Keeping & Fixing

Along the side of her home, below, a mass planting of hosta.

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Most of the year these hosta are herbacious.

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During fall they are literally senescence yellow.  With tired mulch.  Two layers of death !  Welcome home.

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She asked for a design in front & back.

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How could I not address the hosta along the side?

My ego isn't about ripping out & starting over.  A bigger challenge is, keep offensive plantings & turn them to delight.

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In the South, blessedly, sasanqua thrive.

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Two sasanqua have been planted & will be espalier pruned flat against the wall.  No trellis or wires needed.

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And all that hosta?  Remains in place.

Soon, these 3 gallon espalier sasanqua will be lush plantings, diminishing the impact of gas-a/c.  And the fleeting impact of the hosta.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pics taken at a jobsite this month.
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Sasanqua espalier are often in my Southern garden designs.  Never do we install already espaliered Sasanqua.  Too d&*% expensive.  Instead, we do the pruning.
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Of course we have to rip plantings out.  Decades of plant-shape-only installed by builders helps no one and literally decreases property values while sometimes cracking foundations-drives-paths.
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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

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Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

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Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

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Construction by Award Winning

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Most Wanted in the Garden

This is what I want, below, from my garden.  Every day, to look out from the windows of my home and think, "Oh WOW."

More, I want to walk in my garden, any day of the year, and take a roll of gorgeous 36.

View from the street, above, thru my tiny orchard to little cottage.

Oakleaf hydrangeas, above, drying in the garage next to my car.

Attention to detail, inside/outside.

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Everyday clients change the scope of their project, it may rain for 30 minutes delaying a dirt delivery 2 days, a supplier does not have what they promised,  mis-communication with a subcontractor,  an employee forgets a tool or gas/oil mix for equipment thus stopping the work totally.

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All expected, & normal, business.  

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And why I crave the beauty/solace of my garden & home.

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A realm of grace feeding the spirit.

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  What do you want from your garden?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics from my home/garden this year.

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 For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

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Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

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Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

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Construction by Award Winning

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Vanishing Threshold: Get Yours

With Garden Design do you know the most important Demarcation Points?

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With the Demarcation Points, above, I'm rolling in wet sand as the waves roll up.

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(A child of Cape Canaveral & Galveston you understand my happy metaphor.)

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The Romans, bce, never built a home without a vanishing threshold.

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Amazing, a horticulture degree obtained, decades of seminars attended, libraries of books read, and not 1 source referenced vanishing threshold.

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Then my epiphany, in Italy of course.

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House & garden are 'one'.

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You see it here, above.

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From the garden, above, you see vanishing threshold looking into the window.

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Nicky Haslam always knew about vanishing threshold.  Study his book, Folly de Grandeur.  

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Next?

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Create yours.  A lifetime of joy, and grace, melding the strength of your intellect against this desirable challenge awaits.

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Biggest irony of vanishing threshold?  Increases property value, reduces HVAC, and maximizes pollinator habit up to 80%.  Needs no irrigation, fertilizers or chemicals.  While cutting in half the amount of maintenance. 

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Beginning to understand the lack of education about vanishing threshold?

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As garden centers & mow-blow-go companies are structured, now, not much money to be made.

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Those companies are dependent upon your turf needing chemicals/fertilizers/irrigation/maintenance.

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And etc. etc. etc. as Yul Brynner said so well.

Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara

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pic via Jennings & Gates.

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Visit my Vanishing Threshold board on Pinterest.

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 For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

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Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

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Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

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Construction by Award Winning

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.:

2nd Best Design Rule for a Focal Point in the Garden

  Their French architecture manor house is in a subdivision with ubiquitous, and aging, landscaping.

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Fabulous timing for me to design.

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Hidden in the small backyard, below.

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Lucky me, able to work with this piece.  Now, their subdivision foundation plantings are a garden & this bench is between a pair of large windows with an espalier Sasanqua behind it.
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Don't need to know a thing about gardens to know this bench, above, trumps leggy green builder's meatballs.
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Then the story.
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She told me how decrepit the bench is and I could have it.  My hunger to create beautiful gardens is obviously the greater ego over owning this bench.
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No hesitation, telling her, "I would love the have the bench but will love it more in your garden to make me look good as a Garden Designer."
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And, I know she'll fall in love with the bench in its new location.

Then, the story of provenance.
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An estate sale.  2 beautiful ladies lost their home to a shoddy renovation gone bad and to court.  Their home/garden had been in books/magazines including one of my hardcover books.  Worse, the ladies did not win in court yet the contractors were at fault.
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Hopefully client/me will catch up with these incredible women again.
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The 2nd best Focal Point rule?  Just Let It Touch.  Let the foliage 'just touch' the focal point.
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1st rule of focal points?  Focal Points must be so wonderful they will be fought over at your estate sale.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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 For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

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Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

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Construction by Award Winning:

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Top Garden Design Feature to Help Sell Your Home

For decades this, below, was a bare slope with mulch.

Now, flow exists around the entire home.
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Flow.  Is it easy to walk around the entire home?
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90% of my out-of-state Garden Design work has come from past clients hiring me for their new home. They've each said the same thing, "You helped me sell my home, fast."  The ubiquitous beauty, color, lighting, etc. was important but I know the, unexpected, #1 reason they assume their Garden Design helped sell their home.  Flow.
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Flow.  Get you some.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara  
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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning:

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Does Your Landscape Describe You?

Beside the front porch, below, is the mudroom entrance.

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 I feel the welcome & delight in each detail.

The wreath is in honor of the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival & this home/garden are on the tour.
Been in Southern Living magazine too.

As if the bench still-life were not enough, the little wall, below, along the path is 'done' too.

Precociously my Tara Dillard garden design rule, "I must know who you are from the garden before ever entering your home.", is wowza answered here.

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Today, seriously look around your garden & home's exterior.  Do they tell me who you are?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning:

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Front Porch: Color, Shutters, Narrative

In a subdivision, below, without the trees you would see neighbor's houses from the front porch.

Whenever you see the gardener, dressed up/down, she's arrayed in black/white.  With a bit of bling too, but you knew that from her front porch.

The shutters are bi-fold doors from a closet.  Ick to fab !

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Color, seating, flow, layers, texture, invitation, relaxation, all ages, conversation, dining, narrative.

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Which shouts loudest?

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I adore the narrative, above.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning:

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Front Porch: Formal + Informal

Design Rule: Contrast.

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A touch of the Queen + Ellie Mae Clampett.

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Urn on Plinth + Galvanized Buckets hanging with ropes.

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Your garden must tell me who you are before stepping inside your home.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Pic taken this month.  Jeri Farmer's lovely home/garden was on the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival Garden Tour.  Jeri & Susanne refreshed the garden this year and time/money were both running short yet pots were still needed for the ferns.  Of course Susanne said, "Put them in galvanized buckets."

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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning:

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Design Rule: Hint of Invitation

In the bright morning light, below.

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Hint of something, saying, come-this-way.

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Gravel path, boxwood, bench & hydrangeas.

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Paths should engage: foot, eye, mind, heart.

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The language of invitation.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic taken this month in Susanne Hudson's garden.

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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning:

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Enfilade: View to a View

Decades ago I noticed the most common type of garden magazine, catalogue or book cover.

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Enfilade.

Lovely to see this enfilade with color trinity, axis, backdrop.

Enfilade, view through to a view.
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Got Enfilades?
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Notice, it's plural.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken in Susanne Hudson's garden this month.
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 For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning:

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Window Valences: In the Garden

Since the early 80's I've collected vintage garden books.  From those the memory bank retained this window arbor, below.

A delight seeing them at Susanne Hudson's historic home.

Susanne's were just moved from back to front on her carriage house receiving a new coat of paint and light renovation.

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Yes, gardens do need exterior valences.

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Gotta love a color theme, of course the garden valences are white.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Pics taken last week.

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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning:

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Tool Bouquet

Tool Bouquets, below, used as sconces.

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Begun with rot, aka beloved use, these tools are prophets with honor in Susanne Hudson's garden.

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For centuries mankind honored the connection of tool to Earth as life sustainer.

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Betty Friedan  wrote about the 1st generation of women disconnected from hand-to-tool-to-soil.

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Their children would not learn the names of farm tools, their use, how to raise livestock, plant crops, cook, care take others, much less know how to feed their own spirit.  Bugs & weeds, instead of pollinators increasing crop yield, became poisoned inconveniences.

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Their children played in clouds of malathion as evening trucks fogged mosquitoes.

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(No time to rewrite, for this era, Friedan's work, back to tools.....)

Study Susanne's art of tool arrangement.  She's the best.

An exquisite wedding planner, Susanne treats Tool Bouquet's exactly like flower arranging.

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It's easier to find designer clothes at a thrift store than old tools.

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I'm always on the hunt for old tools.  And, seeing walls, inside or out, needing a Tool Bouquet.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning:

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.