BAD CHAIR & GOOD CHAIR

Bad chair, below. Why? Though new, it's Dated. Acceptable color, clean lines. Hmm. Nice for a hotel at an exit ramp off I-85 in mid-North Carolina, or South Carolina. Good chair, below. Why? Though new, undated. Timelessness.

Hints of 30's Deco, 50's mid-century modern. 8 of these jewels around an old harvest table in your garden? Or inside your house. Done! Comfort, classic, timeless. And, only $32.

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Would you EVER think of putting the chair, top pic, inside your home? NEVER.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Took pic while Hunting/Gathering at Lowe's this week.
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NOTE: Not bashing the Carolina's. If you've driven the route you can't help asking , "Why so many new hotels at exit ramps? How did they get the loans? Is all of America overdosed with new hotels at exit ramps along the interstate system?" Seen during my road trip to lecture in Virginia last February. At that lecture, dahlings, I met Eddie Ross & JAITHAN. Good food, good wine & stories to tell. Fell in crush with both of them. But, alas, this is a garden blog. Tootles.

FABRIC IN THE LANDSCAPE

Beware patterned fabric in your landscape. Patterns tend to hijack the eye & own the space. If you want pattern in the landscape relate it in color & style to your interior decor.

Umbrellas, above/below, at Lowe's yesterday. Love the classic stripe, for the right garden of course.

Patterned umbrellas are the worste offenders. A joy to see the collection yesterday.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

LINE SILHOUETTE FORM

Takes your breath away, yes? Why? Hardly ubiquitous.
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Lines of the house are repetitive horizontal & perpendicular.
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Good landscape design KNOWS what to contrast.
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This isn't a STUPID swing, aka uncomfortable. Deep. Sink into those cushions dahlings.
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The cushions are already telling you about inside the house aren't they? Vanishing Threshold.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Found pic via Limestone & Boxwoods who found it via Things That Inspire when she was posting about Ray Goins furniture.

JOHN SALADINO

Saladino's work is in full measure. Garden & house. Vanishing Threshold. The pruning of his canopy & understory trees, above, tell me more about the man than his interiors.

His VERTICAL LAWN (vine on wall) & lidded urn on the shelf melt my heart.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Found the pics yesterday via Period Homes.

IN A CLOCHE.....

Everything looks better! A cloche protects seedlings from frost.
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Hand-blown in Mexico, above. Came from the late Smith/Hawken. Found others, made in China or Poland, at TJMaxx.
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Did you notice? My antique French bistro table has moved inside. And my garden? Love/adore looking out ALL my windows into a garden view.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

MAGIC from the MUNDANE

Meeting a client yesterday, below. Why the Christmas wreath? Upon inspection, below.

GARDENING: Magic from the Mundane

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

LIBRARY: BEFORE & AFTER

Before, Library, below. Ceiling white, walls botanical green, taupe wall is balcony overlooking great room. Almost 'before', painters had begun bringing their stuff in & moving my things. Library: After, below. Walls & Ceiling BMoore, Rockport Gray. Rattan from the garden center replacing mini-blinds. Artwork by Jenny, my late mother-in-law.

This corner of the library is finished, more to do. Pics as it's done.
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Today is Flannery O'Connor's birthday. She lived the last part of her life with her mother in Milledgeville, GA. Did you know Milledgeville was the capitol of Georgia during the Civil War? Don't worry, dahling, not many people do.

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Milledgeville, more famously, is where my GRANDMOTHER lived. I lived summers with GRANDMOTHER, spring breaks & Chistmas too. This relates to my library before/after?

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I remember clearly, as a girl, GRANDMOTHER, "Would you like to drive out and meet Flannery O'Connor?" GRANDMOTHER was a friend of her mother. "No", walking, bored, out of the kitchen. "She has peacocks.", to my back. A hot-humid, only as Milledgeville can be, day. Why would I want to go to someone's stupid farm and meet a couple of old ladies on a day like that? Ah, childhood yes?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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I should remember, To Hot For Peacocks, while making choices!

CURB APPEAL

CURB APPEAL --- House Exterior: paint historic yellow-ochre, replace rails with Chippendale pattern, place oval shutter at oval window, trim + Chippendale rails + picket fence painted 1 tone darker of the same yellow-ochre. A new owner, above, in this youngish neighborhood.

Though youngish the neighborhood looks OLD. Why?

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Sheared, circa 1982 style, green meatball builder's plantings. Homes colored in timid builder's whites.

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Sheared green meatballs are pustules on the face of neighborhoods; lowering property value.

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Happily, this small neighborhood understands. As homes are painted owners are choosing colors suited to their bricks & interiors. Overplanted green meatballs are being removed. Upgraded gardens installed.

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Note: Color & Chippendale were easy to choose for this home. Interior walls are yellow-ochre and beautiful antiques fill their rooms. Floors were being refinished while I was there, alas, no pics.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

OUT OF THE CLOSET

A pic from her dinner party, below, last Saturday. Dinner for 8.

Designing landscapes I must see inside your home. Lucky me, SHE had just finished reorganizing her china closet and let me peek.
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I know the backstory of all the china & silver, above. A beautiful table. But there's more; the pic tells me SHE had fun putting it together. It shows yes?

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We haven't talked yet of what she cooked, the occasion, where she got the whirligigs. Pitterpatter of the conversations. (The table, by the conservatory windows, overlooks the garden.)
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This is another thing I adore about Vanishing Threshold. It creates a Jane Austen life. Small details lived big.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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SHE sent me the pic Sunday. It would be fun creating an herbaceous border with flowering shrubs to match her table setting from Saturday.

A NEW GARDEN ROOM: ROSE TERRACE

ROSE TERRACE, unfinished & already a dowager, hosted me Saturday. Shirt sleeves, wine, book.

Incomplete, ha, the charms of ROSE TERRACE are prodigeous.

ROSE TERRACE is under the crape myrtles, below, and my office window.

ROSE TERRACE, below, last month. Delightful, the potency of shirt sleeves Saturday.

Of course, below, I was in the chaise, circa 1930, taking pic of the teak adirondack with fallen camellia blossoms, C. 'White By The Gate'.

Antique roses weave into crape myrtles shading house & ROSE TERRACE. That idea came in Claude Monet's garden, circa 1990. Couldn't get home fast enough to order the roses. Today's era? Order via cell phone from Claude's garden. "Claude', one of the dead men I have a THING for.

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Prior to being the ROSE TERRACE this was a hydrangea patch.

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Prior to being a hydrangea patch this was an herbaceous border.

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Prior to being an herbaceous border this was ---can't believe I'm admitting to this --- otto luyken laurels I planted before I knew a thing about gardening.

Hydrangeas repurposed, below, at the border of ROSE TERRACE. Shot pea gravel, 3" deep -- no landscape fabric, with stone & brick for edging.

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New Camellias, Tea Olives & Gardenias are espaliered against the wall of ROSE TERRACE.

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Lanterns + Candles await to be hung from the Crape Myrtles.

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Terra cotta pots await my luncheon appointment with a topiary wholesale nursery next week. Honestly, it would be impossible to make this stuff up. AND it's work. My career.

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(Of course no one wants my job when it's hot/humid & blood is trickling down my neck from mosquito bites or I'm picking up dog s---t in a client's garden so they'll only see my contractor's beautiful installation of my design. Oh, lest I forget, falling off the second story of my home before a winter open garden & getting up and working more while it's still dark outside so the 10am start time is EFFORTLESS. Ha!!!!!!!!!)

Dowager? Incomplete, ROSE TERRACE is already gorgeous & functioning.
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NOTE: Adirondack on flagstones, prevents irratic sinking. For proper photography & when guests are present hide flagstones under shot pea gravel.

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Inspiration? Enjoying wine/canapes at a girlfriend's, realizing I didn't have a similar spot.

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Can't wait for warmer days ahead, girlfriends & ROSE TERRACE.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

BAY WINDOW: BEFORE & AFTER

Desk & Petunia, below, at my bay window. Paint 20 years old. Note, horror, mini-blinds. After, below, this morning. Painting complete. Note, delight, curtains. A soft 100% cotton burlap.

Bookcase from top pic now in Garden Room, aka kitchen, below. And it's sitting on a different base.

Yes, I liked the 'before' in my home. After 20+ years it was time. CHANGE!

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Paint Color was a taupe. Now it's Benjamin Moore HC-105 Rockport Gray with HC-174 Lancaster Whitewash trim. Did you notice my Christmas cactus decided to become an Easter cactus? Aren't the daffodils happy? Tulipiers are fabulous; 18 seconds to toss daffodils in. Tulipier, thrift store, $1.99.

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NOTE: This is THE bay window overlooking the new Bay Terrace in my garden.

EYEBROW WINDOW

Who knew you could fall in love with an EYEBROW WINDOW? Dating COLLEGE BOY I fell hard for his family lake house, above-below. EYEBROW WINDOWs front/back. Tiny. Both in the same room.

Look closely, above, the EYEBROW WINDOW is tiny, but it's there!

The French Touch posted this pic, above, recently. Ha, I totally understand the love of roofing & EYEBROW WINDOWs.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Couldn't find the web address for The French Touch & pic above. If anyone knows let me know I'll place the link. Thanks.