Monday, March 20, 2017

Tasha Tudor & Robert E. Smith: Ahead of Their Time, Living in the Past

Tiny historic cottage, in Louisiana, was moved to a new site and given its historic interiors, exterior & garden, below.
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Immediately, moth to flame, I noticed the historic exterior color trinity, green-brown-white, below.
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And, its subsidiary color, golden harvested wheat. 


COTE DE TEXAS:

A complete historic (rare to see overdose-on-a-theme) front porch, below.  Furnishings, lighting, colors, footings are brick piers, probably not a lot of stone in Louisiana delta.  
  
COTE DE TEXAS:

Pigeonnier, below.  

 

Add a run to the pigeonnier, and it's a perfect chicken coop, above/below.




Before/after, above/below.





 The garden, above, Smith copied from another historic site.


Axis view, above.  
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Copying the historic template, Robert E. Smith, Antiquaire, created a world.   More, within the world a manner of making a living.
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Before Robert E. Smith there was Tasha Tudor, Jill Adams-Vancimalano said of Tasha Tudor, "She was ahead of her time, but she lived in the past."  Tudor also copied historic templates of home & garden, then moved in to stay, finding a manner of making a living.
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More amazing they did it without internet.
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More than once I've been told, "Quit living in the past."  I just smile.  Really, someone thinks they can judge another person's relationship to G*d and how they choose to live on this Earth?  That smile?  It's a Cheshire cat smile.  You know the one, it says, Bless your heart, without uttering a word.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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Thank you Joni Webb, Cote de Texas for writing about Robert E. Smith.  If you like this tidbit about Smith's garden, the full article, here.     
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We're still living with a temporary Chicken Coop, focusing on other renovations.  Glad of it.  Pigeonaire, above, gives more scope for the imagination.  Brick piers, above, make me think the vernacular historic brick piers under front porches in rural middle-Georgia, where I live, were chosen as an 'upgrade'.  Why?  The homes are set upon stone piers.  Sadly, our stone piers were painted at some point.  Our stone mason said sandblasting the paint off the stone piers will probably harm the mortar.  

Friday, March 17, 2017

Garden Design: Jackie Kennedy

This is my sister's favorite era, below.  It didn't last long.  Sister, same age as tiny Caroline, below, had a terrible surprise about a year later, I showed up in a crib.
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National news and Life magazine were rife with pics and film of the Kennedy's during my earliest years.  Cars.  In those days, they were CARS.  Even my dad worked in iconic design, have you seen the casing of a Saturn V booster, or the capsule of an Apollo rocket ?
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Perhaps the prettiest images remembered though, are the Kennedy worlds.  Vietnam, Marchin' Luther King, the University of Texas tower shooting, dominated our black white console tv with rabbit ears.  At my age, no cognition, merely reaction to visuals.   Though I must admit, even so young, I knew the beehive hairdo was wacko.
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Of course those Kennedy visuals were iconic.  The world's top photographers, and who was the interior decorator, below?  Which international couturier designed the dress, below?  Which maestro cut her hair?  So many layers of design, and professional experts.
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It's a potent Garden Design conceit, below.  Paint it all the same color, overdose on a theme, form/function with exterior furniture, keep it simple.  This is an iconic Garden Design example of your garden as backdrop, merely a proscenium, YOU are the star.  


Jackie and Caroline:
Pic, above, here.
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Once I began to study Garden Design deeply I realized my schooling truly began during the Kennedy era.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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Remember well mom's last salon appointment for her weekly beehive 'do'.  While they were finishing her up, of course she brought me, no baby sitters, I decided to investigate one of the hair dryers.  You know, the sit down, cover your head type.  At the head was an interesting coupling with screw.  More interesting, when unscrewed the entire head assembly pops apart and rolls into various directions, loudly.  Who knew there could be so many components, I hit the jackpot.  A snitty rat faced balding man came toward me leading his parade with a black plastic comb pointing his march.  He was so rude.  He made me stop my investigations, and I wanted to do more.  Odious man.
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Arriving for next week's hair appointment, mom stopped at the door, NO CHILDREN ALLOWED.  That previous week was her last beehive.  Go me !!
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After 3 decades I know the points in a woman's life she's most likely to hire me, when the last child begins school, when the first child is about to graduate high school, when the first child marries, when the first grandchild arrives.  And, within that list, of course, I know which is the most popular.  Have you already guessed?
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With the first grandchild.  More than a first grandchild, closing the chapter of  'doing' for others at great expense to self.  Husband always bought his fun/toys, kids had their due, now, 'my turn', total double dog dare anyone to make a remark other than positive.  That woman is powerful.
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If women took that power sooner in their lives, the world would be a different place.  Thus ends today's feminist lesson.  

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Stumpery

Beloved has been clearing invasives from the woodland for over a year.  Months of clearing, months of burning, or at least waiting for burn permits to be released.  The last purge of invasives, 2 staggering mounds of trees.
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We drove the Gator, before Christmas, toward sunset, with glasses of wine, to admire those behemoth piles. A single pile would have provided, beyond measure, everything needed for, below.  You can imagine my excitement.  A STUMPERY !  My personal Gator mound tour included meandering, slowing, pausing for stories of the greater feats & daring  & skill required.  I was locked on the stumps.
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Gave him his time for manly bravado, then, "I want to make a stumpery."  Two issues against it, he had never seen or heard of a stumpery and "I" could obviously not do it myself.  Describing a stumpery, his face got a 'look'.  "Prince Charles has one.", did not go over well.
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It's wildly amazing how huge mounds burn down to 3 cups of ash.  My stumpery included.  Dream dashed.

The Stumpery - a garden made out of old  tree stumps and filled in with hostas and ferns...Highgrove, England:
Pic, above, here.
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For reference, a few details about filthy lucre.  Beloved worked his Caterpillar months of weekends, clearing, and contouring at pond's edge and its dam.  One portion of the work,  about 20%,  towards the end, he decided to get another contractor in and knock the job out.  The bid came in at $21,000.00.  He was tempted, but a pole barn still needs to be built.  To speed things up, instead of hiring that contractor, he hired a large dump truck/driver for a weekend while he was in his Caterpillar.
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The clearing/burning/contouring has encompassed almost 2 acres.  The math is easy, the total prodigious.  


Prince Charles's Highgrove Gardens.. the treehouse:
Pic, above, here.
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Such visions I had, of my stumpery.
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Garden & Be Well,    XOT

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Partake the Chiaroscuro in Your Garden

First, who among you already partake of chiaroscuro in your garden?  Dawn, dusk, both, a favorite?   Have you ever burst outside, to partake, after unexpectedly noticing from a window?  Do you have a singular, lifetime moment, chiaroscuro in your garden?
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I've never shot a chiaroscuro in my garden.  How could I?  Those moments too deeply lived.
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Quite good comparison, below, to chiaroscuro experienced recently, in my garden.

moonlight:
Pic, above, here.

Crossing the threshold of chiaroscuro, below.  Mere moments too.

Winter Swan.. | by E.M. van Nuil:
Pic, above, here.

Again, moments away, below, from a complete chiaroscuro.

Great Dixter, East Sussex:
Pic, above, here.

apositivelybeautifulblog2.tumblr.com/post/104144000658:
Pic, above, here.
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Again, moments away from chiaroscuro, above, a life prize, subsidiary to the hunt for chiaroscuro.  Seems odd, we are given chiaroscuro, here, when so much that is not to be had or known, those things requiring philosophies or Belief, momentarily given.
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Late, a few nights ago, I walked in the garden, not seeking chiaroscuro, my mind, sadly, upon the profane, not sacred.  There it was, bathing me, hugging me, lifting me up, first noticed at my feet, pure, liquid mercury.  Quickly glancing up, there it was, moon thru our century old pecan trees, beyond what the top pic conveys.
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Made me smile, looking up, in thanks, and Belief.  What of the profane, bringing me to that moment?  Profane became a color, banished by chiaroscuro.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T

Monday, March 13, 2017

Classic Garden Furniture

Deep narrative.  Over a period of years shrub/tree, below, lovingly pruned into a thing of beauty & function.  How do I know?  Aside from the obvious, had a witch hazel tree in my 30 year cottage garden, I pruned the same.
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Layers of this story, below, timeless.  Stone, furnishings, vanishing threshold, invitation, function, colors, etc.
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With classics, each iteration, unique.  Go deep into classic garden simplicities, results more deeply you.  Another counterintuitivity of Garden Design.
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 :
Pic, above, here.
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Buy the classics, above, new, table/chairs, all from Ikea.   (Not a promotion nor receiving paid endorsement.)

LÄCKÖ Table, outdoor IKEA Easy to keep clean – just wipe with a damp cloth. The materials in this outdoor furniture require no maintenance.

ÄLMSTA Chair IKEA Each piece of furniture is unique as it is handmade. Furniture made of natural fiber is lightweight but also sturdy and durable.

STORSELE Armchair IKEA The furniture is handmade and therefore unique, with rounded shapes and nicely detailed patterns.
This little table, below, perfect in the garage.  Perhaps you need a larger table.  Life in my Cottage, I would place the next day's 'take' for jobs, on a table at the back door in the garage.  No garage at our ca. 1900 farmhouse, the 'take' is set on a buffet in the foyer the nite before.
ASKHOLMEN Table for wall, outdoor IKEA Space saving as the table can be folded down when not in use.
Life throws a curve ball, below.
IKEA PS VÅGÖ Chair, outdoor IKEA
These chairs remind me of a Hercule Poirot episode set during the 30's at a centuries old English estate.  Oddly, they're perfect for the shed at the Potager.
SKARPÖ Armchair, outdoor IKEA The drain hole in the seat lets water drain out. Can be stacked, which helps you save space.
Six pics, above, Ikea
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Image result for hercule poirot
Pic, above, here.

I know !  Liking those chairs reminds me of being a teenager, and knowing beyond a doubt mom had gone round the bend.  Whatever, I still like the chairs, if they pass the sit test, to the farm they come.
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Peculiarity is a layer of Garden Design.  If you love something enough, it will work.  Within parameters, but it will work.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Friday, March 10, 2017

Low Tech Hidden Fence

Often when fences go into a landscape, they can be hidden in plain view, below.
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Better, the fence, hidden in foliage, can be simple, posts & rolled wire.

Playing with Castles - Ben Pentreath Inspiration:
Pic, above, here.
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Image result for quotes about fences

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Small children, pets, a pool, many reasons for a fence in the garden.  No reason a fence must look like a fence.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT






Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Garden Design Assignment

Oddly, I feel most people hiring me are intuitive about creating a garden.  What they lack is a garden education, a garden vocabulary.  And are smart enough to ask for help.  Which is quite bold.
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This garden, below, perfection.  At the front end of my career, I would not have understood this garden.  Pure architecture.  More than a backhand down the line winner, it is taking the net for an overhead smash, and better than catching your opponent wrong footed, your ball hits them in the solar plexus, knocking the air out of them, they fall backward on their rear, struggling for breath.  You've won the point.  Yes, this garden, below, feels that good.

Quincy Hammond, Landscape Architect, Paris. I would like to add one focal point to this wonderful backdrop of clipped greens:
Pic, above, here.
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However, that's not where I'm going, how-wonderful-it-is, with this garden, above.  Instead, a practice garden design for you.  Mentally remove your entire landscape.  Next, with the garden design style, above, use only this style design to plan your new landscape.  Do not worry about specific plants, put in the shapes.
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Take it a step further, doodle it on paper, with your house & property line drawn.  Go.  Have fun.
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Garden & Be Well,    XOT
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Yes, I was a competitive tennis player, won district singles 4A twice, then skipped my senior year of high school to go to college.  Never played tennis again.  Oddly, I was never a good tennis player, merely competitive.  Yes, I made tennis a contact sport, story above is true.  Gladly, left behind 'competitive'.  Ironically, it's what I love greatly about gardens, there is already a winner, Nature.  She lets me play, by her rules, and happy for my winning, by her rules.  Teamwork.
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Beloved has commented more than once about how I walk.  It's plain, streamlined, calm, the exact walk perfected on tennis courts across Texas, the same walk I used to turn away from a gagging girl, before she got up,  'walking' to the baseline, as if zero had happened, I have a tournament to win, don't slow me down.
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Why not play tennis?  Could never do social tennis, only what I knew.  Love watching Serena Williams play tennis.  Whoa, curtsy to the queen !
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Garden, above, designed by Quincy Hammond.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Gertrude Jekyll: Rusticity & Formality

Rusticity with formality, below.  Gertrude Jekyll, Munstead Wood.  Her reign still informed many gardens I studied across Europe.  And, as a girl, a large garden/home visited ca. 1967, built decades previous, in Augusta, GA, owned by Edison Marshal.

Gertrude Jekyll and her garden at Munstead Wood (UK):
Pic, above, here.

Macro drawings of Jekyll's garden, above/below.  Clearly, rusticity & formality.

Image result for gertrude jekyll munstead wood
Pic, above, here.

Going into the micro garden, below.

 
Pic, above, here.

When I came back from my 1st study tour of historic British gardens, I had to create a manner of drawing them.  College merely taught incurves/outcurves blah-ti-awful-blah.  Amusing to find this drawing, below, today, it's exactly what I've done, drawing garden plans.  With embarrassment, assuming it was too simplistic.  No more.  How to draw this garden, below?  Easy.  Design the house and paths first, then fill in the leftover voids.

 
Pic, above, here.

Layers of a Jekyll garden design, below.  Macro-micro.

Image result for gertrude jekyll munstead wood
Pic, above, here.

Jekyll's garden, below, Munstead Wood.  She would have loved using a drone for her gardening.

Annotated aerial view of the garden at Munstead Wood
Pic, above, here.

Classic Gertrude Jekyll flower border, below.  Amusing.  Great reminder she had 15 acres and 14 experienced gardeners working for her.  Her garden easily copied in style, not content.  Flowers, below, easily switched to flowering shrubs.


Pic, above, here.

A bit of her woodland, below, at Munstead Wood.

 
Pic, above, here.
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During Jekyll's lifetime her home/property was entered on foot, no motor entry concession made to the modern era.  After WWI, she wrote of her altered means in gardening due to the expense of labor.  .
Since 2008 garden labor contracted again.  Plants, finally, caught up to their true value.  Labor expense plus growers/wholesalers going out of business, consolidation.  30 years putting gardens into the ground, last year began putting a 30 day guarantee of plant pricing.  When gas prices go volatile we put gas prices in the bid at a given set rate.  If gas goes up, so does the price, if the price goes down so does the price.  More, we only provide work given in the bid.  No more letting a client ask our men, "Need ya'll to get all the privet taken out behind the stream.", labor too expensive, instead, those requests are a Change Order.  Commercially, currently, each man is billed $40/hour, the going rate.  Multiply that by 5 men for an hour of pulling privet.  Not a price any business wants to absorb. .
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This isn't about money.  Yet, in the end, filthy lucre is involved.  My cottage garden of 30 years, a mix of formal & rustic, had a price.  A price never totaled into dollars.  Why would I?  My hunt wasn't the bill, it was my life.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Monday, March 6, 2017

Rilke in the Garden: The Pollen Path

In my early 20's I shared a bit of good news with my mother-in-law.  In her brief reply I learned a life lesson, to share my joy is to diminish it.  Within her reply, realization, there had always been others  taking pleasure in diminishing joy.
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Worse than having an empty quiver, I had no quiver at all.  With that sharing I commenced, without awareness for years, building my quiver, and a delightful array of arrows.
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Entering into garden making, for myself, became freedom.  Gardening is the working of mind & body, while the heart works in grace seemingly untended, yet wildly abundant.  Decades passed before the simplest epiphany of all, Life began in a garden.
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One of the best arrows discovered?  To share my sorrow, with my garden, is to diminish it.  List of my best arrows could form a book, but that's not where I'm going today.  Found a bit of Rilke yesterday, "Sadness is life holding you in its hands and changing you."  More fully, "Loneliness is just space expanding around you.  Trust uncertainty.  Sadness is life holding you in its hands and changing you.  Make solitude your home."  

Ewa in the Garden: 10 Photos of Sissinghurst Castle Garden:
Pic, above, here.
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Ah, uncertainty.  Trust uncertainty?  Moving from my garden of 3 decades, my best friend, replaced with the 'feeling' of uncertainty, yet my bow cutting thru uncharted waters without fear, knowing this chapter, Not Gardening, is a gift, and I must be in thanks, pay attention to its lessons.  Perhaps this new garden, around our ca. 1900 home, is holding me tighter than I could possibly know.  I will trust that.  An arrow, as a gift, from my 30 year garden.
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Discovering more Rilke,
  "I want to beg you, as much as I can, dear sir, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."
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Ironically, Beloved, frustrated, asked, "What are you doing?  Where are you headed?"  Told him. "I trust where I am going, and trusting how I get there."  Further detail, ineffable.  That went over well, pure confidence in my path with zero words.  Him thinking I'm cavalier, yet me beyond earnest, trusting G*d.  Perhaps a little Ovid, "Take rest; a field that has rested gives a beautiful crop."  I am a resting field, knowing to veer, not trust, my beautiful crop will not ripen.  
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In early January, 2001, I put German artist Wolfgang Laib into my journal, his "Wolfgang Laib: A Retrospective" was touring USA.  He's well known for his beeswax corridors, and a photo of his 1997 beeswax corridor was included.  Ah, this must be the Pollen Path, Joseph Campbell spoke of with Bill Moyers.
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From the Navajo Pollen Path, "Oh beauty before me, beauty behind me, beauty to the right of me, beauty to the left of me, beauty above me, beauty below me, I am on the Pollen Path.  In the house of life I wander, On the pollen path."
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"Mr. Laib sees salvation in what is most fragile and fugitive.", NYTimes, Amei Wallach.  More, "A growing number of scholars, critics, museums and foundations have been focusing on the relationship between artists and immanence in part to understand why they so often come into confilict with politicians and established religious institutions."




 "Priona Gardens is a unique garden designed by the late Henk Gerritsen. He called it his own version of the Dutch style "dreamt nature". The Garden is a relaxed take on naturalistic planting with a whimsical enthusiasm for art and high horticulture, from outsized dahlias to topiary chickens".    _/////_:
Pic, above, here.
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Further, about doubt, from Rilke,
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 "Your doubt may become a good quality if you train it. It must become knowing, it must become critical. Ask it, whenever it wants to spoil something for you, why something is ugly, demand proofs from it, test it, and you will find it perplexed and embarrassed perhaps, or perhaps rebellious. But don’t give in, insist on arguments and act this way, watchful and consistent, every single time, and the day will arrive when from a destroyer it will become one of your best workers — perhaps the cleverest of all that are building at your life."

 english cottage:
Pic, above. here.
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Whew.  That is a sharp pointed arrow for the quiver, feels like a dagger aimed inward, at times.  Don't be afraid, trust the Pollen Path.  An arrow well used, and greatly shared, since having its epiphany, "What would I do tomorrow if I were not afraid?"  Every solution before the question, fear based.  After asking the question, though fear remains, myriad answers arrive, none fear based.  Those answers are along the Pollen Path.  
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Had zero clue, Not Gardening, would be a rich zone, merely thought it would be something to grin/bear.  Instead, the tiny amount of garden already here, several century old pecan trees are sprinkled as nurturing baguas.  Old souls, understanding the Pollen Path.  Their yield as dependent upon it as mine.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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House & land renovations ahead of planting the first fruit tree, potager, pleasure garden, woodland walk, shrubbery, etc.  Thought this spring would be planting, now it seems fall.  I will trust that, endure, and pay close attention along the Pollen Path.  How precise G*d takes care in lessons for me.  Not Gardening is a chapter.

Friday, March 3, 2017

A New Trinity: With Grasses?

If you ask me, Do you like ornamental grasses?  Long pause.  Then a bit of internal rumination, Don't think I want to know this person.  My verbal response, Depends on how they're used.
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This garden, below, creates a new trinity, its own world.  Nothing hodge-podge-lodge or dinky-is-stinky about these ornamental grasses.  More, hydrangeas and trees too ?  Cup runneth over.
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Trees, hydrangeas & ornamental grasses.  Wicked.

hydrangea arborescens hedge and ornamental grass:
Pic, above, here.
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Exciting to see a 'new' garden.  I'm all in.
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Interesting tree stakes.  Lots of wind.  Zero protection against deer.  Greatly protective.  I once lost a large sasanqua after transplanting.  Winds.  Rocked too often by wind, new roots continually ripped from the soil.  Loved that sansanqua.  Once dead, called my mentor Margaret Moseley, told her the story of my terrible deed against the sasanqua.  "Taaaaara, (in her great southern accent), I know exactly what happened.  When I move a plant like that I always place a few large rocks atop its roots."
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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Image may contain: 1 person, sitting, outdoor and nature
Oil portrait, above, Margaret Moseley.
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Margaret has been gone since 2015, she lived to 98 .  Miss her terribly.  She is a great story in my life, will tell it another day.  Many hours I walked her garden with her.  The stone bench she's seated upon, has a great history.  A pair of slave cabins, mostly rotted, not entirely, were near her property.  Small, both slave cabins had a fireplace with large hearth stone.  With permission, she moved both hearthstones into her garden for benches, using stones from their flues for legs.

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Tell Me About the Foundation Plantings in Your Life

Moth to a flame, below, 1st time seeing this style 'landscaping' in England ca. 1988, during my 1st historic garden design study tour.  Skeletal DNA danced in its helix.
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No drifts, no incurves, no outcurves, no tall-something-focal-point-expensive-tree at the left corner, no ubiquitous ridiculous superfluous foundation planting, no monoculture lawn parading as culture, no monthly mow-blow-go, no patch of hot house annuals grown from plugs and trucked to a box store, the 'safe' personality chosen and presented as character, no fertilizer killing earth worms and poisoning groundwater, no allowance for pollinators, just conforming to the highest point of the bell curve, because it's a point inculcated in secondary education as acceptable, when it should be considered a personal failure to reach that point.
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A 'manor' house cannot be a 'subdivision' house.  Sometimes, a client is indeed in a subdivision, yet know they need to set their home free from the shackles of subdivision landscaping.  Great pleasure, releasing a manor house from its bindings of subdivision bell curve 'success'.          

The Echo Chamber - Ben Pentreath Inspiration:
Pic, above, here.
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Garden, above, quite personal.  I want to know the story.  Notice the roller at the front door?  I get the feeling Somerset Maugham, and a few others are coming for cocktails & dinner this evening, above.
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The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger. W. Somerset Maugham
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When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character. W. Somerset Maugham
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Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.
Somerset Maugham
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The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill. W. Somerset Maugham
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Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul. W. Somerset Maugham
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It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do. Moliere
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The insufferable arrogance of human beings to think that Nature was made solely for their benefit, as if it was conceivable that the sun had been set afire merely to ripen men's apples and head their cabbages. Cyrano de Bergerac
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Sometimes in someone's gestures you can notice how a parent is somehow inhabiting that person without there being any awareness of that. Sometimes you can look at your hand and see your father. Sam Shepard
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Personality is everything that's false in a human: everything that's been added on to him and contrived. Sam Shepard
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All quotes, above, here
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Garden Design: Life Happens in the Margins

The trinity that remains, below.  Noticed decades ago, what remains of a good garden.  Can you label the remnant layers?
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Resultado de imagen para palacios abandonados europa-pinterest:
Pic, above, here.
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Open, wooded, stone focal point.
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Pasture/meadow, woodland, stone focal point.
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What I haven't known for decades, about that trinity, is its place in the hierarchy of Nature.  Had to serendipitously  learn its role.
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Did you know there is a function of meadow next to woodland?
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High density next to low density.
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Do you know where this is leading?
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 Maximum pollinator habitat.
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All roads lead back to, Life happens in the margins.
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No accidents.
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With a garden, the trinity is literal.  Not psycho babble, life-happens-in-the-margins, about creating more space in your life for calm.  Don't understand?  Create & live in a historically designed garden.  You'll get the memo.  
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT