Thursday, June 4, 2015

Elements of a Famous Garden: Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival

Shade encroached lawn, below, so it was removed & a gravel path was added with a row of boxwoods.
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Then, unexpectedly, a gift of huge pots with boxwoods, and an entryway was created, below.
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This is a new portion of Susanne Hudson's famous Douglasville, GA garden.  Her garden is on the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival tour this Saturday/Sunday.
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Aside from being in magazines, on TV and tours, Susanne's garden should also be famous for how easy it is to maintain.
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And, deer proof.
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Susanne's garden reads like a Garden Design Manual.
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Garden Design Elements:


  Complete architecture above, ceiling, walls, floors, doorways, rooms.

Hallway (gravel path)
Foyer (zone between arbor/boxwood in pots/end of gravel path)
Walls ( fence, side of house, hedges)
Color  (house/fence white theme)
Color ( layers of green, dark green, light green)
Color (granite gravel chosen to flow with white theme vs. brown river pebbles)
Ceiling (sky is designed by framing with canopy & understory trees)
Entryways (the more entryways a garden has the better a garden is)
Ballroom (invitation to the ballroom via the arbor, implied mystery, the garden beckons you)
Parlor (invitation to the parlor thru the large boxwood pots)
Art on the Wall (house is backdrop to the garden)
Art on the Wall (one focal point/area is the macro rule, here it's the arbor)
Flooring (gravel, low meadow)

Garden Design is Interior Design with different arrows in the quiver.  When you see a garden you like, there is a language to describe every element.  Learn the language, in this lone pic, above, and your quiver will be full for any garden you see moving forward.

When I give this lecture, I move to a new pic, use the laser pointer, and let the audience shout out what it is.  By the 3rd picture all are fluent.  Even those that were skeptical.  Name it to claim it is true for garden design.  Once you can name it, you can put it in your own garden.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pic taken by Susanne Hudson.  Spent the night with Susanne earlier this week, preparing for my lecture at the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival this Saturday, 2pm, in the new courthouse.

4 comments:

  1. Gorgeous, and easy to maintain, those are two words that every true gardener loves to hear. And you are so right, when thinking of outdoor spaces like interiors, it gets much much easier to plan and plant a stunning design.

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  2. Oh Tara, now this is my kind of garden.

    I love flowers, but give me BOXWOODS and some hydrangeas (in white or blue) and I am done. My current gardens are lined in boxwoods and with all the rain we've had, they are neon green and a joy to watch.

    This is a spectacular garden and the gravel is sublime. We need to refresh our gravel this year.

    It was so nice to see your welcome back comment on my blog. School and poetry classes have taken a lot of my time, but I finally figured that I can't stay away from blogging. It's fun, and it gives me a chance to do what I WANT.

    BE WELL and yes, GARDEN ON! Anita

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  3. Oh so brilliant! I can hardly stand it! I will go through my garden and try to identify!

    Right now i am in New England (not just New England; a New England whaling village dating from the late 1600's and early 1700's! Houses clustered really close together....with small gardens....you think your house was close to the house next door! I am taking pictures!!

    Really fascinating!!!! Marblehead Mass. Our grandson graduated today from Andover!!! Our granddaughter two weeks ago from Cate in California!

    They were just little so recently! It happens so fast!!

    Gardens are everything!!

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