it a secret pleasure?
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Few crape myrtles boast the bark colors of L. 'Natchez'. Rain intensifies the colors. The blooms are white. Their shade is intense. Birds adore this tree. And, my, do they grow fast. Water? Ha, best of the drought tolerant trees.
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L. 'Natchez' is one of the largest crape myrtles. Site properly and never perform Crape Murder. Do not whack these beauties.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

TRIP TO DOUGLASVILLE

Wed. & Thurs. were spent with Susanne Hudson, Le Jardin Blanc, Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival , & more, in Douglasville, GA. Her business & private garden have graced international TV & magazines.
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Her home was begun in 1875 with an addition in 1915. She began the garden when she moved in less than a decade ago. The woman moves fast. And wisely.
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I lived a happy month in those 2 days and will share with you sporadically thru the next many weeks.
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Before bed, late, we talked books-gardeners-gardens-interiors-ideas in her library, below. She pruned the climbing rose, below, in my room. It had grown inside the room to the canopy bed. Why? I would have loved the rose as bunting.

Sunlight on the original plaster ceiling yesterday morning, thru my iron canopy & chandelier.

How did she have time to put roses by my bed? Again the original plaster walls. Delight.

Susanne's chandelier, below, was a bit larger than mine. Hmm.

A girl has to bathe during a work trip doesn't she?

Wish you could smell the soap, and feel the towels.

Oops, I slept late, 8am. Coffee was wafting up the stairs as I was turning the landing, below.

Can you believe the garden view from her landing?

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More of these 2 days will be sprinkled in the weeks ahead.

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Susanne's garden, ideas, and even pics of one of her client's house/garden. And, if I'm devious enough, some of the nitty gritty conversation.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

FEEDING THE MUSE

Designing landscapes is science & poetry. After college I thought science would be enough. Ha. Science is easy. It's the poetry I'm after. When the Muse is not fed what remains is science.
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Feeding the Muse? Books, music, travel, pets, movies, friends, collage, gardening, spirit & serendipity.
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A shortcut, 3-4 seconds by car. This stern building, below, variously abandoned or occupied thru the years, feeds the Muse. Building, meadow, trees, all delight. Its current incarnation redolent of its caretakers.

Many years pass with debris & unkempt trees/bushes. Not now. The motivation is a belief in God.

The delight, in a city of millions, of trees-mosses-broomsedge-more caressing the side of my car at road's edge. This is the extent of the woodland & road.

Taking me back to Europe, each time I travel the road, of the many church's I've seen maintained with sweat equity vs. money.

There are no graves at the Flat Rock Primitive Baptist Church, what a name, but there are sacraments in the ground, below. Perfect atonement of roots-soil-moss-lichens-more.

Taking these pictures and seeing for the 1st time lace curtains. Hung with love.

Someone keeps the grounds clear as has been done in Europe for centuries. Seeing human spirit, not lack of landscape or architecture. Its very lack creating richness.

Seeing, above, in this side of the church another church and its side, below.

Flat Rock Primitive Baptist Church hasn't the provenance of the church, above, but it does.

At its base, a crown of lichens. Atonement: building-man-earth-spirit.

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Exactly the job of a landscape design, atonement of home-garden-earth-life.

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Garden & Be Well, XO T

YELLOWBOOK IS A SMASHER

Returning home to my garden yesterday wasn't pleasant. Yellowbook threw their newest edition at my front door. It smashed onto the birdhouse, above, knocking it to the ground. Destroying sections of roof, perches and lovely curved wall.
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For over a decade, this house has raised 1-2 nests of wrens, and the unfortunate cowbirds, each spring.
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Thankfully, birds were safely fledged before CSI: Birdhouse.
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Wisteria 'Amethyst Falls' is the vine.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T

THIS WAS A RANCH?

SURFER CHICK & TENNIS bought a dystopian ranch. Then hired architect John Knight . Do you see any hint of the ranch? It's still there, all of it.

SURFER CHICK & TENNIS liked my idea of French doors off the dining room, above. Creating a magic circle.

After the landscape design was complete TENNIS said he wanted a level frontyard.
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Hence the stone wall, above.

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Plantings are not yet a year old. A true dwarf loropetalum 'Purple Pixie', above, will soon soften the wall. Along with gardenias, variegated pittosporum, hydrangea, Southern Indica azaleas, & perennials.

Stone for the wall copies what John Knight chose for the house.

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Repetition & copy are 2 landscape design tools.

The new landscape is redolent of another era, 1930's, using pass along plant favorites.

John's details are fabulous, above, round copper downspouts, and a slight pitch to the shingle siding where it meets the brick.

Entry to the garden from the street, on axis from the front door, creates an enfilade. Adding depth, warmth, welcome, focal point, movement.

Thru the black-eyed Susan's, above. Pairs of gardenia are used at the front entry near the curb and at the front porch.

Last Friday I was on site to draw the backyard landscape.

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I've added another pair of French doors to the left of those above. And 2 new arbors. One extending from the screened porch and the other directly opposite. Ceiling fans on the arbors, cozy seating with Adirondack chairs and a harvest table with chairs.

Potting table & gravel terrace (#89 granite gravel) will be added in front of the back wall, above, with the oval window. Camellia sasanqua hedging will embrace the gravel terrace.

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The upper lawn, above, will keep it's tapestry hedge of azalea, ligustrum, liriope, camellia. I've added several oakleaf hydangea and a new sitting area.

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The front door has an enfilade thru the French doors, patio & lawn, above. A bench has been placed on axis with it in the plan.

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And I'm feeling negligent I didn't get a picture of the plan for you.

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I'll ask SURFER CHICK to send a picture of the plan AND a picture of their original ranch.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara