Monday, December 21, 2009
SIMPLE SWAG
Thursday, December 17, 2009
PUPPET BARBUDA GARDEN CENTER SHOPPING
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Instead, a preening tragedy. The garden center, inside, was dramatically static, by a decade, or more. Garden merchandise is more tempting at TJMaxx or Marshall's or Ross. (PUPPET shops those places for her garden many times/year!)
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How to fix this? PUPPET BARBUDA wishes Atlanta interior design blogger, Things That Inspire, would be invited to decorate/merchandise inside the garden center. In exchange? Promotion of her work & blog. The garden center is tight on money in a tight economy, understandably.
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PETERSHAM NURSERIES in England is where PUPPET BARBUDA vicariously shops. PUPPET is on PETERSHAM's email list & adores each missive. Their pics (they're on Flickr too) have her smitten. At least the distance to PETERSHAM's saves PUPPET money.
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PUPPET BARBUDA is horrified a new gardener, or non-gardener, would enter the Garden-Center-of-Preening-Tragedy and think, "This is what gardening is about?" Though a fabulous remnant remained from another era, CUSTOMER SERVICE. Oh, the poor dears had not much to sell.
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When PUPPET BARBUDA saw the pic, above, via Dust Jacket Attic, she thought it had more to sell to gardeners than the garden center stuffed with merchandise she visited this week. PUPPET BARBUDA's heart is on her sleeve about gardening & wants each element of the profession, & you the gardener, to prosper.
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It should be easy to have a sustainable, eco, organic, low-maintenance, spirit filling, beautiful garden. PUPPET BARBUDA would survive without hers but she wouldn't THRIVE.
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Life is short, thrive.
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Garden & Be Well, XO PUPPET BARBUDA aka Tara
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(Mental math? Thrifty PUPPET BARBUDA was willing to go $200 max, instead, ZERO)
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
VANISHING THRESHOLD IN HINDSIGHT
A bit of the garden room, below. The perfect urn on plinth. Would look good with/without a planting. Evergreens, so plain, flanking the walk are charming. Not a garden of depth, below, but one with integrity & charm. Recognize the house yet?
In hindsight this house has the first
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
VELVET & LINEN GARDEN: BEFORE & AFTER
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Attraction to Velvet & Linen was immediate. Beautiful interiors matched to beautiful landscapes. Brooke creates & lives a Vanishing Threshold life. She's a master of color, scale, form, function & more. Before, above, she started her garden renovation.Small input, huge impact at the front door. Themes: evergreens, white, terra cotta. If the spiral had been placed closer to the front door, as most people do, the entire area would feel cramped.Oh lucky dirt, below, someone knows how to make you productive.Aren't these our best days, below? Coming home loaded with plants or antiques or art or books or thrift store junk?
Brooke's pants, side track me a bit, shoes too, above. Tiny gardens are difficult, imperfections are magnified. Barely finished, Brooke's garden is a delight.
Monday, December 14, 2009
LANDSCAPE ARTIST JONATHAN MYLES-LEA
It amuses me imagining Jonathan painting my sweet garden. Seriously, I wonder what perspectives he would use. My checkbook laughs.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
IS YOUR HOA DOA?
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PUPPET BARBUDA reads, "The landscape is conceived with enough audacity to make this gimmick intriguing, and executed with enough art to make it effective."
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A.O.Scott is a garden designer! PUPPET BARBUDA loves his trinity of questions a good landscape answers.
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Is the landscape audacious?
Is the landscape intriguing?
Is the landscape art?
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PUPPET BARBUDA is disgusted with typical homeowner association rules pertaining to landscapes.
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Older HOA's, especially, devalue property. How? Keeping landscapes in a timewarp of SHAG CARPET, AVOCADO GREEN APPLIANCES, POPCORN CEILINGS & ETC.
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Interior decorating is allowed to move forward why aren't landscapes?
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Outdated trim colors, foundation plantings pruned, for decades, into malicious, cruel shapes, and turf guzzling labor, water, toxic chemicals. Too many homeowners are bound by law to the uglies listed above. And losing money.
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PUPPET BARBUDA kicking dollars at words.
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Neighborhood of 350 homes, with outdated Home Owner Association rules.
Average home price, $425,000.00
Landscaping worth 5% of sales price.
$21,250.00 loss for each home.
Total neighborhood loss: $7,437,500.00
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Is your HOA DOA? Please, forward this humble post to your HOA president. Start a dialogue. Money is on the table. Don't you want more?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara aka PUPPET BARBUDA
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Pic of lunch this week in my office
Thursday, December 10, 2009
BROKEN HEADS
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Brain thought, RAT. Eyes saw a face.
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That began my BROKEN HEADS collection.
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Girlie, above, is about 4". She cost a $1 at some nursery. Another joy of my BROKEN HEAD collection? Cheap. One nursery tried to charge me $12 for a BROKEN HEAD, ha, I walked.
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Only the observant will discover my BROKEN HEADS collection in the garden.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
FLOWING COLOR
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White.
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SHE has white: azaleas, viburnum, holly, camellias, magnolia, dogwood.
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It's counterintuitive, the more demanding you are of your landscape the easier it is to create.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
MY DEAR LADIES
My Dear Ladies are retired school teachers and owned an antiques business for decades. Driving a used school bus they scoured northern USA for their southern antiques shop. Can't you see My Dear Ladies loading that school bus & driving stuffed with antiques?
Monday, December 7, 2009
COLOR: CEILING, WALLS, FLOOR
And of course, I didn't forget to color the ceiling, below.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
CREATING A LIFE FORCE
Yet it's already there. A new LIFE FORCE. Risking being, The-Fruit-Loop-Garden-Designer I called TRACTOR CHICK last night & said, "I feel the Life Force of your garden."
Guess what? She feels it too!!!!!!!!!
Normally, it takes longer for a garden to share its Life Force. Sadly, many landscapes never have a Life Force. If yours doesn't, once you ask, "Why?", you're on your way to having it.
PUPPET BARBUDA will not let anyone use the I-don't-have-the-money excuse. One bush, one tree, done correctly will create a Life Force. We've all been in check-book gardens, yuck.
What do landscapes with a Life Force feel like? Grace. An energy calming & inspiring; an energy making sense of anything life throws at you. Beauty, enriching & sublime filling the senses, feeding your inner muse.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics from my patio this week.