Simple is the Most Complicated

Centuries of story, below, in this French home/garden, wars, plagues, art, architecture, transportation, taxes, riches, poverty, gain, desire, love, grief, loss.  What remains?  Formality with agrarian.  The former, easily located, can you outline the agrarian parameters, and label them, below?
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Two things, below, never mentioned in my measly USA horticulture degree.  If you're a Garden Whisperer, they don't whisper, below, they shout, in tears of joy or Wendell Berry poetry.
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First, below, is the magic of Tara Turf.  Meadow with a mix of what the wind blows, choices that are planted, herbs, bulbs, etc.  Mowed at 1-4 heights creating formality, paths, guilds.  Just meadow, it has no name.  It's literally biblical.  Earth as Provider.  Pastures & meadows, hallowed ground for pollinators, increasing crop yields by 80% with zero extra effort.  Tara Turf is unique to each site.  There should be myriad Tara Turf's for sale.  Tara Turf Gulf Coast, Tara Turf Mid-Tennessee, Tara Turf North Georgia you get the idea.
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Back to the agrarian parameters, below.  They are, expanse of meadow, feeding both pollinators & livestock.  Tallish meadow lapping the tightly controlled pruning of the topiaries?  Pure metaphor.  I adore this phase of maintaining a historic garden, rich in stories.  Tallish meadow lapping the topiaries cannot stay as a permanent feature, it would defoliate the base of the topiaries.
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Second, the Poverty Cycle.  The landscape below is not a conceit designed in, it's organically evolved.  A thread the worlds best historic gardens each has, eras of deep poverty, due to wars or disease.  Touring those gardens I learned to design using elements of the Poverty Cycle.  With zero Poverty Cycle, below, the garden would be entire shrub beds in various forms/shapes with intricate pruning, paths, bulbs, annuals, a morass of boredom, expensively maintained.



Pic, above, here.
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Before studying historic gardens across Europe, I thought the gardens, above, seen on TV or in books were a bore-bore-bore.  Amusing to look back at that 'me'.  Those days were the 80's and I certainly had every perennial and gee-gaw.  As Zorba the Greek so well said, The full catastrophe.
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Where are you on the pendulum of the garden, above?  What do you see?  Do you like it?  Does the house intrigue you more than the grounds?  What is the metaphor of this garden, above, to you?  Why is this agrarian landscape better than HOA rules/restrictions subdivision?  Oops, a little book club question section.
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Best part, and proof for this garden, above?  Looks good, above, and would look good at a 1959 3b/1b ranchburger.

Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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A few more from Zorba:

• As I watched the seagulls, I thought: "That's the road to take; find the absolute rhythm and follow it with absolute trust."
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• Tell me what you do with the food you eat, and I'll tell you what you are. Some turn their food into fat and manure, some into work and good humor, and others, I'm told, intoGod.
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• Is it possible to talk by dancing? And yet I dare swear that's how the gods and devils must talk to one another.
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• How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else. And all that is required to feelthat here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.
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• You must sometimes rejoice that the dark forces of destruction are so numerous and invincible: for thus your aim to live almost without hope becomes more heroic and yoursoul acquires a more tragic greatness.
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• In religions which have lost their creative spark, the gods eventually become no more than poetic motifs or ornaments for decorating human solitude and walls.
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• Action, dear inactive master, action: there is no other salvation

    

• The highest point a man can obtain is not Knowledge, or Virtue, or Goodness, or Victory, but something even greater, more heroic and more despairing: SacredAwe!

Front Door: Changing a Few Things

'There you go again', said during a much earlier debate.  Architecture, below, with a big fat garage, teensy front door, and a room at the end to finish the story.  I lived in one of these homes for 30 years, the entire neighborhood stuffed with them.  Built in the 80's a few newer neighborhoods outlawed the style in their deed restrictions.  Why?  Not street friendly, not conducive to neighbors knowing their neighbors, hulking garages with their landing strips dominate the entire neighborhood, front doors entered from their service court, not thru the 'garden'.  Very little, friendly.
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No worries, all easy fixes.  Remember, I had 30 years of this particular game.
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First, bravo the style, below, of front door.  Using a ubiquitous 6 panel door would lower the roof height. The long bottom panel, below, heightens the space, then the windows add a warm welcome with a bit more height, wonderful.  Have changed many front doors this way thru the years.
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Beyond this point there be dragons, early map makers wrote at the edges of their maps.
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First dragon I will completely ignore, it is so obvious, the huge conifer.  If you say it must be kept, ok.  Move it closer to the house, and keep it a bonsai espalier against the wall.  Learn how to do it properly, and it will be a pleasant few minutes each year.
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Next dragon, faux stone pavers are designed much too narrowly.  Total function, zero form.  Add more faux stone pavers.  Left of the front path, between drive/front walk, add stone pavers entirely where there is now mulch and those ornamental grass looking things, from house to front step.  Add more faux stone pavers to the right of the path, from the second front step, to the front door.  Why?  Creates a wider foyer, instead of this pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey front door & path.  In addition, instead of a narrow rigid walking path to the front door you've opened up a large landing.  Incredibly affordable too, most big box stores sell these faux stone pavers, and unskilled labor, aka you, can install them nicely.  Hint, if you are doing faux stone pavers yourself, always pull a string.  Always.
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Dragon- of- flat is next.  How to 3-D the walls at the front door?  Add a bell to the wall, preferably to the right of the door.  Either historic or artisan, and scaled properly.  Example, at bottom.
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Dragon downspout, another common issue.  But whoa, the white downspout at left corner.  This situation a bit of an exception.  Normally, paint downspouts copper color.  Here, the white house trim, tight space is all encompassing.  A lot going on with horizontal and vertical white trim, a mosh pit.  Boldly creating an exception, I would only paint the section of downspout, copper color, fronting the brick wall.  Why?  The rest of that downspout is blending with white eve and white vertical trim.  Will include the electrical socket with this dragon, at the left of the front door in the brick, paint it copper color too.
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Dragons on the wall to left of the front door, below.  I cannot see clearly what the 2 white rectangle squares are.  Paint them same color as shakes, they recede, instead of jump forward, look-at-me-look-at-me.
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Dragon, lighting.  Cannot see a light for the front door.  To keep the space feeling large, perhaps a simple recessed lite, in the eve, above the front door or a matching light on the wall, to the left of the front door, matching the light, below, to the right of the garage door.
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Dragon, dead brown mulch.  And it must be replenished yearly.  Plant an evergreen groundcover, done.  Warm & lush vs. dead & brown.
    


Pic, above, here.
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Your turn.  What dragons, above, did you see, that I missed?  How would you change the dragons I did mention?  Please note, I've used affordable changes.  Of course I have changes for a different price point.  This home is lovely, I would truly like to see a stone path/steps.  And, I would add another bonsai espalier conifer, a dwarf conifer, to the left of the front path too.  A tighter espalier than the conifer at right of the path.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T


Pic, above, here.

Be Like The Fox

"Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction."  Wendell Berry
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Fourteen mos. in our ca. 1900 American farmhouse, my library is still boxed.  If you know anything about anyone with a library, as a necessity to living/breathing, you know books in my office were packed separately and on their shelves.  Nor have I stopped ordering new books.  Cell phones/computers have changed lives greatly, but nothing has changed the thrill of a new book arrived in the mail, awaiting on the doorstep.  Back to the cell phone, my bad, should be labeled a drug-of-choice when it comes to ordering books.
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Who knew my library made me like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction?



Pic, above, here.
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Lived in my previous garden 30 years, built the house/garden from bare land, it was in magazines, books, and on TV.  Often, gardening there, my mind would wander to time.  Knowing if I lived actively on the same spot, 500 years might get me somewhere with it.  Without ever becoming bored.  Ever.
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Who knew my garden made me like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction?
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Pic, above, here.
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Have made it as far as talking with our carpenter about building library shelves.  Location & dimensions. Life is good.
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"Practice resurrection."  Wendell Berry
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Something Cicero knew about gardens & libraries, each are resurrection factories.

Garden & Be Well,   XO T



Pic, above, here.
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Library bombed by the Luftwaffe during WWII, above.  My tribe.

 
Pic, above, here.
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My mom, above.  Without divulging her story I can mention her tiny wail of defense, It's my only vice.  Go mom!  She pulls sister/me into aiding her, every trip to mom's, the library.  Even Beloved knows deeply my mom & her library.
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Went to mom's library, 1st time, about age 6, it was in a portable building in Clear Lake City, TX,  Freeman Memorial Library, named in honor of a neighbor, Ted Freeman, below, a man my dad was working with, he had recently been assigned to my dad for training to fly new equipment dad's team was designing.  The new equipment had Saturn V booster engines with flight capabilities into space, aka Apollo rocket.  The pair of men who found Mr. Freeman lived in our neighborhood too, and were in Apollo flight training with dad.  Our neighborhood is not far from the crash site at Ellington Field.   Freeman Memorial Library moved across the street from its beginnings, and is now a huge complex, perfect for mom's 'vice'.

Ted Freeman

10/31/64: Crashed his T-38 jet when a goose smashed into the cockpit

By Jeffrey KlugerJan. 31, 2013

NASA

Jim Lovell and Pete Conrad, a pair of young astronauts who had not yet flown, were returning from a day of goose hunting near Ellington Air Force Base in Houston one day in 1964 when they saw a crowd surrounding what appeared to be the wreckage of a T-38 jet. They jumped out of the car, ran through the grass and asked who the pilot had been. Ted Freeman, they were told, a rookie astronaut who had entered the program a year after they did. Something had caused his plane to go into a powerless plunge as he was trying to land; he bailed out, but too late for his chute to open. Lovell, as first on the scene, was assigned to investigate the cause of the crash. With the help of the jet’s surviving instruments, he was able to determine the exact moment it lost power, which led him to almost the exact of area of Texas brush over which it was flying when the fatal breakdown occurred. Scouring the area, he found two things: The shattered windshield of the plane and the bloody remains of a Canada snow goose. The bird, clearly, had collided with the plane, instantly killing itself and, a few seconds later, the human being at the controls. History did not record how many geese Lovell and Conrad bagged that day, but both men likely wished they’d shot one more.

Pic, above, here. 

Still Life: Put it in Your Mission Statement

Lecturing in Greensboro, NC many years ago, I had the privilege of touring a private garden.  In the audience, after the lecture, a woman chatted with me and I knew, I must see her garden.  Don't know if she invited me to her garden, or I invited myself.  With facts this bare, we know, I invited myself.
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High summer in Greensboro, NC is not for the faint of heart, heat/humidity rule.  Walking our small group into her home, she casually asked if we'd like lemonade.  You know we did, pure drama and story line, We- had- a- tart- glass- of- lemonade- before- walking- her- garden.
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Blessedly we wanted the drama of the lemonade.  After bringing out her pitcher/glasses, and pouring a round, she set the pitcher onto a small table in her kitchen.  
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Poof.  A new element to my personal Garden Mission Statement.  Can you guess what it is?  Alas, this garden visit was well before cell phones or even the desk top large computers.  No photo of this fateful moment.
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My life, inside my home, and in my garden, must look like a still life, not fake, but a life lived, and in the living, the calm of still life views, reign.
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A small moment, below.  Still life.


Pic, above, here.

Vanishing threshold, below, with still life views.

 
Pic, above, here.

Antiquing with a friend in Florida last week during vacation, she surprised me with this wire egg holder, below.  She knows my chics aren't producing a lot, but this was home 2 days, and 2 eggs, snapped the pic and sent it to her.  Table/chairs ready still life props.
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Moving beyond the still life mission statement, is what I've learned, living this way.  My surroundings leverage my life.  Friends for lunch?  More than easy.  I can ask, Do you want to eat on the front porch, in the dining room or kitchen, maybe in the garden near the chicken coop?  Living here only 14 months, more destinations are on the list.  Not just for guests, but still life spaces for everyday, me alone.  Lunch arrives with the question, Where do I want to eat?  Seasons dictate, work dictates, many lunches in my office, and within my office there are several places to sit with still life views, and eat.
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Keeping boredom at bay with static still life views, I change the details, T R Boote , ca. 1880 'Summer Time' tureen on the table, below, will soon go into the china closet, a fall tureen replacing it.  The table topper changes at least 6x/year, so far.  Working at my first retail garden center, in the mid-80's, we changed displays seasonally, pure luxury with so many flowering plants plus the seasonal merchandise, and it made me aware, the seasonal displays, each, a gift of thanks.  Thank you for being alive another season, another Valentines, another Easter, another Memorial Day, Christmas.  Exactly how I feel in the garden when the akebia blooms, the oakleaf hydrangea, the azaleas, tea olive, thank you, alive another year, taking in the scent of daphne....
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Sure, all of this seems small, unimportant, but how can the days of anyone's life be unimportant?  After touring the Greensboro, NC garden we came inside to her 'garden room', 3 walls entirely windows, French doors to the garden, her library, desk, and seating area were here.  On the desk, a book, Living A Beautiful Life, by Alexandra Stoddard.  Thumbed thru it, and ordered it when I came home.  Have since given it as a gift many times.
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To this day, that Greensboro, NC garden is one of the best I've ever walked in.  I learned more of its story, later, from a friend of hers.  Diagnosed with severe Lupus, she had hired a garden designer, then, before her husband would leave for work, she had him carry her into the garden and set her down in a spot to work.  His office not far away he would come home to move her in the garden several times a day.  That was the start of her garden.
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I came into her story after she had worked for many years in her garden across good days and painful days.  The day we toured her garden, zero sign of Lupus.  What a victory for her, deep, soul satisfying.        


Pic, above, in our kitchen last nite.

It's amazing the dichotomy of still life spaces.  Once filled with your life, alone or with friends, inside or in the garden, you'll long remember the voices, laughter, conversations, how they made you feel.  Rich.


Pic, above, here.

Without knowing, adding still life spaces to my mission statement brought me to, below.

 
Pic, above, here.

Receiving the 'more' is both material and metaphorical.  Significantly weighted, in deep grace, to metaphorical.
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Designing beautiful gardens for clients is a joy as their plantings mature, better, are the phone calls, notes, or texts, clients letting me know of the metaphorical riches, aka stories from their lives, their gardens are bringing them, their family/friends.  So, more than adding still life to my personal mission statement, it seamlessly slipped into my professional mission statement.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Contrast Makes Your Garden Pop

Contrast is the basic ingredient of Garden design.  Both pics, below, use the same type of contrast.  Can you label it?
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I grew up, as most Americans, without a vocabulary for gardens.  Worse, after receiving a horticulture degree, I still had no proper, historic, of the ages, vocabulary for Garden Design.  Garden Design and horticulture are 2 different professions.  Toss in Agriculture, and you have 3 professions.
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That's another rabbit hole of conversation, so, back to labeling the contrast technique used in the pics, below.
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I've taught horticulture and Garden Design for over 20 years at a local college, and the Atlanta Botanical Garden.  One of my favorite teaching tools is adding proper vocabulary to Garden Design photos.  Name it to claim it.  Never more be moved by beautiful garden photos, yet unaware how to describe them in detail.
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Of course there is an entire TV industry of garden shows thriving on viewers lack of knowledge.  Most often the ambush garden show, with fast before/after, are comedies of the wrong sort, dark comedy.  If you know horticulture, aka plant care/culture/habit, you know how quickly the 'after' garden will fail.  Discussing merit of those Garden Designs, mostly what I learned in college, incurves and outcurves, planting beds, drifts, accent plants, landscaping, all well represented.  If you want any of that stuff, don't hire me.  I won't do it.  Historic, of  the ages, that's my venue.
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Beyond beautiful, below, it's historic Garden Design, and the plantings show deep knowledge of planting materials, aka horticulture.  What is the contrast, below?  The main contrast is spikey with rounded, followed with contrasting color of foliage, and contrasting foliage sizes, and contrasting layers of height.  Four more elements, huge, below.  You know horticulture well if you have already labeled the last 4 elements.
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Drought tolerant plantings, below.  Deer proof plantings, below.  Disease resistant plantings, below.  Insect resistant plantings, below.  The last asset, below?  All year interest, plenty of structure left for winter interest.
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Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.

Same Garden Design conceit, above, but the plantings, aka horticulture, could be either fabulous or problematic depending upon your location/zone/elevation.  Peonies & foxglove, classic spike/round combination.
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In the deep south peonies can do well, but not the lush abundance of northern climates, and a dry, hot, southern spring/summer, will invite spider mites to the foxglove, and irrigation will be needed.  Also, above, this section of the garden will be bare, empty, with so many herbaceous plantings during winter.
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A lot to consider, above, about Garden Design, and personal choices of what you wish to look at in winter.  And, excellent examples of using spike/round contrast.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Most Common Mistake at a Front Door

Garden rooms, you must create garden rooms.  That's the mantra, across centuries of Garden Design, but what does it mean, below, in the present era ?
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Most common fail I see at front doors?  Below.
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Best part of this 'fail' ?  Easily remedied.
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What to do, below, to create a garden room?
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Rules abound, below, this neighorhood reeks of Home-Owners-Association.  Must stay within the rules, no one likes that Nasty Gram in their mailbox.
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Reaching the front door, below at left, there is no here, here.  Create a garden room, voila, you are in their world, plenty of scope for the imagination and an elegant welcome/departure.
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Your turn, Garden Design the fix, below, creating a garden room for the front door at left.
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Giving you more time, notice the white downspout, below, house at right.  Really?  Paint the downspout copper color, voila, downspout no longer behaves as a 'column' almost disappears.  Paint the gutters copper color and the house grows taller, copper gutters reach up into the roof.  But this gutter/downspout exercise is merely to give you more time, figuring out how to create a garden room, below, at the front door to the house at left.  While your designing that garden room, lets take out a few bushes at the base of the arched window, below, and place a custom stone step.  Very nice.  It's never a good thing when I'm hearing Cole Porter, Don't Fence Me In, at a garden.
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Done?  Designed your garden room?


Pic, above, here.

Grow the existing short hedge, at the far right property line, to 7'.  If budget allows, take out the existing hedge, plant a 7' evergreen hedge.  Done.
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You've created a garden room, and private world at the front door, no visible axis into the neighbor's world.
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Must mention, I love this garden design, above, house at left.  Lean, green, serene.  Easy to maintain with unskilled labor.  Green all year, no down time.  Well done.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Garden Design Class in a Pair of Pics

Attracted to the marvelous sliding doors, below, the wood stoop and small planters had me send this fabulous home & garden to my Pinterest Changes board.  Lastly, a 3rd issue from garden to kitchen for the Changes board.  Especially a home with young'ish children and these gorgeous interior wood floors.  
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A mini Garden Design course in 2 photos.
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Do you see all 3 changes immediately?
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I'll give you a moment to look at both pics carefully.  There is an easy inexpensive solution for the stoop, and a better, not inexpensive solution for the stoop.  At the open sliding door threshold is a minor 4th issue.  See the easy fix for issue 4?
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Classic mistakes, below.  Human nature !  At the front end, before getting a Horticulture degree, then traipsing Europe for 2+ decades studying historic gardens I made the same mistakes too.  Once you know what the Garden Design mistakes are, your eye is trained to see them, correct them, easily, every time.
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Of course there may be zero mistakes, below, solutions could already be designed, just not installed.  A likely scenario if you take a tour of the interior, here.
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Look at the pair of pics, below, again.  Got your Garden Design solutions?





Pics, above, here.
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Change #4, the door mats inside & outside should match.  The tight space will enlarge, flow, and become more of a 'foyer' between inside/outside instead of the current abrupt divide.  My choice would be a pair of door mats, large, similar in looks to the existing mat inside the home already.
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Change #3, transition from beautiful stone terrace to gravel to wood stoop to interior of home.  This change makes me smile, I made the same mistake as a garden designer in my 20's.  Matching stone from the terrace should be installed into the gravel transitioning to the wood stoop.  Why?  Significantly reduces amount of gravel stuck in shoes, or paws, to be tracked inside, and gouging/scratching that beautiful wood floor.
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Change #2, Dinky is Stinky, need much larger pots at those sliding doors, and wider apart, setting them left/right off the wood stoop.  Remove 2 bushes at right of wood stoop, replace their planting bed with more gravel.
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Change #1, will start with cheap/easy do it today.  Stain the wood stoop same color as sliding doors.  The house is much too elegant for this wood stoop left over from the set of F Troop.  A more expensive change to the wood stoop, replace it with a single slab of stone, custom cut the same or a bit deeper.  Wood stoop vs. stone landing.  Already the verbage is a nicer story.
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Again, seeing the interior of this home, I think the 'Change' layers I've mentioned are already on their to-do list.  Their attention to detail quite wonderful.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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Put that green extension cord under the gravel.  I know you already thought that.  A funny thing about gardening, the small victories.  Just getting the cord buried is a big deal, having the door mats match.....

On the Deck: Privacy, Wind, Rain

Our ca. 1900 farmhouse is true to its year.  The house sits near the road, and near the north property line.  Next door sits a ca. 1890 farmhouse, same arrangement.  Living rural, after leaving the big city, a great irony, needing to create privacy.
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There is no having breakfast on the back deck in my gown.  Views from the deck include a meadow, woods, lake, and amazing amounts of sky framed by a few century old pecan trees.  Shutters, below, are our solution.  Sourcing shutters in earnest this week.  Farmhouse is white, shutters will be white.


Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.

In addition to privacy, I'm sourcing old windows this week to create a spot, above, for the cats to be out of the elements at the back door, a small roof already exists there.
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Beloved built us an incredible party deck, and it has gotten on my last nerve not having it operate with the basic functions of living, and aesthetics.  Too generous, that last nerve snapped over the weekend.
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Treated Beloved like a client, verbally described a choice of solutions, then showed him pinterest pics.  He bit.  Only add this last morsel of information, because it's something I do at a lot of jobsites with 'Wife', Husband Coaching.  Most common Husband Coaching I do is choosing the most correct garden thing Wife must allow Husband to do, that she has been adamantly 'NO' for ages.  Paced correctly this Husband Coaching allows Wife, in the end, everything she wanted.  He's happy, she's happy, both think they won.  Cheshire cat knows who won.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Yes, it's going in reverse too, Wife Coaching with Husband.  I'm in the catbird seat, wanting the garden to be their best garden, more intensely them, than they ever dared dream, and in the greatest of simplicity.

Conservatory & Coop House

Working as a professional propagator for 2.5 years, moons ago, left its mark, deep & rich.  More than knowing how to propagate, I miss the work.  Literally, the physical work of propagation, and its 'time', its progression thru the seasons, from seed/cutting/plug, to plant for sale.  Early mornings, first arriving to the myriad greenhouses, end of the day, closing the myriad greenhouses for the nite.  Thru all weathers, the daily life of it.  Fragrance of the various soils, each green house with its unique smells thru the year, differing temperatures catering to myriad greenhouse crops.  And, of course, Kelvin, who taught me all he knew, by doing.  Working with him, side-by-side.  Hands/bodies laboring, conversation & laughter flowing.  He remains one of those friends never seen for years, then spying each other at a garden event, the big run to hug, and I feel tears of pure happiness, merely seeing Kelvin again.  
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Seeing this pic, below, recently, and realizing how badly I miss seeing our poinsettia crops growing from plugs to maturity.  Didn't know I missed that specific life experience until seeing the pic.  There must be a word for this, probably in French or Italian, American too paltry for such a word.
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Instantly this bit of color thru the Conservatory, below, got put onto my list.  Fourteen months in our ca. 1900 American farmhouse, we're getting a lot done on the 'list', but we're not to my Conservatory or Chicken Coop yet.  And, what a fabulous blessing.  Their architecture improves by the month, free of charge.  Smartly, I'm staying quiet about this private architectural joy with Beloved.  If he knew, he would have already built my Coop & Conservatory, square, historic, plain, good, done.  Poor thing, he said to me, not too long ago, "You get your mind set on something and nothing stops you."  It was in the tone of exasperation, my reply was quick and happy, "It's my best trait.  Your next point?"  Nope, he doesn't need to know about the architectural renderings, yet, for the Coop & Conservatory.


Pic, above, here.

We have a similar bank of windows, above, brought home from a house we renovated for a client recently.  Here's the odd fact, I like being near my chickens, hearing/seeing them, aside from calming I think they are hilarious, they make me laugh.  My chicken coop must have a bit of 'Conservatory/Shed' for me.  A place to be in all weathers/seasons, to read, have lunch with a friend, a glass of wine late on a Saturday afternoon with a new book that just arrived on the doorstep, happy rich solitude.

 
Pic, above, here.

From the house I want to see my chickens in their coop during winter, this wall of windows, below, perfect.

 
Pic, above, here.

Pic, above, here.

Nice roof, above, for my personal section of the Coop, especially in winter, all other roofing will be metal.

 
Pic, above, here.

More than the roosting rack, above, and stone steps, below, I get it about these painters.  Aside from major talent, they love chickens too.  Caring for my chickens is not work or a chore, instead, a delightful part of my days.

 
Pic, above, here.

She, below, is one of us, a Chicken Whisperer.  Have no clue why Providence put chickens into my life past age 50, but I'll take it, say thank you, and keep chickening on.


Pic, above, here.


Pic, above, here.

Best chicken run, above, ever.  Instantaneously with seeing it, onto the list it went.
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My Conservatory shed, with large lean-to metal roof at front, and at back, is already built and awaiting Beloved's barn to be built, his stuff is in my Conservatory shed.  Not far away is the temporary Chicken coop/run Beloved built in the shade of 2 century old pecan trees, it's chain link with a flat metal roof.  For months I've been having breakfast or lunch under the back lean-to roof at my shed, overlooking the coop, lake, woodland, meadow.  Poor Beloved, all that scope-for-the-imagination of Anne of Green Gables in action.  I hear Marilla Cuthbert, "Finest property on the north shore."
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Have no interest creating the finest Conservatory or Coop, only the finest Conservatory and a Coop, for me.  Now, this phase, vision questing, quite fine in its own merit.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Vertical Lawn

Vertical Lawn, below.
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Few houses can withstand a clinging vine, instead, I like to use espalier woody flowering shrubs.  No trellis, no wires.  Hydrangea or sasanqua most commonly, but that is my southern zone.


Pic, above, here.
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Vertical lawn, finial on the roof, and gravel lapping to the door.  Yep, love that trinity.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Danger: Front Yard Vegetable Garden

Several years ago a home near Susanne Hudson put a vegetable garden in their front yard.  It was amazing, stone edged beds, amended soil, extensive.  Passion was palpable.  Then came the front yard garden design police.  Their vegetable garden must go.  Appeals to zoning.  End of the story is awful.  Most of the huge chunks of stone edging, they removed.  Empty vegetable beds.  I should mention the home was older, and not in a subdivision.  The city front yard garden design police won, mean things were said to the offending vegetable garden front yard owners from several arenas.  They sold their home, moved.  Yes, I will make light mention of several homes on the same street with lawns not tended properly, for decades.
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Pinterest sends a weekly drum roll of my most popular pin.  Huge surprise, below, this week.  Saved recently, it made me smile.  The anger thing.  Joining Lois in her 12-step group for friends & family of alcoholics I learned something quite good about anger.  It will cool your jets, at least mine, when in the midst of personal mushroom cloud anger.  Forgiveness.  Personally asking forgiveness from someone else, for my own expression of anger.  Making amends.  Since having this arrow in my quiver, about anger & forgiveness, most expressions of anger never pass my lips.  Instead, blessedly, I think to myself, "You are absolutely not worth making an amend to."  How very nice to lose anger, know the person is dust beneath my feet, disengage, walk away.
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Secondarily to living this way, action steps about anger, is the reaction of others, and their anger.  Oh my, they keep going.  And going.  It's an amazing thing to have anger removed, completely, yet the other person is stuck in their anger, and you realize it could be you still behaving this way.  Yes, you'll even smile at the person still angry with you.  In thanks for not being that kind of person any more.  Warning, they won't like your calm smile.        


Pic, above, here.

If you are borderline zoning with the front yard garden design police, don't do a 'straight' vegetable garden.  Go historical.  More than aesthetics, you'll have greater pollination, producing up to 80% more fruit/vegetables.
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Orchard, below, historic, with guilds.  A gorgeous front yard, I think.


Pic, above, here.

Potager, below, mix of vegetables, herbs, flowers, shrubs.  Hedges & edging give all year structure for any down time the vegetables have.

 
Pic, above, here.

Another potager, below.

 
Pic, above, here.

My 30 year garden was in a subdivision with deed restrictions.  I chose the potager for my front yard, with herbs & espalier fruit trees.  Twice, a neighbor called police about my garden.  Uniformed, and with a gun.  No neighbor ever said anything to me about my garden, ever.  Instead, they called the police.  Yes, it made me angry.
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Both police officers, they were years apart in arriving, walked my garden with me, and apologized for having to knock on my door.  Told both officers no neighbor ever complained to me.  My garden passed the real police, and their guns.  My front yard potager, legal.
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Rich story, neighbors complained, police arrived, my gardening continued unabated, and officially police approved.
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Stories making national news about front yard vegetable gardens, and police becoming involved, immediately make me wish they had done a potager instead of a straight vegetable garden.  I get it about property value, and am a team player.
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'She had a potager in her front yard', would be fine on my tombstone.      
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Garden & Be Well,  XOT
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Anger at the front yard garden design police quite different than anger at a person.  Most front yard garden design police are allowed anonymity.  Let that anger go, and focus on achieving YOUR goals. Hence this little tale of potagers & orchards, historically correct and aesthetic.  Been there, done that, at the wrong end of a gun, got the badge.  Better, kept on gardening, my way.
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Keep Calm & Potager On

Dining Room: Garden Pop-Up Shop

How often do you use your dining room table?  Not much?  Perhaps it can be, below, a pop-up garden room.


Pic, above, here.

More commonly, dining rooms are libraries, below.


Pic, above, here.

I spy something, above, never thought I would need.  Ever.  Do you see it?  Hint, armadillos.
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We've not put in a lot of garden yet, but apparently enough.  They're here, in abundance.
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All my pack of local gardeners seem to dispatch about 30+/year.  At a spring Garden Festival this year I met up with a friend while she was buying several choice plants.  A few days ago, she asked if I remembered the large dwarf cut leaf Japanese maple, several hundred dollars.  Yes.  Armadillo lifted it out of ground, beautiful tree is dead.
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Don't know what they're shooting, above, but it must be a lot.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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Why did I never think to do a pop-up dining room garden?  When I was the 1/week Garden Expert on NBC-TV, I brought various props for the shoots, little pop-up shops for the season/topic.  Only today with, top pic, am I realizing to do it for everyday life?  All these many years later?  Quite rich.
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Garden & Gun, indeed.