Pot Narratives

Choosing pots for your garden, choose pots fabulous empty.  Another aid in choosing a pot, ask yourself, "Is this pot so wonderful it will be fought over at my estate sale?"
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Within threads of choosing pots choose for color too.
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This pot, doesn't need to be planted, will look marvelous empty.
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Perhaps the pot planting, below, is a 10" plastic pot sold as a hanging basket, with the hanger clipped off.


Pic, above, here.
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Get your pots at the right height.  Use a plinth, above. 
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This pot is doing heavy lifting in the Garden Design realm.  Did you notice already?  More than merely a focal point for this photograph.  This pot, above, is a focal point from more than a single direction. 
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The more axis a focal point has, the better the focal point.
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See it, do it.
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Funny how much narrative the Garden Design realm performs.  Seems so easy at the front end.  Until someone points out your focal point needs a plinth, and multiple axis.  In addition to that estate sale question.
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See it, do it?  Easy?  Requires that Johnny Cash bit, Meditate-on-it.
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Garden & Be Well,  XOT
 

Masters Class: Adding Subsidiary Focal Points to a Focal Point

Focal points in your garden must be so wonderful they are fought over at your estate sale.
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One focal point per garden room, subsidiary focal points allowed.
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Pots in your garden must be so marvelous they never have to be planted.
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Tara's Trinity of focal points, above.
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The best focal points are placed on axis seen from myriad directions, and better, if each of those axis is not visible from the others.
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Focal points must have a focal point view in their opposite direction.
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No matter the slope of your land, focal points must be level.
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You must know these focal point tips within your DNA.
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A delight, below, seeing this pot recently.  Pretty all year, even when the herbacious plantings are dormant.
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What did you think, first seeing the pot, below?  Did the plantings, and their year-round essence enter into contemplation?


Pic, above, here.

Moving on. More details about siting and living with a focal point.  Contemplating a single focal point's effect upon your life, a Providential gift, using my focal point, below.
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Up front, seeing the urn & plinth, below, at a wholesale nursery, I was there buying items for a job, not to get myself a pot/plinth.  After making the purchase for the client job, in a hurry, my feet moved me over to the pot/plinth, you knew they would.  My DNA knew more than my lizard brain which kept saying, You're in a hurry, no time for this, and certainly no money.
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Wholesale pot/plinth were expensive, and wildly heavy.  Had 4 men put it into my pick-up truck.
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Into my garden, below, direct axis from the large bay window fronting my home, my previous 30 year home.



With the urn/plinth at my back, below, this is the view into that bay window.  Now you're entering the realm of Living with your focal point.  Not merely having your focal point.  Huge difference.  Huge.



Inside the bay window, below.  Living more deeply with the pot/plinth, having meals at the table, bringing my laptop to the table and working, putting together more journal pages at this table.



With the focal point urn/plinth at my back, below, turned to a different axis view, a subsidiary focal point.  Ironically a subsidiary focal point, within a subsidiary focal point.  Go me !  Know what I am talking about here?  Hope so.  The blooms of wisteria 'Amethyst Falls' are owning the day, once finished the dovecote recovers its dominance.



Turning to another axis, below, with the urn/plinth at my back, is another subsidiary focal point.  A planting designed to greet me as I enter/leave my driveway.



Another axis view, below, with the urn/plinth at my back, Laura watching me, totally acting as if I'm not there.



Another axis view, below, with the urn/plinth at my back.  This view another subsidiary focal point within a subsidiary focal point.  Who can deny the Chinese snowball is dominant?  After flowering the pair of adirondack chairs take their rightful place as subsidiary focal point.  And, destination.  When the snows of spring are this pretty, not about to walk to the chairs, harming the petals on the ground, or sit in the chairs, harming the petals in the chair.  Instead, swimming for days in the intoxicating beauty of the petals.


Bottom 7 pictures, shot in my garden.
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More fabulousity with this urn/plinth, above, the house is at the street with 7 neighbor's homes crowding in.  Do you see them?  Do they exist?  Not in my realm.
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This is garden design as Garden Design, capitals for the same reason as using it with Providence.
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Creating a focal point with the Garden Design 'rules' above creates Sacred space.  A moat of grace around your home, and life.
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Today, and for the past 14 months, my urn/plinth have been lying in the materials yard, on their side on a pallet, awaiting placement in our ca. 1900 American farmhouse.  Clearing invasives, renovating garden sheds, building new outbuildings, grading, drilling a well, renovations to the house, have all come ahead of starting the Garden.  Before moving I tried to tell Beloved what my Garden meant to me.  No words existed.  I have those words now, having been without my Garden for so long.  My Garden was my best Friend, unconditional love.
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Missing my Friend.
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Today, I'll do something I've only done 3-4x's.  I discovered it by accident, at present it's the most potent feel good drug I know.  I will sit in my materials yard for lunch, with accoutrements from my previous garden, about 10 pallets, Friends awaiting placement in my new Garden.  Sacred made Palpable.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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At the opposite of creating a Sacred space, I was on the phone yesterday with a client who had to remove an odd/ugly covered porch addition the previous homeowner had added.  More than ugly, more than unusable, the space felt 'evil'.  Didn't want to be in it or walk thru it to get to the back yard, or even see it.  The owner felt it, and her friend, a client who referred me, felt it too.  The 'evil' room is  now gone, a new space built, with subsidiary gifts.  All the 'evil'?  Gone !

A Wabi Sabi Plinth

If you find the perfect pair of urns do not worry about their height.

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Use a plinth if they must be higher.

Old urns, new to the site, with the perfect plinth, above.
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The Long Barn, above, was made of terra cotta squares decades ago.  A few were found.
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Sure, new plinths could have been bought or custom made for this site.  However, using the terra cotta squares is superior.  The best gardens have elements of the Poverty Cycle.  Put another way, wabi sabi must be included in every garden design.
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Then there is Mary Kistner's, "It's what we do with what we have.", life motto.  Whenever I include Mary I know I'm doing the right thing, and I'm getting a little visit from her.  Sometimes I go so far as to ask, "What would Mary do?"
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pic taken at jobsite last month.
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Mary, an artist,  was childless & died a widow in her 80's.  Her memorial service was at a museum in the main, huge, gallery.  Standing room only.

How to Site a Focal Point

Chunky hunka aged concrete, below, is a railroad abutment ca. 1900, found in the garden.

Perfect for a plinth it was easy to place.  It's on perfect axis with the dominate gable of the house, below.

When something requires a Caterpillar to move, perfection is required.
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Driving the Caterpillar he says, Are you really sure?  These moments are amusing.  Of course I'm sure.  His eyes say, Glad I'm not you.  This is my job.  KNOWING where things go.
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Ironically, the urn is temporary.  We are still sourcing the right statue.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic last weekend at the jobsite.

Blossom Boxes By Steve Eaton

She needed something at her gravel parking court.  (Tara Dillard's, Queen's Pot, of course.  A pot so fabulous it can remain empty.  Do all of your pots pass this test?)

Mostly, she has Steve Eaton of Blossom Boxes plant her urns.

 She wanted a gate leading into her woodland, fabulous.  But it needed another Queen's Pot, this time on a taller plinth, above.  And, it's on double axis.  More another time, (miss priss) forgot to get the other axis pic.

 No sun reaches her front door, Blossom Boxes keeps her pots always lush & green. 

Another pot, in her backyard, above.  Blossom Boxes stayed true to his name: pansies, violas & dwarf snapdragons.
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Met Steve Eaton over 20 years ago.  Have seen him in gardens & flower shows ever since.  Had him in an episode on my TV show. 
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I thought you should know such a man, Steve Eaton of Blossom Boxes, exists.  That there is a world where men plant flowers & girls design gardens for their daily bread.  A world, they know, is their own Camelot.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pics taken in a client garden last week.  Steve Eaton, Blossom Boxes,  770-337-8840, sceaton3@yahoo.com.  

Siting: Urns & Plinths

Not often do you see iron urns significantly past a century old, below.
Last year in Birmingham, AL these urns, already by the front door, went into my landscape design.
Why? Too low. The scale was incorrect for the size of the home, frontdoor, & landing.

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Bought 'on approval', this pair of plinths arrived with a question mark last week. Naturally, my answer was, "yes, buy." And it's time to paint urns/plinths a dirty-dark-lead color. 2 tones will be needed.

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Did you notice where the urn/plinth is sited? NOT centered between frontdoor & column. Placing them a bit closer to the column enlarges the space.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken by a client in Birmingham, AL.

Frames in the Landscape

A bit small for framing, below, in person. But with

your camera this armillary sundial

is an interesting frame in the landscape.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Shots taken recently in Susanne Hudson's garden. Hydrangeas, bottom pic. A friend visiting my garden last week saw my armillary sundial laying unused on the potting table. She suggested I use it as a chandelier for the new conservatory. Hmm, delightful !

WICKEDLY WONDERFUL

At the front of her property as she drives in, below, a lovely new stone plinth. As she walks from the back of her property, below, to the front; the same lovely new stone plinth.

One focal point placed on DOUBLE AXIS. Discovered this landscape design trick at Mount Stewart while studying in Ireland.

Perfection, an urn so fabulous it can be planted, OR NOT. Discovered this landscape design trick while studying landscapes in Scotland.

Realized studying landscapes across Europe: The more directions a focal point has the better a focal point is.

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Wickedly wonderful. And EASY.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

OPENING A RANCH

"When a culture is self-confident, it can translate what the rest of the world wants." John Hooks, Deputy General Manager of Giorgio Armani. Ranch Burgers wish to be opened. BONO GIRL was remodeling a ranch gettaway in Athens, GA when she asked for landscape help. Designing from Atlanta I knew to open her ranch. HOW? Use a round column + have a path to both sides of the landing + punctuate the stone wall with a low column + low iron urn with curves on column (not sourced yet) + curve the turf.
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The bold curving line between turf + bed is critical. THE CURVES: Column & turf, constrast fabulously with the myriad squares of the house. New plantngs were added, many existing were kept.
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Do you see how the entry of the house is brought forward several feet? Instead of hugging the front facade it begins at the low stone column. Adding depth added drama. Remember, "dinky is stinky."
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Many RANCH BURGERS lend themselves to my French Caretakers Cottage fantasy. Replace front windows with French doors, paint the brick, rip out the foundation plantings & etc. But that is another posting!

Vanishing Threshold, above. Can't wait for the plants to fill-in between the paths.

BONO GIRL invited me to her gettaway. Forget the landscape, her dogs were the focal point.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

WHICH PICTURE WOULD YOU CHOOSE?

"...REFLECTIVE OF A RICH, WANDERING INTELLIGENCE LIGHTLY WORN."
AN AESTHETES LAMENT
The insouciance of my empty pot & French lavender.
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Which picture from your life illustrates "...reflective of a rich, wandering intelligence lightly worn."?
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LOL, of course I desire a rich intelligence wandering amongst myriad topics and most importantly to wear it lightly !! No energy to wear it any other way. Selfishly want to see pictures you choose. Why? To absorb your rich, wandering intelligence.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

DUMPSTER DIVING FOR THE LANDSCAPE

Dumpster Diving, whether piles along the road or literal dumpsters, they're the same to me. Metal stool, above, scored on trash day years ago. Used in the garden as a plinth for the sprinkler. A delight finding the exact stool in swankier digs.

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I've had thoughts of painting mine Robin's egg blue to match all the metal in my garden. Seeing someone else loving it plain keeps me hesitating.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Picture via La Dolce Vita.

PLINTH, TALL & BOLD

Tall plinths are uncommon in gardens. Even less common for purchase. Do you know what a plinth is? Pedastals are plinths. I shot these in a private garden in England. Plinth, above, is a repurposed column. What a fun day it was capping the column with its focal point. Wish I had been there for the excitement.

In comparison to the first pic, not tall, but this plinth is taller than the average plinth in America.

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No budget for a plinth? Stack stones or bricks and make your own.

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My eyes are forever scouring junk piles for treasures. I rescued a plinth once, regrettably not tall but it is late Victorian and quite heavy, made of iron.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

PLINTH: QUESTIONS & FANTASIES

Waking at 2am last night I dwelled upon this man. His PLINTH entertained me. He's Edwardian, placed in an English Park surrounded by homes older than he is. Pedastals and bases are plinths. Made of stacked bricks, limestone, marble, &tc.
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Questions about this plinth:
* Did the sculptor choose it?
* Did a committee choose it?
* How was its height, length, width decided upon?
* Who chose the material and why?
* Who placed the plinth/statue within the park?
* How was the location on the plinth chosen to place the statue's foot?
* Who decided which direction to face the statue?

What I do know:
* The sculptor lived in a house facing the park.
* The sculptor is famous (sorry, didn't get pic of the plaque).
* The sculptor left the statue, in his will, to the park.

What I want to know:
* Which house the sculptor lived in.
* Where was the statue placed at his home?
* What type of plinth was it on?
* Is this the original plinth?
* Did the sculptor leave precise directions for placing the statue, plinth in his will?

What I fantasized about this man:
* He was given to me.
* Placing him in my landscape.
* Cutting plinth lower to properly scale it for my tiny garden.
* Getting rid of his plinth and putting his lovely foot on a local granite boulder.
* He looked great in front of the bay window.
* He looked great in the hedge in my backyard on axis with summerhouse.
* He looked great on axis from my office window.
* Fell asleep before I placed him.


Lovely thoughts of a man's PLINTH.
Ha, what do you think about at 2am?
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Took the pic last month in England.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T