LANDSCAPE TRANSITIONS

TRACTOR CHICK hired me for her new home, below, enveloped by bare red clay. Her mission statement was clear. A challenge, and fun to work with. In a few days the new landscape will be complete. AND HERS. Odd feelings are erupting.

One of several hallways, above, in her new garden. A Crape Myrtle 'Natchez' allee.

My garden, above. No need to feel I'm doing without.

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Bittersweet to hand over TRACTOR CHICK's landscape. It's already a life force. Her life force. I merely chiseled a statue from stone. It was there all along. Oh my, this must be a form of separation anxiety!! Intellectually I know the garden will only get better as TRACTOR CHICK takes over.

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So why am I pouting?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

LANDSCAPE AWAKENING

Augusta, Georgia, 1968, summer, the home & garden of the late author of adventure novels, Edison Marshall. A pair of Indian tigers he shot, flanking a fireplace, did attract my eye. Lunch, served by 'staff' did too. A tour of the house included a true ghost story.

In the garden a pair of huge Galapagos turtles Mr. Marshall brought home from an adventure. Fountains, paths, meadow, urns, statues, fragrance, heat, humidity, butterflies. Never had I seen such a place. I awoke.
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It is said we try to recreate the rooms that first awakened us.
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In Mr. Marshall's garden I learned my parents were not to be taken seriously. Afterward, they spoke only of the house, staff, antiques. If they were 'real' people they would have spoken of the garden. Those moments, circa 1968, in the garden made my blood fizz.

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Still fizzing.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic, garden circa 1910, from Smithsonian Archive.

KNOW WHO TO ASK

Ask a landscape contractor specializing in brick/stone/concrete/mortar for ideas about a path or terrace? It's fairly certain you'll end up with ideas like this, below. Instead of something like this, below.

Gravel ranges $20-$48/ton & doesn't require skilled labor.

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At a girlfriend's for dinner I broke a personal rule, "No Landscape Designing, Unless Asked. " She told me the story of several contractor bids to repair her old, broken concrete patio. Each bid into the thousands of dollars. I asked her, "What do you think of gravel?"

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Yes, dahlings, less than $300 later she had a gravel terrace. She asked me, "Why didn't any of the contractors tell me about gravel?" She loves the terrace & so do I. We've had many dinners, brunches & glasses of wine on her gravel terrace.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Top pic from Smithsonian Horticulture Archive, Bottom pic from the movie, It's Complicated. No time to poke around for my girlfriend's gravel terrace at the moment. Another post!

IT IS UNCOMPLICATED

This landscape had me at its gravel. Did you notice this landscape requires no skilled maintenance?
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Pillow? Already telling us something about the home's interior.
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Vines adding lushness without taking up space.
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Pot clusters created as still life's, art. Not some stupid notion of need-a-garden-idea-here.
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Do you feel the pots, bench, plantings, gravel leading you to the back door?
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Sense how this garden room can be as easily rearranged as an interior room?
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This tiny garden room gives a huge sense of the woman living here. Does your garden look like your inner self?
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Do you think this garden was professionally designed? Yes? Me too.
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If this were your garden room, and you didn't have it professionally designed would it look this good? More importantly would it have cost so little to implement? Of greater importance would it be as easy, cost effective, to maintain? Topping the importance list, would you have created a garden room inviting you to use it?
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PUPPET BARBUDA loves this Vanishing Threshold garden.
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Pic from the movie, It's Complicated.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara aka PUPPET BARBUDA

UNDER GLASS

Aren't these glass trinkets fabulous under glass?

PUPPET BARBUDA laments Smith/Hawken going out of business this year. Those garden trinkets above? Yes, from S&H.

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Look closely, real close. All the trinkets are garden related. I want 'em. BAD.

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And I agree with Susanne Hudson's presentation, Under Glass.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

SANTA FOR BIG GIRLS

Santa's are specialists. Blessedly Garden Santa knows big girls want: plants arriving in 20 & 45 gallon containers, 6 tons shot pea gravel, well-rotted manure, granite grit, mulch, & strong men not afraid to work it from sunrise to sunset.
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Wishing you a Garden Santa Christmas!
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken at Susanne Hudson's in Douglasville, GA.

SO OBVIOUS

Can you name this? SLEIGH PORT !!!!!
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Carport, heliport, airport............
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Yes, another pic from Susanne Hudson's last week. She named her Sleigh Port. The antique sleigh? Americans are larger now. A pair of young teens would fit. Two adults? Barely.

SEEING THE SMALL

Photographing landscapes teaches me to, See The Small. It's a surprise which 'Small' owns the whole.

Macro, above, the red ball in a lantern is a yawn. Pulled aside, micro, caressed with the camera, top, it's a delight.

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So? What's the big deal?

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Once you see landscapes thru the camera you don't have to use a camera to appreciate Seeing The Small's of your garden. Your eyes will create the art. At least mine do!

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last week in Douglasville, GA. Styling by Susanne Hudson at the home of Jeri Farmer.

DISCOVERY

Landscape Design, blue/white ginger jar, below, $3, thrift store, color, no plants, no watering, no replanting, tablescape. Found this pic, above, yesterday. Discovering I've shot this jar

throughout most seasons. STYLED pics aren't my thing. Pink Debutant camellia blossoms adorn the blue/white ginger jar now. Awaiting Mother Nature's styling before I show you.

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Did you know this about my landscape design & gardening? Choosing beauty. The, "Oh, WOW", of looking out every window of my home. Everyday.

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A powerful life choice. Grace. Ironic, it's not what I was looking for, it's what I found.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

SIMPLE SWAG

Simple Swag is often the best choice. No attaching it to this picket fence. Loop it behind the posts. Drape. Done.

Live swag with pine looks better mixed with fir. Pine, alone, falls jaggedly. Pine with fir is floofier.

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On to the compost pile at New Years.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic taken at Susanne Hudson's last week.

PUPPET BARBUDA GARDEN CENTER SHOPPING

PUPPET BARBUDA, landscape critic, was invited by a dear friend to a soiree at a bonafide retail garden center this week. PUPPET was sooooooooooo excited. In PUPPET's world plants are wholesale & arrive in trucks with vigorous helpful men. Retail garden center experiences are rare. (Yes, PUPPET purchases from big box hardware store plant departments 3-4x's/yr. Are they garden centers?) PUPPET BARBUDA's mental math, "What is my spending cap at the garden center today?"
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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)

VANISHING THRESHOLD IN HINDSIGHT

Oh dear, the perfect garden room, below. Of course I must redesign it to have French doors leading into the garden. And, obviously, a new garden on axis with those French doors. Recognize, below, the house?

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

Vanishing Threshold I've seen. As a child I cried seeing this scene. Still do.

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Vanishing Threshold? There is no distinction between inside/outside in the scene, above. And that is exactly what I've created with my house & garden.

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Ok, Netflix send me Meet Me In St. Louis! This time I'm watching because of the garden.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara