WHEN TO BUY & DIY CONTRACTING & etc.

November is the best month to buy plants on sale. Most nurseries must make space for Christmas trees, arriving typically, by Thanksgiving.

A tempting email arrived from here. I bit. And bought!!

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A delicious man helped place my order, arriving Dec. 4th. Gosh he was rollicking good. I think I asked him to deliver my plants himself. He wasn't sure they would let him. Honestly, I begged him to be the one unloading my plants with me.

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We are still emailing back/forth about my order. More deliciousness.

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What's so delicious? Try a 25 gallon Variegated Kousa Dogwood at $90, a 45 gallon Cryptomeria at $130, 25 gallon Natchez Crape Myrtles at $60 and super tasty 7 gallon Setsugekka Sasanqua's at $40. Best prices of the year.

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Told you Mr. Rollicking Delicious was good.

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It's been almost a decade since I've done a large tweek in my garden. At my baywindow I'm creating a gravel terrace. 2 Adirondack chairs from the Smith/Hawken going-out-of-business sale were bought for this new garden room. Another gravel terrace is being added in my side garden under the crape myrtles. A chandelier is waiting in my garage to be hung from the crape myrtles over this new seating area. Teak seating was bought from TJMAXX.

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My garden is tiny & full of rooms. Soon I should win an award for most garden rooms/square foot!!!

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Gravel for the terraces will be ordered tomorrow. Laying in bed I connive where it should be dumped. There's no where. At the bottom of my short drive seems best. Don't want the dump truck breaking it. Guess who shovels? Me. Hired my contractor, Dan Riddle, to plant the big stuff. Can only afford him, and workers, for a full day.

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Why tell you all this? So you can be your own contractor too.

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AND, my interior was SUSANNED Tuesday. When Susanne Hudson left (10am-7pm) I was excited and dizzy. Since Tuesday I've been taking my notebook with color chips/notes around the house & to bed, it's beside my computer now as I type glancing at the colors.
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SUZANNE MEASURED. Things I knew couldn't be done, were done, because she measured. Antiques from my garage will be going inside, finally. She also named rooms. The Parlor, Music Room, Garden Room, OMG, what fun.

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Top pic is of HighGrove, Prince Charles's estate in England. And the bottom pic was a joy to come across. I've been in that garden. Don't remember where. Must peruse my pics & find my shot of the same spot. I think the pics came via Golden Age Gardens .

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

HEDGE FUND IN THE LANDSCAPE

Cute Kills in a landscape. Yes, another Tara Rule. Why?
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Often, cute, has lovely origins but in execution the effect is derivative, clumsy, pedantic. Cute hijacks thought processes. It's static. Not a dynamic statement. Nor timeless.
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What to do instead?
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WHIMSY.
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If hedges are the walls of garden rooms, shouldn't they have windows?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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I took this pic in Atlanta while Joel Tressler was shooting for my book.

HOW TO ADD INTEREST TO YOUR WALLS

Gertrude Jekyll, world's 1st landscape designer, said the first thing she considered when designing a landscape was what to put on the wall. I literally set her book down when I read that sentence. To digest. Why?
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No symposium, book, magazine, college professor ever, EVER, said to put anything on the house.
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Jekyll's sentence rocked my world. Hope it rocks yours.
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Gertrude loved to use CLEMATIS MONTANA on walls.
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In Italy, I discovered every conceivable plant espaliered. EPIPHANY: use espaliered shrubs instead of vines. Much, much-much-much, easier. No wires, no trellis needed.
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Shutters, tool bouquets, art, faux doors, faux windows, birdhouses & etc. are also in your quiver; adding interest to your walls.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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On my wall, above, she's hanging on the nail vacated, for the moment, by my dovecote which is in the repair shop. The Yellow Pages delivery person smashed it to smithereens. (A Christine Sibley piece bought at her gallery/garden before she passed. Every piece of hers was bought off the 'seconds' table, 90% off.) Do you have a landscape larder for garden emergencies?????????

THE SECRET OF FABULOUS LANDSCAPES

Entering Great Dixter, below, the household drive. Tires crunching along the gravel, scent of meadow.

Passing thru the yew hedge into this, above.

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See the landscape design secret?

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No?

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Back your car down the drive, park it on the road, get out, walk up the gravel drive, slowly, and thru the yew hedge.

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Notice the contrast of meadow to clipped lawn? Formal to informal?

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Ha, the secret tool of the worlds most famous landscapes is

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CONTRASTING FORMAL & INFORMAL GARDEN ROOMS.

Did you think this gravel drive & meadow were 'natural'? Ha, not one inch of this drive or meadow were unconsidered. TOTALLY DESIGNED.
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TARA TURF was born in this meadow over a decade ago. And the epiphany of what the best landscapes create, FORMAL GARDEN ROOMS NEXT TO INFORMAL GARDEN ROOMS.
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CONTRAST.
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Yes, contrast flower shapes/colors, tree forms, foliage colors/shapes & etc. Knowing, contrasting FORMAL/INFORMAL is the most important.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Lucky me, taking the pics at Great Dixter while Christopher Lloyd was alive. Note: In another area of Great Dixter meadow is designed up to, and touching, the house. Ha, remember the Tara Rule of Just Let It Touch?
Oh, meadows have been sustainable-organic-eco-low maintenance-beautiful since before language was invented.

10 KICK ASS WAYS TO LANDSCAPE DESIGN

Landscape design rules make everything unique about YOU, more intense. Landscape Design Rules copied, above:
1. Vine on house. (Or espalier a shrub)
2. Pot cluster, themed (terra cotta).
3. Well-placed chair.
4. View into house delightful.
5. Color on house. All wood in landscape is peacock blue.
6. Color on chair. All metal in landscape is faded green.
7. Contrasting foliage shapes & colors.
8. Contrasting bloom shapes, spikey & round.
9. Does it hold together in winter?
10. Just let it touch. Foliages touch each other, the chair, the house
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You'll see these rules followed in the best landscapes. Claude Monet to Gertrude Jekyll to Christopher Lloyd to Vita Sackville-West to Sir Roy Strong to William Morris to Rosemary Verey to Tasha Tudor to Tara Dillard..... to YOU.

Don't like the pot cluster? Don't use them, plant a shrub. Voila, same landscape, but now you own it.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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I took the pic in a lovely private French garden.

A LANDSCAPE WORTHY OF JANE AUSTEN

Pleasure walks, focal points to stimulate conversation, peaceful corners to sit & read, have lunch, write a letter, gossip with a friend, entertain, experience metaphors of nature writ large, a retreat to retire & contemplate, connive perhaps, most importantly it's civilized. Of course it's my garden.

These views taken from my office window this week with my cell phone.

Living within this tiny plot of land in a cluster home subdivision and all the cares of the world; this garden allows me a Jane Austen life.

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Ugh, the matchmaking part? Terrible. Did it once, never again. They divorced.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

TRAILING DRESS, GARDEN, HOWARD'S END

"Why did we settle that their house would be all gables and wiggles, and their garden all gamboge-colored paths?" Won't tell you what 'gamboge' is. Why take away a pleasure? A great day when a dictionary is needed. "Trail, trail, went her long dress over the sopping grass, and she came back with her hands full of the hay that was cut yesterday..." Mrs. Wilcox walking in her garden peering into her house, Howard's End. This scene from Howard's End so enchanted me I had to buy the book. Not imagined by the movie director, I discovered, but written into the story.

You must understand, walking about my garden, and peering into my house, calms & fills me with energy. A private, sublime, pleasure. Why would I share it with anyone, these thoughts? Then discovering my private joy was written about by E.M.Forster in 1910.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics via Hooked on Houses from the movie, Howard's End

THE SECRET OF GARDEN ENTRIES & HALLWAYS

Did you know, the more entries a garden has the better a garden is? Why?
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Garden Entries are focal points drawing the eye, foot, imagination. Leading to foyers, hallways & living rooms. If you can do it inside, dahlings, you can do it outside.
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Above, Garden Entry with tiny landing leading directly into a hallway. See it? Can you label each section? Spread it farther. See the walls? See the ceiling?
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Creating a garden is no more than creating outdoor rooms.
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My favorite garden hallway is above. I took the pic in the Cotswolds. Don't you want to see where the hallway leads?
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How important are Garden Entries & Garden Hallways????????? Today, I'm off to finish a landscape design for a garden full of living rooms. I will add Entries & Hallways connecting them. La-Ti-Da. One of my favorite things to do.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

CAN YOU FIND THE GARDEN THEME HERE?

Artist Stephanie Corder profiled me on her blog yesterday using the name of my business as a theme. I remember the moment, decades ago, creating the name of my business.

Little did I know

it would become the way I design landscapes, Vanishing Threshold,

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live my life.

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My business, and Stephanie's theme? A Garden View.

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Artwork, above, curated by Stephanie, was created by several artists, and written about on her blog. She's an artist too, multi-media, available here.

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Thank you Stephanie for the profile and the artwork you chose.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

15 REASONS TO HIRE AN INTERIOR DECORATOR

15. Not your specialty. Want your dermatologist to do a heart stint?

14. Create rooms with serenity, filling you with energy. (Ha, hire the decorator.)

13. Place ceiling fixtures properly. Hire the electrician twice?

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12. Choose light fixtures: new to junkers from thrift stores stored in your garage.

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11. Place artwork on walls. Move paintings 2-3x's on newly painted walls?

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10. Place bric-a-brac. Trifling trinkets when you do it.

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9. Place lamps & choose new shades. Most important if you have a lighting fetish.

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8. Place furniture. Pianos are heavy, buffets too.

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7. Honor collections. Culling years of collecting into Something....Anything. Will toss what you tell me to.

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6. Choose flooring. Too many choices to go it alone.

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5. Choose fabrics. Too many choices.

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4. Choose colors. Too many choices.

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3. Increase intended function of each room/space.

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2. Save money.

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1. AMPLIFY WHO I AM

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Yes, I'm hiring an interior decorator, Susanne Hudson. Counterintuitively I know Susanne will save money and make me, more me. My house, 22 years old, with original everything, has reached a crisis. Oh, the clawfoot tub in my garden? Dahlings, it's coming inside.

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It's time my house catch up to the FABULOSITY of my garden, VANISHING THRESHOLD.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics, saved privately to show Susanne what I adore. I didn't keep their provenance, ugh. If you know the source, & let me know, I'll update this post. Thanks!

NO SPACE TO GARDEN

When there is no space to garden, yet there is, indeed, a garden it speaks of the gardener not the garden.
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Passed this little garden, above, during an open garden scheme in the Cotswolds.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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PUPPET BARBUDA sees: charm (remember CUTE KILLS), perfection of scale, field gathered plants, rescued hardscape items, sharp eye for color on the door, Vanishing Threshold, contrasting foliage texture & color, stone softened with plantings (my rule of JUST LET IT TOUCH), fabulous maintenance, low maintenance, modesty of checkbook (PUPPET BARBUDA is disgusted when someone says, "I don't have money to garden"), joy in the gardeners hand-heart-eye (ha, mind-body-spirit).

A MADELEINE

Where does it go? Client, Friend & Mentor Mary Kistner would have me to lunch. A cloth on her table. Cloth she wove. Flowers she had cut that morning. A book, too, would be near the flowers, opened to a page completing a still life with the vase, dishes, cloth. Dishes she orchestrated. Mary cooked, carefully chosen recipes, always hiring a neighbor to serve/clean, facilitating our conversation.
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Sparking. That's what I called our conversation. Interesting, full of energy.

David Stevens, my contractor, entered our realm. A kindred spirit. Many lunches & Sparking. Enjoying our trinity. After 15 minutes of lunch realizing it was 2 hours. Ending, always, with a walk of Mary's acreage. Snow, rain, spring's shocking greens, fall's crown of colors, summer's green humidity.

Did I think, ever, to take a picture of the table, food, cloth, book, dishes, Mary, David? Though not long ago, it was another era.

Mary died, home & acreage bequeathed to a land trust. David died. Their ashes enrich Mary's land. Their memory enriches me.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tare
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pic from Apartment Therapy.