Oddest Garden Tool: Clothes to Better Gardening

 Working professional propagation for many years, we all wore aprons.  Couldn't work without one.  More than clothing, the apron is a tool.

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Of course I wear an apron working in my garden at home.  They teach that in college?  Pure, OJT. 

 

   

Pic, above/below, here.

 Need an apron/dress, below.  Most often gardening, I plop on ground, and butt scoot.

  

 Incredible, below.  Master of color combination, interesting.  Fall gardening, yet can head out to jobsite, stop at grocery store, back into garden.

   

Pic, above, here.

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"Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, & times shall be good.  We are the times: such as we are, such are the times."  St. Augustine, AD 354 - 430, Sermons to the people, 80:8.   Her clothes, above, delightful, I'm on the hunt.  Knowing they came from the, Poverty Cycle.  

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Gardening has a sliver, if we remain fortunate, of every sacred Poverty Cycle education. 

A little bit cooler in fall, below, tweed.  All my best tweed is from thrift stores.  Am 'over' rubber boots, they crack, wear a couple years cracked & duct taped.  No more, done.  Cowboy boots, leather/with rigid rubber soles. Justin, Tractor Supply.  

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Use my dad's inherited Stetson, no more broad brim hats, below.  Stetson gives shade AND broader range of view.  Plants are my doggies.  No one can say, She's all hat and no cattle.  For good measure, I wear dad's original Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses he bought in late 50's when he was an Air Force Test Pilot.  

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Think my Garden knows when I walk outside?

 

   

Pic, above//below, here.

 

 Soon, these, below, are the gardening clothes for a month.  Scarf, exactly what's needed when under large shade trees, ticks, or going into shed for tools, spiders.

  

Pic, above, here. 

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"The habits of the home in one generation become the morals of society in the next." 

My parents grew up suburban/agrarian.  They raised a family, suburban/subdivision, no agrarian.  Their gardening was maintaining the lawn with mowing, chemicals, fertilizers,  & shrubs the same.  No different than most of their era.  The era decimating bird populations, insect populations, poisoning soil, water supply and killing microbiomes.

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Quote, above, seems extreme at first reading.  Across the decades of my own life, not my parents, it is an honest quote.  Rachel Carson wrote, Silent Spring, two years after I was born.  We're using more chemicals, not less.  Carson's advice to stop using chemicals in the landscape fell on my heart as obvious, growing up.   

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Merely figuring out the need for proper gardening clothes, was through experience gained on my own.  

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Aside from inherited pieces mentioned, over 90% of my gardening clothes are thrift store.  Better quality than new retail.  No worries about rips, stains, holes at thrift store pricing.

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What's in all my pockets?  Cell phone, Felco pruners, brown twine, misc.

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"...things that they value, or their traditions, or their aesthetic ideals, or their ways of constructing happiness, or the things that they recognize as being important and worth noting."  Tim Lomas

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At the front end of getting a Horticulture degree, studying historic gardens across Europe for decades, and supporting myself designing gardens it's amazing to realize, now, more of the terrain, not merely the map of my life, "I'm going out as a scout, hunting for resources and ideas that might be liberating or sustaining now, and in the future."  Olivia Laing.

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Reparative gardening, not the expected habit of gardening my parents exposed me to.  Garden Morals held.

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Hope your soul hears what Reparative Gardening offers.  Love, food, health, delight in learning, spirit, Nature, a voice wiser than your own.  For starters.

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Garden & Be Well,  XO T

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Not a sponsored post, and do like the Justin cowboy boots.  Hose off just as easily as rubber, my feet don't get wet, boots don't crack.

What Lucinda Chambers Can Teach Us About Garden Design

A few weeks ago, this, below.  What a garden !  Knew at once, great skill involved, more, the gardener put their entire being into it.  Oddly, at the front end of gardening professionally, horrendous USA degree in hand, I would have known the opposite.  Garden, below, no good, too bohemian, too wild, nothing 'done', certainly not a contender for entry in a Garden Show for spring in a large city.. 
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Twenty plus years later, traveling historic gardens across Europe, then a decade staying put, designing/installing historic gardens.  I knew I had to follow the paper trail for this garden, below.  Further, I knew the woman in the garden, was its owner/designer, from 1st glance.  Odd, yes?  She could easily be a model for shoes or pants or maybe fabrics.


Pic, above, here.
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Didn't take a full minute of sleuthing to learn this is Lucinda Chambers, for 3 decades the stylist for Vogue UK.
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Pic, above, here.
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No wonder Lucinda has an incredible garden, art is art.  Styling a photo shoot, styling an entire clothing outfit, zero difference styling a garden.
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Pic, above, here.
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I came late to thrift store shopping, had just joined a church, and needed a few outfits.  In my late 20's, never looked back.  Thrift stores entirely too much fun.  Clothes, patio furniture, dishes, sunglasses, etc.
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Pic, above, here.
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Seeing dozens of Lucinda Willams clothing choices, I knew.  Permission.
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Pic, above, here.

In my closet, what I had considered divine thrift store purchases, yet incoherent for combining/wearing, were suddenly Lucinda Chambers approved.  Lucinda gave me approval, for combining disparate clothing into pure joy to combine, and more importantly, to wear. 


Pic, above, here.
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Historic Garden Design is permission.  Crazed, divine, permission.  Sure, there are historic Garden Design Rules.  Each one, knowingly, making your world better, more you, and the honor of stewardship with epiphany of permission.
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Watch Video.  WATCH video.  Watch Now, 1 min 54 seconds, WATCH.
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Lucinda Williams, above, in her own voice, about styling.  Zero separation in styling clothes, gardens, architecture, etc. 
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From Lucinda:
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"Educate your eye."
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"It's a craft."
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"Everything is information."
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"Nothing is off limits."
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"It's not beyond your reach."
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"Passionate about doing it."
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"It's only for you."
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"It's completely doable."


Pic, above, here.
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"For 36 years, Lucinda Chambers has been at the forefront of magazine publishing as fashion director of British Elle and British Vogue, where she held the position for 25 years and established long-lasting relationships with some of the world’s leading photographers, including Patrick Demarchelier, Nick Knight and Paolo Roversi. Throughout her career, she has also worked closely with fashion houses such as Marni, Prada, Jil Sander and Chanel, consulting on collections and advertising. Most recently, she styled Pharrell Williams and Imaan Hammam for the December 2017 cover of US Vogue."  Business of Fashion.
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Moving from my 30 year home/garden 3 years ago, toted 18 loads furniture-clothes-books-etc in my tiny beloved van, to the thrift store.  Wish I had discovered Lucinda before all those loads.  Happily, I didn't give away all my crazed, divine clothing purchases.  Better, gave me permission to buy more.
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In all my searching for more of Lucinda Williams garden, found nothing.
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Lucinda's garden, photos above, has the classic color trinity, green-brown-white, with subsidiary color, pink.  Did her home photo shoot in the garden, need a bit of styling, hence the pink sheet?
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Lamp, lampshade, old chairs, old table, macrame plant hanger, each mimic Lucinda's clothing and professional styling.  First rule of Garden Design, copy.  Garden Design rule, written by me long ago, "Does this garden make me want to go inside?" 
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Vine at the window, above?  Curtains for garden views.
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Photo shoot in Lucinda's garden a classic of enfilade styling. 
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

One Hat Secret Every Gardener Should Know

Since the start of my competitive tennis days, ages 11-17, I've worn hats.  Back then it was the canvas tennis hat or terry.  Along with cotton footies swinging their colored balls at the back ankle, always wearing a white tennis dress flashing a bit of ruffled panty, with a mere hint of color. Colored tennis dresses had just come into style, of course I wore only white.
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Moving forward to the start of my Garden Design career, again hats.  Wide or extra wide broad brim straw hats, along with a few quite dashing wide brim fabric hats for winter. 
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If you look in my little work van, you'll find measuring wheel, drawing board, Wellies, measuring tape, flags, florescent string, pencils/erasers, paper, and a straw farmers hat, hanging by a vintage wide silk ribbon.  That farmers hat is the emergency hat.  Perfect for sun,  strong wind, or a few wet sprinkles, and I've forgotten to bring a well chosen hat.


Pic, above, here.
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Decades pass, rather an expert on hat styles, use. 
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Pic, above, here.
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"The Rancher by Stetson is a classic straw cowboy hat. It has the tallest crown of all the Stetson straw cowboy hats at 5 inches. Available up to size 8. This 10X Straw hat has a 4 inch brim. Famous Words of Inspiration...""A book of quotations, can never be..."
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Leaving town after my father's funeral, heading to the back door with my luggage, mom asks, "Do you want your daddy's hat?"
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Dad's straw, stained gardening Stetson still resting where he last placed it.  Where he always placed it, for decades.  On the patio table, at the back porch, by the windows where we have eaten breakfast-lunch-dinner since 1966.  Of course I wanted it.  Rolling my suitcase, I grabbed dad's Stetson, plopped it on my head.
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Reaching the Delta gate, about 10pm, there was a delay with the flight.  Still wearing that Stetson, standing in front of the gate agent, asking about my flight, the tears flowed, I couldn't take one more thing.  Just had to get home.  Through the tears, "My dad just died, and I've got to get home."
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The gate agent walked around her desk, and full body hugged me, and began crying with me.  Telling me she has lost her father too.  Both of us, tears drenching our faces, dripping onto our clothes. 
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Good news, the flight delay wasn't long.  Once on the plane, obvious the gate agent had upgraded my seat.  Bless her for that, and her crying hug.
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Don't remember how many days I was home before I went into a garden, client's or my own, can't remember, and grabbed dad's Stetson.
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More than wearing dad's Stetson, I got an education about hats.  I had been wearing the wrong hats for my entire Garden Design career.  Wide brim straw hat keeping sun off was my hunt.  Dad's Stetson took it to a new level.  Wide brim of the Stetson is curved up slightly.  Providing shade, with clear eyesight lines through out a garden.  Literally, upon discovery, I heard Jed Clampett, "Well, doggies."
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Stetson, above, is the style I inherited.  Have since bought another, love them.  Both, on the hall tree at the front door.
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Get you one !!
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T