Monday, June 7, 2010

Subsidiary Focal Point

Perfectly placed, Donkey, below, is nibbling
the ivy.

I asked Susanne if she placed Donkey at the ivy tendril. She had no clue what I meant.
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A cute donkey cart? My famous words about Cute Kills? Well, dahlings, there is an exception to every rule.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken in Susanne Hudson's garden last week.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Accidental Seasons

Like? Me too. Pulled from the basement, below, my grandmother's wheel barrow. No time, yet, to fill it with terra cotta pots & 'style' its placement.

Today, above, with hydrangeas. In spring, below, with Chinese snowball.

Chinese snowball petals swirling, below, onto unfurling hydrangea foliage.

In the snow, below.

When sasanqua's bloom in fall another wheelbarrow pic. Had no idea it would become a seasonal attraction. Still pondering where I'll place it once it's filled with terra cotta pots. I adore this type of pondering. Priceless.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Susanne Hudson created the top wheelbarrow.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

At The Gate


From the Tea Olive Terrace, below, looking into my backyard. At the same gate, in my backyard, below, looking into the Tea Olive Terrace.

Double Axis: 2 views fabulous. A fabulous view in 1 direction must be fabulous in the opposite direction.
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There are no exits in a garden, only entries.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken last week in my garden. See the template? A Trinity of the Ages: Path, Gate, Boxwood. Ramped up: painted gate, gravel path, blooming hydrangeas.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Vanishing Threshold

Looking out, below, the Garden Room. Looking into, below, the garden room.
Vanishing Threshold.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken in my garden last week, Hydrangea 'Penny Mac', dug from her garden. Found the antique French garden chair at my favorite junk shop last year. A rusty, flaky $22. Have this Vanishing Threshold pic with: azaleas blooming, camellias blooming, pittosporum blooming, oakleaf hydrangea blooming & snowfall. Will get them combined for a post; at some point.
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Debut: exterior paint, Bemjamin Moore HC-Waterbury Green.
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I'm quite serious about Vanishing Threshold. AND it must be for every window of your home.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Egyptian Warrior Booty

"More than 3,000 years ago Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt sent a company of gardeners to what is now British Somaliland for new species, and a century and a half later another Egyptian queen received from an army which had invaded Assyria many new plants, including a pomegranate and a new water lily." Joseph Wood Krutch Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken at Le Jardin Blanc last week. Bust & 19th century smoke house. Can you imagine what fun Queen Hatshepsut had when her Garden Party returned !!!

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Incipient Calm

A petty bourgeois comfort. I know. Hydrangeas & Blue/White China say, "Keep Calm & Carry On", ha, without words.
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Exterior painting, 5 weeks, completed. You know how they left my garden.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken in my garden earlier this week. H. macrophylla 'Penny Mac' shown. Dug from Penny's garden by the Queen of Hydrangea Heaven herself. Decades of blue blossoms in her garden & years in mine. 2 years ago, severe drought, they turned pink due to poor aluminum uptake. Plenty of rains since last fall, hmm, still pink.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival

Susanne Hudson & I are creating a garden for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival, in Douglasville, GA. Saturday, June 5 - Sunday June 6th, 2010.
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This chandelier, below, will be in our garden. Along with rescued treasures: rusty, dirty, antique, arcane. And: #89 granite gravel, busts, furniture. Ha, almost forgot, plants too. A tram circles the gardens on tour. Including Susanne's nationally recognized garden, below. Erica Glasener , of HGTV fame, speaks Saturday, 5th and so will I. In the evening there's a garden tour & progressive dinner.
Twice to Douglasville & spend-the-nites with Susanne already, working in our garden. More work days & spend-the-nites ahead.
This is work?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken at Susanne's yesterday morning, yes, a 'work' day morning! She toured me to some of the gardens Wed. evening because I won't have time to see them during the Festival. We were able to have private time with the owners, & their dogs, strolling their gardens after a lite rain. The air cool, fireflies, and scent of jasmine pervasive.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Painted 'Copper' Gutters

My back door, below. Notice the downspout? It's round, by choice. Better aesthetics.
Gutters are aluminum painted to look like copper. Sherwin-Williams, Best Bronze.


The woman? A Christine Sibley piece. Bought from the 2nd's table when Christine was alive. Ooooh, I miss her gardens, zoo, gallery, 2nd's table, antics, and her.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken yesterday morning. Painters finally finished the exterior. Susanne Hudson, interior decorator & color specialist, was hired to choose colors.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The Queen's Pot

The best containers in your garden? So wonderful they can remain empty.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken in the Bay Terrace, my front yard, from the living room. When I saw a particularly fine empty pot at Glamis Castle, one of the Queen's homes, epiphany ! Some of my pots are fabulously empty and some are planted. Please, get yourself at least one Queen's Pot.
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Garden Designers Roundtable: Containers
More !! More !!! More !!!!

This month’s bloggers on the Gardeners Roundtable!

Christina Salwitz : Personal Garden Coach : Renton, WA

Debbie Roberts : A Garden of Possibilities : Stamford, CT

Jenny Petersen: J Petersen Garden Design : Austin TX

Jocelyn Chilvers : The Art Garden : Denver, CO

Laura Livengood Schaub : Interleafings : San Jose, CA

Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In the Garden : Los Altos, CA

Rochelle Greayer : Studio “G” : Boston, MA

Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK

Scott Hokunson : Blue Heron Landscapes : Granby, CT

Shirley Bovshow : Eden Makers : Los Angeles, CA
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Apologies, I can't get the links to go thru.....at the moment. All of the fabulous landscape designers, from many states & zones, above, are also writing about containers today at: Garden Designers Roundtable.

Dry Stream

Never a stream, below, simply a low spot in the woods with drainage issues. River rocks & plantings solving drainage issues beautifully.
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This was the 1st dry stream bed I ever saw, over 2 decades ago. Since then it's become MORE gorgeous while functioning without problem.
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A French drain would have been ridiculously expensive, clogged up by now, dotted with water pockets & breeding mosquitoes.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken at the Atlanta History Center a few weeks ago.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Blogs Feeding the Muse

7 Blogs feeding my creative muse; helpers in my garden ! Velvet & Linen, interiors & gardens. Brooke makes it look easy.
Cote de Texas, mostly interiors. Joni goes in depth & with great pics.
Color Me Happy, fabulous color. Maria shows & tells the why's of color with great business advice too.
A Bloomsbury Life, the title says it all.
Things That Inspire, architecture & interiors & art. Always inspiring & educational.
From the House of Edward, art & words. Beautiful words. Storytelling.
It's About Time, pictures & history with a sure hand. Sometimes the pics are the entire story.
To all of the above I pass along The Beautiful Blogger Award.


Yes, you've guessed I was given a blog award, "Beautiful Blogger Award". Thank you, It's About Time.


The award asks for 7 things you may not know about me:
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* I adore geology.
* Crash Test Dummies has been playing in my car for over 2 years. Zero variation.
* Camping in the dunes of Edisto Island is my happy place.
* I thought Venice would be a wasted day on my garden tour. WRONG.
* When wonderful things happen I still want to tell my grandmother. She died in 1983.
* The life I'm living is better than the life I planned.
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Designing landscapes, writing books about landscapes, putting together powerpoints about landscapes, lecturing about landscapes each give me something rare on this earth. A sense of timelessness. Moments of pure joy. The eternity now that Joseph Campbell speaks of.
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Decades of this work & I can't get enough, still learning, still excited.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics from Susanne Hudson's greenhouse a few weeks ago.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Do You Have the Eye?

Lovely rose arbor, below, yes? It came from a dumpster.
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Susanne Hudson saw a commercial awning tossed into a dumpster. She called the building's owner immediately, asking if she could have the discarded awning.
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Next, she called a fence company to place 8' fence posts.
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The awning was placed forming a complete 1/2 round instead of its intended 1/4 round.
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Voila...rose arbor with hanging lanterns.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken 2 weekends ago. I've been in Monet's garden and know Susanne's rose arbor is little different from his in drama. What could be better? Do you have the eye?