Good Looking Green Meatballs

This exception, below, was too many years arriving.  Good looking, year round interest, not too much maintenance.
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What's the exception?  These are green meatballs that look great, have an intellect, and finally proved me wrong about how horrible green meatballs are.
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Most often green meatballs evolve in default.  Perhaps you have some now, maybe you can look at them thru this prism, below.  Poof, voila, create good green meatballs from bad.


Pic, above, here.


Pic, above, here.
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Who knew even ugly green meatballs could have new life chapters?
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T

A Garden of the Mind: Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe

Immediately made me smile, the pun, below.  Then, more closely, I marveled at the contouring.  Please tell me you see the pun too.
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It's in the filled space vs. open space, the stone bridge.  Wicked good.  What a devious mind.
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Back to the contouring.  Who knows what this site began with.  I do know the equipment & men to create it.  I know the sound of the caterpillar, men's voices, shovels.  Time.  Finally, I know the sound of shovels stopping when I arrive, all those men's eyes, totally on my body language.  My job is the finished garden, their job is getting it there.  My boss is the client, their boss is Beloved.  Even Beloved does that little 'freeze' thing, focused on my seeing the nearly completed project.  The men know up front, it takes Beloved a bit longer, when I speak, I mean it.  "The front right corner needs to be raised 3", and what's going on with the mid section of the upper rill to the left, didn't you pull a string on that, good job on the wonky tree, but why did you place the entire rill/pond/waterfall further up, I told you earlier the upper waterfall would need faux geometry..... ?", for starters.  Each concern has a detailed answer.  Sometimes Nature cannot be manipulated, I give in, other times a new solution must be found, while looking the same, other times, I am adamant.  My job, at this critical juncture, is to be fierce.  The men love the theatrics of this phase.  Beloved with his 30 years experience, me with my 30 years experience, in discussions.  Beloved's boss is the cash register.  Tick-tock with men, equipment, materials, ring-ring goes the cash register.  Hundreds of dollars/hour, every hour, just to be on site.  Once all of the, above, has occurred there is another sound, men & shovels & caterpillar back to work, sweet.  Sweeter still, a completed garden.    


Pic, above, here.
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Another bite of humor, above, squares & straight lines.  In college is was all the incurves/outcurves blah-ti-bla-ti-nightmare to the 29th power.
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I liked this garden, above, so much I had to follow the links, hoping to discover the designer.  Great answer, Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe.  Alas, having met and been able to spend time with Christopher Lloyd & Rosemary Verey, Sir Geoffrey got past me.  A friend, director of Atlanta History Center, many years ago, hired Sir Geoffrey to pull together a master plan/vision statement for the center.  Didn't learn of the visit till well past the event.  So close....so close.
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Pic, above, and to order, here.

Great title, above, exactly what Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe's gardens do to me, get in my mind, and stick.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Expense for labor, travel, materials, regulations, insurance, layers of government Atlas Shrugged, make operations needle sharp.  For decades if a client pulled men off our work in the bid to clear a patch of kudzu or haul away a pile of debris, not in the bid, we could absorb.  Now, the men are only allowed work within the bid.  What seems merely a few guys spending an hour on weeds, is now several hundred dollars plus, at times, pushing travel into rush hour traffic, adding hundreds more dollars, toss in rain, delaying a day.  The amount of money 1 hour of work outside the bid adds is outrageous.  Then, the ridiculous expense of adding a 'tree'.  The extra tree has its own pricing without reductions for quantity , from the nursery from the original bid, delivery overhead, and voila, that extra tree, costs as much as several of the original trees.  Wildly crazy, but true economics of today's business model.  Now, it's a change order for that pile of debris or pulling out kudzu.  Never thought my industry would become like this.
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Some neighborhoods have a fee for using their roads.  One client, a large job, told us a few days into the work he did not want us working past 5pm.  The bid was priced on work from sunrise/sunset.  We lost, aka, added 3 days time to the work.  Not listed in our bid, we absorbed the loss.  Yep, pricing from sunrise/sunset now in the bid, change quitting time to 5pm, not a problem, change order.
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Early this summer we filed for a work permit in the city of Atlanta.  At the front end of the process we saw a local newscast, the city of Atlanta had fired most of its building permitting office including the director, corruption.  Cost us almost a month of waiting, and other jobs were on a timeline with signed contracts.  It gets worse, but all is done now, 97% done, we are so close to fall, their fescue backyard should wait, then all is 100% complete.  I think of these things as getting another MBA.

Getting the Smallest Detail Right

The smallest detail, below, exposes the confident knowledge of historic Garden Design rules.


Pic, above, here.
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Do you know what the smallest detail is, above?  Should I wait till tomorrow for the answer?  Perhaps natter on, giving you time.  Lanterns, above, are an odd move, but perhaps they truly needed the light or yet another ubiquitous stylist input.  The water, above, is a mirror and slow mesmerizing burble.  Reminds me of Sir Roy Strong mentioning every garden needs a mirror of the sky.
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Smallest detail they got right, above?  Gravel lapping to the tree, no border edging.  Of course, if this were my garden ahead of having a fabulous photographer I would brush the gravel with my fingers, slightly away from the trunks, more of an illusion the trunks are 'arising' instead of looking so 'plopped' in.
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Exactly the types of things discussed in depth with my Garden Design friends.  Someone must live this type of life, and it's us!
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What's not to adore about peers putting their spin on it?
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Your spin on the garden, above?
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Garden Design Rule for the lapping gravel?  Contrast.  Plenty of formality with coping around gravel and styling, going rustic with the lapping gravel is the contrast.

Water Witching

Yesterday, the well digger came to scope our project.  His business decades old, Beloved has used his services dozens of times across the years.  For good measure Beloved combines the well digger with a well known dowser, or water witcher.  
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The well digger is also a dowser.  He uses copper rods, pictured at bottom, 1 in each hand.
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When he was done, I HAD to try.  Wild.  The rods moved easily, starting, one in each hand and at each hip, moving toward each other and crossing as I walked if there was water below.  At various areas the rods moved with differing strengths.  Finally, with the most strength, walking over a spot, the rods went behind my back and crossed, strongest power of the session.  
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The well digger said he knew of a man that the rods always went behind him.  Mine went both ways.  Front, mostly.  Not everyone can dowse.  I'm going to order a pair of rods, and add it to the 'games' played when friends/family are over for dinner on a holiday grill out.
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Pic, above, here.
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Amongst all the garden books read, only 1 mentioned water and our bodies, but not in relation to dowsing.  Instead, large bodies of water, lakes, rivers, oceans always pull the human body.  Our bodies are made mostly of water, there is an ion exchange with the water in our bodies and lakes/rivers/oceans.  That's what I read, and have believed it ever since, I read it, so it must be true.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Well digging averages about $1,000, in our area, no small thought when all you have is expanses of soil, and wanting that first hole to gush, and not terribly deep either.  They charge by the foot.  Sideways, I'm thinking, Hope it tastes good too.



Pic, above, here.

"Today we know these magic wands as dowsing rods, witching rods, or divining rods – sometimes even a pendulum is used. They are commonly used in the search for ley lines. Doodlebugging the search for petroleum, or specifically for water. Dowsing rods are popular among adherents to radionics (using substances like hair or blood to heal from afar), and disciples of Charles Fort. How these wondrous tools work is not known, even by those very experienced in their use. Einstein was convinced they do, saying that the rod shows a reaction of the human nervous system to certain factors which are unknown. So, believer or skeptic, these magic wands have an ancient and prominent history.",  Michelle Snyder



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

Classic Garden Design: For Every Price Point

They got the memo, below, siting urns on plinths.  Sitings, below, work equally well at gate keeper's cottage, head gardener's home, mid-century brick ranch burger, a new Spitzmiller & Norris.


Pic, above, here, Stoke Edith House.

Never think elements of garden design are not for your home, counterintuitively, classic Garden Design works at every style & price point.
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Needed a huge stone plinth with ball finial at a client's project, to match existing.  Huge.  There was no budget for it.  Got it anyway, and with great age.  Built exact replica, to scale, using wire mesh meant for concrete road paving, used a glass ball from a light fixture, planted English ivy.  No one the wiser, OUR stone plinth, not stone.
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Garden Design rules work everywhere.  It works if you work it.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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It is gift & curse knowing what to do in gardens.  Driving thru any neighborhood, my 'eye' fixes everything.  No shutting it off.  Excepting rustic, farm, Nature, the beach, Stone Mountain, wide open prairie.  Already perfect.  The 'eye' is content.

Bringing the Garden Inside

Totally had the garden I wanted in my 30 year previous home.  Excepting it was too small to cut for the house.  Now, in our historic 1900 American farmhouse, space allows plantings, specifically for cutting.
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Yesterday in the car there was time for a conversation I've waited all my adult life to have.  Told Beloved I wanted 2-3 forsythia, specifically for cutting.  Quince too.  Those are the no brainers.  Space to plant them, and cut on them, yet siting them as-if-natural.  Where we buy them, will hunt/gather for other plantings specifically for cutting, groundcovers, trees, deciduous/evergreen shrubs, all are fair game for cutting.    
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Pic, above, here.

Bulbs, below, I'll force in pots.  Using plastic pots, for ease, and slipping them into terra cotta for the house.  When I worked as a professional grower, bulbs that did not sell by the end of fall, we potted up, setting them outside in the woodland, in a cold frame with asbestos sides.  Will use old windows for my cold frame, already gathered.



Pic, above, here.

 

Pic, above, here.



Pic, above, here.

Containers, above/below, fascinate me.  Would never have thought to use either in this manner, yet both are perfect.  Designing gardens, yes.  Floral arranging?  Not so much.  A skill set I don't have. Delightful lying to myself, you-can-do-this.  If it's really important to get the cut flowers arranged, I have a back up plan.  Take a picture, send to my friend Susanne Hudson, she can tell me what to do to fix it.

 

Pic, above, here.

I'm not naive enough to think the cut stems, above/below, just 'happened'.  Skill.  Pure skill.

 

Pic, above, here.

 

Pic, above, here.

Our potager is getting more/more 'done' and will be ready for zinna seeds next spring, above.  Have been collecting wide range of buckets, containers for flowers, stems, bulbs.  For decades.  Muse must have known I would move.  



Pic, above, here.

Studying historic gardens across Europe for decades I especially liked the mixed garden arrangement, above.  Tours usually included tea/scones, and the owner typically made the mixed garden arrangement that morning.  I was moth to a flame with them.  And, the flower arranging room where they were created as desirable as the flowers.
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Cecil Beaton's flower arranging room, below.  Our old farmhouse has 2 kitchens, with the lesser kitchen at the back of the house.  We've already turned it into a large laundry room, with plenty of space left, for my flower arranging.  


 

Pic, above, here.

 

Pic, above, here.

I like a bit of a pitiful touch, above, to flowers for the house.  If Susanne had done the flowers, below, for me, I would say, "Make them a bit more pitiful."  She'd do it to perfection, then we'd oooooh/aaaaah about how perfectly beautifully pitiful they are.  It's important to know, and revel, in your oeuvre no matter what others may think.  A touch pitiful, my oeuvre for cut flowers.  Not to be confused with the wonk factor.

 

Pic, above, here.

A bit pitiful, below.  Aren't they perfect?

 

Pic, above, here.

 

Pic, above, here.

Been buying old white cracked chipped ironstone for eons.  Pic, above, a tutorial about planting bulbs 'pitifully'.
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Cuttings from the garden & forced bulbs, put together a touch pitifully.  Odd what makes a person feel rich.
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Garden & Be Well,    XOT

Why Exterior Color Doesn't Always Travel

A past client moved from their much loved family home, not by their own choosing.  Circumstances beyond their control, poof, they're in a new city, new home.  Off I went, creating a new garden for them, garden #2.
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It was good being with them again, though this time, there was the gift of simply bearing witness, in memory of their previous home, turning the page, in joy, creating their new garden. Counterintuitively, home #2, regardless of circumstance, absolutely one of the happiest houses I've been in.  Partly, I think, from her use of the color salmon in many of their antique rugs, and on the walls.
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First garden I designed for them landed on the cover of a magazine, This Old House, here.
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Enough 'happy', remembering her salmon, and how it made me feel, I called her recently asking for the paint color.  The house we've moved into is about the same age as theirs, ca. 1900.  Our dining room similar in scale to, below.  Alas, it is a deep red, nice/good, but not for us.  I'm thinking her happy salmon, for our dining room.  A north facing room, it can do with brightening.




Another good salmon, below.  Salmon is a hard color to get right.  Which continent and where on the continent you live affects salmon.  A client outside Chicago loves salmon, alas it's not for her front door, the bricks won't work with it.



Pics, above, here.
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Notice the drip irrigation tubing, above?  Subtle, well done.  From the front door, I must know who you are.  Yes, I want to go inside, above.  Salmon in both pics, above, are not the same.
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Client, when I called her, said she needed me to come back, late this fall.  I will arrange for Beloved to tag along.  Their home is about equally west in Georgia, as ours is east, just below an imaginary middle Georgia line.  Important to note because our sky & sun & red clay are equal in their impact on salmon.  Studying historic landscapes across Europe for so many years, it's another thing I learned, sideways, exact colors don't always translate well to new locales.  Allowances must be made.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T

Anna Wintour has Tara Turf?

Age 8, saw my 1st garden like this, below, in Augusta, GA.  The adults were content to stay inside & chat.  I did the rude child thing, and begged to go outside.  They were glad to get rid of me.  Had to be, I was more than glad to be gone from them.  Not until I saw the movie, Beetlejuice, did anything describe how I felt, going outside that house, that day, into the garden.  Another world.
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The garden was entirely green, wild, mischievously wild.  Looking ahead, left, right, the garden was telling me to go everywhere, all a fabulous mystery, yet speaking to me in a language I knew.  And, that feeling of being alone, in this adventure, perhaps explains more fully, in adulthood, studying historic landscapes across Europe for decades.  And creating the garden for myself.
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Few ask for. or understand, this type garden, up front, in USA.  I design as much of them into the ubiquitous requests, as I can.  A tiny handful, across 3 decades, have asked for the full monty.
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I was caught by this garden, below, being presumptuous.  It's owner, in the public eye for decades with an international successful career, and public persona so Cruella Deville, Meryl Streep played her in a movie.  The garden, below, takes her mask off.  Anna Wintour's garden, below.    












Pics, above, here.
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Full article from NYTimes, here.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

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