Hollyhock: Hunt is On

Over 20 years ago a student, I taught horticulture at the local college, gave me seeds for the single petaled pink French hollyhock, below.
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They are biennials & self-seed.  Aside from their gorgeousness & ease, randomness in where they will grow 'next year' is a joy.  Somehow, they know better where to self-seed, than me, the 'expert'.
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These hollyhocks are on my side, making me look like a better Garden Designer.  Perhaps that's the secret, trusting the plants.  Of course it helps knowing which plants to trust.



Pic, above, here.
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Moved away from my hollyhocks a year ago.  Must get my friend back, in my new garden.  I'm on the hunt.  Feels good.  Cannot wait for the 2nd year, having hollyhocks again.  Seeing where they come up.  Knowing those moments are small life victories.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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Siting the Chicken Coop

Only yesterday, did I decide exactly where to build the Chicken Coop.  Chics are in temporary quarters since we moved in a year ago.
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It's style is predestined with our ca. 1900 American farmhouse.  Two existing sheds, about as old as the house will be copied.  Strong consistent winds dictate which wall will be solid, I want a door to the run, and a door at the front.  Inside the coop I want a small 'keeping' room for supplies and a couple of chairs, and another door into the coop.
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I could say the Keeping room is for ease of caretaking, true, but it's also for me, in winter, perhaps to have lunch with my girls.  Chickens never bore me, they are too funny.  I enjoy their company.



Pic, above, here.

Told Beloved the new Chicken Coop finally had a site.  Got that rooster look from him.  Walked him to the grand allee, for the new Chicken Coop.  Poor Rooster, he had to agree, beyond perfect.  The site is shaded, close'ish to the house, not directly under pecan tree branches, doesn't flood or retain muddy soil.

 

Pic, above, here.

I knew nothing about chickens, until Beloved gave me 8 heirloom chicks less than a week old, along with a coop/run, for my birthday 4 years ago.  Several clients had chickens, and I adored being around their chickens.  Enough 2nd hand enjoyment I knew I wanted my own.  Oddly, once I had my chics, it was totally moth to a flame.
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My collection of vintage garden books is extensive.  Finally, having chickens, I went back through them for any mention of chics, none.  How odd.  Chickens are so good for a landscape.  Mine are not free range, I scoop the poop in the coop, tossing it new somewhere each day.
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Chickens are calming, the way they walk, move their head, and their sounds.  That's their allure, to me, they are so funny, and calming.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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When I realized where the new chicken coup must be sited, I thought, Duh !  When I showed Beloved, it was hilarious, he had that same look, Duh !

Pure Delight: Garden Tunnel

When I was in elementary school, we had dinner at a co-worker's of dad's several times, another NASA engineer.  Their daughter's about the ages of my sister & me.
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I adored being at their home.  In an upstairs bedroom their dad had made a small opening in the wall near the floor, with a slide-away panel.  Moving the panel, and crawling in on all 4's, an attic tunnel led to a larger opening.  No lighting, we had to carry flashlights, and crawl this way/that to get to the 'secret' room.  Everything we did immensely exciting in our attic hideout.
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Hope you adore this tree tunnel, below.  It's a subliminal part of childhood, pure delight.
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Pure Delight, a layer of garden design.



Pic, above, Mark Bolton Photography.

Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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Family with the secret tunnel & room in their attic moved away decades ago.  Visiting home, driving NASA Road 1, toward Kemah, I pass their old house.  It doesn't seem to have been remodeled, and I wonder, Is that secret tunnel & room still in the attic?
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When I was a little girl, NASA Road 1 was a 2 lane road, few red lights.  Now, 6 lanes, red lights almost every side street.
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When I pump gas for mom during my visits home there is a visual slice, while pumping, unchanged since childhood, NASA Building 1, below ca. 1964, excepting the trees, oaks, pecans, palms, now, huge/gorgeous.  In 1964 we had only 1 car, mom would drive to the curb at the front door, below, sister/me, in the back seat, oh so bored, waiting for dad to walk out.  There he is, no, there he is, no, that one, that's dad, more waiting, finally, dad would be almost to the car.  In those days, all the dads were thin, wore pocket protectors with their shirts, same pants, shoes, short haircuts.  We literally couldn't pic our dad out of the crowd, they were so similar.
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Pic, above, here.
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You know our family loved getting that 2nd car.

Table: Square/Rectangle vs. Round

It's rare I design a garden including a round dining table.  Happens, but rarely.
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Why?  Round tables are selfish in the space they take.  Little flexibility.  Squares & rectangles have significant advantages.
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Look closely, below.
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A pair of rectangular tables, below, pushed together.
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Squares/rectangles can be pushed next to a rail, the house, each other.



Pic, above, here.
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I still haven't brought my new harvest table home, need a truck, bought months ago.  Will arrange to use Beloved's extended cab, he's finally home from his 4 mos Virginia job.  The harvest table is waiting in Susanne Hudson's garden, of course I will call my local pack of gals, they've never been in her garden, to go with me, tour Susanne's garden, Jeri Farmer's garden around the corner, both have been in several magazines, and then we all do lunch, and the huge Antique barn nearby, too.  Road trip!
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Leaning against a tree, I need to shoot it, is the door to an old shed Beloved moved/renovated.  The door is over a century old, contemporaneous with our home.  Hopefully, before the end of the year, it is my 2nd harvest table.  Depending on its 'character', once turned into a table, it might be my new desk for the shed.
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Anticipation.  Pure gold.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Consider: Arc of the Sun & Prevailing Winds

Consider your prevailing winds.  A buffer against prevailing winds lowers HVAC bills.  

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Consider the arc of the sun.  A deciduous buffer against the sun for summer shade, lets the sun shine through in winter.  Reducing HVAC bills.

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Pic, above, here. 

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More than lowering bills, designing your garden with these considerations is stewardship.  More than sustainable, designing your garden with these considerations is regenerative.  More than selfish in lowering bills, your footprint is reduced in what you take from our Earth, grace.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO T

Woodland Path

Totally designed, below.  Obvious pruning is at front left near'ish the top.  A mini-cathedral design.  Not so obvious are layers chosen NOT to be in the design.  Just as much thought goes into Le Jardin Rustique design as a more obvious potager.
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No, this is not a woodland walk that just 'happened'.  But you knew that.
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Tapestry hedge, below, not a mono hedge.
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If you have the good fortune for a tree such as this, magnificent tree, and can create a path, copying this, in a brand new USA subdivision, about 98% of your neighbors will complain.  Knowing you need to clear the brush away.  More, none of those neighbors will be inclined to speak to you.  Nope, the HOA nasty gram will land in your maibox.  They aren't bad people, but they are people who cannot 'see'.  By extension, not liking this patch of your landscape, they won't like you.
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Personally, I think it's wonderful how a garden can push people away, or draw them in.
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If you've been reading for awhile, you know what's next in the design for this garden room, below.  Correct, a garden room with more formality.  Preferably with a meadow too.  Gardens are all about contrasts.
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Often, thru history, homes/gardens that are left as a museum, lose the Le Jardin Rustique portion rather fast, about a decade.  Why?  As wise as the new stewards are, they don't 'get' the Le Garden Rustique, at all, in the least.  It goes back to Nature.  Finally, someone steps in, the teacher, in reality a garden shaman.  The 'Foundation' sees what the benefactor created, and now must be created anew.  .
Winterthur is a good example of this phenomenon.  Hmm.  Seems a new naming opportunity has arisen.
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Are you here yet, in your garden passion?  Hungering for Le Jardin Rustique?
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Ironically, it is the Le Jardin Rustique maximizing pollinator habitat and increasing crop yields nearby.  Only 'Man' would educate, in 2 different schools, agriculture/horticulture.  In America the schooling dividing agriculture/horticulture begins early, if there is schooling at all.  Someone decides to volunteer a school vegetable garden.  Go team.  Alas, that school vegetable garden disregards, completely, ornamental horticulture increasing crop yields by 80%.  When you know this, you are a garden shaman, indeed.
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Thomasina, has this character, a 'nature' shaman, she's the character of the witch, 'Mad Lori', in the woods.
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Same story line, in metaphor, of Babette's Feast.  The majority wanting what they know, not accepting something different from what they know, aka HOA nasty gram.  Yet, when the abstainers, through happenstance, gain entry into the unknown, they are changed, they understand what the shaman knew all along, and want it too.
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When is a little woodland garden path, more than a little woodland garden path?  Today.  Here.  And, always.



Pic, above, here.

Garden & Be Well,    XO T

A Man of Fairies & Unicorns

I watched an early mentor pile layers of seemingly weird into his repertoire of living.  Bits of gleanings, taken from this century or that, this character or that, this art form or that, incarnations of old worn new, for starters.   Adoring each layer, paying attention, I was not a lone audience, he mentored many, performed for all.  Time passed.  Finally, it happened.  He became every bit of those gleanings, and more.
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You have no idea the good fortune for those of us in Atlanta, partaking the welcome he gave, into his realm.  As time passed, his realm became international.  Of course it did.
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Understand, he gave full access to his unicorns and fairies.  His abundance overflowed, a few of us were bold enough to say, Yes. Thank You, I accept.
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How many times, in metaphor, has someone said, below, to me?  I cannot count.  Each time, I trust the unicorns and fairies more deeply, appreciating greater, if that's possible, a mentor's gifts.
  



Pic, above, here.

Last week this man, died.  Cooking dinner, his house caught fire.  He went outside for a garden hose, went back into the house to save his dogs.  All perished.
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A week of phone calls, stories, connecting with others who accepted his fairies & unicorns.  So much laughter, so many stories that cannot be written.  
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This man so changed the gardening landscape, in Atlanta, and beyond, I was able to make a career in Garden Design.  More than a career, and income, my life.
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When I found out this man passed, I leaned forward and hugged my unicorn's neck.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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Will introduce you to this man next week.  I cannot do it today, need to ride my steed a bit more.

Building a Conservatory

I am without a Conservatory for a year, after 'the move'.  Built not long before the move, how could I possible have known how deeply woven into my life, and DNA, it had become?
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Missed as a friend, beacon, nurturer, metaphor.
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Not a woman of means, my conservatory was made from old windows, parts, & furnishings, I had been hunting/gathering for a decade, and storing in the garage.  Finally, enough parts rescued, and money saved for labor & materials to build it.  Just because I was without great means did not include doing without a fireplace, chandelier, lamps, electricity and sockets everywhere.  Poverty of spirit has never been an issue, a real woman has priorities with scarce funds.  Talking a good game is lame, living it is life.
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A shed at our farm has already been moved and renovated.  Alas, it is storing tools, and my boxed up library, until the barn is built.  Two roofs, front & back, were built onto the shed, the old Kubota tractor, and golf cart, sometimes Tess, my beloved little ugly van, are parked under the shade of the shed roofs, and a, now, motley collection of chairs from my previous 30 year garden.  Those chairs, in the shade, and overlooking woodland, chicken coop, pasture, lake, meadow, are my only spot in the garden to 'be', simply be.  Scope for the imagination, as Anne would say.
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Creating my new Conservatory, from a shed, has more constraints at our ca. 1900 farmhouse.  It must be of its era.  Constraints for design, I adore, they push creativity.
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It's interesting looking at Conservatory pics, again, but for a different type of Conservatory.  Pulling new elements forward, dropping others entirely.  Life is rich, a 2nd Conservatory to create.



Pic, above, here.

Clusters of cloches & terra cotta pots, above, are awaiting their farm debut.  At present they are under the house stored on shelves.

 

Pic, above, here.

A black iron table base similar to, above, is stored in our materials yard.  Saw this and knew immediately, paint it white, put a small round top on it.  Chandeliers are stored under the house, awaiting.

 

Pic, above, here.

Tools, I have tools, and baskets.  Only the very best old tools/baskets will go into my new Conservatory.  Not for show, to use.  Literally.  Beloved has his own tools, somehow my tools are taken/used/not put back.  Harry Potter must have a horrid incantation against the not-put-back.

 

Pic, above, here.

What is a Conservatory without a drop leaf table?  Drop leaf table from my previous Conservatory is in my office now.  Enjoying the anticipation, Which drop leaf table will be chosen for this new Conservatory?

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Pic, above, here.

Have adored Belgian Pearls, above, Conservatory, small, functional, aesthetic.  Harvest table I've bought, hasn't been delivered yet, will be tucked under the shed roof, just like, above.  Sensing the problem?  I will need another harvest table to put under the great open sky.  Stars are too amazing, living rural.  

 

Pic, above, mine, conservatory at my 30 year garden.

Lamp in my previous Conservatory, above, is now in the front parlor on an antique chest.  Cannot wait for the Lamp Layer to arrive, furnishing my new Conservatory.



Pic, above, mine, conservatory in my 30 year garden.

Pair of blue chairs, above, are flanking the door to my new Conservatory.  Now green.



Pic, above, here.

A client's Conservatory, above.  A conservatory must be minimum 12' x 18', and have doors on 2 walls.  They did well, yes?  More, their conservatory made it to the cover of This Old House magazine.  Posted somewhere on my blog.

 

Pic, above, I shot in Susanne Hudson's garden.
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Once the old Kubota tractor & golf cart, now at the shed, leave for their new home, a long desk with lamps, above, is their replacement.  For expedience Beloved used large gravel at the shed during renovation, it will have to be scraped away, used elsewhere, and replaced with #89 granite gravel.



Pic, above, I shot in my 30 year garden.

Lamps, and the chandelier on a dimmer, were left on, 24/7 in my previous Conservatory, above.  Oddly, it's one of the things I miss most, now, living without a Conservatory.  



Pic, above, here.

There is great metaphor in my Conservatory lit at nite, all nite, every nite.  Hope you've watched, Oscar & Lucinda, above.  Jenny, my mother-in-law introduced me to bleak chic, and Oscar/Lucinda delivers.  Not a movie for a soft soul.

 

Pic, above, I shot in a client's garden.
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My client, above, moved away from his Conservatory also.  And is slowly building a new one too.



Pic, above, I shot of my conservatory with Susanne Hudson for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival.

A few salvaged Conservatory parts, above/below.  Great example of how little can you have, and still have great decadence.  Susanne Hudson & I built this conservatory.  Thought you would like to see a comparison of styling.  Our styling, above, with my photography.  Better Homes & Gardens magazine styling & photography, below, of the same conservatory.



Pic, above, same conservatory as 2nd pic, above, shot by & in Better Homes & Gardens magazine, here.
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Sink & water trough, above, are under my house, awaiting their new debut.
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Noticed how loosely I use the word Conservatory !

Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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No, you're not seeing the mostly renovated shed.  I don't like doing before without after.  I have shots of the shed in its original location before renovation, moving it, acting as a work shed now, awaiting that last layer !  Life is good.

Moon Garden Lighting

A friend created a Moon Garden.  Circle of comfy chairs around a fire ring, open to wide expanse of sky.  Many moons we shared, in her Moon Garden.  Seasons didn't matter, we shared them all.  Time passed and more chairs added, they have 5 kids and a zillion grandchildren, everyone loves the Moon Garden.
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Having moved over a year ago, of course, have had no more Moon Garden with dear Mary.  We are missing our Moon Garden time.
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Rather silly, below, but how could Mary, or me, not like the idea?
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Once my garden rooms can finally be started, we are awaiting well digging, I will certainly lite our fire ring, in honor of many moons in Mary's Moon Garden.




