Old Tool Bouquet a la Toile

Start collecting now.

You've seen dozens of old tool bouquets on toiles across the span of your life.

Old tools in my garage are ladies-in-waiting.

Think this bit of garden is serendipitous?  Unplanned?  Needs weeding?  A trinity of wrong.  This garden room is rustic balance with its formal companions nearby.
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Garden Design is all about contrasts.  And finding a way to hang lovely old tools.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics shot in Susanne Hudson's garden last month.  Seems old tools, old terra cotta & old tin are a new trinity.

How To Use High Density vs. Low Density

CONTRAST is Landscape Design's potent tool. 

 

 Penelope Bianchi is the QUEEN OF CONTRAST.  Above, a high density garden room.  Lots of 'things'.  Do you know how wicked hard it is to stage a lot of 'things'?

Because Penelope is, indeed, QUEEN OF CONTRAST, another garden room, above, is low density.
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Each picture a masters class in Landscape Design.
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How to use high density vs. low density? Contrast them.
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Garden & Be Well,          XO Tara
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Pics via Velvet & Linen of Penelope's garden.  The garden is only 15 years old, yes, you may want to look again.  And, it's for sale.  Can you imagine the excitement & ideas swirling in Penelope's mind about her new garden.
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High density vs. low density isn't only a Landscape Design tool.  Landscapes with high & low density have the greatest pollinator habitat.  

THIS OFFICE CAUGHT MY EYE

Don't you adore something attracting your eyes like this?Once a single car garage, below, this office indeed caught my eyes.

With sooooo many antique chandeliers the flourescent tubes became stage props.

No, the cloche, below, wasn't old, old. But pretty, yes?

Soooooo much stuff, nothing in the wrong spot.

Objects taking your mind thru trips to France,

Italy. More.

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This office is the headquarters of, The Garage.

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Salvaged architectural & landscape artifacts from across the globe.

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Go. Your landscape will thank you.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Top pic from the movie, Marie Antoinette. The rest I took earlier this month.

NOT CRAFTY

A board, mirror, old tools. Each a rescue. What would you do? Susanne Hudson made this, above, mirror. Hung on an outside wall of her carriage house.
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I'm 'not crafty' in the least but a mirror I was given & old tools are in my garage (carriage house!)
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Continuing with the 'not crafty' fact, I see pine cones on the mirror frame too. Hmm, a glue gun needed. AND, in season I see fresh hydrangea blossoms tucked into the tools & pine cones around the mirror. And, in season camellias................roses...............tea olive................gardenia.................hosta/fern foliage................hellebores.............daffodils.
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Wouldn't that be interesting, collecting a year's pics of the garden mirror?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

GREENHOUSE OF OLD DOORS

Rescued doors (aka free) + cacti bought on sale at big box stores, below, in Hogansville, GA. No, the doors don't match. Why should they?

Cobbled together with more rescued bits this greenhouse is instantly charming.

Testament to a woman's growing love, fascination, passion for cacti.

Inside, above, refrigerator shelving + old windows creating a roof.

Attached to the house the greenhouse only needs 3 sides. Above, one side.

Above, the other side. A free greenhouse !! Not your style? Paint it.

Inside. Aaaaaaaaaaaaah. Something about greenhouses does it for me. Neat, messy, empty, full, being in a greenhouse has always melted my heart. Each one, no matter its condition, a life force. Telling me stories. And the smell. Oh my, the smell of a greenhouse. I would buy the perfumes.

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Shopping at Born Again Antiques, spottedsheep@hotmail.com, 304 East Main Street, Hogansville, GA 30230, 404-422-8504, last week for my garden, Allan Boyer, co-owner, said his wife, BJ Boyer, filled the front window with her cacti during winter. A come-on line if I ever heard one. Within 15 minutes I was walking with BJ, & her newest dog, into her garden. BJ makes new antiques by cobbling together broken antiques. The woman has got an eye. (This is not an ad for them, I am simply passing along a very interesting, fun place. Maybe you can go?)

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

COPYING & MAKING IT NEW IN THE LANDSCAPE

A century old, at least, I copied it in my landscape. Outside. (Thank you Pigtown*Design, it was your idea.) And I don't like to collect things nor stray from simplicity. So why am I enjoying this blue/white Chaos Display?
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Maybe I'll keep it for a month or years. Doesn't matter, I'm enjoying it now. 3 RULES FOR LANDSCAPES:

COPY + SIMPLICITY + REPETITION
No matter how many times it's been done before, if it's beautiful elsewhere it will be beautiful & unique in your landscape.

What is the saying? Non-fiction is a true story, myths are stories that happen over & over & over.... Landscapes are myths, at least mine is to me. How else to explain the grace my garden exudes? Using the 3 rules: copy, simplicity, repetition will give you mythical grace in your landscape.

Setting up the blue/white CHAOS DISPLAY, below.

Intentionally design your landscape to create impromptu Still Life, above.

Went to my favorite junk shop to complete the blue/white collection last Friday. I would tell you where but the friend who shared the shop with me did so with a demand, Do not tell anyone about this shop.

Pic, above, is not styled. The box was awkwardly heavy & I set it on my patio table to begin arranging the Chaos Display. Magazine shoots are fine but I delight, especially, in good pics not styled. The impromptu of life creating still life.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara