Creating the Perfect Front Door

Had a pair of platform cross strap sandals the same yellow, below, in high school, called them my 'school bus' shoes.
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Of course I clicked on the picture, for the yellow, then was delighted further.
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Length of the steps is gracious plenty, much too rare, and the real winner, placement of the urns.
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100% outside the door zone, no crowding, making the entry appear smaller.  The urns color, height & width, perfect.  More, they could be empty and still fabulous.  Better, notice the lack of foundation planting?  Swoon.
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Interior of this home, speaking from the curb.



Simple is hard.
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I spend a lot of time in my car going to jobsites, my little van is too noisy to hear when talking on the phone, so, it's the stereo.  Full spectrum, Mozart, Cole Porter, Edith Piaf, Willie Nelson, Bob Seger, The Cars, U2, you get the idea.  A lyric that goes deep, each time heard, Zac Brown's, "I've got everything I need, and nothing that I don't."
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Simple is hard, and that line should be the basis of a hymn.  A song of praise & thanks, sometimes a quest.
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It describes this front door, above, and garden.  Perhaps it should be a last question, designing your garden, "Does it have everything it needs, and nothing it doesn't?"  My last question, for years, designing a garden, when done, "What can I take away & it still holds together?"
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Pic via Content in a Cottage.
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I always pack lunch for the car, today, waiting to be grabbed when I leave, by the front door on the table, peanut butter sandwich, raisins, apple, banana.  Have you read, Pillars of the Earth?  They were always packing lunch, bread/cheese/ale.  Can you imagine a crusty sourdough homemade bread, cheese from your own cow, who only eats from the pasture, and local brew ale?  Don't want the ale for lunch but the comparison always draws a smirk from me when packing my own bland road trip work lunches.

Flying Buttress in the Landscape

At first meeting, enchanted.  Understood, "You're a flying buttress."
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Frame your home, the garden, create rooms, mystery, with little effort.   Little input, big impact, what's not to like?
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Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris has fly buttresses, shouldn't your home?
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Not a Garden Whisperer?  Don't see, below, a flying buttress?
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It's the evergreen hedge, scalloped higher at its end.
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Same flying buttress, below, inside view, vanishing threshold.



Another layer of interest, and function, below, in the garden.
 


Another 'ideal' to achieve, above,  See it without me mentioning it?
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Garden only.  No 'stuff'.  Ubiquitous USA plastic hose carriage on wheels tethered to a faucet, blessedly absent.  Common USA resin sign, "Welcome", blessedly absent.  Fluttering nylon flag in garish colors "Seasons Greetings".....
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Arcadia created.  And, lived.  No signs, flags, intentions.  Intellect engaged, action steps taken, lives well lived amongst chaos given to all.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pics from Pentreath-Hall.
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This is a Voysey house.  Discovered Voysey by accident, researching an old hall tree I bought in the mid-80's.  It's a Voysey ! Second antique I ever purchased, go me!

Hydrangeas: Beauty, Pruning, Borers

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”  Anais Nin. 
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Hydrangea, friend.  We met in college, she changed every thing.  Not that I knew.  Her beauty, for sure, then realizing her ease.  Finally, understanding the unspoken.  This koan, a moment of intuitive enlightenment, in Earth time, for me, 2+ decades.
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The serpent enters.  Late frosts pale in comparison.
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Pruning hydrangeas had been talk of old wood, new wood, remontant, timing.  Now, enters, hydrangea cane borer.
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I've lost several hydrangeas due to, Hydrangea Cane Borer.




Hydrangea cane borers enter freshly pruned canes, tunnel down, and by the time you 'see' trouble, your plant is dead, or mostly there.






When pruning hydrangea canes, tip each cut with glue.  More, here.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Top pic I shot in Susanne Hudson's garden, bottom pics shot in my cottage garden.

Boxwood Fungus: We No Longer Design/Plant Boxwoods

Gardening is a safe lover to give your heart to.  She asks for everything you've got, in the wildest seduction.  Layers of intellect, strength, spirit, & more, you give.  Garden gives back, wildly, beyond measure.  A dirty lover, Garden dresses you in her garb, soil, foundation of life.  Bathing Her off, is privilege.
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Like cows in Pasture, Nature smiles at us on her Pasture.  We plant into Garden, we gussie her up with paths, houses, pots, benches, arbors, lighting, yet nothing compared to Garden's creations.  Think Grand Tetons, for starters.
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Fortunate souls tap into Garden's love, gaining insight, energy, answers, ideas, calm, the list is long.   Alexander Pope, ca. 1625, said it best, "God Almighty first planted a Garden."  We should do less?
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Susanne Hudson, her garden, below, called a few days ago, her boxwoods, over 300+ so far, dead/removed, due to the boxwood fungus.  Sharing her story, the facts of infection to death/removal, a timeline of many weeks.
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A few questions, then I said, "They are your sanity", "I know", she said.  Susanne is a matriarch, easily giving of her time/talents/grace to elderly parents, siblings, children & grandchildren, even her town.  Watering her boxwood, tapping into her relationship with Garden, has been the nurturing of sanity, calm, taking life's yoke with Garden, "my yoke is easy and my burden is light".     



Pic, above, by Tara Dillard, Susanne Hudson's garden, here.



Pic, above, Madison Cox Design, here.



Pic, above, Pinterest, here.
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I will not design or install boxwoods for clients until there is a cure found for boxwood fungus.
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No garden exists at our ca. 1900 American farmhouse.  Beloved & I have heated discussions about every Garden choice, except one, from the first, we knew 4 huge boxwoods would be bought from our supplier in North Carolina, and planted at the front porch.  No expense spared.  And, the only purchase at our new home with, "No expense spared", as an expectation.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

Save Money: Do Not Replace Old Windows

Looking into your windows, from the garden, is a major element of Garden Design.
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Look into a window & see the back of a TV?  Not in my realm.
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Moving into a ca. 1900 American farmhouse, we were fortunate it retains every original window.
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Apparently Beloved thought our windows would not remain.  Instead, vinyl double glass energy efficient would be installed.  Really?
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Not in my realm.
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Yesterday, voila, found the math allowing me to keep every wavy lined leaded glass pane.  And save on energy costs.  Prior to this new information all I could tell Beloved was Jane Austen could not have written her books, looking thru energy efficient windows.




From an article, here, written by, Keith Haberern Professional Engineer, R.A. Chairman: Collingswood,NJ, Historic District Comm.

♦ U value of a single pane window (that old wood window): 1.10
 ♦ U value of a single pane window combined with a storm window: 0.50
 ♦ U value of an expensive new double pane thermal replacement window: 0.58
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 (remember that the lower the U value the better. You will note that your old wood window combined with a storm window is about 15% more energy efficient than that new replacement window. Those new windows will cost you, not save you money.)
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So I don’t have storm windows, the ads say I can save big bucks and lots of energy by replacing those “old” wood windows with replacement windows- right? My “old” windows have beautiful wood and wavy antique glass but they must be costing me a bundle?
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 ♦ Yearly energy saving between a single pane window and a new double pane thermal replacement window (on one 3’ x 5’ window): 625,922 Btu
 ♦ Annual savings per window if using gas heat at $0.95/therm: $9.65/ year
 ♦ Simple payback if you assume a decent replacement window will cost $400 installed: $400/ $9.65 year = 41 ½ years!!
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 (Not a good investment. You would do better by putting your money in a bank savings account! Also remember that as most thermal replacement windows will have a life span of 15 to 20 years, they will not last long enough to pay themselves off.)


Pic, www.OldHouseWeb.com.
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Another story, from the same link, below.
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When faced with $12,000 for replacing 21 existing windows in his own house, Don Hartley, Utah State Historical Society architect, figured a 77 year payback on the so-called “investment.” Instead he refinished, weather-stripped and added storms for $5000. and took $7000 to the bank. See the full article, WHEN YOUR WINDOWS WANTATTENTION .
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New windows are not meant to be repaired when they die.  Merely replaced.
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And, storm windows don't look like they did when I was a child, they've grown up too.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara

The Telegraph: News in Gardens

With Google's keyword search certain people/topics slip into my mailbox, without effort.  Today, Gertrude Jekyll, in The Telegraph, arrived with more good links you'll want to read.  Save for later if you're busy, you'll like all of them.  Apples, politicians, boxwood health, bulbs inside for winter.
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These aren't projects, below, they're easy, fun, pretty.  Projects?  Not for me.

Plant projects to see you through winter

  1 of 11 View All

Pic, The Winter Garden by Emma Hardy,by CICO Books (£14.99). To order your copy for £12.99 plus p&p call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk

Boxwoods are planned for the front of our ca. 1900 American farmhouse.  May change those plans, and, will I draw boxwoods into client gardens?   With a warning, and no guarantee, yes, will put them in client gardens.  Make up your own mind, read below.  

From diseases to caterpillars: is it time to give up on box?

BOX HEDGES IN THE BOURTON HOUSE KNOT GARDEN CREDIT: ALAMY

Think gardening is not political?  California jurisdictions are considering making water a commodity.  What does this mean for you?  Have a pond on your property, and it's a government commodity, you cannot use the water without permission.  For starters.  More lightheartedly, politics & gardening, below.

Plotting the course of history: why Corbyn (and other politicians) love their gardens

THE PRIME MINISTER, THE RT HON WINSTON CHURCHILL, WITH HIS CHIEFS OF STAFF IN THE GARDEN OF NO. 10, 1945CREDIT: IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUMS

Meet Gertrude Jekyll, below.  Have loved knowing her since the early 80's.

Clue up on GertrudeJekyll, gardening's forgotten woman

GERTRUDE JEKYLL CREDIT: ENGLISH HERITAGE/HERITAGE IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES 

How to have apples all year round

APPLE TREES CAN BE TRAINED TO ALL SORTS OF DESIGNS CREDIT: ALAMY

Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Best Dimensions for A Gravel Patio

Perhaps my little stories about gardening should be set within proper context, of their owners.  Every garden designed demands honoring its site, architecture of the home, and lives of the owners.  More than the mundane of plants liked, features wanted or where the main views from inside the house are, well designed gardens must travel with the owner's hopes & dreams, salve arrows & defeats, enrich beyond expectation.  And more.
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Last week, I went to an unexpected new client.  Friend of a client's garden I was at, she phoned & laughingly told my client she should bring me to her house when done, if I had time.  We did.
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Miss Unexpected owns an unexpected home.  Divorced/working, children, she rented a home as a base while looking for the 'perfect' new home.  Her landlord called, the rental house was being sold.  One child was very ill, she had zero time/energy to move again.  She bought the rental.
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Interiors mostly renovated, the landscape ripe for its turn.  A modest home, a covered/screened porch had been added at some point.  Not cheaply made, alas, poorly designed.  If a group of psychiatrists needs a setting to guarantee depression for all who enter, for purposes of testing new methods of healing, this is the space.
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Trying hard to salvage, at minimum, the roof, I could not.  Best plan for the existing screened porch, dumpster in the driveway, & hauled off.
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Once children are thru high-school Miss Unexpected will be moving to acreage she was raised on, and build a home.  Providing me a timeline & budget.  No matter the budget, one must live beautifully each day, life is not the end point, it's all the days leading there.    
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Gravel.  Beautiful, easy labor, cost effective.
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A kitchen door, solely, opens onto the new gravel terrace.  I added another door in her family room, now, a window.  Better flow, more use.  Game changer for how they live in the house, and entertain.



Pic from here.

Miss Unexpected has a slight slope in her backyard, stones, as below, must be used to edge the gravel, and ease of leveling the space.
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Pic from here.
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Minimum size for a patio terrace, 12' x 18'.  Less than this, don't bother, it will hardly be used, too cramped.
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We measured & set flags for her new gravel terrace, and I added a metal shed roof over 1/2 of the new space.  Ceiling fans/chandeliers, of course.
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Cost.  Amazingly, with stones/gravel delivered, she can do the labor herself.  She plans to, not to save money, she grew up on a farm and thrives upon the activity.
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Further away from the house, I put in a gravel terrace with a stone fire ring, and Adirondack chairs. Mom, her kids, dogs, friends who come over and that hunk of a man she's dating, have a new playground.
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Garden design with life story included, Mary Poppins completed her mission, off to another home/garden.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

Designing an Enclosed Fruit Orchard

Working in the orchard, below, at a client's last week, edging fruit trees, their guilds, and a few vegetable patches.

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A young orchard it has finally grown into some maintenance issues.  Client mentioned earlier this year she sees her man mowing in the orchard so fast she's sure he's going to sling himself off the riding mower.  Aside from asking her to youtube it, I was thinking it might be fun to mow the orchard fast too, once.

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Parked my little work van just outside the gate, below. First time noticing this framed view.

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She hadn't put in the pasture fence or sheep barn when the orchard was built.

Wrote a note on my drawing board for the Orchard, Listen to the Genius of the Place.  

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Working at my desk, below, I heard a stadium full of people shouting bad ideas.  Sadly, they were all my own.  

Disgusted with rotten ideas, I said to the orchard, "What would David Hicks do?"  

(Hicks' gate, below, had already inspired the gate, top.)

Pic, above, from here.

Immediately, David Hicks answered, I was out of my chair placing flags/tape. taking his dictation.

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Hicks said to put flags/tape at the walls first, below.

David Hicks then said to place flags/tape at the fruit trees, below.

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  Spooky, below, just googled pics for David Hicks garden.

Pic, above, from here.  

Another surprise, above, from David Hicks garden.  Flying buttress.  I designed flying buttress into my client's Orchard after seeing them at an antebellum cotton warehouse in Atlanta, now a restaurant.

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Pic above, from, News From Nowhere, in David Hicks garden.

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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

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My pics taken last week.  Still abiding in our new garden.   Patiently waiting for layers of work to be completed, in proper order, before we can gravel the parking court, drives & lanes, finally shaping the pleasure garden, orchard, potager.  

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Orchards, historically, were enclosed for several reasons.  They allowed earlier & later harvests, extending growing seasons, and kept predators out.  Including people.

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Studying Sir Walter Scott's historic garden in England, was amazed to discover his orchard walls were double built.  Boilers placed at the corners distributed steam into the walls, adding length to growing seasons.  

How to Design a Landscape: Collect Moments Not Plants

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.  It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."  Mark Twain.
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What is the greatest thing you need to know about gardening?  Unlearn the loud majority.  Listen to your inner knowledge.  Not brain knowledge.  Unfortunately, knowledge from your soul has little language.  No worries, the garden you want speaks easily in pictures.  Pictures you already know.  They've attracted your heart for years, probably decades.      
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Perhaps your partner won't like it, your neighbors, or it's illegal to your HOA.  Maybe someone will complain, and a man with a gun & badge will knock on your door.  Yes, all of these have happened to me.  Except the second gun/badge arriving into my garden were worn by a woman.  Police thoughts?  Both were pi$$ed.  At the complainer.  And, apologized for having to bother me.
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Really, those are the negatives about creating the garden your soul wants?  Few & paltry.  My garden has been in magazines/books, on tv, and several tours.  Again, paltry.  Daily, for decades, my garden gives me moments.  Moments that release the bonds of time, mere human reality, hunger, tiredness, sorrows, questions I'm unable to answer receive answers and more.
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I garden for these moments.  Richness without price.  Tasha Tudor signed off often with words from a poem, "Take joy."  I got the memo immediately.  Joy is present, always.



Photographer, Clive Nichols, got the memo.  He's been shooting garden moments for decades.
How did he know my predilections, above, for fall's senescence?



Small drops of dew, above, tiny diamonds of light, lasting mere seconds.



Don't have the budget for, above/below?  Ironic, use your brain, 'No grit, no pearl.'



"People discuss my art and pretend to understand as if it were necessary to understand, when it's simply necessary to love."  Claude Monet.
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Enough.  Go garden.  Take joy.  Quotes, above, a tiny sliver of joys learned in my garden.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO T
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Clive Nichols pics from his website, here.

Beauty Secured: Taking Cuttings

Moving into our new home, late June, to today, I've enjoyed this 'bush'.

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Full of blooms in June, and every day afterward.

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By late August curiosity was too strong, I walked over to inspect.  It resides on my neighbor's property.

I knew what it was at 1st inspection, never seen in a book, in person, or heard it spoken of.

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Sun lover, drought proof, insect/disease proof, deer proof.  New flower buds still drip fat along the stems, enough to last until first frost.

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BEAUTIFUL.

 Before designing gardens full time, I was a professional grower for 2.5 years.  Of course I know how to propagate this beauty.
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Do you know it by sight, already?
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Permission.  I had to get permission to take cuttings.  Will take enough to give to owner, neighbors, and friends.
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Double flowering, white weeping Rose of Sharon.  Hibiscus syriacus, Althea.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics taken yesterday.
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At the property line, above, is neighbor's view of their plant with our garden & home in the backdrop.  Our homes, both over a century old, are each near the road, and close to the right side property line.  This gave space for orchard & potager to the left of the house, and acreage at the back for barn, livestock, and pond.  

Bill Blass: How to Edit a Landscape

Bill Blass said, "A woman with a closet full of clothes, but nothing to wear does not know herself very well."
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That sailed a ship.  If you have a lot of plants but not a pretty garden, you do not know yourself very well.
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Editing landscapes is inherent to every good garden you see.
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Arne Maynard's work, below, at an old estate.  Of course it's gorgeous.  And edited.  HARD.




Pic from Arne Maynard.
Hard to edit our closets, it's harder to edit a garden.  Garden editing may require heavy equipment.



Pic from Arne Maynard.

 In our new garden, above/below, yesterday.  Editing.  Chinese holly were not emotionally tough to remove.  The 2 oak trees were emotionally difficult to remove but had to go, they were growing into the magnolia, that will remain.  Boxwood hedge will remain, would not have designed it into its place, but zero heart to remove it.  Told you editing was hard.

Pic, Arne Maynard.

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All the pretty neo-new gardens you see?  Edited.  Hard editing.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Small recompense, the editing will be composted.

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Will find it amusing, in the future, when someone says, "I adore this boxwood hedge here."  You know it will happen, and more than once.  

Using the Sky as a Design Element

Framing the sky, below.  Often, never mentioned as an element of Garden Design.

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The sky has several uses.  Oddly, it's the element making small landscapes look/feel BIG.

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Use the sky, as an element in your Garden Design, to make your garden  feel 'calm'.

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If you have an eyesore in your garden, bottom pic, put a focal point nearby to draw the eye away.  For a year, at minimum, the only arrow in my quiver against the eyesore of shed/Kubota/golf cart, is this patch of sky.

And, Royal Gaze.

Until renovations are complete I'm using the Royal Gaze.  Eyes & heart do not see the necessities, above, they gaze into beautifully framed infinite sky.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics taken this month.  Shot of Kubota is estimate of exact spot to take 'after' pic.  A wrap around porch is being added to the back of the house, steps into the garden landing where Kubota/golf cart are now.  #87 Granite gravel added for landing and path into The Orchard.  First time seeing our new home with the realtor, I saw the new back porch, shed moved, orchard etc.....  More amazing, Beloved said he saw the same thing.