PRAY, LOVE, GARDEN

Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert was fascinating. A page turner to the end. Reading was what I imagine watching a slow motion train wreck to look like. 1995 had me Gardening & Praying, fiercely, for 2 dear friends & a mother-in-law with cancer. 1996, all 3 gone. A humbling way to learn to pray for God's will, too.
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Christmas 1999, discovery of COLLEGE BOY's choices. Choices made without my knowledge. Choices draining every dime I ever earned or invested. Almost losing my house/garden.
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Into my garden I went. Already friend it became confidant, nurturer, comedian, storyteller, peacemaker, mirror, shaman, shock absorber, grief counselor, career coach, home & more.
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Oh my, the women I've connected with the past decade because of my garden. Women who have faced a violent husband/boyfriend, the murder of a child, an alcoholic spouse/child, solitude of raising children & more. They too turned to their gardens. What I love most about these friendships? We LAUGH.
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Talk about troubles? Ridiculous. We talk books, food, movies, gardens, design, careers, travel, and silly stuff from shoes to men.
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It's amazing how many find a path from survival to thriving in their garden.
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I travel local/national/international for work but I TRAVEL FARTHEST IN MY GARDEN.
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Eat, Pray, Love gave me awareness of a trinity in my life. PRAY, LOVE, GARDEN.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic from my front garden. Decided to move Christmas lights to the gate, they look fab, and keep them there all year. Fine, I'm hearing the lyric, "Like my girls a little on the tacky side." too!

A LITTLE WEED PLEASE

Where are the weeds? Gorgeous? Yes, in a Stepford Wife banality (honestly, remove the 'b' from the previous word). Ha, not even garlic chives or marigolds at the edges to repel bugs. PUPPET BARBUDA contemplated deeply about this garden. Conclusion? It lacks ROMANCE. Yet, PUPPET BARBUDA adored the romance of the settings in the rest of the movie, It's Complicated.

Susanne Hudson is using true landscape bamboo fencing for my new window treatments, above. A soft burlap for dust ruffle & chair cushions.

My garden tub, above,

is coming inside, above.

The strength of girlfriends, above. My 2 new gravel terraces? (5 tons, $410) Specifically for more girlfriend action!

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PUPPET BARBUDA has added Hollywood movie garden stylist to her dream job resume. It looks, top pic, like a vegetable garden in a CHEMICAL COMPANY ad circa 1962. Even butterflies, honey bees & lady bugs knew this was a no fly zone. Ugh.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics from the movie, It's Complicated.

WINDOW SCREENS ARE UGLY

As landscape backdrop your house has zero small details. Studying historic landscapes abroad I realized window screens have no presence. Off they went. Once done I realized it was a, "Let Your House (Life) Out Of Jail" card. Why? LIGHT !!

I removed window screens for the aesthetics of my landscape. Instead, removing window screens increased my quality of life.

House, garden & lifestyle are combined. Who knew?

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Insects? I place screen inserts into windows when the weather is fine & leave the windows open. No bugs & cats can't go out. No alarm, cats are never unattended.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Top pic, Jack. Bottom pics, Mister, who lived to age 22 & loved me devotedly.

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.