Custom Iron Railing

Real iron railing, below, with a bundle of intellect.  The eye picks up quality & detail.  And this is a stunning detail.

 This is what you get, below, in a gated community with strong homeowners association & excellent property manager.  Dreadful plant choices & even worse pruning.

The yellow sickly things, above, are Southern Indica azaleas in toxic Georgia red clay subsoil.

Wish there were an award for driving the ugliest vehicle but loving it the most, above, it's me.
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Garden & Be Well,       XO Tara
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Pics taken at a new jobsite last week.  I'm not out to change their HOA but I want the landscape to reflect, fully, the gorgeous home & its property value.  Yes, we must submit my new Landscape Design for approval.  Ironic, HOA's often lower what their aim is to raise. 

Kitchen Lighting

Leaving at dusk last month I could see, from beyond the Ancient Orhcard, these lights, below, on.

 Retro fitted lighting ca. 1880.  The light bulbs mimic gas.

I'm a Landscape Designer & demand every view into your home be fabulous.
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Lighting, window treatments, furniture, art & etc.
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If I can see it from the garden it is within my domain.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pic taken at a jobsite last month.  The primitive piece next to the marble island is called a biscuit board.  Never seen one till here.  Wish I had the type of camera to have shot from the garden, past the Ancient Orchard, across the Lawn & into her windows.  Susanne Hudson is helping with interiors.

Historicly Sighting Bulbs

 Planted last month, below, daffodils.  I hope you think they've been there a century.

They arise from Tara Turf, above, more history.

 Landscape Design is not hard, it is a lot of easy layers.  From a side window at the front door, above.
More than historical, I had to site the daffodils to be ENJOYED by a family.  Every member, a wide age range. 

From the music room, above.
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Garden & Be Well,   Tara
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Pics taken last Thursday.  Exciting times here, a son is to be married.   Have felt strongly throughout this project there would be babies/children.  First, of course, I will let them get married !  Better than babies they are grandbabies.  Have a strong bias toward grandbabies because of my own incredible grandparents.    It's odd having infertility, I don't miss having my own children but I ache for grandchildren.
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New note, 3-12-12, about daffodil details, quoted from my client, above, " Those bulbs sat in the garden shed for months waiting to be
planted.  and it's been a mild winter.  never could have fit 2000 bulbs in refrigerator!  and they are Divison II Narcissus which do better in the south than Division I.
Carltons (but I don't want a "run" on Carltons!).  selfish of me, I guess.

it was an amazing work of planting them in groups like this.  and you really don't know how long they've been there.  we sit on front porch more often these days, both days and nights to enjoy them.  yellow blooms show up well in the evening, almost as well as the white blooms of flowers. 

daffodil season is influencing where we sit and talk.  I love it."

Where Landscape Design Begins

Landscape Design begins inside your home.  My 'office' yesterday, below.

When I saw the broad curve of the marble, below, I knew exactly how to shape the stone decking of the new pool.

 She asked for a potager, it reminds her of her father.  The diamonds, below, are repeated sparingly throughout the house.  Diamond shapes will form the new potager, of course.

 A sumptuous limestone mantle being installed, below, yesterday. 

There are 3 pair of stone columns designed in the back garden.  I will cap them with the same limestone/style of the mantle. 
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Creating a landscape like this none of the details can be wrong, or even 'off' a bit.  My work must flow with the owners ideas, their architect & interior decorator.  Is your Landscape Design worth any less consideration?  Even if you don't have an architect, decorator, gardener?
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Have been to this site several times thru construction and my little chair/table have been in a dozen spots.  

Are Rockers OK On Your Front Porch?

Lovely rockers & home, below.

 But it's obvious when rockers are unacceptable for a front porch, below.

 There is no space to comfortably

sit in them.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Exciting project in tiny amount of space.  Rockers will be moving to a back patio and a pair of large iron chinoiserie planters, with tuters will be placed each side of the front door.  New paint colors, new light fixtures, and reshaped bed/plantings too.
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The owner had happy tears in my eyes yesterday.  She told me the story of planning a trip with her granddaughters to London & Paris and how she surprised them with it.  They are going this summer.  My parents did this for me when I was a teenager.  6 weeks across Europe: England, West Germany, East Germany, Belgium, France, Holland.  Cannot wait for them to go, & have their stories !!

Hammock Humor

Perusing last night, above.  Laughter, amusement, delighted arrogance Puppet Barbuda style.  In reality the hammocks I see are hanging from rusted metal frames, in landscapes devoid of charm, a bare patch of earth below with weeds spreading from the muck, no fringe, a mildew factory, on view from windows inside the home, with not a table in sight for a book & glass of wine, and every mosquito from miles around just waiting for you to alight to gorge on your blood and give you the disease of the day.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic from Janelle McCulloch, & thank you for picturing the answer, "What were they thinking?"

Consequences Of Gardening

 No baths recently.   

Redecorating has caused this.  Thought it would last a few days, at most.  Wrong.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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I'm putting in a small orchard of espaliered fruit trees in the garden, each outlined in stone, la-ti-da.  Alas, I've chosen the Orchard over the china !!  A wise person once told me, "Write down your list of things to do, prioritize it, choose the top 3 and ACT."  No surprise the garden came in ahead of the china.

It Costs More To Do-It-Yourself

Crape myrtle tree, 25 gallon, $165 retail. 

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Crape myrtle tree, 5 gallon, $100 retail.

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2 independent retail garden centers, above, pricing.

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Dozens of trees at both price points, each more disgusting than the other in quality.

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 Puppet Barbuda cringes for her industry, Landscape Design & Contracting.  Poor quality/high pricing  at retail.  What must 'lay' people think her services cost?

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Finally, a wholesale nursery.  Gorgeous 10 gallon crape myrtle, $50 wholesale.

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Gorgeous 10 gallon crape myrtle: $100 installed and a 1 year guarantee we replace & replant.

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Disgusting 5 gallon crape myrtle: $100 you install, 1 year guarantee & you schlep.

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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara

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These prices were in Texas, was doing a job for my Mom on a very tight timeline.  I was HORRIFIED at the independent garden center pricing & quality. 

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Getting into my car at one of the retail nurseries an elderly man had a tray of flowers purchased and was trying with difficulty to open his car door, within eyesight of 4 garden center employees watching him.  Literally not figuratively.  Puppet Barbuda went & helped him.  So, this is how things have changed since Puppet Barbuda worked garden retail in the 80's?

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Pic, the lovely pot with Chinese snowball blossoms is in my Bay Terrace.

Prancing To The Potager

Primal feelings.  Before the sun sets, I will buy lettuce, & whatever else looks pretty, to plant in my potager. 
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Getting dressed my brain was all about deciding where to find them.
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After today's appointment, Ashe-Simpson is on the way home.  Hall's is a mile away. 
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When the cold comes again, & it will, cloches. 
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A primal planting-the-crop feeling or Marie Antoinette prancing to the potager with her favorite cloche's?

Garden & Be Well,          XO Tara
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Pic, cloche in my garden.  Have found most of my cloche at TJMaxx thru the years, Tuesday Morning and several at the late Smith&Hawkin.

Assignment: Go To Venice

Studying Landscape Design in Italy, a day was set aside for Venice.  No gardens.  A dreaded day.  Money was tight & study was the purpose.  Not a city in water.

(I wear boots in my garden & designing landscapes.  Really, these are MY SHOES, above.)

How can any of my Landscape Designs not be redolent of having been to Venice?  (Mask, wig, flowers, dress, feathers, jewels, this is ME.)  

 Tongue In Cheek has been in Venice recently.  (Design a potager?  I can Be A Potager, above.)

This character would be marvelous in marble.  In a garden. 
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Your assignment, Go To Venice. 
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pics from Tongue In Cheek   Seriously, go to Venice.  It will affect your heart, creativity, joy, spirit & more.

Trees vs. Mr.-Mow-Blow-Go-Testosterone-On-Wheels

I've taken Christopher Lloyd to bed again.  Already 2nd-3rd time for his books.  He's new & fresh, each time.

"By exercising  a little vision you will come to realize that the tree, which has a possible future, perhaps a great one, may be more important than yourself, nearing your end.  So it's worth thinking more about the tree and giving it a good start in life in the right position than about yourself, except in so far as it is a great delight to see the tree responding and developing under your sympathetic treatment."
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Cool your house in summer with an understory deciduous tree, it will warm you in winter too.  Site an evergreen tree in path of winter's winds.  Sited properly trees increase property value.  Chosen properly  insects/wildlife expand pollinator habitat.
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Studying Landscape Design across Europe for decades it's obvious what survives: trees, meadow, stone focal points.
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Mr.-Mow-Blow-Go-Testosterone-On-Wheels commodifies landscapes into grass to mow, bushes to prune, annuals to plant, chemicals to treat, irrigation system to install.
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Ok, I'll stop here.  Too quick getting from trees to Mr.-Mow-Blow-Go-Testosterone-On-Wheels.  Not enough time to pontificate fully today.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pic taken at a client's property last month.

Vision Quest Design Solutions

We need a door to balance the fabulousity of historic brick, acreage, meandering heirloom chickens, orchard, potager, Jacobs sheep, ornamental plantings, views from the house & more.  Life. 

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1 gardener, David Hicks, and his book, 

came to mind. 
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This door, top pic, was in David's own garden.   
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A garden library is wonderful for vision questing.  Adore doing it via blogging too, but having one of my antique tables covered in books open to various pages creates more lit-up neural paths in my brain with touch, smell, site, lite, sound the ipad can't compete with.
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Ironically, My Kind Of Garden, by David Hicks, was recommended on a blog I read years ago.  Blogging & booking are a loop I love.  They feed each other.  Helping me feed the creative MUSE. 
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara