Best Color Trinity

Towards the front end of your Garden Design, choose a color trinity for your exterior.  House, furniture, gates, light fixtures, pots, hardware, fencing, watering cans, door mats, knobs, etc.  In addition, choose a name for your home/garden.  Once you've done both, order note cards, name cards, using the color trinity.
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Green-Brown-White is the classic color trinity for over 2,000 years.  Chosen by the best minds across centuries, seemingly chosen by Providence.  Magic in Green-Brown-White ?  It's unique for all permutations.
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Where do I pull colors from for clients?  Inside the house.  Art, furniture, wallpaper, rugs, etc.  Uniformly, once colors suggested, "I love that !"  Of course.


Pic, above, here.
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In addition to Green-Brown-White, you get to choose a subsidiary color/s.  To be used as hints, and also pulled from interiors, especially your art.  Scrumptious Green-Brown-White, below.  Saved for colors but seems more a current USA political poster.


Pic, above, here.
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Through many years of choosing exterior Green-Brown-White, something pops immediately.  At first painting, home/garden recede into their niche, radiating considered contentment, an air of inevitability, and timelessness.   

 
Pic, above, here.
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Humbling, this moth, below.

 
Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Aside from Green-Brown-White, above, all those subsidiary colors.  Be still my heart.
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There's little I encounter, not seen thru a Garden prism.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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An answer to my question, yesterday, about Lucinda Wharton:

"Curious about her parents, how they raised this old soul child."

Lady Rebecca Eildon Courtenay (b. 1969), is married to Jeremy Lloyd Wharton; they have three daughters: Alice Lucinda Wharton (b. 1998), Emilia Rose Wharton (b. 1999) and Tatiana Elizabeth Wharton (b. 2002).

-the above from Lucinda Wharton's grandfather's Wikipedia entry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Courtenay,_18th_Earl_of_Devon
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Thank you, The Hunting House, would not have known where to begin.  Lucinda's love for her home in the country, palpable. 

Garden Design: Lucinda Wharton, Permission to Go Big

“A flowerless room is a soulless room, to my way of thinking; but even one solitary little vase of a living flower may redeem it.”

– VitaSackville-West

At the curb, I must know who you are.  Your home/garden speaking, your language.  Garden Design is not about where to put a 'plant', instead, Garden Design is getting the language right.  More correctly, the language is opera, an intensification of reality.   
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Came across this garden, below, recently.  Immediately adored, understood.  A single photo.  Stop luxuriating in my words, go, now, to your garden/home, think, a single photo.  Do I know you, and understand?  Not necessary to 'adore', understand, yes.  Does your photo take me somewhere?  No?  Maybe you have been somewhere, but if you can't take it to show-and-tell, you've heard the language but don't understand it.



Plantings, above, beyond marvelous.  They frame the opera.



Felt strongly enough about the home/garden, top pic, to investigate further.  Discovered the owner of this home/garden.  Pure gold.  Large branches and stalks, above/below, are my favorite for inside.  Who is this person, liking them too? 



Then, better, below.  The branches dropping their gold. 




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Playing with arrangements in the same spot through the seasons, above/below.
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During college I spent breaks/summers at my grandmother's home, incredibly happy years.  Myriad layers of happy.  With no training/classes/mentoring, farm raised, grandma always had a gorgeous Garden.  Abundant flowers, from the Earth she knew to enrich.  A Garden Whisperer, in hindsight. 



In my bedroom, during those years, there was always a huge antique leaded cut glass vase on my dresser, backed by a large mirror, stuffed with grandma's flowers.  Nothing else on the dresser.  The flowers my joy.  Changing the flowers, I would go into the dining room, and stand in front of the sideboard with grandma's collection of antique crystal vases.  Gazing.  Knowing what was in the garden, and which vase would be best, next.
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These years were my late teens to age 22, college graduation, marriage, real life begins. 






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Not a one-trick-pony, above/below.  More traditional.








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At the front door, above, again.  Time, has passed, the opera performs.  Understanding from first glance, top pic, now, above, understanding is sublime.  Garden & interior a well written & performed opera.  More, in the sharing, joy is given. 
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Most surprising part of the opera, and it shouldn't be?  The author is a young woman.  The ages I was living at grandma's.  Lucinda Wharton, below.  Looking forward to following her career.  Her life embracing garden, home, art, talent, history, architecture, and more.  In addition she's already famous for her art works, here.  Adore a good opera.
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All pics, above, here.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Collateral to Lucinda's story is life.  What it gives, takes away, teaches.  Wasn't too deep into my 20's, a second college degree, paid for wasband's master's degree, working dreg jobs in the Jimmy Carter 21% interest economy, blah, blah.  Infertility.  No friends my age, they had babies.  Instead, friends, incredible women 50's-90's.  Their mentoring, love, fun, life success/failures.  Life gives us all the same teachers, excepting at different times, with different sources.  Pay attention, or not. 
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I had to veer from that girl choosing vases & cutting flowers.  Had to.  They weren't mine, after all, were they?  G*d bless the child who has his own.
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Bless the path given, and taken.  Also 21% interest rates, a better economy and I would have never turned into the garden center parking lot, with a sign, Help Wanted.  At that point, working for a bank, soul crushing.  Knew I had to leave the bank when imagining, in great detail, my head exploding, brains dripping down the frosted glass of my bosses office door.  Yep, time to go. 
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Wish for a different life path?  No. 
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Looking forward to Miss Lucinda and all her doings.  How she nurtures her talent, what comes her way, and makes her path even better opera.  Zero sarcasm there, a lot of war, death and strife in opera too.  Anyway.  Move along.  Happy to be Lucinda's cheerleader.  Curious about her parents, how they raised this old soul child.

Design Your Garden for Winter (not spring): Beauty All Year

Best epiphany about the garden in winter?  Designing the garden for winter is superior to other seasons.  A garden beautiful in February is beautiful all year.
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Rosemary Verey's book, The Garden in Winter, is your source for this epiphany if you're in a bit of doubt.
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In addition to winter being the best season to create a Garden Design, another realm is included, simplicity.  Into those realms, considered micro, is the full blown macro garden in winter.  Your life. 
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Winter's pace is meant to be.  Winter's events in the garden are meant to be.  Pining for the glories of spring in winter?  Not me, never have.  Winter is deep strength in the garden.  A season controlling how we dress, our circadian cycle, our activity levels, and what the activities are, and more.



Pic, above, here.

At the front end, I knew Garden Design, below, was not for me, my station in life.  Middle class, subdivision, working for a living.  Ten good staff, but they are all on my own hands.  Could not have been more wrong.  Instead of seeing the Garden Design, below, I saw station-in-life.  Guess what else I didn't see, below, at the front end?  Yep, the garden in winter, how to design her. 
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Pic, above, here.
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Now, this is what I know, below.  Garden Design does not vary for station in life, it varies by your intensity of perception, whispering the details, taking them for your own.  In the taking, lives are born.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Garden design, both pics, above, are the same.  Both pics are a complete garden design class for the garden in winter.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Studying historic gardens across the globe for decades, I've been into many art museums in different countries too.  Having the art of Providence, above, in my own garden?  Priceless.  Finding these scenes upon a winter's day, a casual walk/perusal, makes time disappear.  Timelessness of other realms become the reality, the unconscious begins its serious work of creativity, grace, joy, peace, putting connections together. 
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Pic, above, here.

If you don't have a garden work area yet, put thought to it in winter.

 
Pic, above, here.
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The garden in winter is inside your home too.  Mainly from the views looking out, which is where every garden begins.  Bring the garden inside physically, all year, especially in winter.

 
Pic, above, here.
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What shrubs for your zone with bare stems in winter will bud/open when cut & brought inside?  Don't know?  Contact your local Extension Service, etc.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Bulbs usually go on sale in winter, cheap/easy to pot.  Adore this grow box, below, never seen one before.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Bringing a few plants inside for winter, below.  Finally, have done this for myself this year.  Take heart, I'm 30 years into it.  Life was never conducive to interior plants, took the plunge in December.
Discovered a trick, not pleasant at first, about a winter's interior plant table.
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Found at local thrift store for a song, that table, when I moved into my house 2.5 years ago, was stowed with the cats in a back room.  A few fur balls later, the table had a bad side.  No problem, brought table out and put that side next to a wall.
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Life conspired further, work travel.  My pet sitter, cats/chickens, is the best.  But adding topiaries to her duties did not seem polite.  Pulled a leaf up on the mahogany table, placed copper trays filled with water, from Smith/Hawken, for humidity, watered pots/foliage, left for over a week. 
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All was great with chicks/cats and topiaries.  Alas the mahogany dropleaf table.  Unpleasant to be honest, but I've ruined the table.  Took a couple of days to get over the fact of ruining a good piece of furniture.  Get over it I did !
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Whoever gets the table after me, has the choice to keep using it roughly, or refinish.  It's solid, no veneer.  Until then, I have a fabulous interior winter plant table.  Then I noticed other winter plant tables, below, and they are spotted just the same as mine.  On trend, go me.         

 
Pic, above, here.
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Bringing plants inside for winter, below, pay attention to their containers.  I found almost the exact wood container, below, about 3 years ago.  Bought it as a gift for a friend, she brings plants inside.  Then I moved, who knew where that planter went.  Once my topiary order arrived last December I rummaged through the basement.  Found that container, below.  Now it's mine, no thought of giving it away.  Found a classic antique plant stand for it at an estate sale last month too.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Your interior plants don't need to be repotted if you have a variety of soup tureens, clay pots, baskets, other weird containers, to slip them into, below. 
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Soup tureens with a crack or chip are easy to find, and cheap.  Perfect for interior plants.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Bunny Mellon is famous for her topiary use inside, below, all year.  Discovered recently she liked the idea of topiaries after seeing them in ancient Roman artwork.  I've copied her, topiaries, below, are a copy of her, and next maybe you.


Pic, above, here.
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The garden in winter, at its best, below.  How many years have I done these, but outside on my winter patio?  Decades.  Better, branches are easy to procure, free.


Pic, above, here.
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The garden in winter, below.  The pot could be black plastic from the nursery.  Doesn't matter.  Wicker goes with everything. 

 
Pic, above, here.
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Have found several of these containers, below, at thrift stores thru the years.  Line with plastic, add soil, poke a few holes, plant the bulbs.  Done.  Stagger planting times, leave outside, bring inside when started to grow, or skip the outside part.  Don't overthink. 

 
Pic, above, here.
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Perhaps the least understood garden design, for me, at the front end, below.  Glad through-a-glass-darkly became clear.  It's about all year beauty, ease of management, living life in the garden, not living life having to work in the garden. 

 
Pic, above, here.
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Giving a Garden in Winter talk tomorrow, handout, below.  Pay no attention to the plants, it's for our zone 8a.  Plants are first on the handout, yet the most important Garden in Winter facts are at the bottom.  It's all about the Garden Design.
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Have a lovely powerpoint to go with it. 
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It's in a historic church 1 county over.  A large group, and active.  More than gardening, this group is proactive politically, historically, conservation, agriculturally, planning/zoning, and etc.  It's amazing what you learn at Garden Club.  If you think it's all about gardening, it's not.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T

                                TARADILLARD.com

                                       SEEN ON CBS, NBC, HGTV, PBS      

                                                    NATIONAL AWARD WINNING

                                                 AUTHOR, DESIGNER, SPEAKER

                                                    TaraDillard@AGardenView.biz

                                                                  678-933-1514

                                                   Beautiful garden, beautiful life.             ******************************************************

                THE GARDEN IN WINTER

******************************************************

COPYRIGHT 2018  BY TARA DILLARD

PERENNIALS

Carex                                Vinca minor

Rosemary                          Thrift

Thyme                                Dianthus ‘Bath Pink’

Saxifraga stolonifera         Helleborus

Liriope                               Mondo

Christmas Fern

TREES

Prunus mume

Contorted Filbert                     Cryptomeria

Chimonanthus praecox           Crape myrtle

Acer griseum                           Magnolia

Corylopsis glabrescens             Holly

Hamamelis                               Conifers

Tea Olive

SHRUBS

Camellia             Sarcoccoca      Aspidistra       Lonicera fragrantissima

Daphne               Pieris               Skimmia         Boxwood

Quince                Edgeworthia   Anise                Aucuba

Holly                   Kerria             Hydrangea       Azalea

Scotch broom      Plum Yew      Yew                                    

VINES                                 BULBS

Carolina jessamine               Crocus             Winter aconite    Colchicum luteum   Snowdrops

Evergreen clematis               Scilla sibirica     Grape hyacinth     Iris reticulata     Anemone blanda

Jasmine ‘Madison’

DESIGN:  Know What’s Important

Axis                    Trees                    Color             Texture      Photograph/Feb    

Focal Points        Hedges                 Silhouettes   Fragrance   Ruined Table

Paths                   Groundcovers      Line               Rooms       Vanishing Threshold

The Garden In Winter, by Rosemary Verey,  Beautiful By Design, by Tara Dillard

A Southern Garden, by Elizabeth Lawrence ,  The Garden View, by Tara Dillard

Where Garden Design Begins

Matisse, below.  Didn't pay close attention to Henri until seeing several of his works at the High Museum in downtown Atlanta, Ga.  Walking into 'his' space, seeing a work straight ahead, about 8 steps, knees/legs gave way, and I almost fell to the ground.
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His piece was painted in a single plane. 
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In the deepest parts of my soul, exactly how I lived in my home/garden.  A single plane.
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Know where to begin your Garden Design?  Answer, below.  You begin inside your home looking out.
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Pic, above, here.
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More, there is something to bringing plants/flowers inside, below.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Though small, bringing a plant/flower inside imbues beyond any known scale.

 
Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.
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In my house, below. 

 
Pic, above, in my ca. 1986 home.


Pic, above, in my office, our ca. 1900 home.
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I believe in Historic Garden Design rules, they allow you to be more you.  Aside from making life more beautiful, easier, and beloved by Earth, Historic Garden Design rules are the original sustainable.
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Rules are meant to be broken.
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Rose bush, above, fake.
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Didn't want you to think there is a level of personal arrogance about live plants/flowers in your home.   
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Planting Bulbs: A New Method

Back from a trip to visit mom on Galveston Bay, in the home I was raised.  Visits, now, always include gardening.  Oddly, because I don't remember it happening, ever, growing up, nor until the past few years, green scum grows on the outside of her windows.  Whatever, it's on the list with pruning and weeding.  What's more filth while gardening, aside from pure joy ! 
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This morning, unexpectedly, huge garden day.  Last time I had a day this big, was over a decade ago, reading Graham Stuart Thomas.     



Reading Pentreath & Hall Inspiration, typically posted Monday mornings, I've known for awhile to enjoy the anticipation of its arrival.   
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Remember well, reading in bed, learning from Graham Stuart Thomas, where the bed was, what color the walls were, the carpet hadn't been replaced with heart-of-pine yet, and which lamp was on the bedside table. 
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Amusing, today I'm in my favorite antique wicker chair, window facing the morning sun, cow pastures beyond, a few of our century old pecan trees, with a light skim of condensation on the windows, wanting badly to be frost. 
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Yes, today I will remember, long after its gone.  Planting bulbs, below, this part I knew.  Somehow I've always known, always, not to use a bulb planter.  If you can count the number of flowers, you don't have enough.  Dinky is stinky.  When ordering bulbs, scare yourself, buy far more than you can afford.   
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Beyond thrilling, below.  How to properly plant a bulb bed.  Never, would I have figured out using those boards.  Never.
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Moving along the bulb bed, below. 
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Made a mistake gardening at mom's.  Should have put a beanie hat on, above.  My hairdresser had open heart surgery this summer, hair has not been trimmed since & is much too long.  Pruning the small tree outside my childhood bedroom window, my hair got caught in the tightly packed branches/stems/foliage.  You haven't lived until you've been stuck to a tree, by your hair.  Had to drop the long handled pruners, and somehow unweave my hair, arms/hands, reaching well above my head. 
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Working at the side of the house, neighbors weren't home, no one drove by, I don't think anyone saw, this gardening fail.  Last time I was stuck to my garden by my hair, almost 2 decades ago, I was on my stomach underneath a long hedge.  That hair/foliage knot was worse.  Now you know, not my first rodeo with this type garden fail. 
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Still learning major new garden skills, still making ridiculous mistakes.
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Life is good.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Pics, above, Pentreath & Hall.