Interior: A Reverence for Nature

"A reverence for Nature...", is how the caption begins in Architectural Digest, for the pic, below.



Pic, above, here.
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Pic, above, here.
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Pic, above, here.
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Stewards of Nature seem to be sprinkled lightly across continents, and eras.  How odd to be finding each other through this thing named, Social Media.
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Pic, above, here.
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Adore how they think, top pic.  Their foyer a full narrative.  Their garden a vanishing threshold with the foyer, more pics here.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO T

Mix Matched Outdoor Furnishings?

Layers of narrative, below.  Color echoes a home run, for starters.  White to silvers, very nice.
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Curiosity too.  Hydrangeas, below, at left in foreground, then further back, to the right.  A photographer's styling?  Perhaps a stylist guiding a photographer?
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Did your mind go there at all?  The white hydrangeas merely props?
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Hardly the 1st thing I saw in this delightful pic.
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First thing?  Field gathered furniture, all painted same color.  Voila !
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Studying historic gardens across Europe for decades it was France teaching me that trick.  No worries about field gathering garden furnishings.  Paint them all the same color.
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Huge arrow in your quiver.



Pic, above, here.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Almost a complete garden design course in this pic.  Canopy/understory trees, high/low density, scale, flow, focal point, simplicity, color, contrasts, repetition, ceiling/walls/floors, seasonal interest, winter structure, invitation, comfort, myriad uses, no chemicals, low maintenance.

Porch Furniture

Met with a client yesterday, we did their backyard 2 years ago, and she needed a quick hour.  Several topics.
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Last topic, her small front porch.  Garden catalog in hand, tape measure pulled to dimension, blue tape marking chairs/sofa feet.  Where exactly should the sofa/2 chairs be placed?  About to answer, she quickly said where her 11 year old daughter told her, "Mom, they have to go like this."  Great moment, exactly what I was about to answer.  Not the 1st time this child has said intuitive things about the garden.  We've got our eyes on her !
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Perhaps the most surprising & delightful outdoor seating, below.  Those scallop topped barrels, the folding screen, the hard-packed dirt flooring.  Is it a private home?  A small hotel?  What kind of trees are in the barrels?  Why is the screen there?  Is there anything behind the screen?
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Woman, front left, seems to be texting.



Pic, above, here.
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When I worked at a garden center in the 80's we would get an order of 1/2 whiskey barrels 1/year, sold for $11.99 ea.  Unloading them from the truck, fumes so strong, we felt like we could get drunk by osmosis.
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I was a total snob about those whiskey 1/2 barrels until I saw George Washington had used them at Mt. Vernon, and a pic of Rudyard Kipling in India standing on a gorgeous porch, several 1/2 whiskey barrels planted.  Now, these full whiskey barrels.  Yep, suitable for our ca. 1900 farmhouse.
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Garden & Be Well,  XOT

Needing my Tribe

In our ca. 1900 American farmhouse for almost a year.  Mostly a slow year excepting it was mostly a fast year.  Haven't found the new normal yet.
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Have begun finding my 'tribe'.
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Don't know if you really want to know this 'tribe'.  We garden as answer to anything life throws.  Anything.  It's the garden.
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"  Work hard in silence, do what you have to do, and ignore the drama and negativity surrounding you.  Let your success be your noise. ", from Marc & Angel.


Pic, above, here.
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My vocation is creating gardens, contracting their installation, lecturing, writing books, my avocation is my garden.
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The tribe of women, I'm gratefully joining, locally, already deeply humbling me.   People have real lives, and this means roses with sharp thorns.  Lightly, they share those thorns, as air.  They mentor by living.  They live by digging.
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Hope you've already discovered Marc & Angel, and of course, your tribe.
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Garden & Be XO T

Garden Design: Flying Buttress

About 3 weeks ago we installed a pair of flying buttresses in a potager I designed.
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Choosing an evergreen shrub, then sourcing it in 3 different sizes proved impossible locally, state wide, region wide, and flyover country wide.  Finally, sourced on the west coast.  It's the new normal sourcing plants for real gardens.
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Flying buttresses were not part of the college curriculum for horticulture, in USA.  Of course I discovered them studying across Europe for decades.  1st garden in 1st country toured, literally.  No one seemed to have a name for them, nor did any of my peers seem as excited about them as I was/am.
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Their use, below, quite apparent.  These, below, are the high end of fancy.



