Naked Ladies: Harbinger of Autumn

Naked Ladies, below.  Bulbs planted in spring, come up in August, after a rain.  Harbingers of change, late summer into the earliest autumn.  


Pic, above, P. Allen Smith, Amaryllis belladonna.  More planting details, here.

Their stalks arise, almost entire, overnite, crowned with buds, and quickly the flowers.  Delicate in looks, tough in reality.
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Pic, above, Brent & Becky's Bulbs, have ordered from them for years.
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Both pink and red Naked Ladies are in our ca. 1900 American farmhouse garden.  Telling stories, mystery tales.  Lots of them, they are in the oddest places, erratically, and some geometric.  I know I want more.
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First order of bulbs for my new garden, daffodils, naked ladies, blue grape hyacinths.  Several types of each.
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Here's what I know about bulb orders, when you are ordering tough, long lived bulbs.  Scare yourself, a bit, order more than you should.  Go over budget.  You won't regret it, unless it's regretting not having spent more.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T  

Creating Flow: Garden Design Equation

With an engineering degree, and horticulture, you know I've invented a Garden Design Equation, moons ago.  Yes, good gardens are math.
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Will do a long post about the Garden Design Equation, but not today.  Promise, you will love the Garden Design Equation, and totally 'get' it.  Have taught it in my college classes and seminars losing no one yet.
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Living in our new American Farmhouse Architecture home, ca. 1900, for a total of 3 nites, the Garden Design Equation beckons.
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Blessedly no gardening has been done here for decades, Poverty is a Great Preserver, indeed.  Why is this good?  Not a lot to 'undo'.
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Focal point on axis, below.  Vanishing Threshold.



Focal points must be sited as focal points from more than a single direction.  This type of focal point, urn above, is one of the best.  Do you know why?  Needs no planting.  Low maintenance.  Let your garden leverage your life.  Your garden works for you, not the reverse.
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From the outside, below, first impression, your garden must tell me who you are, this garden does.
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But my narrative, above, has skipped some of the 1st elements of the Garden Design Formula.
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Focal point siting is often 'obvious' but must wait until 'flow' around the property is managed.  Flow for cars, and walking, maintenance, and larger spaces, a gator/golf cart.
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Do you see what else is obvious when creating flow?  Turf is included in 'flow' equal to a gravel path-drive-terrace.
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This garden, below, is designed for low maintenance too.  Did you already spot that?  The tractor can easily do its job, and the evergreens need once/year attention, no irrigation needed, no chemicals, no fertilizers.
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Had to laugh when I saw this pic, it's exactly where my Garden Design Equation is percolating at our new home.  Flow.
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Drive & Parking Court, below.
 


Had already told Beloved I will design a gravel drive, gravel parking court, gravel paths, with boxwoods and Tara Turf.
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The Garden Design Equation formula at work.  Historic too.  In the greatest of ironies, I studied historic gardens across Europe for 2+ decades learning how to design a garden with 'plants'.   What was truly learned is flow, repetition, rooms, axis, max pollinator habitat......etc.




Oddly, too, I've had this idea, below, in mind for the area with my above ground propane tank.  Cannot wait for the before/after shots of my propane tank.  Who knew such delights could be had?  Adore taking the worst a garden offers and turning it into use and beauty.



Big effect, below, little input.  Been done thousands of times across the centuries, and will be done again at our new home.  Copy.  NEVER worry about copying.  Each site is unique, making each iteration new/fresh.  Again, the Garden Design Equation, and why it works.  Your garden is unique, and the brain cells you apply enhance every effect.



Gratuitous, below, if you know anything about Historic Garden Design.
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And, of course, I will copy it too.  Daffodils
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Notice something else about all these pics?  Deer proof.



Luckily my new bathroom needs a 'tweak'.  And, there is a window overlooking the new orchard/rose arbor.  This is exactly how my tub will site, at its window.





Single story, our American Farmhouse, is quite long.  3 days here, I know for sure, both front/back doors will have their own set of work shoes/shovels/pruners/wheelbarrow/hats.
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A garden must leverage your time.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics via Cote De Texas, from Elle Decor. 

Handling Tulips & Dog 'Business' in the South.

She doesn't ask for much.  Her backyard is tiny, she has a beloved large dog, mostly shade, a bit of sun.

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She wants a pretty little garden to look upon from her new screened porch, convenience for her dog's 'business', a few vegetables-herbs, and TULIPS.

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She's awaiting several surgeries: hips, knees.

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No mobility to be in her tiny garden.

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Full-time job.

5 shiny new galvanized garbage cans will hold her veggies-herbs-TULIPS, aka potager.

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Lined up in the sun.

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Everything in her garden designed for unskilled labor, at most 1/month.

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Drip irrigation to her galvanized garbage cans and newly planted shrubs.

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Old House Gardens, and, Brent and Becky's Bulbs are the sources I've given for her TULIP order.

Horticultural humor using the garbage can lids as plant saucers.

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Sign-up for the newsletters, above.

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“A little studied negligence is becoming to a garden.”

— Eleanor Perenyi, 1918-2009, American author of the modern classic Green Thoughts

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Old House Gardens, always begins their newsletters with a quote, above.

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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

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I took the pics last year at James Farmer's store in Perry , GA.

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For Heidi, her dog, a wide gravel path curves thru the entire garden.  Fat gravel, is unable to lodge in a large dog's paws.  Easy to pick up Heidi's 'business' with a pet scooper.  Tulips are mostly annuals in the South, they perform best from containers.  Cannot wait to see which tulips she orders, I know she has a purple fetish.

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My design included the new screened porch and my team completed it earlier this year.  We are sourcing furnishings now.  Yes, we are having fun !

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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

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Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

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Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

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Construction by Award Winning

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Planting in Drifts + Ultimate Status Symbol

Several hundred acres, several barns, several thousand bulbs to plant.

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Constraint?  Bulbs must look like they've been on property for a century.

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What to do?

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Toss out every known morsel of garden design since 1960.  (Easy, been there/done that.)

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Plant in blowzy DRIFTS.

Drifts must be organic tear drops.  Stubby or elongated + versions in between.

From inside the barn, below, to the house.

Did you know this about Garden Design?  If you create beauty in one direction, it's beautiful in its opposite.  

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Notice the foot path, above?  

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How few know a foot path through meadow is one of life's ultimate status symbols.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken at jobsite yesterday.

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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

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Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Daffodils: Ordering, Siting, Planting

Abiding in the Rustic Barn until the coyote roundup is complete, Jefferson, below, was totally enthralled with our entry for the daffodil bulbs.  

Thousands of bulbs, below.

Once sited thousands seemed like two, maybe three.

A century old the home had no daffodils.  I'm siting them to look as if they have been there longer than a century.  Great billowy drifts.
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These daffodil bulbs, above, will drift thru the fence as if the fence came later.
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Humbling to watch my team plant the bulbs.  On their knees, each bulb hand planted with a small miner's pick.

They start planting at the middle of the drifts, facing each other, on their knees, then moving outward.  All the while bantering amongst themselves.  Teamwork.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Bulbs ordered from Brent & Becky's Bulbs.  Mostly 'Carlton' daffodils.
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Pics this week at jobsite.  Isn't the top pic purrfectly catalicious?  Jefferson was not about to admit interest in our activities.
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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon.

Forcing Bulbs

We junked together this month and saw the little Delft shoes.  Cute.  Whatever.

Checking out she said they would be great to force crocus bulbs in.
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Instantly, 'whatever' became 'want' !
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When she flew back home she left these on the kitchen counter.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Her years of living in New York City, working as a florist, were on display.  Sublime to revel in a friend's creativity.