The Zen of Roadside Foliage: Carlos David

Mundane subtlety hidden amongst the interior, below.

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When so much is a one-trick-pony, hope you take this mundane subtlety into your home, and heart.  This pony never disappoints.

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What's the rabbit hole, below?  THE STORY thread in all the pics?

 

  

Pic, above, here.

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"Your thoughts create your world."  Buddist

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All I see, in every pic, above/below, are the MUNDANE ARRANGEMENTS.

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Why mundane?  Some are taken from invasive plantings, some from shrubs needing pruning, one is more formally 'normal', flowers.  

 

  

Pic, above, here. 

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Myriad layers, dire subtlety, below.  As if the greenery were still in its field, arching slightly in the breeze.

 

Pic, above, here.

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Bought this neo-exact silver pitcher, below, to serve ice water, or hold side of the road clippings.  From a local thrift store in Atlanta.  One side engraved, North Shore Country Club, Glen Head, NY, 1st Flight 1952, Milton H. Raymond. 

 

  

Pic, above, here. 

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Flowers, above, a 'solace of quiet' singing, talking, loving you, until they 'fold their miracle'.  Whether you think so, or not.  

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Never done this throughout your home?  Weekend almost here.

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Gather your 'vases', source the pruners or kitchen scissors, a basket or bucket.

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Remember a few things, things you already know.  Perhaps never put into words to yourself.

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".....and the closed bud shrugs off

 its special mystery

in order to break into blossom

 

as if what exists, exists

so that it can be lost

and become precious."  In Passing, by Lisel Mueller.

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Best Use of Invasive Nandina, below.

  

Pic, above, here. 

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"There's a line in Walt Whitman's poem, 'Song of Myself' (1855) where he parenthetically says that he behaves no prouder than the level that he plants his house by.  His level isn't performing Modesty, pretending like it's not as good as other, more expensive levels.  Nor is it wrapped up in being better or more accurate than others.  It just does its job without getting in its own way.  At its best, modesty works the same way --- letting us do what we do well without all the comparative baggage.  A fitting insight for a poem that starts with Whitman's intention to celebrate himself, but actually winds up celebrating everything and everyone else."  N. Bommairito (sp.?)

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More than modesty, and comparison, is the gift of sacrament, 'the infusion of grace', from Webster's 3rd International Dictionary.

 

Energies of calm, inspiration, love, and St. Julian of Norwich, "All will be well."  

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Clipping your bushes for a vase inside, instead of straight to the compost pile, is a sacrament, and knowing all will be well.  In addition, bringing foliage inside your house is one of life's simple truths.

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If you've never done this, get ready.  You're going to receive much.

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Jikan = 'silence between thoughts'

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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara 

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Carlos David Studio, pics, and interiors and arrangements.

2 Surprising Christmas Decorations

Pop from the inbox a few days ago, below.  Brilliant.     

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More than style, are the Christmas colors.  Along with the Constance Spry silhouette, & choice of vase. 

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Jenny, my mother-in-law has been gone for 25 years, age 57, breast cancer.  This Christmas arrangement spoke.  First time, in a quarter century, I wanted to text Jenny a pic, and say, 'I'll do 2 of these for the Christmas table.'  Holidays were always at her home.  Her beautiful dining room filled with her children, their spouses, grandchildren, maybe an elderly aunt or grandmother.  The full monty of a true Southern matriarch.  

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I couldn't text Jenny, so it's for you.  Hope you put this in your visual file for a Christmas or Winter meal with friends, family.  If you truly love it, list, below, of ingredients and their designer. 

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"Poinsettia, paperwhites, and amaryllis bring Christmas cheer to a lovely crowd of blooms and greenery in a masterful mix by Kiana Underwood of Tulipina."

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Pic, above, Flower Magazine.

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These flowers, above, are Chekov, The Cherry Orchard, in far too many ways.  Hint of heartbreak, sinking into the poetry of their beauty.  Sifting both, into, now.  Trusting the beauty.  "Stories are carried in the body.", thankful of living this story.  The honesty of beauty, its victory.

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Pic, above, here .

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Of course, so simple, above.  First thought, "All those Christmas trees seen at thrift stores for nothing.", passing them by for years.  'Hubris of ignorance.', much?

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Our ca. 1900 home has a front porch and back deck needing a bit of lit forestry.  Plenty of time to hunt/gather trees, next year, and figure out how to weight the trees on the back deck from often brutal winds.  

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Ah, next year.  "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the nose." Mike Tyson.  Epitaph, 2020.

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"How we see a tree is how we see the world, and in the act of seeing we reveal what we are: "The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in the way."  Maria Popova.

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Two gifts, above, surprising Christmas decorations. 

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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Minimalist Guide to Bringing a Meadow Inside: Consecrating Effort

 BIE, before-internet-era, this, below, is how I put foliage/flowers on the table.  Perfectly suited to my skills, none.

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A family of good cooks, I'm not, my job (self created) was washing as the cooks (wasband/his parents) cooked, setting the table, and washing again when the meal was done.  A bargain.

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Decades pass, still no skills arranging flowers/greenery, yet a confidence in adoring bringing a meadow, or parts of a meadow inside. 

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Seems boring, but stay with this little story.  It is about Garden Design.

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"In the course of creative endeavors, artists & scientists join fragments of knowledge into a new unity of understanding." Vera John Steiner, Psycholinguist. 

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More than merely adoring meadow arrangements inside, I adore meadows outside.  Tara Turf, a mix of what's local, native, historic, friendly to soil, fauna, us, pollinators.

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Designing landscapes with Tara Turf, I attach their historic framework, local canopy/understory trees/shrubs.  Native, friendly to soil, fauna, us, pollinators.

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These are the gardens discovered across Europe, I studied historic gardens there for decades. 

 

 Pictures, here.

Now, living in a ca. 1900 home with Tara Turf, I've learned more.  Cutting greenery for the house, excess foliage & clipped ends of stems, I drop at the base of shrubs/hedges.  Zero clean up or taken to a compost pile.  All dropped where it grew.  Feeding the soil.     

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Feed the soil, feed the worms, feed the birds, and you've just started a potent link in the chain of pollinators.  It began wanting to put meadow plants on the table with a good meal.  

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"Living the questions embracing uncertainty allowing for intuition." Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875-1926.

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Outer weeds, in vase, above, we have along our rural roads.  The 'flower' I can't quite make out.  I do know, I'm on the hunt for a tall heavy vase, and roadside meadow weeds its first companions.

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"...only the ego can blind an artist to the recognition that all creative work begins with imitation before fermenting into originality under the dual forces of time and consecrating effort."  M. Papova. 

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Timeline learning the facts, above, decades.  If you're more stubborn than me, I want to know you !

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Update: Beloved's 3rd liver cancer treatment was done and it's another 2 weeks until results can be taken, previous results, tumors gone..  Amazingly, he got a call, his liver transplant may be done before  end of the year.  

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Hmm.  We've walked this road before.  So.  We're living in preparation, yet fully living life.  The bigger scare, not fully living life.  Beloved had quite a moment yesterday.  He told me how I can run his team of men while he heals from transplant.  Told him, My job is to keep you fed, meds on time, clean sheets/clothes/sponge bath, handling administrative tasks, not listening to any complaints.....

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Lifting you up in prayer, this global pandemic

How Florists Simplify Front Door Garden Design

Pinterest's myriad international Florist Front Door pics showcase, unintentionally, residential front door Garden Design at its greatest impact with smallest input using potted plants, colors, textures, found items, throughout all seasons.  Staging, change by the month, season, day, your choice.  If you're wanting live plants.
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How they 'plinth' their displays, the found items, of great interest. 
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Colors chosen, flow from inside to outside.  Everything must be easy to tote.
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Each Florist, saying, "This is my honey, you are the bee."  Each Florist playing Nina Simone, "I want some sugar in my bowl."


Pic, above, here.
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Pic, above, here.
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Quote, above, doesn't apply to copying Garden Design ideas.  Why?  Every site, every plant is unique.  Further, unique by the moment throughout each day, year, century, region. 
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However, you must make sure you're copying Garden Design from the good, and, enduring.  Enduring?  I prefer centuries, at a minimum. 
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Pic, above, here.
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Gardening...."can be a pretty desperate endeavor, because it is about some of our deepest needs, our need to be visible, to be heard, our need to make sense of our lives, to wake up and grow and belong."  Anne Lamott
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It's simply this; a few potted plants at the front door, to take it back, making our statement in reply to Bertrand Russell's moan, "...we've come to measure our progress by our 'separation from the life of Earth.' "  Maria Popova
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There is John Muir's Wilderness, and there is our own.  At the front door, "We are gardening the wilderness."  Jon Mooallem.  Take the metaphor.  It's taken for you, already, in your name.  Whether you think so, or not.
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We're all born into, "a puppeteer role in the theater of organic life.", Mooallem.  Delightful, we each get to choose our puppet's role. 
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Garden & Be Well,    XOT
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Not uncommon, reading, to change a word, taking the entire sentence to Gardens.  From, above, Anne Lamott, was originally, "Writing can be a pretty desperate endeavor, because it is about some of our deepest needs, our need to be visible, to be hear, our need to make sense of our lives, to wake up and grow and belong."
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Do you do this too while reading?  Then putting it into your Common Place books?  Do you have Common Place books?  Mine are escalating.  Didn't see it coming. 

Their Perfect Home Was Missing This Layer

Recently I lectured in North Georgia.  A neighborhood amongst lakes, streams, hardwoods, in the foothills of the Appalachians.  The program chair invited me to stay in her home.  Yes.
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Their home had the good fortune of being custom built, and better fortune, atop a mountain.  Their views surpassing many of the best views I've seen in the South.  At the back of their home, all windows, are views of sky, lakes, rivers, islands in lakes, mountains, more mountains, as far as the eye can see, yet below them, views to hillsides sloping steeply down, expanses of woodland upon soft rises, and hardwoods climbing quickly up steep cliffs across a ravine, betray none of the neighbors homes nested on hillsides.  Their neighborhood property owners association has miraculously kept it as pristine as the Blue Ridge Parkway.
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Their views are greater than 180 degrees, closer to 270 degrees.  No words.  Plenty of awe.
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Pic, above, here.
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Over early morning coffee, overlooking views, then breakfast of yogurt mixed with oatmeal & fresh fruit, overlooking different views, I had to share an observation of her interior.
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All perfection, not a single wrong layer.  Surprise, at what was missing.
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Pic, above,  here.
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Tall branches, in arrangements.  Views of thousands of acres of hardwood trees, yet no vase/s of tall branches.
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Pic, above, here.
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Her mind was quick to bite, I could see it on her face.  Then, "Would you come back again and lecture about floral arranging?"  "No".
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I've already sent her resources for someone to speak about floral arranging.  Their passion for floral arranging matching mine for Garden Design.
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Pic, above, here.
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I have no words for what plants and arrangements from the Garden do for interiors, excepting, grace, a form of thanks to, and from, Providence.  If that makes sense.
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     "Knowledge hinges on an act of correlation & interpretation.  At the top is wisdom, which has a moral component, it is the application of information worth remembering & knowledge that matters to understanding not only how the world works, but also how it should work and that requires a moral framework of what should & shouldn't matter, as well as an ideal of the world at its highest potentiality."  Maria Popova.
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When I mentioned what was missing from her interiors, I knew she 'got it' too, about Maria Popova's words.
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Now I'm wanting to see which vases she chooses, types of branches, and where they are placed.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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 I sent Floral Designer info about, Faith Flowers, Laura Iarocci, they also do international floral design tours.  Laura hired me years ago to design her private garden.  We met thru our Career Coach.  Since meeting, she's begun her thriving floral & events & tours business.  Been a joy bearing witness.

Historic Agrarian Modern Arrangements

Perfect, arrangement, below.  Florist style, without flowers, without expense.
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Only recently have I  begun making 'arrangements'.  Who has time for that?  People, without a life, made arrangements.  Now, apparently that is me.  Oddly, life gets crazier, necessity increases to hunt/gather and create arrangements for the house.  My life 'fell out', so choices had to be made. 
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Hungering for joy, the choice was easy.
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Aside from the expense of store bought flowers, their footprint upon Earth isn't something I wish to partake.  What about flowers in my own garden?  Rather a mood about those too.  Taking my own flowers, takes away pollinator food, and later, their seeds won't exist upon Earth.
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What to do?
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Bushes need pruning, and there's plenty of roadside greenery, pure joy taking clippers/basket, zero guilt.


Pic, above, here.
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Line and form are the most important layers of historic agrarian modern garden design.  Exactly the gardens I relish.
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Not a stretch, understanding, my love for the arrangement, above. 
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Silhouette, above, of the greenery, its scale to the container, and relationship between greenery/container using rustic/formal.  Full on miniature historic agrarian modern garden design in an urn.
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Notice the debris field, above?  Quite amusing, and part of the process, creating.
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I create arrangements on the front porch of our ca. 1900 home.  With its historic agrarian modern garden design, sweeping clippings, from making arrangements, off the porch, enriches the soil, and is covered with foliage.  Win/win.
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Hunted/gathered greenery, often has a lifespan of a month as an arrangement. 
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Understanding the alchemy of creating these historic agrarian modern floral arrangements, and what they add to my life & home, pure visceral.  Yet what are the words for the creation, then enjoyment?
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Grace and joy arrive quickly, but it's deeper than that.
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A transcendence.
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Certainly worth the price, becoming one-of-those-people-without-a-life !
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

3 Ways to Stage Your Table

Garden where you're at.  Be who you are.  Fake it till you make it.  Good enough, will stop at that trinity.  Already know not to force a solution. 
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Three years after moving into our ca. 1900 home on 5 acres we're still doing Daniel Boone gardening.  What does that mean?  Ornamental gardening is something for another day, probably another year, or two.
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ET-phone-home, exactly how I've felt.  And that little potted plant, wilting throughout the movie, until the end, when ET does go home, the plant returns to lush vigor. 
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Two years into no-ornamental-garden I began to sense something larger, Life.  The Life memo this time, Your field is being enriched, trust.  A stinker, feels like sinking, trusting this particular fallow field.  Excepting the creeping in of major new garden passions. 
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Go past many decades of US government intervention with farmers and their definition for fallow fields, you'll arrive at my fallow field, laying fallow to gather strength.  Trusting this 'gathering strength' feels woozy, the frenetic desire to phone-home-my-plant-is-wilting has been strong & enduring.  Thrust by Providence into a new life chapter.  Great sense of humor, dear Providence, considering who freely & with intention made the move from their beloved 30 year garden. 
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Another take on Dante's Inferno, finding myself lost in the woods, trying to get out, can't find my way out of the woods, yet it was me, taking the fullness of my days, years, walking into woods.  Not my first Rodeo.  Two questions to ask when you're stuck in the woods, looking at paths out, "Does this path enrich me, or diminish me?"     
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Odd new garden passion, staging garden tables in the florist style, below. 
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Staging this harvest table, below, is a twofer.  Aesthetics, and function.  Smart/witty siting huge pots/vases with greenery at zones unable to seat anyone due to chunky table legs.  More, the vignette of plants highlights those chunky legs as desirable, instead of a hindrance. 


Pic, above, here.
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Why not have a table, below, in the garden 'always' staged in Florist style?  Florist style, beauty with huge impact, little input. 

 
Pic, above, here.
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Finally, a table in the garden, below, staged as your life needs.  Not a fixed Florist vignette, above, nor the fixed tableau in the top photo,

 
Pic, above, here.
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Harvest tables, above, staged 3 ways.  Which staging is yours?
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Me?  All 3.  At 5 acres there is room.  One of the tables is merely laying about, at present, in pieces.  A large old wood gate from a shed we renovated, and old galvanized garbage cans, for legs, awaiting in the materials yard. 
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Garden & Be Well,  XO T
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Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.

What Georgia O'Keefe Can Teach Us About Happiness

"I do not like the idea of happyness------it is too momentary-----I would say that I was always busy & interested in something-----interest has more meaning to me than the idea of happyness."  Georgia O'Keeffe.
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Seeking happiness, to me, "It is the shrewdness of the fox after the chicken.  A low order of mentality often goes with it."  Sherwood Anderson.
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Within my core tribe none seek happiness, yet they are the happiest souls I know.  This is hindsight.
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Pic, above, here.
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Plants in the house, flowers in vases, an awakened joy.  Perhaps it's leaving my 30 year garden, and 3 years later our ca. 1900 home is still under basic construction: pond, dams, roads, drainage, well, irrigation, house renovations, gravel, shade trees, sheds, etc.
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A tipping point was reached, happily, last month when he asked, "Are we living in a greenhouse?".
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Something I know, for sure, about the vase, above, if it is narrow, in addition to wide, it's a magic vase.  Needs fewer flowers, and the shape helps put the arrangement together.  Zero clue to that fact, until this phase of life.
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Pic, above, here.
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An old conceit, above, new to me, from The Land Gardeners.   Dig a clump of bulbs, plop into container, poof, flowers for the house.  White planter, above at back, easily found junking.  How many times have you passed them by, and at 75 cents probably.  Once done, bulbs go back in the ground whence they came, no guilt. 
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Pic, above, here.
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Recognizing the 'line', above, in the floral arrangement.  Great satisfaction in 'knowing' about the 'line'.  Line?  Bottom left daisy, to the top right daisy, thicker in the middle.
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Works in reverse, below.  Line top left into thick middle ending bottom right.  Creates a natural look, gardenesque.
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Pic, above, here.
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Pic, above, here.
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Another 'line', above.  Didn't discover this line, found it in a book, bought almost 2 decades ago, not read until this year.   
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Pic, above, here.
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Quite saucy, wit, above, using the 'line'.  In a layer of prescience, I've bought pretty vases at estate sales since the 80's.  Crazy, zero time, zero talent, until this year's epiphany.  Why add this to my life?  A hunger for the 'doing' and greater hunger for the flowers in the house, life.
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On the floor, below, pure joy.  Signs of life lived.  A mess to be swept?  Therein lies the privilege, and thanks.  Stewardship & joy. 
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Pic, above, here.
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Our ca. 1900 home came with 2 kitchens.  The back kitchen we've turned into laundry, cat-ery, and most recently, floral arranging room.  Happy chaos.  Magic room with door to living room, back deck, and Jack/Jill bathroom.  Beside the fridge, an old majolica umbrella holder with a variety of brooms & mops.  Well used. 
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Happy.
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A local farmer's market is nearby, must get my Ivy Topiaries into more homes.  Not every market Saturday, but several.  For fun. 

Pic, above, here.
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"...the object drawn doesn't matter so much.  It's what you feel about it, what it means to you."  Sherwood Anderson.
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Happy.
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"Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant---there is no such thing.  Making your unknown known is the important thing---and keeping the unknown always beyond you..."  Georgia O'Keeffe.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

Tiny Garden Respite

Probably slapdash, below.  Yet fine tuned, inherent.  Barrel & half barrel collateral from their Vins & Liqueurs.  Even the colors echo from building to barrel.  Sited in equal asymmetry as the architecture, and function.  Finally, the trinity of pots/plants on the table, each a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, yet matched disparateness.


Pic, above, here.

Adore how little the 'garden', how great its statement.
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Furniture in-the-garden maximized to function, yet warm invitation to comfort & hospitality.  Table/chairs echoed just inside the door, repetition.  And those fonts.
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A sliver between building and road, yet a respite from those worlds.
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An odd affliction, adoring  little-giving-much.  Especially potent when it's woven into a livelihood.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Front Door: Vanishing Threshold

Vanishing threshold, below, garden light pouring inside.


Pic, above, here.

Our ca. 1900 house, below, is getting plenty of attention, but the list has its priorities.  Pic, above, gave me an idea for the Sheraton sideboard, below, plinth for potted plants.

 

Heart of pine floors, above/below, are original to the house.  Painting the central hall walls, on the list.
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Front door, original to the house, its bell still works.  Walls in the room, right, below, will remain their palest pink.  Would have never, ever, painted the room this color, which taught me something.  I love, adore, want to be in this room all the time.  It's a happy, happy, happier room.  More, the palest pink is warm in winter & cool in summer.  Pure magic.
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Painting in previous post, is exactly the painting I would like above the sideboard, below.



This is the fateful front door, above, 1st step over its threshold, I heard, "You have her way of walking around the house."  E.M. Forster, Howard's End.  More lines, and clear visuals, yet, how to appear calm, when every cell in my body lurched onto this house.  Events & feelings like this only occur in books or movies.  Irony, before 1st stepping foot into the house, I was angry with myself as the drive to see the house became longer & longer & longer, so long we were off any known map.  Who could ever live beyond the beyond?  Beloved was in his own truck, we had separate appointments, the smiling realtor awaiting at the front steps with her hand extended, the homeowner had arranged her schedule too.  How could I have made such a mistake?  Wasting my time, and theirs.
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We made an offer within 24 hours.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T

Florist Style in Garden Design

Florist Style.  Don't know what else to name it.  An assemblage of flowers or plants arrayed as if outside a florist shop, a charming florist shop, but in your garden.
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New client yesterday, and she's quite a challenge.  Children, grandchildren, she & her husband own their own business, and they have 3 homes, plus lots of travel.  Aside from mow-blow-go she has little to no garden help, unless it's the Gator.  And, she wants a delightful garden 'show' on her deck at the main home.  The deck is raised allowing for drip irrigation.  Thankfully.
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Florist Style for her deck.  Galvanized florist canisters for cut flowers, & plastic pots of flowering plants bought at the grocery store or a nursery, slipped into canisters too.  The story grows better, she loves ornamental grasses, I'll design a large prairie style grass garden for her to enjoy, and to have plenty for cutting.



Pic, above, here.

Her deck is large, and can handle several large evergreens, below.  Once they become 'tired' they can be retired to planting in her newly designed/designated cutting garden.

  

Pic, above, here.

Very little, below, yet confidently setting a 'tone'.  Exactly the top merit of Florist Style Garden Design.

 
Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.

Before our appointment I was at another appointment, with her sister.  Sister mentioned a place with an international supply of construction pieces from historic homes.  She showed me a few pics of the shop & I got the name & wrote it down.  Perhaps my new client can find a piece like this, above, for her Florist Style.
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New client mentioned a grown son and their gardening relationship since he was a boy, I'm sure she'll send him this post, for perusal and approval.  Too fun.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO T