Styling: Eddie Ross

Immediately obvious, below, good staging/styling.  Expected in the 80's, rare in the teens.  So rare, I stopped to read the article, and discover who styled it.  Eddie Ross, for Better Homes & Gardens magazine.  Had the good fortune, lecturing in Virginia moons ago, to have dinner with Eddie & his partner Jaithan Kochar.  Total knock out pair of men, many layers of talent.


Pic, above, here.

Had to smile at their caption, above.  No cooking for me at a party, instead, choosing stewardship of guests & self.  Aka, having a great time.  In addition, choosing stewardship of cleaning/dishes after a party, I don't want guests cleaning, am wildly selfish wanting play time with them.  Cleaning after guests leave, using the time to give thanks, enjoying thoughts of party conversations.  Cleaning as a focused form of stewardship.
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Friend, client, mentor, Mary Kistner had the best lunches, often for just the 2 of us.  Always a well thought out menu, plates/glasses, floral arrangement, music, and a neighbor hired to serve, clear, clean.  Time with Mary was always sparking.  Our Muse's in fabulous dance.  


Pic, above. here.

My 80's 'eye' wants to put a rock under the right side of the pot with the gorgeous hydrangea, above.


Pic, above, here.
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Sublime color trinity, above, blues/grays/whites with subsidiary oxblood.  More great advice in a caption, above, but won't be using cut branches from our field, our guys saw a 3" diameter copper head snake last Friday.  
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

In the Garden: Rosemary for Remembrance

Living rural, going to town, the print shop specifically, is a community hub.  Who knew?  I go a lot.  Luckily most of what I need can be emailed, and ready for pick-up.    Living rural, the people you see at the print shop are the same in the grocery store, entertainments at the town square, restaurants, DAR meetings, antique shops, garden tours, church, etc.
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For the 2 years living rural I've had the good fortune of having a talented, cheerful young woman help me at the print shop. She's not true to the reputation of her era.  Early 20's, married, young child, working full-time and taking college classes, no sense of entitlement, just buckup, get it done.  A few weeks ago she suffered a loss, her grandfather.  Rutt roh, I knew it would be bad, having lost my much too dear grandmother at age 22.  Soon discovered her grandfather practically raised her.  Ugh.
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Had to get her a rosemary plant.  Rosemary is for remembrance.  I know she likes to cook, rosemary is evergreen and blooms in winter.  Her rosemary became a hunt, finally stopped at a small local nursery I've passed for 2 years, no time to investigate, now on mission-rosemary.  They had plenty & on sale.  It was hard, but walked out of the shop with a single rosemary.  My garden still not at the planting rosemary layer.  Patience.  Plant too soon, and I know it will have to be moved.  Her rosemary, at my house before gifting, needing watering/sun, placed on a porch table, its scent strong in the breeze.  Moved away from quite a few mature rosemary, dear friends each.  It's been difficult not going back to the nursery for more.



Pic, above, here.

"I plant rosemary all over the garden, so pleasant is it to know that at every few steps one may draw the kindly branchlets through one's hand, and have the enjoyment of their incomparable incense,and I grow it against walls, so that the sun may draw out its inexhaustible sweetness to greet me as I pass."  Gertrude Jekyll

 
Pic, above, here.

Rosemary is deer proof, and insect/drought tolerant.
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"Flowers could signify a personal friend as well as a distant hero. William Gordon wrote George Washington (1732-1799) in 1786, “Shall I endeavor to furnish your garden…with flowers & plants that may keep up the remembrance of an absent friend.” "

"Becoming a gardener helped a person understand the cycle of life & death.."
 From Barbara Wells Sarudy.

 
Pic, above, here.

Anticipation is great, where rosemary will be planted at my ca. 1900 home.
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More than giving rosemary for remembrance, I hope it's an invitation to her own garden.  A friend awaiting her, a friend that will help her grieve her grandfather, no matter where she gardens in the future, her garden will always be there, supporting her through all the years she'll be without her grandfather, and future losses awaiting their turn at her doorstep.
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"A garden is a grand teacher....Above all it teaches entire trust."  Gertrude Jekyll
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Still Life in the Mission Statement

Part of my personal Garden Design mission statement includes having the accoutrements of gardening look like a Still Life where ever they may be set, zero effort, just-is.  Rarely used, this farmer's hat stays in my mobile office, aka little ugly van, at all times, it came out in the rains last week at a pair of jobsites.  Today there is time to get it stowed properly.





Had to get paint last weekend, above, for a triplet of chairs found for the harvest table.  This particular tableau, above, perhaps the most honest literal translation of USA gardening in the macro.  Seeds to the left, plant killers to the right.  Of course plenty of pollinator killers to choose from too.  Can't make this stuff up.  Providence is paying attention.



Sourcing plants last weekend, above.  Antique shop, where I bought the chairs mentioned earlier, next door to the nursery.  Jobsite receiving the palms, above, first of its type for me, raw & emotional.  Will write about it soon.

  

Came home from a jobsite, above, last week with a gift of  bounty.

  

Pomegranates forming beautifully, above.  Never had a pomegranate until moving into this ca. 1900 house 2 years ago.



Two nites ago, above, dinner on the back deck, homemade lemon pie, and the year's first use of the Haviland 'Morning Glory' china.  Small token of appreciation to Providence, switching of chinas/ironstones, honoring His seasons.



Chickens, above, enjoying first fruits of vegetable garden.  Me enjoying them, every day.  There is no waste from the kitchen.  Toting them scraps last week, I got nailed.  "Toast?", "They like it toasted.", was my best answer.  Chicken Whisperers, understand completely.  Why do I like chickens?  They are wildly amusing, and deeply calming.

    

We had cause to close the back door last week, 1st time ever.  It's on-the-list, but until then it's rather interesting.  This had been the original back porch, where I stood to take the pic, enclosed ca. 1960'ish.  The original roof line here, deep, extremely deep.  Facing south west, it never had the sun.  Fifty foot central hall, 11' ceilings, 4 coal fireplaces, front porch deep/wide facing east, this house was rocking it ca. 1900.  Taking advantage of initial design details led me to think brilliantly.  Writing soon, about that brilliant thinking, many clients have it too, & better labeled, Danger Will Robinson.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Color: Use as A Tool

Color, as a magical force, below.
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Fence, below, extends architecture of the house.
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Don't know any of their constraints, below.  Simply a charming garden.
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If the garden, below, is tiny, staining the fence a green/black, instantly enlarges the space.  Pop.  And, makes the fence disappear.
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Merely using color as a tool.
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If the house has shutters, below, often that is the color for the fence.


Pic, above, here .
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Leave no layer of your Garden Design without thoughts/consequences.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T

Letting Your Muse Play

For a week I knew Father's Day would be all mine, alone in the garden.  Anticipation was a drug.  Yesterday morning arrived, poof/voila, away he trotted and beloved time with Muse began.  The only concerns were possible snakes in the storage where I had to hunt/gather, and rain.
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Ahead of pulling the plastic back, below.  Cell phone clipped to hip, thick garden shoes on, I said to myself, You could die doing this.
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Hunting an old fireplace mantle, and a door to use as desk top, instead the first thing I found was a missing iron gate, below.  Tears erupted down my face.  Whoa.  Who knew it would mean so much, finding my missing gate.  Ridiculous yes, boo hoo, those tears, but they were hot and earnest.  Go figure, another learning moment about my relationship with my garden.



Carried the missing gate, below, to its partner that has been safely stowed the entire 2 years living here.



My previous garden, below.  Looking from sideyard, into backyard.



My previous garden, below, looking from backyard to sideyard.



Probably a year away from installing the gates in my new garden.  Their position already planned.  Other layers ahead of the gates.
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Time with Muse yesterday a gift.  Creativity is not linear thinking.  Alone, there were zero questions/admonitions, 'What are you doing in the garden today? ', 'When will you be done?' , 'Why?', 'No, don't do that.' etc.   Muse does not respond to that type of thinking.  Muse takes organically, all given from the heart, and sprinkles pixie dust from other realms.
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A twist on Rossetti's Blessed Damozel.  One lover on earth the other in heaven.  Muse, not bound solely to earth.
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Those days of anticipation about gardening yesterday?  If I had known the depth of joys to arrive, it would have been similar to anticipating Christmas, age 5.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO T
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Ryan Gainey: Father's Day Thanks

Last year Ryan Gainey died.  International Garden Design star, many in Atlanta, GA had the good fortune to know him from the 80's before well-deserved fame arrived.
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Before fame Ryan was merely eccentric. Before fame he was already Atlanta's Garden Design star.  Our good fortune was Ryan taking us along for his ride of knowledge.  He merely increased his Garden Design mentoring as time passed.  Sharing his garden for all, at every opportunity.
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A recent article, below, packs an epiphany, for me,

A famous Decatur gardener died last year. What happened to his house and garden?

 Posted by Dan Whisenhunt  June 11, 2017

Reading the article, above, gave me a fuller picture of Ryan.  Ryan the man without children, Ryan a gay man, had been patriarchal towards all of us loving gardens, all the while we knew of his name.


Pic, above, here.

It's what Ryan did with his own garden, in his will, any father would do.  Love his child.  And what a child.  A child of beauty, strength, and great depths of historical knowledge, embracing all who enter, bestowing the pact Ryan had with Providence.
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This is too small but I'll go there anyway.  Thank you Ryan.  Happy Father's Day.



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

A Long Island House & Garden

Habitually Chic, Heather Clawson, shares a garden every few weeks, sometimes longer, many new & wildly wonderful to me.  Recently, below, Heather hit it out of the ball park.  Again.
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Showing interiors first, it was obvious, this home, all pics here,  must have a garden.  Interior pics flowed, each with an incredible floral arrangement.  Anticipation mounted with myriad interiors, then an aside about finding a previous article about the house and it had garden photos, which she included.  Who is this woman?  Feels like she's working for me, bird dogging good gardens.
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The house/garden, is in Architectural Digest, here.



Wish the photo shoot had a video of staging, and arranging all the flowers, followed with a tour of the garden.  A garden designer, I'm fascinated with the skills of floral arrangers, these, below, seem 'not arranged'.  The highest accolade in my lexicon.














More pics of this home/garden, and charming article, here.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Heather Clawson's new book, Creativity at Work.

The Accidental Garden

Moving into our ca. 1900 home 2 years ago this month, I remember vividly a moving truck backed into the drive, below, unloading these potted plants, near midnight, temp hi 80's, humidity hi 90's, and it was the 3rd trip unloaded that day.
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I dug no plants to move, the only plants moved are in these pots, below.  Pots not moved since arrival.  Have not gardened yet.  Beloved has spent 2 years removing invasives, clearing for roads, reconditioning pond/dam, grading, renovating sheds, house, painting, irrigation,  etc.
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Late spring/early summer Beloved was beyond himself wanting tomatoes.  No potager yet, we walked the garden picking a spot, temporary, for his tomatoes.  On his own, he decided the chosen spot was too far away, and he brought a dozen large black plastic pots to the drive, below.



Yes, this was a drive, above/below.  What had been a single-car-garage in the real estate ad began life as a single carriage barn, a 2-seat sport model carriage at most, with a long rotted away wood floor by the time we 1st looked at the property.  Seller, realtor, inspector, us, were quite mum's-the-word-on-that-'garage'. Beloved put in the stone wall, stopping the flow of water into the 'garage', which is now a shed.  



Tree & pots, below, are on the property line.  Typically historic, house near the road, facing east, at a property line, allowing space for an orchard on the other side of the house.






Chairs, above, still painted the same green from my previous garden.



From the deck, Beloved's tomatoes, below.  Close to the house, they've earned a permanent spot.  Will prepare potager beds before fall planting, below, trimmed with bricks from our chimneys, alas, removed for safety.  Granite gravel, #89, best with the color of our house, quarry no more than a mile away.



See the chairs in front of the shed, above?  Nice trick, and an even better place to have lunch or sit late evening with my cats.
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Having the potager this close to the house, pure accident.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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Pics shot yesterday/today.

What's Their Next Layer?

This one makes me smile, below, it's so real, it's true.
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Go team, the enfilade, color, function, vanishing threshold, a house/porch/landscape on its way.
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What's your first thing to do as Garden Designer?
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Seems a pot of money has already been spent.  What is the next pot of money for?  A pool, fence, arbor, stone terrace, plantings, conservatory, potager, fire ring, irrigation?
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Pic, above, here.
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Wish there was an immediate pot of money for an evergreen planting, a tapestry hedge, blocking views of the neighbor.  A game changer for this wonderful space.  Aside from privacy, the space will grow 'larger'.  Counterintuitive, and true.
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This porch too wonderful to miss a moment of gown time.
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Here's hoping the pots of money fill fast for this landscape.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T  

It's Your Peculiarities That Matter

Brunching a few years ago with Beloved and mom, at her club, glancing around I noticed something peculiar, inside the dining room, with its views overlooking the golf course, lake, and ubiquitous Texas mansions ringing the far side.  I asked Beloved to, "Look around, I'm the only one of my tribe here."  Poor man, he gave me that 'look', what-oddity-now?  He surveyed the room, looked at me, "You ARE the only one of your tribe."    I wasn't polished.  No botox, little make-up, natural hair, flowing linen dress, comfortable shoes, gardening fingernails & hands, real boobs, not fake, zero concern in showing their form or miles of cleavage.  In that room, that moment, I was peculiar.  I reeked of it.  It emanated in a cloud around me.  Peculiar.  Well done.



Pic, above, here.
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Hope you've already discovered Anne Morrow Lindbergh, ca. 1982 wasband's grandmother, Miss Louise, slipped me a volume when we met in the garden.  We were living in her garage apartment.  A 3 car garage overlooking 50 acres of woodland built in the teens of the last century.  A newlywed, somehow she sensed I was sinking.  She died soon after, and to this day, amongst many life gifts, hers remains top of the list.
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A bit more about Miss Louise here.  But this isn't about her, it's about you, and your peculiarities.  And, why historic garden design rules are meant to be followed.  Following the rules, liberates your peculiarities.  Counterintuitive, but a truth.
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It's inherent within historic garden design rules, this gift, of showcasing your peculiarities.
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The more you go inward, the more you outwardly connect.

 
Pic, above, here.

In the simplicity of following historic garden design rules, the depths of your peculiarities are in the spotlight.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Trust it.
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You know where to trust it from.  Your gut not your head.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Beware Mirrors in the Garden

Lovely, and deadly, below.


Pic, above, here.

Beautiful concept, above/below, deadly in execution.  Birds see a fly-through.  Bang, dead.

 
Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.



Pic, above, here.

My previous home had windows on 2 walls of the kitchen, birds thought it was a fly through, my choice was to keep the windows 'dirty'.  It worked.
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Male hummingbirds are notorious to fight themselves in window reflections on your home, decals will help.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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You realize clearly how I know this?  Been there done that, buried the birds.  Years have passed since it happened, I remember it like yesterday.  

Andy Warhol: Creating Atmosphere

Worthwhile or a fail.  For better, for worse.  Better than nothing.  Ok, accepted, it is what it is.
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Patio furniture is sold by patio furniture companies.  They arrange, style, stage, shoot, sell.  All good, and normal.
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How is it, patio furniture is purchased, and arranged in lockstep to the advertising?  Rooms To Go, exterior version.
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Buy me, we've done the thinking for you.  I buy a lot of things for that reason alone.
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Patio furniture much better than when I began my career in the 80's when every price point subdivision had the requisite white plastic table/chairs, Weber grill, and a mop on the patio.
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Comfort & function & aesthetics are sold in unison now, below, if you don't have the time to figure out your personal version.  Andy Warhol has a nice quote about atmosphere in NYC restaurants, and that's why people are happy to pay the prices, to get away from their lives, for a little while.   ("New York restaurants now have a new thing — they don’t sell their food, they sell their atmosphere. They say, “How dare you say we don’t have good food, when we never said we had good food. We have good atmosphere.” They caught on that what people really care about is changing their atmosphere for a couple of hours. That’s why they can get away with just selling their atmosphere with a minimum of actual food. Pretty soon when food prices go really up, they’ll be selling only atmosphere. If people are really all that hungry, they can bring food with them when they go out to dinner, but otherwise, instead of “going out to dinner” they’ll just be “going out to atmosphere.”)


 Now, buy atmosphere, plop it on your patio, voila, get away from your life, without leaving home.
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Want the look, below, but can't afford it?  Field gather, with a critical eye, chairs, tables, sofas, paint them all the same color.            



Pic, above, here.
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Am field gathering yard furnishings now for our ca. 1900 home.  Its atmosphere a delight to work with, quite controlling.
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Choose the aesthetic you want, keep a sure eye, have fun.  Buy classics, you won't have to buy again.  Once & done.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT