12 Steps to Create a Patio You'll Want to Use

Garden Design in a single photo, below.
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Pic, above, here.
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Don't be fooled by the beautiful home, stone terrace, vintage table/chairs, classic urn on a low brick column.  This isn't a high-end Garden Design course.  It's Garden Design for all.  Every price point.
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Do pay attention to form, function, simplicity, color.
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Ease of maintenance.
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Access to house for easy transport of tableware/meals.
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The urn, at front, so fabulous, it remains a beauty, empty.
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They chose a color trinity, green/black/white.
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Does it answer the question, "Is the garden so amazing I want to see inside the house?"  Yes.
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This Garden Design is for any starter home, no matter its era.  Found/rescued brick/stone for the terrace, laid in soil with groundcover.  Perhaps gravel, with a few stones set at main path into house.  Don't want to track gravel inside.
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Choose your Color Trinity.  Green/Brown/White the historic classic.  For a reason.  But, choose whatever you want, it's your garden, your life.  You love it, results will be great.
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No vintage table/chairs?  Field gathered is fabulous.  Table, chairs, none match, all painted the same color.  What color?  One of your chosen Color Trinity.   
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No classic urn?  Old galvanized pot.  Horrid plastic pot, fine, if painted from your Color Trinity.
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Be simple.  At the end of a Garden Design, ask yourself, "What can I take out, and it still holds together?"  Simplicity is good Garden Design.  Never, do I want to look out a window, and think, "Oh, I must go do....."  I must look out my windows and think, "Oh WOW."
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Make sure your choices flow from inside your home.  Same brain waves creating your interior, are the same to use outside. 
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Garden Design begins inside the house.  This patio flows from inside the house. 
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Bugs?  Outdoor ceiling fans.  Not happening?  Paint a box fan, aim it toward table at proper distance, spray it a color from your trinity.  Once my arbor with ceiling fans rotted, at my 30 year garden, I went the box fan route nestled in the foliage of a large potted plant.  Not too inconvenient, it was mostly off exhibit, in the garage.   
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Garden & Be Well,  XOT 
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Front porch at our ca. 1900 home is amazing, it faces east, usually has a slight breeze from the pastures surrounding us.  It's deep, we can eat meals during storms, without getting wet.  Often, when bad weather blows in I go to the front porch to sit and enjoy the drama.  During the few weeks a year it's not too hot, or too cold, when friends come to dinner, we eat on the front porch. 
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Last nite, heading out to dinner, it was the last of oddly warm temperatures the past week.  Told Beloved to stop, lets sit on the front porch a few minutes before leaving.  "Why?", he asked, "So we can talk." I said.  "We can talk in the truck.", he said.  "I want to enjoy the last of this warm weather in January with you.", I said.  We sat.  Talked.  Quite a bit.  Sweet.
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Doubt Beloved would convey this story similarly.  Men.

Nitty Gritty of Patio Chairs

Good chairs at the round central table, below, for overflow/extra seating.  Easily stored, easily carried.  However, I know they do not meet your full requirements.  These are not chairs conducive to lingering conversation after a good meal, especially in the evening.  Nor are they acceptable for 'him they call fat boy, clocking in at 400 lbs. with a passion for food and film magazines, who'd been a great critic downtown, he'd politely decline dinner happy to dance down the street drinking vodka in the moonlight, with his aging film queen at 58 odd years of age.' Face it, you'd rather keep this couple at your table.    



Pic, above, here.

Much better to keep Fat Boy, 'in his gray overalls, and the aging film queen, master raconteurs both, for dinner in the comfortable chairs', below.  Perhaps she'd share her story of 'the fountain of youth, somewhere west of Fort Worth, where she met Errol Flynn in the Crazy Water Hotel.'

Pic, above, here.

Who doesn't love good stories after a good meal?  No worries the pastiche is a bit embellished, it's the truth told as it should be when there are fireflies, stars and the moon filtered thru branches of century old pecan trees.
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My girlfriend, Miss Gulf Coast, had a Thanksgiving dinner several years ago, she called me ahead letting me know she'd invited a 'character'.  Bless her.  Older, crooked health, and from the margins of society, he'd created his own world, overcoming a few obvious, yet unknown, poor life choices, with dignity, character, delight.  It was my honor to be seated next to him.  He passed before the next Thanksgiving.  We still talk about him.  Yes, I like a good character at table.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Quotes from, Tom Russell's song, Mineral Wells,
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Almost a decade ago a friend burned me a cd, an unexpected gift.  Written in fat Sharpie, on the cd, Texas Boogie.  Mineral Wells is one of my favorites.
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Honestly, how many times, across decades, can I write/lecture about patio chairs?  And, keep myself amused.  Perhaps you'll tell me a good dinner story that's happened to you.

How to Fix the Porch to Patio Dead-End

Lovely porch & courtyard.

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Porch opens into house, not courtyard.

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Dead-end from courtyard to porch.

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Dead-end from porch to courtyard.

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Not in my realm.

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This will not be.

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Center section will soon be French folding screen doors with steps to the courtyard.

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Why 'folding' ?

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They entertain, French folding screen doors take less space.

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Have never seen or thought of French folding screen doors till this job.

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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara

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Pic on the job last week.  Yes I wanted to take precious home !!  He stayed faithfully by my side as I worked throughout his garden.

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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.

Wendy Posard: Kitchen + Garden

When the garden is a feature of the kitchen I know the architect has gone beyond their education.  And delved into the realm of intuitive.

Flooring flows inside/outside and the scale is charming vs. large.  Other comparisons: happy vs. large, nurturing vs. large.......
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Necessity vs. luxury.
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"I can live without the necessities but I must have the luxuries.", a quote I first heard age 8, repeated by Miss Katherine Scott, a grand influence.
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Garden & Be Well,       XO Tara
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Pic is a Wendy Posard project.

Garden Jewelry: Windows

This kitchen was a 1980's time capsule at my first visit earlier this year.

With kitchen & house renovations complete I was back at the jobsite this month to fine tune garden plans.

The kitchen window is new too.

From the garden, below, the window is pure jewelry.

The bricks were saw cut to enlarge the opening, barely visible, and soon the bricks will be lime washed.
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Exciting times, I've never worked with a window so stunning.  Sure, we'll have cobblestone edging & a stone terrace but the window will still be the focal point.
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Have known for years exterior lighting is jewelry for the garden, now windows are added to the list of jewels.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pics taken at jobsite this month.

Hiding Necessities

Hiding necessities.

Inside & outside.
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Quite a nice topic for a book.  Anyone?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic via Mod Vintage Life.  Looks like the patio was extended with 18" square concrete pavers.  Easy, affordable, unskilled labor.  The climbing hydrangea?  Amazing.

Front Porch Plants

Choose pots, containers, plant stands so fabulous they can remain empty, if desired.

It's obvious, below, these plant stands can remain empty or filled easily for a party or whim.

Hydrangeas are in their black plastic container, hidden with erosion control fabric.
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This front porch is meant for reading, I'll give you something worthy: "Wendy (nothing to do with Peter Pan but short for Wendell) Howell was a grand American gone native (How yer dawgs?) whom I prized as a friend because she did not take to just anyone and made an exception for me.  She like whippets and whisky and had too many of both.  Lots of husbands (including a Roosevelt) had come and gone and she eventually settled with a lady vet in one of those Irish cottages which were rare then and now only happen on postcards.  It had an earth floor and stable doors and, in the sitting room, a vast opening for the fireplace where, if you bent down to look up the chimney, you could see a big patch of sky. At the entrance to the cottage was a sculpture of two whippets, old friends to me as they were an echo of a similar model by Gott at Chatsworth.  Wendy held a pilot's licence but luckily never offered to take me for a spin."  Debo Mitford.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics taken last month Susanne Hudson's front porch.

Where to Start

Don't know where to begin your Garden Design?

Begin with a table outside.  You must eat.
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Then, begin with layers of green: trees, shrubs, groundcovers.  Each suited for your zone-sun-shade-parched-moist areas.
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With the greens add focal points on axis from window views.
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You've just created a garden in vanishing threshold with your home.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic via Bumble at Home.   Truly, keep it this simple.

Chandeliers

Often I'm designing a garden when the interior is being renovated.

I adore seeing the lighting chosen.  Breakfast room, above, master closet, below.

A chandelier in my music room will soon grace the harvest table on the patio.  Beautiful & violent it has hit  many people in the head.
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Anticipating the new harvest table & chandelier on my patio is a January joy.
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Sourcing chairs now, table must seat 10.
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And which bonbon from the garage will grace the harvest table center?  Yes, this is fun.
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I'm not impatient.  This layer, the hunt, is excitement.
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Garden & Be Well,       XO Tara
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Pics taken last year at a client's home.   Before pics are already taken of the patio!
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
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Details about online design services.
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Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
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Details about lecture titles here.
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I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Patio Furniture Mix

Calm.  Quiet.  Then revelation.

Lunch in Kemah yesterday on Galveston Bay.
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Quietude of patio furnishings to perfection. Wicker, metal, wood with repetition throughout of colors, heights, invitation to relax.  They hired a designer.  That much is obvious.
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How things change.  I grew up here.  Designers?  In my youth nothing was paved.  Dirt roads, oyster shell parking lots & the seafood available was coming off  shrimp boats.
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At my back, while taking this pic, is Galveston Bay with the boats coming in to Clear Creek and Nassau Bay.  Remember the Hilton Hotel where the woman ran back/forth over her husband & said it was an accident?  Near here!
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Beware using all metal furniture on your patio/deck.  Exceptions exist.  Be sure yours is.......    
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Crabcake sandwich & bowl of shrimp gumbo.  Fed the birds until someone pointed out the signs, "Do not feed the birds."

How To Create Vanishing Threshold

Gardens begin inside.

Looking out the window, above/below.

And, looking in the same window.
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Landscape Design is more than plants.  It's Vanishing Threshold with your interior, exterior & life.
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Garden & Be Well,          XO Tara
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Pics taken at jobsite last week.  Love the layers of this project coming together.

What To Put On Your List

Looking in, framing the view.

2 years ago there were no bushes in the foreground or background.
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At 200 acres every plant must pay their keep.  Once established no watering, no bugs, no fungus  & no susceptibility to late frosts.
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AND plantings must have something coming into bloom every 2 weeks, all year.
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Garden & Be Well,            XO Tara
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Pic taken at a jobsite last week.  Please be this demanding with your plant list.  

How To Make These Windows More Fabulous

At her bluestone terrace, below.  Inside is the kitchen.

Soon, French doors will open onto the bluestone terrace.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken yesterday at a jobsite.  Notice the gap in the ferns?  Saw the culprit eating them.  Her dog!  Unrepentant.
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When I told her the windows HAD to be French doors she smiled and said it was validation.  Her thoughts exactly.

Patio Table Not To Use

Mostly, I design square & rectangular patio/deck/terrace tables.  Easily placed next to a wall, rails or the edge of your concrete/stone/gravel/wood.

A pair of matching square/rectangular tables is most flexible.  Use separately or pushed together.

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This patio seems to have neighbors looking in?  I would use shutters or custom lattice for more privacy.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Pic House of Turquoise.  Ironically, I was in a garden yesterday needing a Round table.  I love knowing what the exceptions are!  Can you imagine how much space a round table would waste on this patio, above?

Cottage Awning

Built during a poverty cycle, ca. 1930, this awning is wood. 

Yes, steps/terrace are bluestone.

 When the cottage was built, a century ago, this was the afternoon sun porch.

In love with the proportions (of all parts of this cottage).  They reek of age & fabulous.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Took the pics last month.

Patio & Folding Tables

Patio tables should be square.  Buy a pair & use them apart or pulled together.

 Buying folding tables?

Round tables, 36" diameter are best.  Seat 5, don't need a huge centerpiece, and conversation flows easily without breaking into 2 groups. 
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Garden & Be Well,          XO Tara
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Pics taken at client jobsites last week.  Been doing the square patio table thing for decades.  The 36" folding table idea is pure magic from Susanne Hudson.

Deeply Covered Porch

A covered porch for the entire family or quiet solitude to fill your spiritual well, below.  Several rooms flow into this porch.

 Looking out, above, looking in, below.

Perhaps a door to a guest suite, below?

A fireplace.  Simply a fireplace, below.  Be wary of a huge monument fireplace.  Too often they are  life sucking spectres.

I told the owner how I adored her porch & she smiled saying the entire house began with this porch.  The architect working outward from here.

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Love a woman with priorities.

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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

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pics taken 2 weekends ago.  I lectured in her porte cochere.  Wish I hadn't been in such a hurry, needed more pics of this porch. 

How To Create Exterior Simplicity

The hedge is brilliant.  Vine on the risers is more brilliant.

Topiaried green meatballs are fun.  Terra cotta on the table?  Perfection.
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Notice the lack of pattern on the textiles?  Be careful with exterior textile pattern.  Very careful.
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Many interior rooms look onto this view.  Without going inside I know it's an obvious Vanishing Threshold.  Without going inside I know the owners.
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How little can the landscape have and hold together?  Whoever 'tossed' out this much simplicity is good.  Very good.
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Low maintenance, weekly blow & trimming 2x/year. 
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Choose a color theme.  It should flow from the interiors. 
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pic via Cote de Texas.  When I worked at a nursery one assistant manager was incredibly talented at displays.  BUT, we would always beg him to stop.  He would create the above, BUT keep going.  On his off day we would cleanse the abundance. 

Door Statement

Over a decade ago I designed a garden for a town home in Ansley Park.

Doors, almost exactly as above, led into a tiny bricked back garden.
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All of the town homes had the same back doors into their garden.
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Most owners removed their gorgeous doors to renovate & 'update'.
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My client had her fabulous doors.  Yes, we commiserated over the loss of the other doors.  How the 'updated' doors ruined the entire look of the small, but choice, town home community.  How we really didn't like 'those' people.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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A delight to be be reminded of the Ansley Park doors with this image via pinterest.

Exterior Decorating

Zinnias were on the table last week, it was an early morning meeting about creating her Smoke House.

When she pulled cheese scones from the oven, & placed them on a tray with butter & jam, the zinnias were moved here, above.
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Exterior decorating leverages your efforts.  It's all about being easier, pretty, living with grace.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara