Simplicity of Narrative

Last question, finishing a Garden Design, What can I take out and it holds together?
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There is so little here, below.  Yet overwhelmed in layers of narrative.  I see a story/stories, below, you must, too.
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Not, simple-gardens-are-the-best, it is simple gardens including narratives of classic aesthetics across the ages, tied to the life of their home's interior, and owner, with an ease of maintenance, those are the gardens lasting centuries.


Pic, above, here.
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Front door, above, reminds me of a story I was told by a friend, decades ago, in Savannah, GA.  The story teller lived in the historic district.  The story told happened ca. 1950'ish.  An elderly widow lived in elegant deep decay in a large historic mansion.  Her handy-man, an African-American, took care of her, the house, garden, and it was well known he brought her food from one of the best restaurants, he waited tables there several nights a week.
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More, they lived outwardly their proscribed rolls. Yet, within her home they were lovers, in a committed relationship.  Further, the city knew, yet lived the lie.  Protecting both, beloved members of their community.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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The lady in the story, born 19th century, lived the story in 20th century, I'm telling you in the 21st century.  Her home still standing.

Deer & Armadillo Fencing

Two members of the Garden Design team, for my space at our ca. 1900 American farmhouse, control many choices at the front end.  Third member of the team is wildly controlling too.
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None of this overlooks a fourth controlling component, aging in place, me.
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For decades I've had the honor of older women, into their 70's plus, hiring me.  Their landscapes must be beautiful, and fully turn key.  Tough plants, easily maintained with minimal unskilled labor.  Check.
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Back to those original members helping design my new garden, deer, armadillo and the weather: brutal heat, humidity, drought, rains, occasional 0 f, strong winds throughout every season, and, the worst, a freeze in April after weeks of warm days.  Check.
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Oddly, with all the constraints, above, (after achieving acceptance) it's easier to create a Garden Design.  Fewer choices.
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Southern Indica azaleas will be many of my hedges.  Sun/shade, deer resistant, drought tolerant.  Better, their height & growth habit, below.


Pic, above, here.

Deer don't bother much with what they cannot see, they keep on walking.  Outside my garden, deer will see this, below.  Delightfully, more than solving a deer issue the azalea hedging will block views of the street/cars, and create garden rooms, walls.

 
Pic, above, here.

If deer were the only problem, azalea hedging would be deterrent enough.  Armadillo dig for worms/insects with their clawed feet and tapered snout.  Around since the dinosaurs, armadillo are not smart in expected ways.  Simple wire fencing at ground level guides them away, they won't dig under.
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I fully expect to be the first human to experience the first self aware male armadillo, who tunnels under my wire fencing, releases his pheromones to Pluto, and his harem arrives, delivering their typical 4 identical offspring with each pregnancy.
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Wire fencing, below, will be built, azalea foliage to grow thru, and obfuscate its presence, and armadillo.


Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.

Had to include this pic, above, the pruning is amazing.  Foliage/blossoms from top to bottom, achieved with pruning tapered, wider at bottom than top.  Then, the subtle change in height from left to right, as the Garden Design dictates need.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Hardest Question Asked

Designing the garden below, is it apparent at 1st glance once half the garden is designed, all the garden is designed?


Pic, above, here.

Beginning a Garden Design  on paper, a typical subdivision home/lot, once a quarter of the drawing is done, the plantings design is essentially completed for 100% of the drawing,
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Great example, below.  Once an allee of rectangular evergreen meatloafs were chosen half the space is complete.  I especially like their existing canopy trees, below, left in place no matter their asymmetry.  Creating a park-like walking avenue, with great geometry, yet sprinkling of Nature.  Good fortune being able to keep existing mature plantings, they age a new Garden Design.
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Notice the gravel, below, lapping at the base of the canopy trees?  Perhaps the greatest of their design choices.  Why?  Allows the axis of the avenue, from the house, to flow.  Boxing the trees, at their base with a square of cobblestones is poor punctuation, no longer a flowing avenue.

 
Pic, above, here.
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I don't think of plants first when beginning a Garden Design, I think of axis, flow, shapes, color, focal points, materials, finally, heights, layers and specific plants.
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Plants are the last thing I choose in a Garden Design.
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So.  When I find myself in a situation, socially, at someone's home I don't know, (which I try to avoid) they discover what I do for a living, they obviously truly don't care about Garden Design but wish to be polite making small talk about their landscape, and get a little free advice about a plant in the throes of death, arrives the DREADED question, after much build up, ta-da, they ask, "What plant should I put here?"
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I smile, nostrils flaired from earlobe to earlobe, feeling rather like a donkey with someone putting a heavy load on my back, and all I wanna do (thank you Sheryl Crowe) is buck their question to the moon (thank you Honeymooners).
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Honestly, "What plant goes here?", begins to cover what my eyes/mind/heart see?
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How do I say, "You'll need to move these, gesticulating gracefully with hand/arm upon half their realm, put in a flagstone path, 8' wide, on axis from that window, leading to a focal point at least 4' tall, on cross axis from........ another path beginning there.........leading to a roundabout........and there is your double axis to the subsidiary focal point....., after we decide your exterior color trinity......see into those windows upstairs and the 2 over there downstairs we need to change the interior design so it's gorgeous from the garden view and not showing.........the fence must be stained 2-3 tones darker than one of those trinity colors...........the windows there, & those too, must become French doors.....your deck is already old, great timing I'm here you would have probably rebuilt a similar deck, it needs to come off, with stone steps from the new French doors onto a new stone terrace extended beyond the end of where the deck was...........now it's obvious your patio furniture must all be replaced.......notice the myriad pots you have sprinkled about they need to be replaced with larger pots and a style/color chosen, I have 2 great resources at the merchandise mart you'll love them.....light fixtures on the house must be changed, you'll adore Laura Lee lighting they're online, flowing with the theme of your garden......oh, forgot to mention you must pick a theme for your garden and then overdose on your theme, of course all of this must flow from the front of your home........so, back to your question, we don't need a plant PUT HERE."
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Continuing my donkey grin, I typically say, Take the plant out when it dies, and let the other plantings grow to fill in.  And they are well confirmed that Garden Design is a ridiculous profession.
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Pic, above, here.

Question?
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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Pic, above, here.
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How many dinners, during childhood, did we sit down to the table, and dad had the Honeymooners on?  He loved to hear, Jackie Gleason say, "How sweet it is."  If we were talking, he would hold up a hand for silence, once Jackie Gleason was about to say ....
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Beloved played golf in high school.  He attended a major pro-golf tournament sponsored by Jackie Gleason, and has all the golf greats, of that era, autographs in the playbook.  Finally, close enough to ask for Jackie Gleason's autograph, it was not happening.  Jackie Gleason was wildly, happily, drunk, being driven to the clubhouse in a golf cart..
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All of the, above, happening at someone's home, on a tight budget, they obviously are newly thrilled with gardening, what fun !!  They get the, use- mostly- what- you- have-, hunt/gather, DIY, Garden Design and the entire evening has flown by, and they've ignored all their other guests !  No donkey.
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Yes, I see gardens intact, completed.  Designing them is taking dictation from Muse.  More, the dictation is at myriad price points, from no budget restraints, to total budget restraints.  No budget, love the pun.  My peers do the same, how we love our time together.  Conversation in our own shorthand language.  Time ceases to exist.  We've dipped into that joyful realm of eternity- on- Earth Joseph Campbell mentions.

Modern Garden Design

Modern Garden Design, below.
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Where are you on the pendulum, liking/disliking, this modern style Garden Design, below?
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Garden Design has not changed since well before, oodles of centuries, Christ's era.
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In my 20's I abhorred this style of Garden Design, below.  Too smart for that boredom.  A brain full of horticultural knowledge.
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Fully living, without awareness, thereby proving yet again in a new era, "Men come to build stately, sooner than to garden finely as if gardening were the greater perfection."  (The works of Alexander Pope, esq., with notes and illustrations, by ...

https://books.google.com/books?id=shcrAQAAIAAJ

Alexander Pope, ‎William Roscoe - 1847 - ‎Literary Criticism

Alexander Pope, William Roscoe. becomes on the instant, from a ... For the honour of this art," Lord Bacon says, " a man shall ever see, that when ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come to buildstately, sooner than to garden finely ; as if gardening were the greater perfection." — Warton. The taste in gardening, like all ...)

Pic, above, here.
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Heijlo, 1789, Archief Alkmaar, above.
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The simpler a Garden Design, the greater its Wisdom.  
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No ragrets the time nor money getting me to this simplicity, above.  Find it amusing, still, memories of strongly disliking Garden Designs, above.  
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Midnight on a too recent Saturday, sitting with a friend in a hospital emergency room, watching, We are the Millers, keeping reality at bay, while tests were being run, iv's inserted, shots given, pain endured.  Laughing yet again at everything, even laughing ahead of favorite scenes about to show.  News, not good, needed an ambulance to carry my friend to another hospital.  Greatly appreciative of that laughter, time in denial of reality.

We're the Millers Featurette - No Ragrets (2013) - Jennifer Aniston ...

▶ 1:33

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjkLKKgOMRY

Aug 9, 2013 - Uploaded by Movieclips Coming Soon

We're the Millers Featurette - No Ragrets (2013) - Jennifer Aniston Movie HD A veteran pot dealer creates a ...

Fear of Color

My sister, older than me, loves pink.  PINK.  Sadly, she lives in a gated neighborhood.  Not much pink, if any, legal in that controlled universe.
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Saving colors on Pinterest I save a lot of pink, wishing it was hers.
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There's more, she has little pink inside her house.  Don't know why.
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I do know, when time passed, and the day arrived, my starter home finally needed painting, I felt the need to 'conform'.  Painting it a color that made me happy?  Oh no, can't do that.  More time passed, my starter home needed painting again.  Time had finally given strength, to be me.  On went the Monet green paint.  Wow.  Made me so happy.  Who was that person, conforming to the grand void of worrying about what other people think?
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Where does 'color' fear come from?


Pic, above, here.

When the several billion dollar lottery comes my way, I know exactly where some of the money will go.  A country house, above, and a town house, below, bought for my sister.  With plenty of cash for her to do the interiors, maintain a staff & her new pink lifestyle.


Pic, above, here.

Truly, I'm curious to know my sister, as the woman living with her pink.


Pic, above, here.

Yep, I see us, above, lounging by her country pool, drinking tea, dogs wearing their pink collars, and I finally meet my real sister.  Mom looking on, saying, "You 2 are ridiculous.  What are we doing for lunch?"


Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.
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When it comes to your favorite color, are you afraid to dive in?  Don't be.  Trust it.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

3 Gardens: What Changes Would You Make?

Three Garden Design 'changes', below.  Each gorgeous home/garden, snagged the attention of Muse at first glance, below.
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Scroll thru, below, does your Garden Design 'eye' see instant changes to be made?  Never meant to bash a Garden Design, simply to make living better, or accentuate architecture with Garden Design as the tipping point.


Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Top pic, above, beautiful home wildly close to the road.  Remove foundation plantings, add steps to open up front porch.  Plant an evergreen hedge at the sidewalk, growing to 4', and add a simple gate, matching the style of the home, at the front walk.  Greater privacy, a sense of greater space, better views from the house, and buffering from the toxins of passing cars.
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Middle pic, above, incredible quality, gate, pierced brick wall, plantings, urns.  Site urns a bit wider, their scale demands more space, once moved the gate/columns appear more generous, not so tight.
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Bottom pic, above, a tightly packed neighborhood, yet the porch is mostly private.  Go team.  To add the illusion of a larger garden, stain the fence 2 tones darker than the kaki from the porch floor.  I would also espalier sasanqua next to the fence.
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What did you see?  What changes did your eye want to make?
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Changes mentioned were merely the basics.  Making further changes I must know the owners, and see inside their homes.  Excepting the middle pic, it would be 'done'.  Did you notice the urns in the middle pic?  Reminds me of a recent client, her husband started pressure washing in their garden, and she caught him, and stopped him, before he removed the patina off every focal point.  Funny story now, only because everyone knows it was not funny in the moment, poor husband.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Furniture in the Garden: Choosing to Make it Recede

A trinity of furniture-in-the-garden pics, below, chosen for style, and to recede.  Beyond melding into the backdrop, these choices make each of the garden spaces feel/live larger.


Pic, above, here.

 
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Pic, above, here.

Putting together your garden is not the flippancy of oh-I-like-that, it's waking up, choosing to move forward, turning the page to a new chapter, accepting the historic layers of wiser minds, they're there to work with you, their Muse waiting for your epiphany, it's all for you too, sure, you'll have myriad headwinds, you aren't special in that, everyone does, some things will have to go materially/metaphorically, enjoy the light some bridges are best burned, warning you'll lose some people in your life, but you'll understand, in Truth, the deeper you go inward the more you outwardly connect to the people you've always needed in your life, perhaps deepest of all, if you are brave enough to truly create the garden in your heart the epiphany will arrive, you will understand, why G*d Almighty first created a garden.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Poison Ivy: Apple Cider Vinegar Cure

For decades, with the 1st small welts, I used over the counter cures.  Welts continued to spread, until I had to go to the doctor and get a shot.  Not a civilized shot, but a solid prick into a back cheek.
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That prick, a list of undesirables, inconvenience of getting an appointment, driving to the doctor, the waiting room, finally checking out, $$$.


Pic, above, here.

Twice this year, welts.  First time I searched online looking for a 'new' cure, perhaps there is a new over the counter drug to try.  Nope.

 
Pic, above, here.

Then, something to lock on, apple cider vinegar.  Too wild.  Perfumed myself like a well-made vinaigrette, generous dabs of apple cider vinegar on each poison ivy welt.


Pic, above, here.

Six to seven times a day, for about 6-7 days, using a q-tip, I put apple cider vinegar on the welts.  For 4-5 days it seemed stupid, not much happening.  Excepting the itch not too noticeable.  Finally, day 6, the welts gave up, dried out, nothing spread.
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Cured.
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Didn't want to share this after the first cure, maybe it was merely good luck.  Cured twice.  I'm hooked.


Pic, above, here.
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Of course I know what poison ivy looks like, but I didn't get it gardening.  More on that later.
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Telling you, because I wish someone had told me years ago.
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During the day, at job sites, I bring a tiny cruet of apple cider vinegar & q-tips in a zip lock bag.  The cure demands consistent application.  Applied at waking & getting into bed at nite, for sure.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Hidden Layer of Design in Plain View

In plain view all pics, below, the Garden Design affecting each photo.  A layer I've never read about in a Garden Design book nor heard spoken of in a Garden Design lecture, not mentioned in a garden show on TV.  I have written of it in past postings maybe 1-2 times.
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Designing my previous garden I had no awareness I was creating this 'unknown' layer of Garden Design seen in all of the pics, below.
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Living in my previous garden 30 years, beginning with bare Earth, this 'unknown' layer had to grow, perhaps 20 years worth.  Once arrived, I knew immediately it had been there much longer than my date of awareness.
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Do you see this unspoken layer of Garden Design, below?  Do you have it in your home?
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Enjoy the pics, below.  I'm a firm believer in epiphanies.  If you don't know this layer of Garden Design I'm focusing upon, below, hopefully you will see it with your eyes/heart and be able to give it a name.






























All pics, above, via Cote de Texas.
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The garden, above pics, paints the light inside the home.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Pot Cluster Double Axis

Moving backward thru these blog pages you'll discover several posts dedicated to the Pot Cluster.  Studying historic gardens across Europe for decades, this American was smitten by the Pot Cluster.  Often at a front door, often at a back door, often sprinkled somewhere in the garden.  Pot Cluster, I got the memo.
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There is a common thread with Pot Clusters, they are classic or interesting pots, with a choice array of plantings.  Occasionally the Pot Cluster is on a plinth, aka table.
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Whether studying in a historic garden attached to a modest cottage or 2nd3rd5th10th... home/castle of a monarch, there you'll find the Pot Cluster.
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What else to call it?  What would you name it?  Me?  The Pot Cluster.
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Last weekend, Cote de Texas sent me a personalized post, seemed that way anyway.  Within, she posted a double axis with a Pot Cluster, and didn't even know it.
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I adore a Garden Design class in a single photo.  Pot Cluster Garden Design class, below.  More, the home, below, is huge-historic, and the garden space, minuscule.  More than a Pot Cluster Garden Design Class you are also taking a lesson in creating a lush garden in a small amount of space.  How many layers do you see, creating a lush garden in a tiny realm?  Name those layers, describe them in winter.
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If you take a garden tour in Europe always pay extra for the tea/scones.  Most often, served inside.  A Garden Design study is nothing without seeing inside the house, discovering the axis into the garden, site lines, usage for interior, and exterior.  Flow must be entirely around a garden, and from house to garden, and garden to house.  Effortless, beautiful, seamless, no matter the necessities of hvac, water/hoses, etc....
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Enough, let's go inside.



Notice the lamp inside, above?  Same lamp, below.



Different time of day, below, and the lamp staged differently.



Prepared for a dinner party, below, sofa removed and table on axis with French doors into garden.




Interior & exterior of this home are a Garden Design class of Vanishing Threshold.
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No matter your price point, this is your Garden Design class.
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A friend I met at church lived in a welfare apartment.  She is a gardener.  98% found plants/pots/furnishings on her 2nd story balcony.  I had a blast designing her balcony with what she had, using every Garden Design layer used in the home, above.  Rearranged a few things inside too.
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That's the thing with me, I don't except the excuse, 'I don't have the money......'.  My story is backwards in postings, if you know a bit you know I did it without money.
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Excuse the vulgarity, mentioning money.  Perhaps it's because I remember well, in the 80's after college when my gardening began, and the Smith/Hawken garden catalogs arrived in the mailbox, I assumed those beautiful gardens were not for the likes of me, they were shot in gorgeous estates blah-blah how ridiculous those thoughts.  They slowed me down, and I don't want anyone else to be slowed by that, I've proven the money thing to be wrong.
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There's another thing the garden does for the house, above.  Will show it in next post.  Do you already know what it is, and in shock I've been able to refrain from putting it in this post?
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T  
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Why are there so few good gardens?  Why is it so difficult to create our own beautiful garden, at the front end?  Several layers, at the beginning.  Ignorance, we don't have the knowledge.  After beginning with ignorance we enter the phase of ineptitude.  Knowledge gained but applied incorrectly, typically using a fragment to expound the whole, with a strong bias towards understanding the map but not the territory.  

Masters Class: Adding Subsidiary Focal Points to a Focal Point

Focal points in your garden must be so wonderful they are fought over at your estate sale.
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One focal point per garden room, subsidiary focal points allowed.
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Pots in your garden must be so marvelous they never have to be planted.
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Tara's Trinity of focal points, above.
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The best focal points are placed on axis seen from myriad directions, and better, if each of those axis is not visible from the others.
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Focal points must have a focal point view in their opposite direction.
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No matter the slope of your land, focal points must be level.
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You must know these focal point tips within your DNA.
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A delight, below, seeing this pot recently.  Pretty all year, even when the herbacious plantings are dormant.
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What did you think, first seeing the pot, below?  Did the plantings, and their year-round essence enter into contemplation?


Pic, above, here.

