Let's Put It In The Middle Of The Lawn

What should we put in the middle of our lawn?

Darling, don't be silly of course the dining room table seating 8.  Really?  Baby, won't that be too plain?  Sweetie Pie, it will have the concrete plinth & bronze armillary sundial in the middle.  Sugar, you're the best.
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You have got to love some marriages.
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Garden & Be Well,          XO Tara
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Loved this couple.  Their garden was on the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival tour.  Wish this was my idea !

Garden Path

Gravel leads to gray flagstone.  Curve invites you 'round, mystery.

Entry anchored with a pot/boxwood, repetition of plantings on both sides.  Curve has narrative.  Called the eye-sweet line.
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A macro-path formula, works every time with the magic of being unique each time.
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Of course you must deal with the micro-path details.  Resist the urge to go  beyond simplicity.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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More of Jeri Farmer's delightful garden.  Can you imagine zero mulch, evergreen groundcovers, daffodils, a sasanqua, a camellia japonica, dwarf forsythia.....  With Jery's color combination I can see black-white-pink pansies.  This path is gorgeous all year.
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Too often gravel & stone choices are horrendous.  Imagine a brown crab orchard with pops of  orange.

Topiaries vs. Annuals

Simple topiary. 

24/7 showtime.
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Annuals?  Hardly green & sustainable, unless they are self-seeding.
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She has annuals elsewhere in her garden, at her own pleasure.  No need for the apartment complex style of annuals at the front curb.
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Garden & Be Well,         XO Tara
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More of Jeri Farmer's garden.  Her husband is a dreamboat, and does much in the garden.  With a smile too.  Can't wait for the groundcovers to fill in, liriope above, and no more mulch.  Mulch is not an end option.   Again, hardly green & sustainable unless it's your own leaf/needle litter.

Covered Screened Porch

She recently screened in her covered porch, below.

 Fluffing the decor was required.  Of course.

 Top pics are to the left of the screen door, and, below

to the right.  Now you know where you are.  The previous posting's focal point.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Jeri Farmer uses majority white for her theme, with blues, and blacks & POPS of pink.  Every part of her exterior is HAPPY.  She has a life just like anyone else.  She chose HAPPY.

Bust On Plinth

From this direction, below, it's obvious

 she's on axis

with the screen door, above.
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This is Landscape Design.
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Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara
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Pics taken last weekend in Jeri Farmer's garden.  Her garden has been in Southern Living magazine (a current rag but have heard rumors they're going back to what made them thrive.)  She's Susanne Hudson's partner at Le Jardin Blanc.  Arbor, bust, door not perfect geometry but Faux Geometry.  Whatever.  Get your axis. 

Lipstick On A Cinder Block

Ivy growing inside this Historic Register home, below, is a bit too much romance for even my love of rustic gardens.

 Already see, above, what  piqued my interest?

 Something new in cinder block fashion. 

No intentions of grandeur.  Yet attaining the level of folk art. 
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Wrenching to see this beautiful Historic Register home in dishabille.  Shot pics last weekend.  Lipstick On A Cinder Block, sounds like a good book title.

Front Porch: Furniture & Fabric

The old glider, below, newly upholstered. 

 Good design creates these moments, below.

How did the sun know to hit the dark green magnolia foliage making it match the yellows of the cushion, above?
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Color is huge in the garden: plants, stone, furniture, house paint, brick, flowers, door hardware & lighting, weather, time of day.
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Green - Brown - White is a top TRINITY.  Zillion shades of each.  Unique everytime.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pics taken on Susanne Hudson's front porch.  Was there last weekend creating a garden for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival.    Be wary of patterned fabrics in your garden.  Patterns on Susanne's porch are accents.  Notice, too, the comfy seating area?  Great for conversation & cool gin/tonic's on hot Southern evenings.

Hydrangea 'Queen of Pearls' on the Front Porch

Front porch garden. 

Hydrangea 'Queen of Pearls', still in its 3 gallon pot, slipped into a tall classic iron urn.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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A Dirr selection from McCorkle Nurseries.  Susanne Hudson's front porch.  Queen of Pearls was a no brainer with her green-brown-white trinity of colors.

Double Islands

Need double islands?  These did their job.  Clusters of people, conversation, laughter, good food. 

 Between kitchen & family room, below.

 Butler's pantry, below, anchoring opposite end of double islands.

This kitchen worked perfectly.  Designed to entertain & fundraise. 
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Work takes me into beautiful homes & gardens, country clubs too.  This event was a portion of pro bono I do each year.  Typically I work pro bono with my county Extension Service helping with school grounds.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Yes, more of the garden I lectured at 2 weekends ago.  Knew you would want to see the double islands.  Wish you had been there.  Plenty of wine & canapes.   

Lush & Sparse: Design Tool

Welcome.

A front door with spare elegance, above.  Near the front door, below, billowing lushness.

 Off to the other side of the front door, below, more lushness. 

 And a path, below, leading

 to a door

 not far from the front door

yet light years away in language.
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Landscape Design is about contrasts.  This home has a gardener with a sure vision.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics taken 2 weekends ago while lecturing.  No other time than full blazing afternoon sun to get the pictures.  So few gardens use the potency of spare with lush.   

Deeply Covered Porch

A covered porch for the entire family or quiet solitude to fill your spiritual well, below.  Several rooms flow into this porch.

 Looking out, above, looking in, below.

Perhaps a door to a guest suite, below?

A fireplace.  Simply a fireplace, below.  Be wary of a huge monument fireplace.  Too often they are  life sucking spectres.

I told the owner how I adored her porch & she smiled saying the entire house began with this porch.  The architect working outward from here.

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Love a woman with priorities.

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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

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pics taken 2 weekends ago.  I lectured in her porte cochere.  Wish I hadn't been in such a hurry, needed more pics of this porch. 

Designing Out-Of-Town

Slept away last nite, below, planning a garden.

 Sweet chaos on the mantel, below,

in the bedroom.
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Can't tell you where I was.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics taken this morning.  In a public career there is always a percentage to remain, private.