TOOLS: Paths, Repetition, Axis & Entries

Your landscape cannot have too many entries. Install paths first, THEN your plants. Flagstone path fading into woodchip path, above, amplifies the effect of moving from one garden room to another.

Repetition of plant materials, color, pots, & paths create architecture of landscapes.

Double axis. Path, below, leads from backyard to frontyard.

Above, look close. It's same path as top pic, taken from opposite direction. DOUBLE AXIS.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Notes: pics taken yesterday in my garden. I prefer SCRUFFY landscape styling for my personal garden. Once blooms, above, fade hand pruning begins. Paths become more prominent. Is this important? Why? Landscapes with the average American paid maintenance crew have a neat but depressing, & property lowering, gas blown & electric pruned look.

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The look of cheap unskilled labor. Time is money hence gas/electric landscape style prevails. Sadly, a look considered the proper American standard. Alexis de Tocqueville, circa 1831, was all too correct about Americans.

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Why sad? The look promotes sales not landscaping. Selling lawns needing chemicals & regular mowing, annuals needing replanting 2X/year, 10' plants designed under 3' windows needing major regular pruning, plants/lawns needing an irrigation system, & the promise of a no care landscape for $25/week. What a deal, $25 bucks for a space many times larger than a home's interior with a $75/week maid.

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Why not choose a landscape design: requiring no chemicals, no irrigation system, no annuals, less pruning, 50%-75% less mowing, and shades your home in summer/blocks winter winds (major hvac savings) while improving property value?

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I feel like Alice Waters must have felt decades ago. Like her, I won't quit.

STORIES YOUR EYES CREATE

A beautiful lake view, below? A new home made to look old? An old home finished with rehab? The porch of a newly discovered B&B?

Is the porch completed or just begun?

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What is the story your eye has created for this porch?

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Did you know landscape photography manipulates your "story eyes" to this degree?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken this week at Pecan Orchard's. Do you want the REAL story of this porch or should I let you keep the story YOUR eyes have created?

OWN YOUR SKY

Chinese snowball, Kwansan cherry, cypress + dwarf abelia hedge, below. Ha, now the dwarf abelia hedge is apparent, below. You see my gate.

Glimpses, below, of the Bay Terrace. Shot pea gravel, adirondack chairs, terra cotta pots.

The street view, above, of my tiny sweet garden. Excepting the sky. As designed; I own the sky. Nothing tiny or sweet about that.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken 3 days ago. Wish I could say all of the above is original. Nope. Historical landscape design: ceiling (trees), walls (shrubs), floors (gravel), hedge, gate, axis, pots, furniture, bloom sequencing, scale, flow, color, focal point, textures.

SUBSIDIARY FOCAL POINT

Tucked into a boxwood, below, hidden from most views. Meow. Bamboo rake bought for aesthetics.

A neighbor, retired NAVY, taught me how to do the rake/gravel thing.

A new pleasure, dragging a bamboo rake thru gravel. Aaaah, the sound, the feel of rake thru gravel, new body movements, making swirls, curves, lines, intersections, mindlessness; but not.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

ANAL ABOUT VIEWS

From inside the bay window, below, a glimpse of my new Bay Terrace.

From the Woodland Walk, aka a/c side of my house, below, walking into the Bay Terrace, aka, frontyard. Shot Pea Gravel, above, hasn't settled yet. Adirondack chairs resting upon 1" thick Cherokee gray flagstones so legs won't sink.

View, above, from the same chair in middle pic. Variegated boxwood in terra cotta pot, above, same as viewed from inside my house, top pic.

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Annette Bening's character in the 1999 movie, American Beauty, was anal. I blew past that a few years ago !

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No unconsidered views in your landscape.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

DOUBLE AXIS

Looking into my garden, below, this morning. The same chair, below, seen from inside my home this morning.

DOUBLE AXIS, baby dolls. AND YOU WANT IT !!!!!!!!!!!!

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Notes: Redid my frontyard, now known as the Bay Terrace, last December. Finally styled it last week. Adirondack chairs bought last summer at Smith/Hawken going-out-of-business sale. Stained Tara's Green last month. Shot pea gravel ordered from Stone Forrest, pots bought at AW Pottery. Miracle Gro Potting soil from Lowe's, Boxwoods from wholesaler in Norcross.

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Mission Statement for this tiny frontyard: drink wine, have canapes with girlfriends, be gorgeous, make me happy! Ha, it's already making me happy.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

GRAVEL AT THE DOOR

The sound, view, warmth, welcome, ease, history, joy, affordability, aesthetics. Gravel at the door.
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"He who is born with a silver spoon in his mouth is generally considered a fortunate person, but his good fortune is small compared to that of the happy mortal who enters this world with a passion for flowers in his soul." Celia Thaxter, in, An Island Garden.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic via Greige Design. Pics soon of my new chandelier in the Butler's Pantry (aka mudroom) & gravel to my front door.

FREE TOPIARY STICKS

Went to Lowe's for bamboo poles, below. Ha, they were almost $3 ea. Making 5 topiary shapes, 4 poles each, at that price?
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NOT.
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Instead I'm using FREE STICKS, neighbors prunings, set at the curb on garbage lawn day. Crape Myrtle sticks are preferred. Though I detest crape murder pruning.
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FREE. Yes, love lizard brain thinking !
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

CHEAP vs. GOOD vs. TIME

Gardening in my 20's - 30's meant cheap terra cotta, vs. quality terra cotta, & mostly 1 gallon plants. Cheap pots WILL break. No time for cheap. Anymore.

What's not to like about aging? Buying quality terra cotta pots, above, requiring a man & forklift.

Choosing specimen plants

vs. 1 gallon plants.

OK, so I got the 3 gallons not these balled/burlap beauties.

Money for this? Not really. But I've aged out of cheap terra cotta & 1 gallons.

I could supply studies of: landscaping, property value, curb appeal, heating/cooling savings, mental health, longevity, wildlife & eco babble.

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But there is something I know for sure about spending my money (none of the above of course). I've never regretted a dime spent on my garden or my pets.

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Because It Makes Me Happy.

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COLLEGE BOY rarely asks "why" questions about what I do anymore. He knows, when the answer is, "Because It Makes Me Happy.", his cause is toast.

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Last time COLLEGE BOY had an opinion about my garden, that I didn't care for, I quoted him A.S. Byatt, "Your words are harmful to my spirit."

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Another thing I did in my 20's-30's, not listening to my spirit. Life is better when I listen.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Good quality terra cotta pots came from AW Pottery in Chamblee, GA. Made of finely particulated clay from Asia, creating highly frost resistant pots. Plants, alas, are from a wholesale resource only.

STRING YOUR LANDSCAPE

Reshaping your turf? Creating a new path? Designing a gravel terrace? Pouring a new drive?

String it first.

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Bring a patio chair to the area & sit. FEEL the new area. Go inside your house & look out at the new area. Go to the outer edges and look in at the new area.

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At each FEELING GAZE adjust string as needed. Perhaps only an inch maybe 6".

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Do this for a week. A month. Whatever it takes.

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Has your landscape been drawn to scale by an 'expert'? A landscape architect? Notice the fine print. It may say plus/minus 5'.

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Dahlings, plus/minus 5' can be the difference between TRASH or NATIONALLY AWARD WINNING. (Ha, regardless of the thousands you spent!)

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My own garden? Wouldn't think of a new garden area without first designing it then stringing it.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic taken at Lowe's last week. My new spool, all 2000+ feet, of string! Happily in the trunk of my car with the rest of my 'office', folding table/chair, large scale paper, & etc...

NOT ALWAYS PRETTY: Free Design Fix

"What can I do?", below, in my email last week. In winter a wasteland, above/below.

A few ideas to fix this landscape: evergreen shrub/s, evergreen groundcover/s, hydrangeas, espalier evergreen shrub at blank wall, keep & rearrange perennials, bench (need the curve of a Giverny bench)at base of espalier evergreen shrub with flagstone leading to it, stain board under rail same color as shutters, use a darker shade of white on trim/rails/posts/windows creating sense of space, climber up corner post & along top of porch. Treat entire space like a window box. Prepare the soil and pack your goodies in. (Note: Cheaper than annuals, above, less maintenance, & pretty all year.)

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More ideas to fix this landscape (phase II from piggy bank): all of the above plus remove rail at end of porch & add a stone step creating a new entryway to porch with stepping stone from drive to porch. Pair of evergreens at each end of this new path. Match same evergreens with a pair at front steps.

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Let's spend some money to fix this landscape (fat piggy bank): Remove front/side rails & add stone curbstones for steps where each rail section is removed. Add flagstone terrace between concrete/house with space for the evergreens/climber/espalier/bench, surface sidewalk in same stone as new flagstone terrace, remove large section of turf in front of house abutting the sidewalk creating a courtyard space with same plantings used at house plus an understory flowering tree with clematis growing thru it. Create entryway in this new courtyard space on axis with the front steps to house. Voila, an enfilade to the front door. Depth, drama, curb appeal.

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Old money fix: evergreen groundcover, pairs of evergreens at entries, evergreen climber, evergreen espalier at blank wall & bench. (Gotta love the old money fix!)

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Eccentric garden fix: is the owner in love with Warhol, Monet, Frank Lloyd Wright, Jekyll, mid-century modern, MOMA, natives, topiaries, conifers, roses, herbs, dahlias, fragrance, pollinators and etc? Fun in each direction.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

WHICH DIRECTION?

This crabapple, below, doesn't have a bad direction. Here, above/below, in Susanne Hudson's backyard.

Looking thru the gate, below, is a view from the frontyard.

Blossoms, below, each had honeybees. Wish you could hear this tree.

Classic Design Recipe, below. Path, gate, arbor, light, picket fence, color theme, bench, potted boxwood, leaf litter mulch, Tara Turf, focal point on axis. (Note: treat this as any good recipe. It works everytime & is unique everytime.)

Crabapple viewed, below, from the front porch. She fills the horizon.

Notice winter's bare branches? I adore the frisson.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last Friday. My favorite direction is from the library, early morning. Alas, we were hard at work on our book project.