Best Mental Model Ever: What Does This Mean To Me?

Mental Models, how to think about things, schema.
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Began, January 2020, a new Sunday School class, Pastor is instructor, reading the Bible in a year.  Never done it.  No clue how to 'think' about Bible passages, stories.
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With assigned workbook, study bible inherited from my dad, educated/wise instructor, a small start, for my new Mental Model: What Does This Mean To Me?.  Ha ha ha, sick with flu for weeks, slow recovery, Sunday School classes/Church Covid cancelled, behind in reading. 
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Before the world stopped for Covid, in bed on Sunday nites, I would think, What Does This Mean To Me? 
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Best Mental Model ever, this lone question, What Does This Mean To Me?  Any topic, combined with serious inquiry.
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Did you already know to ask this question?     
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Gardening.  Why didn't I know this Mental Model at the front end of Gardening?  Instead, it was full passion for all that was loved, disdain for gardens whose style I did not like.  Taking everything, in the order passions reigned.  No regrets for those decades, blessed they passed away, and, like Elaine Stritch, I'm Still Here.
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At the front end, I did not like this style Garden Design, below.
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Now?  Understand its layers of being.  Contrasting shapes bring drama, romance, interest.  Cone shapes draw eyes to the sky.  Wise choices within the shapes give year round interest, deer proof, no disease, drought tolerance, wet tolerant, no chemicals, less maintenance, lowered HVAC bills, higher property values, more pollinators, scent, backdrop to your life, with your family, friends, pets.
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When love has run out.  When energy is lost for anger.  When fear topples away.  When you'll never get what you've most wanted and the moment of realization is clear.  You know your story, the inner dialogue, was too small.
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Aren't those the best moments ever?  Freedom.  How many times, being Icarus, do we each have?
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Pic, above, here.
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I began gardening with Top Down thinking.  A small Mental Model to bring into adulthood.
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Bottom Up thinking.  "The most vivid part of the mind bubbles up through sensation and new experience when unencumbered by analytical thought."  Daniel Siegal. 
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Pic, above, here.
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Shapes not just of plants, are important, below.  Shape of your entire property, home, Garden Design.  Mount Vernon, below, a painting done not long after Washington died.  This shape, low meadow with wild wood, creates maximum pollinator habitat.  Important why?  Increase crop yields by 80%
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Food to survive, and thrive.
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Pic, above, here.
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Shapes creating architecture, below.  Rooms, doorway, enfilade, hallway, walls, ceiling, floor, thresholds, art on the walls.
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Pic, above, here.
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Bottom up thinking, is new thinking, gifting grace, beauty, and transcendence.
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"I know the world is bruised and bleeding and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence."  Toni Morrison
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After the grand you-do-you, what then?  What plinths to use, mental models for the most serious journey of your life?  Tilting at windmills is the gift.  Choose your windmills wisely, What Does This Mean To Me?, then, tilt with everything in you.  There be your transcendence.
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Fortunately, John Muir asked, What Does This Mean To Me?  And wrote his answers.  "“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine into trees.” Muir, who came to California seeking the solitude of nature, decided to stay—dabbling as a glaciologist, a wilderness activist, and a writer who published persuasive ecological articles with a quill made from a golden eagle feather found on Yosemite’s Mount Hoffmann."  From National Park Service, here.
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For every person reading, "Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine into trees.", asking themselves, What Does This Mean To Me?, will be unique answers, no matter the millions asking.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

You Just Think You Don't Want: Stick Trees, Hedges, Balls

"The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.  Whatever you think you can do, or believe you can do, begin it.  Action has magic, Power and grace."  Goethe
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"...which may possibly be my very favorite story of all time, is early and essential (Grace)Paley.  It is a story of love, and of mistakes and missteps that take years to correct themselves, and the story itself is, like the love affair, ardent, charming, wise, knowing.  The story requires that the reader bear heartbreak, without ever renouncing either love or the world.  I think that is what grace is, and I think that is what Grace means: Bear the world, without giving in, and love the people in it, without hesitation."  Amy Bloom
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This garden, above/below, made me laugh at its rich depth, using centuries old technique, and piling on simplicity.  Pure drama, with balls, sticks, hedges.  Who knew simplicity could do this?
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A Garden Design Trinity: Stick Trees, Hedges, Balls.
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Within the trinity, Stick Trees/Hedges/Balls, the agrarian ode to Providence, pollinators, & self are present.
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"One way to isolate a good design from fashion or fad is to evaluate an object as you would a person.  Is it interesting and exciting?  Is it honest and sincere?  Or is it banal, insipid, cute, stupid, or even silly?  Or just dull and boring, destined to be forgotten?"  Walter Hoving, Chairman Tiffany & Co., 1973
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February 2020 began my personal hunt for 'the' stick tree, need an allee.  Type of tree chosen must be deciduous, easily pollarded, fast growing, affordable at decent size wholesale, thrives in sun, preferably native, available.  Since 2008 wholesale landscape growers have little diversity.
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Phoned my Tree Man, in the business for decades.  Told him constraints, first thing he said, "You need a WEED tree."  Great answer.  Which ones are you thinking?, I asked.  Native Catalpa, he replied.
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Never had a Catalpa.  Interesting.  Something new to get to know, learn, love.  No matter, a different tree may be chosen do to size, cost, availability, and meeting other constraints.
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After talking with him, the first garden I saw online, below.  The pollarded trees?  Catalpa.  Wish photo had been taken later in the season when the Catalpa had grown a bit more, the silhouette, then, perfect.
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Pic, above, here.

"The success of a room depends largely on what it does not contain."  House Beautiful, 1905.
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If your elevation is the same, pic below, no worries your home is a 3 bedroom lapboard on small lot, or a mid-century brick ranch on an acre, this style garden design, meant for all architecture, and price ranges.
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Taller grasses in the distance, pic below, canopy trees beyond, balls and stick trees in low meadow.  Easy to maintain, and, maximum pollinator habitat.
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God's Word is written in the Bible.  In the Garden you "feel that you have overheard it rather than read it."
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Once the Stick Trees, Balls, Hedges are decided, and planted, it's time for your life to take over.  Roux of Design: Stick Trees, Hedges, Balls are your stage.  Your life, becomes the magic, joy, grace of home & garden, flowing into each other.
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Your dog, children, friends, seasons, and etc, are the focal point.
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"John Ruskin, the elegant writer on art & ethics told the teachers of humanity -- "all other efforts in education are futile till you have taught your people to love fields, birds, and flowers."  George West, Hereford Rocks.
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Great table placement, color, shape, pic above.  Depending on life, the table is for lunch, staging a potted plant, a place to bring a letter from the mailbox, a glass of wine before dinner, a place to set basket and clippings when gathering for the house.
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"Mr. Head awakened to discover that the room was full of moonlight.  He sat up and stared at the floor boards -- the color of silver -- and then at the ticking on his pillow; which might have been brocade, and after a second, he saw half of the moon five feet away in his shaving mirror, paused as if it were waiting for his permission to enter.  It rolled forward and cast a dignifying light on everything.  The straight chair against the wall looked still and attentive as if it were awaiting an order and Mr. Head's trousers, hanging to the back of it, had an almost noble air, like the garment some great man had just flung to his servant..."  Flannery O'Connor
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"The above opening to a short story, by Flannery O'Connor is, to readers content with grasping information, straight forward enough.  It introduces a character, Mr. Head, waking up at night and noticing moonlight.  To readers who enjoy the practice of reading, the opening is much, much more.
     Two approaches seem to me the difference between reading as a skill and reading as an art.  The first is quite enough.  From knowing what STOP means through understanding a scholarly essay or a legal brief, the necessary skill varies greatly, can always be refined, and lets us negotiate life with some measure of control.  Reading as art, not ART (Once depressingly called "critical" reading) is another matter.  Like the avid devotion to other arts, it develops over time in any number of ways takes all sorts of routes, and has many origins."  Toni Morrison.
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'The plants in your garden are only half the story.  The rest is what you bring to the party.' , paraphrasing Toni Morrison.
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Live in a subdivision?  Little changes using Stick Trees, Hedges, Balls.  Past the balls, pic above, site an evergreen hedge, 4'-5', street views and neighbor's homes hidden, excepting their roofs.
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Inside your home, is where your Garden Design begins.  You'll live both directions with your garden, and home.
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The harder I garden, literally or metaphorically, the more comfort I receive.
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Low meadow, pic below, and pair of old trees, with woodland in distance.  Age.  Time.  More than content, time of year, time of day, weather, geography, are age and time.
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You may live to a nice 87 years old, the conifer tree, pic below, will live hundreds of years.  Eating, drinking, growing, communicating thru its roots with the same electrical current we have in our bodies, to other trees, and plants, photosynthesizing, taking light from the sun, turning it into food, growing, exhaling oxygen.  More than a bit humbling.
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Wish Walt Whitman could read about the science of trees now.  He knew their lives, without the science, in the 19th century.
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Gardens are sacred mandalas, beauty & impermanence.
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Gate in the hedge, above.  Flow, as needed.
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It is your life, and loves, putting perspective to garden & home.  Suddenly, pic above, precious arrives, and owns the entire home/garden.  As she should.
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"When viewed in deep time, things come alive that seemed inert....  The world becomes eerily various and vibrant again.  Ice breaths.  Rock has tides.  Mountains ebb and flow.  Stone pulses.  We live on a restless Earth."  Underland, Robert Macfarlane.
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The calm you design into your garden.  Is not truly calm.  It's a manner of choosing how you will live.
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At first, my mind knew to take charge in the garden, I did, that's when the garden spoke back and told me what it wanted.  Once that dance finally began, I understood what the garden had been doing all along, feeding my soul.
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From the garden we're taught how to feed our soul.  Meadows parched, then rains, growth, gracious & grateful.  Trees, such courage, yet joy & purpose are their life force.  Nurturing a spiritual life, gardens nurture ours.
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"How do you teach your soul?  How do you put experiences of the sacred in your life?  What are the layers you choose to be wrapped in the sacred?"  Sandy Sasso, Rabbi
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We are descendant & ancestor to the garden.  Have you learned responsibilities of ancestors?  Are you legacy making now, to be an ancestor?  Descendant & ancestor are a loop, nurturing their connection is grace.
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Wine & cell phone on the table, above.  One should not be ubiquitous.  I'm guilty.
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Instead of using several gardens with the simplicity of Stick Trees, Balls, Hedges, I chose one.  Moving this garden thru seasons and their life.  Metaphor for yours.
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This is Lesley Cooke's garden, pics above, on Instagram, here.  When you can, take time to peruse her home/garden in depth.  She's able to travel a bit, entertain a bit, have a family, friends, cook, enjoy her dog, yet no stress over the garden, keeping it fabulous.  Simple has rewards.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Off Topic.  Have been away for a bit.  Had the flu flu, 2 weeks, hi fever, evil cough.  My doctor, Beloved's doctor, hospital nurse, each said, Not Corona, at the front end.  Reading a journalists story last Saturday, testing positive for Corona, symptoms were a blueprint for mine.  What to think?  Been a slow recovery.  Will get tested for antibodies later this year at physical.
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I'm healthy, no underlying health conditions, take no medications.  Biggest concern has been Beloved getting Corona, with his major health issues.  He's fine, still working, Georgia considers landscaping to be Essential Services.  But, there's a strategy if Beloved becomes ill, knowing I cannot visit/stay in hospital with him.  Only mention this, in case it helps someone else.
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If Beloved does get Corona, he will go into hospital with Sharpie Marker written on his upper chest, 4 printed rows, with each major health issue, and the name/number of his primary care doctor, my name/number too.
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Thru the years I've spent many nites in hospitals with Beloved.  Every time things do go wrong.  No one specifically at fault.  Wonderful staff at each layer, the mistakes are of the 'system'.  Hence, the Sharpie Marker.
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Told Beloved my plan.  He hates it.  Told him if he gives me any trouble I'll Sharpie Marker his forehead too.  He knew to choose his battle, done.
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So many friends are prevented from seeing their parent/s in the hospital or skilled nursing.  Cannot imagine this life changing hardship, along with worries about survival.
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More sorrows, stresses, greater than this across continents.  Hoping you find moments of transcendence every day, to take care of yourself, as you steward those around you.
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Oddly, it is my chicken coop, giving transcendence every time I walk in.  Walking out, every time, it's, Oh....back to reality.  My chickens turned 8 years old last week. 
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Thank you to everyone on the front lines of any layer of Corona, reading.  Hope my little stories of gardening, and how to get the garden in your head, into your life, take you away for a few minutes.  Better, help you create your own action plan.