Pic, above, here.
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Evergreens, above, pay the rent (for me), the herbaceous perennials do not.  Peaking for a mere 2 weeks/year, deadheading, dividing, weeding, staking, blank in winter.  Nope.  Instead, I would fill their space with flowering shrubs, a succession throughout the year, and bulbs.  Perhaps a lone flamboyant Clematis roguchi clambering a single buttress, as it dances with sunlight.  Yes, now I'm pleased, and amused.  With no down time & significantly less labor.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T  

Starting Point: Petersham Nursery

A commercial project, currently, has multiple narratives.  Sited in a historic building, the master plan includes antiques vendors, pop-up shops (my suggestion), restaurants, garden shop, entertainment, private event weddings/parties, a resident gardener for livestock & potager for supplying the kitchen (my suggestion).  Goats are needed for this job.  Tethered in a new spot daily, Jamaican style, to control kudzu & mimosa seedlings, you know this one is my suggestion, later they can be on the menu, pasture fed goat curry.
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At the front of the site is a section of 1-story granite with several entries boarded up, soon, opened with glass doors, and a nursery bursting with at least a plant or gardenesque antique you must have.  For the nursery I've suggested box lunches for sale, the restaurant is in another section of the building, close by, and quite stunning, even now, ahead of renovation.
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For the nursery, there is only 1 template, (in my mind) Petersham Nursery.  Perusing online materials for Vision Questing the myriad layers of my section of the project, exterior cohesiveness, grading, parking lots, are not 'romantic' lets take a photo yet, Petersham was a greater delight than expected.  Owners of my project have decades of success in the hospitality industry, among other credentials.   I know they'll pull from Petersham's success, and stamp their own country/continent success onto it.      



The ubiquitous Welcome Table, above.  Well done, their ubiquity never tires.



In the greenhouse, above.  Part of a team, it will be interesting to see our finished product.  Of course my Vision Questing letter to the team included choosing a color trinity for the exterior, and fonts for signage outside.  Going 'blind' into this at the moment, I have not seen the marketing expert's choices.  I know their work, and know I'll adore their choices.



Have used this pic, above, before on my blog.  Unaware it belonged to Petersham.  At the front end of my garden design career, 3 decades ago, I did not like the garden style, above.  Then the decades of traipsing Europe studying historic gardens.  Learned, after studying at Great Dixter, the garden design style, above, is well trod for centuries.  Of course I've used this template !  Not merely because it is delightful, more, it is low maintenance with visual beauty 24/7 year in/out.  Simple.
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Aside from the landscaping, above, the architecture we are working with has sections of amazing similarity.  A long blank wall, in our project, red brick- 1 story- flat roof, with a strip of soil 2' wide and a sidewalk 3.5' wide, by the street, I've designed espalier pear trees underplanted with herbs/bulbs/self-seeding annuals.




Pic, above, Petersham Nurseries.

Hope chickens can be apart of this project.  4 years, now, having my first chickens, and they've been marvelous everyday.  Dowager Duchess of Devonshire has nothing on me when it comes to loving my chickens.  Excepting, she had them decades & decades longer.  Ironically, it's the client hiring me for this job, I did their residence, whose chickens first educated me about chicken keeping.



Pic, above, here.
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I worked at a propagation nursery-garden center-florist for several years in the 80's.  Love the carts we had at both garden center & florist.  This commercial project must have a cart at the nursery !  Painted 1 of the trinity colors, in my proposal.  Touring dozens of historic gardens across Europe, the garden cart was at several.  Another garden design idea to copy, commercial/residential, manor house/gardener's cottage.



Pic, above, here.

2 garden carts, above.  Reminds me of Susanne Hudson's maxim, Dinky is Stinky.  Overdose on a theme is mine.
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More about this project soon, The Potager.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Susanne called recently, she's flying to Connecticut & driving straight to Bunny Williams house for  a garden sale & tour.....    Told Susanne she must take zillions of pics, and call me everynite once she got into bed.
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Another recommendation for our project, it must have lodging.  B&B is fine.  A destination food/shopping venue in USA different than England, distances much greater.

Last Question of Garden Design, "What Plant Goes Here?"

Often, it's not the garden needing a new design, it's the house.
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"How many French doors are they getting?", is the common joke question from my team when I get a new client.
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Two bays & a French door added, below.  How could they not be there?
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Pic, above, Ben Bentreath, who captioned it, "I designed the stone bay window which we built five years ago - turning an otherwise dark room into a much lighter space that connects into the garden with a huge south facing bay (and making a tiny upstairs bedroom a lot larger at the same time)... a simple but effective extension. It's mellowing in nicely now."

Vision Questing a commercial site with a new client, (actually new project - old client), it is obvious the long-long-long cluster of buildings built in different eras will need several pairs of urns atop several pairs of corners.  Cannot wait to source the urns to their proper era for the buildings.



"What plant goes here?", is the expectation.  Plants are the last to be Vision Quested in garden design.
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Having a 'real' life means I'm sometimes stuck in social situations with prototypical Earthling's, you know, zero care for Nature.  If they discover what I do for a living the 'landscape' around their home pops from their mouth, with the ubiquitous finale, "What plant should I put there?"
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Their question, I have no answer for.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

A Country Life

Studying historic gardens across Europe, this was a constant presence, below.  Especially in Scotland, Ireland, England.
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Perhaps the most aching view.  A walk in the country.  How lucky those people are, I'd think, with a bit of the flared nostril, and the pity party voice, "I'll never have that."  Move on, buck up, life is good, you're designing gardens girlie.  It's enough.
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On mission to learn about garden design, these views, below, were something extra life threw in, a porthole.  Other people's lives.  Our bus loaded with 25 like minded souls, studying gardens, many hundreds of kilometers across farm land we rode, excited to get to the next village, always staying in tiny historic hotels.  Our group filling every room, 2/room.
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Without a plan, without awareness, without a mission, my garden design path, led me here, into the picture, below.  Who knew?  I moved into my beliefs.  Literally.  I now live in the country in a historic farmhouse.
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Recently, walking between 2 fenced pastures, I knew the cattle had been taken to the abattoir and I was intent on the farm scenery, large pastures leading to native woodlands.  Miss-enjoying-herself, Miss-does-her-best-thinking-while-sweating, walked herself 10' from a 1 ton bull.  Have you ever been that close to a fully functional 1 ton bull who's alone and waiting for his new ladies? Me either.  How insignificant the wire pasture fencing became.  My DNA scanned for anything to run behind, if the need arose, nothing, no trees, trough, nothing.  Me, and the bull.  Kept my walking pace steady, no direct eye contact, thankful I had not worn the red t-shirt, knew it would be OK once I hit a stand of trees.  Realizing, both ways home, were either side of 'his' pasture.  What a lot of energy, bucking up for the walk home.  I did it.



Pic, above, here.











Don't really know how I got here.  All I wanted to do was learn everything about historic garden design, and design gardens.
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I didn't force this move, it was meant to be.  I was the last to know.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO T
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Pics from my Pinterest Quotes Board.

Working With Contractors

Dealing with contractors for 30 years, as a woman, never ceases to amaze.  Everything in my Garden Designs has been done for CENTURIES.  I've plucked no ideas solely from books without having seen them in real gardens across continents.
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Had to smirk seeing this stone wall, below.  How many times have I designed a dry stack stone wall, 3' or even 5', and been told, "You can't do that."  You know which sex provided that quote.  Perhaps I should be clearer, not wanting to implicate LGBT.  "You can't do that", said the heterosexual man.
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Sure I've had the male contractor say, "Let me figure that out", of course gay.  Excepting, David. A country boy, straight, and willing to scare himself.  Whatever I threw at him, "Ok", and with a tiny smile and squinching up of his shoulders I knew he was challenged, and would sort it out, he did.  Plucked David from one of the college classes I taught.  He had the right attitude.  Sadly, my David died, age 50, almost a decade ago, I'm still p#ssed at him for doing that.  I know exactly the smiling look I'll see on his face, once I see him again.  It will say, "Ha, you had to sort it out without me !!"  Huge surprise, interviewing, and using other contractors?  Dishonesty.  Who knew?  Rife.  
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Discovered Beloved at a jobsite.  Client hired me for the design, but had her own contractor.  The day I met Beloved, the client had given me clear orders, "Your job is to keep him in line, I want the garden you drew, no changes."  Of course, after knowing his work at her job, I asked him to bid some of my work.  I knew his honesty with clients, designer, employees, vendors.
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Back to this stone wall, below.  Built ca. 1500.  Some guy, now, is going to tell me, "You can't do that." ?  Beyond happy to have found a team of knowledgeable, and honest men.  Ironically, all straight.  You want this wall, below?  Our mason can do it.



Found our mason at a jobsite almost 5 years ago.  He was working for another contractor.  His boss decided he needed cussing out in front of everyone, including the homeowner.  The homeowner, our client, told that contractor to never speak to anyone on her property in that manner again.  He responded by firing the mason, immediately.  In return, immediately, our client fired that contractor.  Following that, immediately, we hired the mason.  If it had been a Hollywood movie, every player deserved an Oscar.  What a span of 60 seconds !
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Cannot imagine 'my work' without our mason's work.  He's magic.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pic, above, here.

Bad Things in the Apple Orchard

"   Bad things have been happening in parts of the garden too, below, where a beautiful ancient apple orchard has made way to a rather strange and curiously alien "Tudor" garden. Someone is trying too hard here.",  Ben Pentreath.



Context, for quote, above, and pics, here.



Came across a good quote recently, "If stupid could fly, you'd be a jet plane."  Of course it's funny.  Trouble is, as I'm flying, I'm like Toad of Toad Hall, Wind in the Willows, zero clue it's AC/DC's Highway to Hell.
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Scene from Victor/Victoria, writ large in the garden, above.  You know the scene, in the restaurant, the cockroach scene, the waiter finally says to Toddy & Victoria, "....It's better to be a moron than a horses ass."  What's the difference between the two?  A moron thinks it up, a horses ass plants it.  Which is Toad all over again.   And me, in my early 20's, 1st planting a landscape, the era between having an engineering degree, the horticulture degree & studying across Europe for decades still on the horizon.
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I remember asking my grandma, "What is this flower?", holding it in my hand, I had picked it from the backyard of her new home, "A hydrangea.", she said.  I was in college, when I asked her that question, not knowing, much later, I would be president of the American Hydrangea Society.
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That feeling of knowing I could still be Toad, or hearing the Waiter, in Victor/Victoria, never goes away, designing any garden.  Ever.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO T

Designed Garden vs. Plantswoman Garden

Several correct labels can be attached for the garden, below.  But that isn't the focus here.  Events have conspired recently magnifying differences in a Designed Garden vs. a Plantsman's Garden.
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This garden, below,  is both, a Designed Garden & a Plantsman's Garden.
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Decades ago, and for several years, my Cottage Garden was a Designed Garden & a Plantswoman's Garden.  I changed.  Time changed.  Abandoning gardening due to lack of time, not an option.  'Away-away', went the Plantswoman's Garden.  Welcome, Designed Garden.
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Is it all gibberish, above?  It won't be, for many seconds more.
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How to change the garden, below, into a purely Designed Garden?  Remove/replace the perennial borders with flowering shrubs or espalier evergreens or evergreen hedges or a mix of them.





Lovely, above, but not for me, personally, anymore.  Adore this mix of Designed Garden/Plantswoman's Garden elsewhere.  Accepting the down-time of perennials, their dividing, cutting back, herbaceousness, mulching, manurering, weeding, edging, deadheading, no, not for me.  I hunger for a garden with everyday Designed Garden AND flowering beauty.  Solution?  In place of perennials I use flowering shrubs, bulbs, or evergreen hedges, or evergreen espalier flowering shrubs, sometimes espalier hydrangea too.
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With 2 pics, and their captions, now, you know, the difference between a Designed Garden & a Plantswoman's Garden.
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Which are you?  Perhaps a Hybrid?
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Thank you Ben Pentreath for today's pics.

Overdose A Theme

“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers.” Cecil Beaton.
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Younger, perhaps prior to age 6, I would have agreed with Cecil Beaton.  Everything he says about yourself, is for yourself.  Zero thoughts 'against the play-it-safers.'  They shouldn't enter your realm, they matter why?  Who has time?  Isn't the battle between lizard brain & heart enough?
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Because I didn't like garden design rules, at the front end, I've created quite a few.  After intense study, in historic gardens across the globe, in addition to books/magazines/tv/movies/degree in horticulture.
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What a knocker, below.  Broken, it's still marvelous.
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Garden Design Rule: Overdose on a Theme.
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Thrilling rule, you choose the theme.  Following it through, to the max, from macro to micro.  Seems obvious, and simple, but, trust me, you'll scare yourself at times.  Many nights, in bed, thinking, "Should I really do ______ , .........."
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Wise advice I was given after sharing some night thoughts with a friend, "Never make a decision after sunset & before sunrise."  Quite liberating to be released from those chattering monkeys of the dark.

Pic, above, here.

Garden & Be Well,  XO T
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In college for my engineering degree, test days in the classroom were hot.  Literally.  Summer/winter, both, hot.  Will never forget walking out of a thermodynamics exam, and the professor remarking how many more BTU's a working brain puts out than brains at rest.  Hence, the hot rooms.
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I'd rather put my brain BTU's to good use, not waste a single precious unit proscribed to me during my short time upon this Earth.  Give a unit toward the play-it-safers?