Moving on. More details about siting and living with a focal point.  Contemplating a single focal point's effect upon your life, a Providential gift, using my focal point, below.
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Up front, seeing the urn & plinth, below, at a wholesale nursery, I was there buying items for a job, not to get myself a pot/plinth.  After making the purchase for the client job, in a hurry, my feet moved me over to the pot/plinth, you knew they would.  My DNA knew more than my lizard brain which kept saying, You're in a hurry, no time for this, and certainly no money.
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Wholesale pot/plinth were expensive, and wildly heavy.  Had 4 men put it into my pick-up truck.
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Into my garden, below, direct axis from the large bay window fronting my home, my previous 30 year home.



With the urn/plinth at my back, below, this is the view into that bay window.  Now you're entering the realm of Living with your focal point.  Not merely having your focal point.  Huge difference.  Huge.



Inside the bay window, below.  Living more deeply with the pot/plinth, having meals at the table, bringing my laptop to the table and working, putting together more journal pages at this table.



With the focal point urn/plinth at my back, below, turned to a different axis view, a subsidiary focal point.  Ironically a subsidiary focal point, within a subsidiary focal point.  Go me !  Know what I am talking about here?  Hope so.  The blooms of wisteria 'Amethyst Falls' are owning the day, once finished the dovecote recovers its dominance.



Turning to another axis, below, with the urn/plinth at my back, is another subsidiary focal point.  A planting designed to greet me as I enter/leave my driveway.



Another axis view, below, with the urn/plinth at my back, Laura watching me, totally acting as if I'm not there.



Another axis view, below, with the urn/plinth at my back.  This view another subsidiary focal point within a subsidiary focal point.  Who can deny the Chinese snowball is dominant?  After flowering the pair of adirondack chairs take their rightful place as subsidiary focal point.  And, destination.  When the snows of spring are this pretty, not about to walk to the chairs, harming the petals on the ground, or sit in the chairs, harming the petals in the chair.  Instead, swimming for days in the intoxicating beauty of the petals.


Bottom 7 pictures, shot in my garden.
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More fabulousity with this urn/plinth, above, the house is at the street with 7 neighbor's homes crowding in.  Do you see them?  Do they exist?  Not in my realm.
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This is garden design as Garden Design, capitals for the same reason as using it with Providence.
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Creating a focal point with the Garden Design 'rules' above creates Sacred space.  A moat of grace around your home, and life.
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Today, and for the past 14 months, my urn/plinth have been lying in the materials yard, on their side on a pallet, awaiting placement in our ca. 1900 American farmhouse.  Clearing invasives, renovating garden sheds, building new outbuildings, grading, drilling a well, renovations to the house, have all come ahead of starting the Garden.  Before moving I tried to tell Beloved what my Garden meant to me.  No words existed.  I have those words now, having been without my Garden for so long.  My Garden was my best Friend, unconditional love.
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Missing my Friend.
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Today, I'll do something I've only done 3-4x's.  I discovered it by accident, at present it's the most potent feel good drug I know.  I will sit in my materials yard for lunch, with accoutrements from my previous garden, about 10 pallets, Friends awaiting placement in my new Garden.  Sacred made Palpable.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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At the opposite of creating a Sacred space, I was on the phone yesterday with a client who had to remove an odd/ugly covered porch addition the previous homeowner had added.  More than ugly, more than unusable, the space felt 'evil'.  Didn't want to be in it or walk thru it to get to the back yard, or even see it.  The owner felt it, and her friend, a client who referred me, felt it too.  The 'evil' room is  now gone, a new space built, with subsidiary gifts.  All the 'evil'?  Gone !

Dovecote or Catcote

Dovecote, below, with a few adjustments I see something different.
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Slightly larger, deeper, and sited at about 8', with a chicken coop ladder.  Voila.  A perch for cats.


Pic, above, here.
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I can see my youngest, Laura, loving this.  She was conceived/born in my previous garden.  Her parents left by neighbors who moved away.
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Until it's made, a long while from today, it's just another thing on the list, I get to decide if it goes onto the house, my conservatory or the coop.  Maybe by the time the carpenter is called, I'll have convinced myself I 'need' 3 !
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T