Pic, above, here.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Watering Cans: Leverage Time/Effort

Took me several years to acquire an interesting watering can collection.
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Interesting, and affordable.
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Once hunted/gathered/sited I learned they were more important as 'helpers', they leverage time/effort.
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2-4 months each summer are hot/drought.  I don't want, or like, a landscape that must be meticulously maintained, or watered.  However, there always seems to be plantings that are young/not established yet against extreme hot/dry.  Those plantings are never begrudged early nurturing.
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Having the watering can collections in prime dry positions, it's an easy pour & go.  Seeing something dry never happens when time is luxurious, dry plantings await my exodus meeting a tight timeline, then announce their thirst.  Every time, it seems.
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No worries.  The watering cans are full.
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Mosquitoes not an issue, the water never stays in long enough for breeding.  At leisure they are filled, in a rush poured.
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Along with Tess, my car, the watering cans are my top employees.



Pic, above, here.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

Subsidiary Focal Points

Exactly why gardens should be simple, below.  Let Nature speak, play, sing, work, be in companionship to your life.

Pic, above, here.

 

Pic, above, here.

Did you know your garden is a proscenium for spectacle?  I love the small moments, the never imagined, unbidden.  Perfect.  Tear drops of laughter, amongst time & galaxies.  

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Creating these moments, name it to claim it.  Macro rule, 1 focal point per area.  Micro rule, subsidiary focal points allowed.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO T

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Will never forget the years of lunches in my previous garden, during summer, and hearing the hummingbirds zoom over my head.  Do you really think I knew to design my garden for that to happen?  My best Garden Design learning was finally understanding classical Garden Design rules, FINALLY copying them.  Once accomplished, Nature arrived.  Nature more like Tinker Bell than can be explained, excepting through letting Nature reign.

Duck Pond: Copy

At the back of our property is a pond with 2 damns.  Big in winter, small in summer.  Dug around the turn of the century, with oxen, the neighbor's dairy farm surrounding us, has an upper pond just beyond 1 damn, and a very nice lake just beyond the other damn.
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Beloved said he wanted a property with open, wooded and a lake.  I produced.  He should have been more specific, G*d not only laughs when we tell him our plans, he often provides exactly what we ask for, then laughs.  Beloved wanted to be on the lake, well, the lake belongs to our neighbor, but it's our view, they have no view of it.
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At most we plan a small dock, below, and recently Beloved mentioned a stone wall for our little pond.  
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Brooke & Steve Giannetti's pond, below.



Pic, above, here.

Several times late this spring, and summer, I've walked to our pond and rustled a pair of ducks.  No normal ducks.  The pair is entirely deep cobalt blue.  Grew up with a pond & creek behind our house, never, did I see blue ducks.
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Before the dock, before the stone edge, a well must be dug, pole barn built, coop built, etc.  But there is something for 'now'.  The floating duck house.



Pic, above, here.

Ponds, above, belong to a pair of California girls who met through their blogs.  Brooke Giannetti tells the story of meeting Penelope Bianchi, here.
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Penelope, I was drawn to, from her blog, with a style matching my dear mentor Mary Kistner.  Long after I had written Penelope a fan letter, and now we are friends because she wrote me back, and we still write each other, I came across one of my journals, several years old.  Penelope's house/garden had been in a magazine & I journaled it in the style of Mary Kistner who exposed me to the work of Kurt Schwitters.   Did not realize I had journaled Penelope's home/garden until years passed & I had moved, came across the journal, casually went through it, then pow.  Pow.  A Batman & Robin POW !!!
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Brooke was inspired by Penelope's pond.  And it shows.  Penelope & Brooke, below, at Penelope's home/garden.

 

Pic, above, here.
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You know what Garden Design rule this is?  It's the 1st Garden Design rule.  Copy.
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Garden & Be Well,    XOT
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Pic, above, here.