Simple Landscapes & How They Do So Much For Us

"I think in concepts, not words." A. Einstein. 
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Until reading, above, a few days ago, I had no words to describe my thought processes to anyone outside my tribe.  They don't need that; they understand without words.
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I think in metaphors with drop down menus, punctuated with equations made of words and math symbols, overlayed with visuals, background sounds and music, topped with templates formed from books read & movies seen.  Simplified, I think in metaphors, not words.
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How do you think?
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Seriously, how do you think?
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When did you realize your thinking 'style' was a bit different from most?
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College years, a boy I dated said my thinking was 'quirky' and 'romantic'.  His way of saying, crazy?  I should have asked him to clarify.  We're all entitled to opinions.   


Pic, above, here.
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In a mash-up of thought processes, taking in visuals of gardens, from birth, playing & working in gardens since age 3, studying historic gardens globally since age 16, designing gardens professionally since my 20's, there's something I know for sure about gardens. 
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Both gardens, above/below, are top of their game, best of the world's gardens, since roughly ca. 1400.
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Why?
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Can you name the important layers each garden has?
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Can you describe why these layers are important?
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Who is the primary beneficiary of these gardens?
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Pic, above, here.
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Take your time.  Life conspired my bits of knowledge, over decades, in client gardens designed historically, and in historic gardens.  More, I didn't know what I was seeking, beyond the hunger to seek more knowledge about gardens. 
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We've not progressed, from these gardens, above.  We've lost these gardens, Nature's pinnacle of gardening.  Templates and stories greater than survival.  Lives richly lived.  Survive vs. Thrive.
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Listen to the bees.  Listen to the raising of children.  Listen to the health of our bodies.  Listen to the laws of governments pertaining to land, water, agriculture, livestock, us.  Listen to the health of our forests, wildlife, climate.  Listen to how you think of all these things.
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What are you looking at in the gardens, above?
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Gardens little changed in many centuries.  A type of gardening supporting a family, villages and cities, for centuries.  Agrarian. 
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Their formula: Wildwood + Meadow + Stone Focal Point = Lives Well Lived, Nature well nurtured and in return, Nature nurturing all.
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Tending these gardens, poyeema, imparts knowledge gained from putting body to Earth in washing of the servants feet.  More than self-evident 'inalienable rights' given, in the garden is our health, its micro-biomes formed directly from Nature.  Nature talking to us, literally, via her electricity, bacteria, more.  Who hasn't been humbled learning about our gut biomes controlling more of our brain, than 'we' do.
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You have the components now, of the gardens, above.  Do you know how they work?
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Meadows are Nature's ecosystem for specific maximum types of wildlife, bacteria, fungi, insects, etc.  Woodlands are another of Nature's ecosystems for specific maximum types of wildlife, bacteria, fungi, insects, etc.  Life forms expand where margins meet.  Life-happens-in-the-margins.
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Where woodland meets meadow, Nature's pollinators are greater, increasing crop yields by 80%.
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Next, same topic, different idea.  Assignment of Thought.
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Your garden.  How could you turn your garden, into the style, above.  What would it take?  Don't forget, your home.  It must be considered as backdrop, focal point, and where your garden begins, from interior views.
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Yes, you're allowed to break the rules, above.  If they're broken using metaphor, templates, and their equations followed.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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Secondary benefit to this Garden Design Assignment.  Taking your brain into your garden, to design, separated from your bank account.
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All the world is a garden designer, until they go into their own garden.  Taking your brain off your wallet, is a game changer.
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BTW, I'm left handed.  Also the daughter of an Air Force test pilot, during the years they didn't know pilots all have daughters.  Getting my license renewed last year, an elderly African-American woman began talking to me immediately when I sat down after matriculating thru the first wave of counters/officials.  She had seen that I was left handed, she's left handed.  We talked of how our brains worked, what we liked to do.  Sisters traversing many of the same mental models through life.  Of course we hugged when we parted. 
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Who's the primary beneficiary of the gardens, above?  Earth.  She has her people working with her Nature.  How did we lose simple?  It's on each of us, to get it back.

A Secret Stash, In The Garage, of the Greatest Generation

Haydn began every manuscript, In nomine Domini, In the name of the Lord.
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I did not know, in my father's garage, I was to read one of his deepest life manuscripts.
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Who knew Garden Design would include the garage?  Who wants to garden, when gathering clippers, 5 gallon pale with handle, tarp, etc. includes a battle in the garage merely at the round-up, and you still have to transport everything from garage to the back left hand corner of your property?
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In addition to the garage, if you have any sort of basement, you must have a secondary 'garage' there too.  Two sets of tools, wheel barrows, etc.  Don't stop there, have short & long handled pruners near your back door, in addition to having another set in the garage, and basement.
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Storage cabinets, for the garage, below, easy to find.  Thrift stores stuffed with unwanted 'Ok Boomer' and 'Greatest Generation' style furniture.


Pic, above, here.
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My dad's 2 car garage, built ca. 1966, was studs and open rafters, with a few shelves.  A NASA engineer, it's obvious he had tools to work on the cars.  Which he did. Dad died, 2012.  His garage untouched until mom died, late 2018.
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Pic, above, here.
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2019, much of dad's garage traveled to Georgia, and was placed into my tiny garden shed, shared with Beloved.  We have no garage at our ca. 1900 home.
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Pic, above, here.
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January, 2020, I had a few minutes to look thru some of dad's tool drawers for the first time.
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Pic, above, here.
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Oddly, a chain dog collar, with rabies tag attached, was in the top drawer, left-hand corner of dad's rolling multi-drawer, red metal, tool chest .  Reading the tag, in my dark shed, Dino.  Our family Afghan hound, I grew up with, and took to be put down while in college.  Dino was a show dog, and his breeder rescued him from his first owner, dropping him at our front door early on a weekend morning.  "Here's your dog !".  Dino's AKC name, Lord Soladine of Xanadu.  Not a name to forget, or dog.
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Who could know, Dino's dog collar exists, 42 years later?

 
Pic, above, here.
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A box on one of dad's shelves had my name, Tara Lee, in his fine architectural/engineering print.  Mom was the last upon this Earth, to call me by my childhood name.  What is it about seeing our parent's handwriting as we age?
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In that box, my first tea set, and my first doll.
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How did I not know dad had saved them?
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Pic, above, here.
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Beside Dino's dog collar were more surprises.  Dad had saved a metal plate off his British Morris Minor, white with red interior, 2 door, stick shift, he rebuilt in the 70's, sourcing everything by phone or letter, and having joined the Morris Minor fan club.
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Nearby was the sun visor off his 1957 MG convertible he bought used in the early 1960's, black with red leather interior, and the first car I remember.
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Pic, above, here.
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Under dad's 1957 convertible MG visor, was a key chain.  Picking it up, another emotional token, this one from his vintage 1970's 2-door Jaguar.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Holding what I'd found, more than a moment passed, before realizing their meaning.  Testament to a man born at the tail end of The Greatest Generation.
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Why would I think dad had emotions?  This deep?
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Tears, standing alone in my shed, knowing my dad a tiny bit more.  Still tears, even now, telling you.
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What should I do with these things?  First thought, ridiculous, bring them inside our house.
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A lot of you already know where all those things are now.  Exactly where my dad put them.
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'Haydn ended his manuscripts with, Lauds Deo, Praise be to God.'
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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Dad wouldn't have had it any other way.  Putting his emotions away, into the garage.  Get the job done.  Support a wife, and family.  Would he have wanted it easier?  Can only imagine the poor soul asking him that question.  Dad would want to do more, for God, family, work, community.  Anything less subhuman and total fail.  Greatest Generation, understatement.
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Early 2018, after eating dinner at Luby's cafeteria, I was helping mom to the car.  Mom said, "I have one regret about your daddy."  We both stopped walking, in my family, that was a sentence.  Earth-stops-rotating-on-its-axis sentence.  We stared at each other.  Mom was silent a bit.  "I never told your daddy he was a good provider."  Made my eyes tear, but didn't let mom know.
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Dad would have never thought to want or need that from mom.  Ever.  But if mom had written it into a note, I know where dad would have put it.
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Glad to have the luxury of keeping dad's treasures of the heart, where he had them.  At some point, I will take the dog collar to the pound, and sell the Morris Minor number plate, and the MG visor.  The Jaguar key chain seems original to its model year, will sell it too.  Those little bits of money, then sent to dad's favorite dog/cat pound in Texas, Bay Area Pet Adoptions/SPCA.  Mom/Dad's favorite pet shelter, and a No Kill.

How to Stage Small Potted Plants With Your 'Sacred Fire'

In 1781, Thomas Jefferson wrote,

"Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people, whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue. It is the focus in which he keeps alive that sacred fire, which otherwise might escape from the face of the earth."

Thomas Jefferson
Quote, from, Here.
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Hadn't seen this particular quote, above, until today.  I think we're all born with that 'sacred fire', a few in any given century, keep & stoke that 'sacred fire'.  You are one, reading this far.
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Jefferson's belief, above, quite dangerous, still, to world governments.  (Why think small?)  Taking the privilege of toiling, poyeema, with the Earth, provides more than food for the body.  Working with the soil, feeds epiphanies to the soul.  Each era garners this truth; we each have the gift of inalienable rights, from Providence.
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Filthy lucre is not part of this transaction.  Free to all; for the taking.  Tasha Tudor signed off many of her letters with a part of this 'sacred fire', Take Joy.  She knew, Joy is always present.  It's our job to 'take'.
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Pic, above, here.
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Painted, above, by Rembrandt Peal, ca. 1801, there is no loss of desire, for this geranium, and its pot, ca. 2020.  Why is that?  I must have both.  Oddly, the geranium, tall, does not look staked.  How is it not weeping over?  Ironically, the pot looks artisan made, ca. 2020.  How I want to know the pot by touch, the geranium too.  What is the fragrance of this geranium?  May I lightly touch its leaves, and their scent remains on my hands?
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What is their soil mix, how does it smell?
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Pic, above, here.
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What happens without 'sacred fire' ?  This, at a museum, above.  (Macro thoughts about 'sacred fire' in the opening, taking it to micro thoughts for the closing.  Sacred-fire-cares-not, large/small, it burns bright, in love.)
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No soul, above, with Jefferson's 'sacred fire' to make the pots/flowers a setting for the art on the wall.  Somewhere along the way to the museum, these poor bulbs were smashed sideways.  Grocery stores are better at display.
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Further, what's with those sticks/string, above ?
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Sticks should be dark twigs from tree or shrub, and string a dark jute twine.  Hyacinths don't need staking, and if staking is done, it should be created with as much 'sacred fire' as the paintings were created, and hung, on the wall.
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Are those pots, above, set bare on the table?
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Pots could be placed on terra cotta saucers, or a pair of Chinese plates, from the museum collections, creating a scene to partake with the art on the wall.  They are definitely not positioned properly.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO T
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One of my mentor's, Mary Kistner, had her memorial service at a museum.  It was standing room only.  An artist, several mediums, Mary had a special talent for hanging/displaying other artists work, for many museums across USA.  Hence my thinking museum art displays are quite-a-thing.
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How quickly did you realize the potted flowers had been smashed in a mishap?  Before, or after, you looked in amazed curiosity at the sticks/string?  Did neither register, only part?  Now that it's pointed out, do you realize why it is important to point out?  "...men come to build stately sooner than to garden finely as if gardening were the greater perfection."  Alexander Pope, ca. 17th century.
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How I would love to see what Mary would do with this art display, above.
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Mary was about 4 decades older than me, and from first meeting I was moth to her Sacred Flame. 

How to Create A Smart Landscape in a World of Dumb Landscaping

Pure GENIUS.  At first sight, below.
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That's it?
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That's it.


Pic, above, here.
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Trees & gravel grit.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Of course, siting, type of tree/s, pruning, factor into this genius.  Notice, no cobblestone edging at base of trees?  Significant, and major skill, making that choice.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Not zero maintenance, yet little.
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Pic, above, here.
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Benches, chairs, tables.
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And HEDGING.  Adapting this garden, above, to your home?  Site a hedge, above, at the road.  Hiding cars, road, neighbors homes; gaining privacy to your home, without hiding or blocking your home.
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Grand pollinator habitat.  Butterflies adore gravel/grit after rains.  Song birds adore the habitat of trees for nesting, hidden from predators, and open zones for insect gathering.
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Another TRINITY; Trees, Hedging, Grit.
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Trees, Hedging, Grit, is a complete garden design.
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Where to site the trees, hedges, placing benches, chairs, dining table/s?  Oh my, that life pleasure.  More, the spreading of grit, planting of trees/hedges, each, quite uncomplicated.
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Choose for heights easy to maintain with trees/shrubs, and drought, insect, deer...proof.
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My mission statement for & from the garden is to look out my windows, any day/any time of day, and think, Oh WOW.
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Beauty & Awe.
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Seeking transcendence.
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"I catch the inconceivable breath of the garden at dawn."  Boris Pasternak.  How many years of dawns is this true in your life?  Assuredly, this style garden provides, 'inconceivable breath'.
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"It is false to say that frontiers do not exist.  They do exist, temporarily.  But at the same time there exists a force of creativity and truth uniting us all, in humility and in pride at the same time."  Albert Camus.
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"All true happiness, as all that is truly beautiful, can only result from order."  Benjamin Franklin.
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"...yet, as Camus so stunningly reminds us, order itself, when worshiped too blindly and rigidly, can consume our fragile chance of happiness."  Maria Popova
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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Too much slope?  Trees, Groundcovers, Hedges.
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Grit not happening?  Make it Tara Turf.
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"Nobody can discover the world for anybody else."  Wendell Berry.
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Gardening is conversation.  Gardening is prayer.  Gardening is thanks.

How to Garden Like You Mean It: Macro Layer

Easy fix, below.  See the problem?
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Ok, slow down.  Define the Garden Design problem, below.
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Next, how would you fix this problem?
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Quite an excellent Neo-Le-Jardin-Rustique, below.
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What's stopping it from being a Purist Le Jardin Rustique?


Pic, above, here.
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Garden Design problem, above, belongs to the pair of pots.
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No worries one is smaller than the other.
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Major issue? Differing heights of the pots.
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In Italy, studying historic gardens, if only one thing is learned, it is Pot-Rims-at-Same-Height.
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Pot, at right, above, must be raised on a plinth, both pots at equal rim height.
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Plants not matching, not a big issue. 
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Next topic.  What's keeping this garden, above, from being a purist agrarian garden?
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The lawn, a monoculture lawn. 
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Properly, the 'lawn', above, should be a low mixed meadow.  Poof, Le Jardin Rustique, and fully agrarian.
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What's gained with fully agrarian?  Several items on agrarian list, above, one is at the top, static.  The other items allowed dynamic order.
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Maximum pollinator habitat is at the boundary of meadow to woodland.  Life happens at the margins. 
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Creating maximum pollinator habitat is more than sustainable, regenerative, eco, green, reduces climate change.  What is this ingredient, of maximum importance, about pollinator habitat, and its relationship to you?
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Stewardship.
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Stewardship to yourself, others, wildlife, Earth.
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Stewardship in action, a layer of poyeema from Providence.  Washing of the servant's feet.
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Nature's gift to us, if we understand her language.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO T
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A client mentioned, Life happens at the margins, and I wrote it on a scrap of paper.  A few days later I texted a girlfriend with same skin/hair coloring as mine, "Need to buy blush, what color?",  "Orgasm, by Nars." she replied. 
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Under, Life happens at the margins, I wrote, Nars Orgasm, on the scrap of paper.
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A couple weeks later, Beloved asks me, "What is a Nars Orgasm, what's going on?"  With an odd countenance. 
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He had seen that scrap of paper laying on my dresser, after I had recently bought the blush online.
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Blew his bubble.  He was All-In on whatever a Nars Orgasm presented.
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Orgasm is the perfect color for my hair/skin.  Had never bought Nars before and have since ordered other items from them.

The 5 Laws Taken From A Garden

Scotland was the first country I chose to study historic gardens.  At the time, late 80's, Scotland was home to most of the major head-gardeners across Europe.  Gleaned this fact from a PBS garden show from that era.
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A small aside during that PBS show, it pulled my trigger.  Of I went, decades across Europe studying historic gardens.
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Earlier this week, a new pic, below, from Scotland.  Better it's a cemetery, with winter blooming bulbs.  Have never been to Scotland during winter.
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Aside from being able to walk in many old cemeteries across Europe, it was more melancholy, driving past them, at a distance, on our touring coach.  I wanted to be in them all not merely driving past.  Time to know what the cemetery garden says, how it feels, where its going, understanding all the others who have been there, without leaving a mark, as I wish to leave no mark.  Instead, wanting those cemeteries to leave a mark on me, to take across my remaining days.   
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Pic, above, here.
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Bulbs & Trees are incredibly sacred to the unborn, and dead.
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Before us, our ancestors planted bulbs & trees we enjoy.  Before we go to the-great-beyond, as Leonard Cohen sings, our privilege, one of many we're gifted, to be ancestors, is planting bulbs & trees.
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We are descendant & ancestor to the Garden.
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Pic, above, here.
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We come to the Garden, in control.  If we've payed attention we learn the garden is in control.
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"Paying attention to the details of life is part of a spiritual life."  Rabbi Sandy Sasso.
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The garden takes our heart & mind.  We go into it thinking.  Minds thinking, bodies doing, the garden not telling us what to think; letting us think, encouraging us to think.  Thoughts being worked on by living organisms, from the dawn of time, wisdom, coming at our thinking, in partnership.
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Ethics are in the garden.
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Pic, above, here.
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From the garden we're taught how to feed our soul.  Meadows parched, after the rains, grow, gracious & grateful.  Trees, such courage, yet joy & purpose are their life force.  Nurturing a spiritual life, Gardens, they nurture ours.
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"How do you put experiences of the sacred in your life?  What are the layers you choose to be wrapped in the sacred?"  Rabbi Sandy Sasso.
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Pic, above, here.
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Our soul hears the silence of a garden; with understanding.
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In the garden, if we're paying attention we'll realize it's 'showing us the fullness of our humanity'.
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Pic, above, here.
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What questions do you ask your garden?
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Pic, above, here.
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Potted bulbs, above/below.  No garden?  Yes, the potted garden.
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The garden answers every question.  It's when we realize the questions are more important than the answers, we're seeing.

 
Pic, above, here.
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We are precious to the garden, it was formed for pollinators.  Knowing this isn't enough.  We must learn the garden is precious to us, pollinating our spirit, germinating our soul.
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You are a pollinator, don't you know?  Gardens are global, and yours.  Nature doesn't keep tabs according to mortgage papers.  Your neighbor's trees, are working for all.
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Pic, above, here.
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Several century old pecan trees are on our property, above.  How to make those magnificent trees 2nd fiddle?  When my cats jump into them.  They never go over my upstretched arms, and let me lift them down.  Dignity intact, of course.
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Pic, above, here.
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Why does it take so long to realize what the garden is teaching us?  Why don't we see the layers of spirituality & ethics, in how a garden grows?  Why are we shocked learning we're part of that, literally?  Seriously, science is now proving trees are sentient.
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Theology and gardens are the same having ritual & ceremony; the gardener's is wildly more fun.
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When the radical grows down and the leaf grows up it's more than a seed germinating.  It's Providence & spirituality; bigger than we can conceive.  Answers are not as important as having the questions.  Beware trusting past science 'against' these words, science has caught up.

 
Pic, above, here.
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What type of person, above, are you?  One cell at a time, this tree decided to go for it.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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I know, more than 5 laws to take from the garden.  Laws deepening your spirit, and improving your life.  Didn't bullet point them, don't want to limit you.  Everyone's list, from this post, will be different.  THAT'S what a garden does, even via technology & photos & mere words.