Friday, February 5, 2016

Dowager Duchess at Edensor House: Gravel Paths

Dinner tonight in honor of a friend's beloved grandmother.  She would have been 99.  Grandma's chocolate pie will be the star, and focused conversation for all, about grandmothers.  
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A dinner ritual for many years, I was unaware & suppose my continual mention of my grandma earned me an invitation.
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Days a bit longer and  will be able to see my host's garden before last light.  Designed her garden about 2 years ago, and they are totally DIY.
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Snakes are a problem at their home, and they have 2 young daughters.  
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Gravel is designed up to the house, and stones within the gravel, as needed for easier main paths.
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Gravel with pathway stones has been done for thousands of years.
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Another benediction for gravel with stones, below, Debo, Duchess of Devonshire, if Debo does it, case closed.



Duchess of Devonshire, below, at her dowager house, above, Edensor House, an old vicarage, she called, Old Vic.  Note, exquisite pruning, below, to the right of the door?




Centuries old, below, the backdrop landscape behind the Duchess is no accident.  None.  

The Duchess of Devonshire, photographed in 2010 by Emma Hardy

Old Vic, below, rendering to be sold at Sotheby's.

Painting by Catriona Hall, Old Vicarage, signed with artist's monogram, £600 - 800

The Duchess, below, was keen on many outdoor activities, in one of her books, can't remember which, she mentioned how cold/wet/mucky some pursuits were but the game was on for all included, Show No Discomfort.  




Before pie, we'll walk the new gravel paths.  Today, temps are freezing, winds gusting to 20mph, and we will do our best to show-no-discomfort.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pics from Sotheby's .  The Style Saloniste has a bit more about the Duchess, here.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Washington Post: Richard Arentz Home & Garden

My construction team laughs at my proclivity for garden designing French doors from windows, adding retractable screen doors too.
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From the French doors, below, site a focal point on axis, add a path to the focal point, plant an allee of understory trees with flying buttresses of canopy trees, underplant with an evergreen groundcover, finish this garden room with its walls, an evergreen hedge.  Put in a cross axis just behind the evergreen hedge.
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This garden design, written, above, pictured, below, is a classic 1,000's of years old.  It sites beautifully along the sides of a home too.


Running Cedar, landscape architect Richard Arentz’s home. Winter King hawthorn allee. The ground cover is lenten rose, an evergreen perennial.:

Notice, potted plants each side of the French doors, above, become interior floral arrangements.
Choosing a rounded bowl for the orchids was no accident, nor choosing the arching/caning habit in contrast to the exterior understory trees.
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Staging this shot, they've used both house/garden as 1 proscenium.
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In addition to describing how to design this house/garden, above, the verbage is correct.  Most often, clients know what they want, have a pinterest board, yet do not have a vocabulary for what's in their pictures.
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Garden, above, is also little maintenance, and with the right plants, deer proof/drought tolerant/no chemicals/pollinator habitat.  If the house, above, is facing western sun, the allee of trees is shading the house in summer, dropping its leaves allowing the winter sun to help heat the house, lowering HVAC costs.  And, raising property value, while increasing the joy of living here.
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Pic, above, from Richard Arentz's Washington Post article, by Adrian Higgins.
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Biggest take away?  House & garden are a single proscenium.  Site the garden from inside your home.

Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Garden Design Rule: The Tablescape

Vanishing threshold, below, a fecund tablescape.
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A tablescape proscenium.


Across Europe, studying historic gardens for decades, have seen tablescaped tables on  terraces, luring, without words, propelling feet & intellect to investigate.  
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Their insouciance ineluctable.  
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So often seen, having a tablescaped table on a terrace/deck/patio/porch seems to be a Garden Design rule. 
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pic by Carolyn Barber from here

Monday, January 18, 2016

Why You Need to Take Pictures of Your Construction Project

Working with a property under contract a few years ago I was on site when the lawn crew arrived to mow.  With 1st look I knew they were my type of company, well worn truck, trailer, and the person in charge had boots matching truck & trailer.  In addition, Mr. Magic Boots did something quite smart, before starting he took a few pictures, when finished he took more pictures.
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A seemingly modest property and a modest job for the mow-blow-go team.
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Those 2 facts penetrated.  Get pictures.  Always.
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Fast forward 2 years, we began a landscape job for a new construction high-end home.  Pics taken before, during, after.  During the job we noticed the plumbing sub-contractor attached new plumbing of the home to the existing plumbing from the 1940's tear-down originally on site.  Mind your own business, is the mantra.  Excepting when you see something egregious.  After a day of discussion, should we tell the builder, we told the builder.
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The builder had his plumber fix the issue, a few days later, we don't know why, the builder hired a new plumber.  Not pleasant for anyone.

The Daily Telegraph Garden Designer: Ulf Nordfell:

From The Telegraph.

The job progressed, we continued with pictures, we finished.  A couple of months later the homeowner calls, they have water in their basement.  The builder was called 1st, and carefully described how the 'landscaper' was responsible for flooding in the basement.
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We go to the site, meet with the homeowner, and had pictures showing step by step our work was not playing a role in the basement flooding.  More than proving flooding was not 'landscaper' caused, our pics proved the builder and 2 of his sub-contractors caused the basement flooding.
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This story is more unpleasant knowing the builder is degreed from a prestigious university.  Mr. Magic Boots had more integrity.  Thankful we had the pictures, imagine how thankful the homeowner was.
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Hope this story was layered properly for you.  Get pictures, everyone, contractor, sub-contractor, homeowner.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO T
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Yes, wish I had a drone, video camera 'on', when the builder received his phone call, "The landscaper has pictures showing their work is not at fault."  Karma is usually much slower than its path in this story.

Friday, January 15, 2016

Nicky Haslam & Miles Redd

Copy, it's the 1st rule of Garden Design.  If you don't like rules, who does, you'll like this one.
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Each permutation of 'copy' is unique, guaranteed.
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Copying from the best means you are opening a treasure chest to major talents across the globe, and time.
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Copy, it's a 1st rule of Interior Design too.
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Sussex Farmhouse




Redd brought in a breakfront to anchor the space and had it painted in one of his mother's favorite colors, an 18th century-inspired chalky green. A table skirt made from taffeta is a soft contrast to the mahogany ladder-back chairs.

Copy, it works for 2 of the best, above.  It will work for you.
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Copy, glad my epiphany came, but why was I stubborn for so long, thinking I could recreate the wheel?  My work became more original once I knew to copy.  Who doesn't enjoy riffing on a theme?  Though, beware the trap of derivative works becoming stale.  
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Before - After: What is Your After Here?

If you've read my books or blog you are ready to be the Garden Designer today.  Great before/after, below, yet there is a change I would make to the exterior.  Better, it's a historic answer, cheaper than what was done, and more functional.  Anytime a trinity appears, it thrills beyond measure.
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Take your time, my answer is way at the bottom.  You design the 'after' facade and yard.
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A Historic Mississippi Farmhouse Gets A Stunning Restoration!:

Again, you are today's Garden Designer, what would you do, above, to the facade & yard?

 Restoration of 1820 Historic Mississippi Farmhouse

Off topic, above/below, giving your resting brain more time to create the Garden Design, I'm a strong believer in using left/right brain.  Furniture, below.  I am a fiend for seeing out windows.  Twin beds, below, I would turn footboards to the windows.  Miss a moment laying in bed seeing stars, a lightening storm, quarters of the moon, snowfall, birds, fall foliage, tracery of winter tree branches, the moment before sunrise when all is chiaroscuro?  Not 1 second would I miss.  Window views are the most exciting part of interior design, and living in a house
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This is a great hint about how to design the front garden.  Consider people first, better, consider your maximum selfishness in the richness available with this front yard.

Pink Girl's Bedroom in Restored Historic Mississippi Farmhouse

Obvious from the 'before' picture these are good people, rescuing this home.   Of course they are good people, look at their sweet dog, below.

Kitchen of Historic Mississippi Farmhouse After Restoration

What is your Garden Design solution for the front yard?
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Seriously, I want to know.  Place it in comments, and thank you.
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Seeing the chimneys, in the 'before' pic, I knew this home was prior to 1890.  Do you know how?
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Coal was common in the South 1890 to 1910.  Chimney flues are narrower for coal, these chimneys are for wood burning fireplaces.
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Ready for my Garden Design answer?
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Remove front porch rails, remove foundation plantings, add granite stone steps to each end of the front porch and at each section where rails are removed, let Tara Turf nestle the home.
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Flow, no dead ends.  Currently each end of the porch is a dead end, walking straight out each front door is a dead end.  Historically, the more entry ways a garden has the better a garden is.  Historically, the more axis a garden has the better the garden.  Historically, the more double axis a garden has the better the garden.  Creating more entries, creates more magic circles for people/pets to flow.  These ideas are not Tara'tude, they are historical.  Garden Design is science, and art.
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Don't forget, leave me your ideas.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Pics, and fuller story, here.  

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Florist Shop Technique in Your Garden

I remember well going into the old tiny white clapboard house, engulfed with oleander, gardenias, and sago palms, on the way to League City, TX, with its front half turned into a florist shop, they lived at the back, with mom when she needed to send sympathy flowers.  In the 60's this was not a phone call or internet purchase.  The large glass front refrigerator stuffed with flowers awaiting, scents, vases, ribbons, cut stems in a pile, no, I was not waiting in the car.  Life was electric in that tiny shop & home.
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Saw that house, long abandoned, during my last trip home in December.
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No matter its current state it has sailed a thousand ships in my work.  I have a Pinterest board for Florist Shops.  Clients with acreage, and little time, I send to that board to inspire when they have an open garden or private function.  Temporary beauty easily arranged.
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Claus Dalby, below, from Denmark uses the Florist Shop Technique.  No matter your continent, style, budget, the Florist Shop technique is for you too.    



Pic, above, Claus Dalby.
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Florist Shop Technique.  My favorite type of gardening, see it do it.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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Thank you Janelle McCulloch for another great find.

Monday, January 11, 2016

Willie Nelson & Wendell Berry: Save Farmers Save USA


Late to the party, realizing, first from Wendell Berry, then an English ironstone transferware platter, a century old framed print of a farm, studying landscapes across Europe for decades vs. abhorring my USA ornamental horticulture college education, and most recently Willy Nelson and his Farm Aid, the separation of agriculture from ornamental horticulture is not possible.  It is the industrial complex separating them, to their benefit, our loss.  Connecting the dots has been slow, not boring.  Ironic, forces of industrial farming,  commodities/labor, are now borderless, and have played a role across Europe since WWII, cracks in those borders are daily news, and huge in our current presidential election.
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With industrial farming, residential landscapes became industrial.  Mow-blow-go, chemicals to kill bugs, chemicals to kill fungus/disease, chemicals that create bombs are used to fertilize plants while killing beneficial mychorizal fungi/earth worms, aka killing soil, even poisonous used car tires are ground up/dyed & used as mulch, releasing toxic heavy metals into the soil, groundwater, and above a certain temperature become fumes absorbed thru your skin.  How did residential landscapes flip industrial?  After WWII chemical companies lost their buyers.  First buyers targeted by chemical companies in USA?  Mom's with small children playing in the yard.  Spray chemicals to get rid of bugs.  Voila, start of industrial residential landscapes.  Discovered this tidbit a few years ago when keynote speaking at the Perennially Yours Symposium & hearing Paul Tukey speak.
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Lose family farms, lose rural towns across USA, Wendell Berry has written for decades.  What?  Without family farmers, there is no community of shop owners/service providers/arts venues/car dealerships/medical providers/small banks etc, instead there is a WalMart/Family Dollar/Dollar General servicing several dying communities within driving range.
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The Extension Service, for decades, while providing help to farmers, has based success upon production of crops/livestock, solely, not success of farms & communities, even less, healthy soil, safe drinking water.    
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Depressing, above, yet liberating and joyful to 'see' and step away from the industrial complex, more, empowering.
Note, below, from Willie Nelson, he saw all the above, 3 decades ago, deciding to help & stay strong and positive.
Friend
Welcome to Farm Aid! Whether you're a farmer, a music lover, or someone who cares about good food and family farmers, Farm Aid has something for you.
Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and I serve on the Farm Aid board because we believe that when family farmers thrive, we all thrive. Family farmers are stewards of the land and grow the kind of good food that we all want. And successful farms strengthen their communities - they are the true economic engines of our country.
We've come so far since 1985. Over the last 30 years, Farm Aid has inspired more people to care about where their food comes from and the family farmers who grow it.
Stay strong and positive,

Willie Nelson
Farm Aid


english transferware...:

Pic, above, via here.

Plates, above/below, I had thought, for decades, 'boring'.  Then, 'saw'.  The patterns, prayers of thanks and method to daily honor what is so freely given, to us.  USA constitution had considered these prayers of thanks, inalienable rights, "
    Natural rights are those not contingent upon the laws, customs, or beliefs of any particular culture or government, and therefore universal and inalienable (i.e., rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws).

    Natural and legal rights - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_and_legal_rights"                                                              .
Red Transferware Platter Travelers Horses Children Roses English China:

Pic, above, via here.

STANDING WITH FAMILY FARMERS

Farm Aid works year-round to build a system of agriculture that values family farmers, good food, soil and water, and strong communities. Our annual concert celebrates farmers, eaters and music coming together for change.

Landscape Transferware, I have actually collected several of these myself! I love brown and white dinnerware.:

Pic, above, via, here.
Found/bought a platter in the pattern, above, it is a scene of agriculture sustaining an entire community.

 

A friend recently bought a home and moved to Saint Simons Island and posted this picture, above, of a sunrise, including this line of poetry, "The holiest of all holidays are those kept by ourselves in silence and apart; The secret anniversaries of the heart..."   Without a garden I doubt I would have understood its meaning.  In my garden I celebrate secret anniversaries, by the hour.  My greatest root of 'strong & positive'.  
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“It’s mighty hard right now to think of anything that’s precious that isn’t endangered,” Wendell Berry told Bill Moyers. “There are no sacred and unsacred places; there are only sacred and desecrated places. My belief is that the world and our life in it are conditional gifts.”   “People who own the world outright for profit will have to be stopped; by influence, by power, by us.”            "  
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Amazing words from Berry.  They call poets, canaries in the coal mine.  Berry is a poet, and "fierce laureate of the natural world."  
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A current article, below, about industrial farming, including foreign refugee workers in a small USA town. Workers, brought in as refugees, needed as low paid workers for industrial farming with taxpayers subsidizing the rest of their needs. Ironic, USA family farms paid living wages, and created communities which were the backbone of USA, and without killing soil/poisoning water supply.  Until I read Michael Pollans's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, Cargill was not on my radar.  Not so now.  Cargill is all about corn, and Pollan manages to make corn sexy.
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In the Minneapolis Star-Tribune  recently:
"Cargill will change its hiring policy — allowing employees to be potentially rehired 30 days after termination, not 180 days — in response to a walkout by Somali workers in Colorado.
After a dispute over Muslim prayer time, about 150 employees at Cargill’s sprawling Fort Morgan, Colo., plant didn’t show up for work for three days — grounds for termination. They were fired. Some of those workers claimed they weren’t allowed to take prayer breaks, while Cargill claimed that it was still following its policy allowing the breaks.
Minnetonka-based Cargill said in a statement Friday that it will change the hiring policy at all of its North American beef plants, allowing former employees terminated for “attendance violation or job abandonment” to be considered for rehiring 30 days after being fired. The workers would have to reapply for their jobs.
“We believe the change in our beef business policy related to how quickly a former employee may be eligible to reapply for positions at our beef plants is a reasonable update to something that’s been in place for quite a few years,” Cargill Beef President John Keating said in a statement.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has been representing many terminated Somali workers, said it welcomed Cargill’s change in hiring policy, though it criticized Cargill’s prayer break policy as ambiguous."
Again, Cargill, and others in the industrial farming camp, need cheap refugee labor, salaries paid are not a living wage, the USA taxpayer fills out the rest in welfare payments.  Don't mean to paint Cargill as a 'bad company'', but it's been obvious to Willie Nelson & Wendell Berry, for at least 3 decades, this is exactly where leaving the family farm was headed, the path of unintended consequences.   
A book list, helping to move from industrial farms to family farms.
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Wendell Berry's books.
Tara Dillard's books, ornamental horticulture producing crops yielding up to 80% greater.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver.
The Omnivore's Dilemma, A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan.
The Garden in Winter, by Rosemary Verey.  Ornamental horticulture yielding crops up to 80% greater.
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What do ornamental horticulture gardens have in common with agriculture?  Pollination.  Pollination.  Pollination.  A factor increasing crop yields by 80%.  
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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With more time, this should include new scientific studies about Nature & our health.  Nature & our biomes.  Without which, of course, we die or live in disease.  But I have a residential garden needing a hot tub sited !  Need time & every brain cell to create the most usable yet elegant hot tub known to mankind.  

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Naomi Watts & Liev Schreiiber: Hamptons Garden

Hooked on Houses posted,

NAOMI WATTS & LIEV SCHREIBER SELLING HOUSE IN THE HAMPTONS

     What's 'wrong' in these 3 pics, below?  Hint, it's the same issue in all 3.  Changing wrong to right costs no more money, than creating the 'wrong'.

Naomi Watts and Liev Schrieber Amagansett Hamptons House

Naomi Watts and Liev Schrieber Amagansett Hamptons House

Naomi Watts and Liev Schrieber Amagansett Hamptons House

Hedges should not have naked bottoms.
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Prune evergreen hedges slightly narrower at the top for proper sunlight distribution, creating hedges lush green from base to top.
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Best, prune by hand.  Next best, prune with electric shears, finish with selective hand pruning to allow dappled light into hedges for dense growth within each plant.  Solely shearing hedges with electric shears creates hedges naked inside with a thin veneer of foliage.
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Interiors of the home are turn-key pretty.
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Pics, above, and more pics of the house, here.
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Garden & Be Well,    XOT

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Garden Design Cheat Sheet: Design Shapes Before Plants

Upon the land, below, do you see garden rooms?  Parlors. dining room, foyer, hallways, mudroom, doorways and more.  And, with the garden rooms, do you see what is dealt with?  Flow.
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Site the first garden room, using the world's most used template, see previous post, from inside your home.  Once your 1st garden room is sited, repeat, repeat, repeat.  Play with rectangles, squares, ovals, circles & more, adding enfilades.
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Need a lawn?  That is your Lawn Room or Meadow or Playing Field or Pasture whichever endeavor best suits your 'lawn' needs.
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With this drawing, below, everyone is an expert garden designer.  Intuitively knowing what is a tree/shrub/groundcover/stone/gravel/focal point on axis/double axis/flow.
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Most important, this is the order of designing your garden, shapes.  No worries about specific plants at this phase.  Shape, then specific plants.
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USA has the Extension Service for best plant choices/zone.  Outside of USA visit nearby old good gardens, and botanical gardens.

Pic, above, via Jala Gardens.

Worst garden design question to ask at the beginning?  What plant goes here?
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Our ca. 1900 American farmhouse is at the start of the Garden Design phase.  Garden rooms & flow.  We must flow via foot/car/tractor/gator, and I must have an orchard, potager, shrubbery, vistas, pleasure walks, garden house, chicken coop, vined arbor for harvest table.  The garden must have something coming into bloom every 2 weeks, ease of maintenance, and make me think, 'Oh WOW', each time I look outside any window of our home, zero watering, chemicals, fertilizing, deer proof, provide a tasty tidbit for the table throughout the year, more than Earth friendly, wildlife friendly, a garden of stewardship, enriching in waves beyond my soul.
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Topics inherent within this mission statement?  Increased property value, decreased HVAC expense, happier days, stewardship.
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Read all of the above, again, with laser precision about property value, decreased HVAC expense, and ease of maintenance.  I went after all of the above, for the love of gardens, instead found many of the truths in a simple phrase, G*d almighty first created a garden.  Won't go into that rabbit hole now, instead, money.  2015 was my year for several real estate sales, for myself & others, fast and at market value, with several perks added.  No, I'm not a realtor.  The homes were staged inside/outside.  All of the above skills put money in my pocket, and my friends pockets too.
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I was gardening to follow my bliss, in addition, much later, a great deal later, discovered I was following the money too.  Thinking of selling your home in the next 3 years?  Stage it now, live in the joy/beauty, reap a larger sales price.  Have your cake, eat it too.
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Not selling your home?  Create a beautiful garden, for you, Earth, friends/family.  Beautiful easier living.
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Garden & Be Well,    XOT  

Monday, December 28, 2015

Garden Design Cheat Sheet

Big smile when I saw an old friend, below.  Pair of focal points in double axis, laid in line with central pane of central window of house.  Choosing another historic winner, layers of green, while contrasting shades of green & sizes of foliage.  Nor does this garden skimp upon the full design, using, canopy trees-understory trees-walls of shrubs-groundcover shrubs & flooring.
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Magnificent.
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Simple.  Proven.  Copied for centuries.
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Complete garden design class in 1 picture.
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Lovely home, yet this Garden Design is for all eras & price points.  Especially troublesome architecture.  Think 1960's brick ranch backing the garden, below.  Pendulum swing, in full, yet the garden design holds true.


My Favorite Landscape Designer, Howard Design Studio, Lllc.:

Pic, Howard Design Studio.
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There are 2 top garden designs surviving the ages, this is 1, above.  And, the 2nd is a variation added to this one.
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Look at the pic, above, while mentally labeling each part.  Canopy trees.  Understory trees.  Focal point on axis.  Double axis,  Flooring.  Walls.  Once you become familiar with garden design terms, you own the process.  Promise.
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This is perhaps the most copied Garden Design of the ages, yet it is new/fresh with each iteration.
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This is your cheat sheet.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

What Historical European Landscapes Can Teach Us About Our Own Landscape

Freshman year of college, aged 17 & having skipped my senior year of high school, I found myself in a cavernous classroom, with hundreds of souls listening to our puppet master gushing ad nauseam into the ether about macro/micro economics.  Except, for me, it was worse.  Little puppet master, obviously, held the secret to vast knowledge, yet his vocabulary was pure gibberish entering my brain.  Looking around, everyone else seemed to get-it.  Stress was building, my 1st college coarse, and knew the game was over.  Finally, I asked my closest amphitheater attendee, "What is a margarine, sounding like, 'marrghareen'?"  An hour spent locked on that word, nothing.  Smiling, she said, "Margin."  Decades later, it still amuses to think in terms of macro/micro.  A personal inner life joke.  How nice it would be to sit for an hour this afternoon listening to Little Puppet Master again, explaining the world's current banking & etc.
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Years after the macro/micro pairing, I locked onto another, sacred/profane.  Most recent pairing to make waves, amusement vs. stewardship.  (If you've ever locked onto a pairing of words.....please leave them in comments, I would really like to know !)      
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Moving on, into the macro about USA landscaping.  Lawn, foundation plantings, mulch, annuals, maintenance contract, fertilizing, insecticides, fungicides, irrigation, pre-emergents.

“How wonderful yellow is. It stands for the sun.” -Vincent Van Gogh I posted a photo of this sweet little house on Facebook last week, and man did it grab a lot of attention! Over 400,000 people reached and 2,057 shares- woah! <:-O The house is just across the lake from us, and it was …:

Pic, above, Pinterest.

With my starter home I immediately gardened as my father had, mowing, and, chemicals, faithfully, monthly, to kill bugs.  I'm not a rebel.  Within a year, I had stopped the 'method', I was trying to get pregnant.  Thinking to stop chemicals until the babies came.  The babies never came, infertility.  However, within 6 weeks of not using chemicals, to kill insects, I noticed I had fewer insects than when I was spraying to kill them.  Macro to micro.  I never used chemicals again, 3+ decades and counting.

Time Present and Time Past: The Grand Tour: Classical Antiquity and the British Class System:

Pic, above, Pinterest.

Within 5 years of zero chemicals, I had zero turf remaining.  Almost 3 decades without grass.  Recently moved to a ca. 1900 American farmhouse, there is no lawn, only meadow or woodland or gravel.  Studying the best historic gardens across Europe, it only took seeing 1 to know there is a template for landscapes, in the macro, trees/shrubs/groundcovers/stone focal point/low meadow cut at 2-3 heights/zero irrigation/no chemicals.
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It took designing/installing historic European style landscapes, for decades, to learn they are not merely about no lawn/no chemicals etc.  The agenda is much greater, pollinator habitat, and balancing the sacred/profane, into stewardship of Earth, community, self.  Amusing, I had accepted micro as macro for so long.
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Surprisingly came across a concise micro/macro about American agriculture in an article in The Guardian,  about Edward Luttwak, " Military strategist, classical scholar, cattle rancher – and an adviser to presidents, prime ministers, and the Dalai Lama. Just who is Edward Luttwak? And why do very powerful people pay vast sums for his advice? "
“Most people live such pointless lives,” said Luttwak as we walked toward his gate. “Not desperate lives – they have cable television – but pointless. For politicians, it’s not pointless, but it always ends in disappointment and bitterness. But meaningful? Their lives are not as meaningful as the Mennonites. The Mennonites are free in the Hegelian sense – they are self-consciously free. And they have unintentionally revealed the ongoing fraud of American agriculture. They don’t destroy the land, they don’t drug animals to death – they make vast profits using 18th-century technology. Personally, I cannot live that life, but I want it to flourish. I relate with Ulysses because I demand an interesting life. I demand it.”
Full article, The Machiavelli of Maryland, here.
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Bunny Williams's Pet-Friendly Homes - Design Chic:

Bunny Williams home, above.  Her garden resonates, it's the historic template, yet more.  Obvious she has demanded that her life be interesting.  Her book, An Affair With a House, is one of the few I tell my clients to purchase.  If you learn best via photos, her book is for you.  It's about interior/exterior, vanishing threshold.
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Bottom line?  What kind of landscape do you want around your home?  The landscape of your heart, that makes you smile, or one fitting in with the neighborhood?  Choose in the macro.  Then follow the micro templates of your choice.
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How do you choose in the macro?  Pinterest.  Create a board of pics for landscapes you love.  Don't stop the board until you have at least 100 pics.  There will be a thread amongst the pics, and your landscape will be that thread.  Promise.  Macro, create your Pinterest board, micro, deduce the thread from your Pinterest board.  More than putting in a landscape you'll be creating an interesting life.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T