SUBSIDIARY FOCAL POINTS

Garden Rooms ambush the rule: 1 Focal Point/Area. Each garden room is allowed its own focal point. What about all the stupid little things? Focal point bench, above, softened with plantings in the pot cluster. My broken head collection is used as a Subsidiary Focal Point. Watering can too.

Tucked into the Hydrangea 'Anna Belle', the blue/white egg is hidden from most views.

Ezra, my Gethling, above, tucked into a shady spot. Most people never see Ezra indicating he's a well placed subsidiary focal point.

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Subsidiary Focal Points are delightfully devious to children. They GET the fantasy. Who knew? Gardening fully for yourself is gardening for children too.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

GARDEN TUB FANTASY

Promotional pic, below, for my first book, The Garden View. Taken in my garden tub. Plumbing fixtures from Vintage Tub arrived this week.
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The tub is moving inside. Virginia Woolf gave herself a new bathroom with the proceeds from a book. To The Lighthouse is my favorite.
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FANTASY: Long, dirty, bruising, bloody happy day of gardening. Drawing warm water, pouring wine, situating Laskett my cat on his stool next to the tub, Edith Piaff & Nina Simone on the cheap radio I adore, & a threadbare To The Lighthouse.
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If you aren't bruised & bloody is it gardening? Discovering cuts & bruises, after gardening, is a thrill. I'm so happy gardening I never feel them when they happen.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

NECESSITY: LANDSCAPE FANTASIES

A Woodland Walk in my tiny garden, below, aka, air-conditioning side of my house. Chair rotted long ago. Red bud tree died slowly, rotted slowly. Great fun watching songbirds gather insects & make homes in its wood.
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LANDSCAPE FANTASIES abound, "What do I want to do here? Hmmmm!"
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A beautiful garden is fabulous but having a portion of your garden in the realm of fantasy is rich indeed.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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