Getting To Tara Turf: Man #4

 "Dear Tara, This portion of Meadow Talk follows your writing of gardens as sacred and redemptive landscapes.  Joel Salatin is the editor of Stockman Grass Farmer and writes the column." LD

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Began a letter, above, mailed with a stamp, from a post office, last March.

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Knew Joel Salatin, and his PolyFaceFarms, not his column for Meadow Talk in the newsletteer for Stockman Grass Farmer. 

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Salatin included in his column, concerns of MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, professor, Otto Scharmer:

"...we're in a civilisational crisis involving three issues: economy, democracy, and education.  As a trend predictor, he finds universal agreement on three things:

1.  The old civilization is moving in the wrong direction and 2020 was when we hit the wall.

2.  I want to participate in a new story.

3.  I don't know how.

     He says the new economy starts with agriculture, including taking city people to the country in order to offer living ecosystems to connect with soil and farms.  He envisions future farms being a nexus of university, church and factory.  In other words, farms will be hubs of intellectual, social, spiritual, and physical development.  He sees that as the solution to the three areas of crisis: environment, economy, and spirit."

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Ca. 1987 I discovered Tara Turf, touring historic gardens across Europe.  No lawns there. 

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Tara Turf is local.  Providential to each locale.  Evolved with soil, trees, flora, watershed, fungi, bacteria, fauna.  Your serotonin & dopamine?  Your mental outlook?  Not in your DNA, in your microbiome, fed by soil microbes.  Formed across millions of years before humans.  

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Lawns were created post WWII, they had to sell their bomb making chemicals somewhere new.  Pouf, mothers with young children were their target, to keep their babies & children safe from 'bugs'.

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Tara Turf, below.  Nearer a house, mowed lower, yet keeping majority of its benefits to soil, watershed, flora, fauna, YOU. No need to travel to a regenerative farm to experience redemptive agriculture.  Site it, Providentially, around your home.

  

Tara Turf is your micro-realm of Earth ministry.  Given to you.  To be given by you, with the gift of discernment.

 

Tara Turf, for most, is something you will have-to-do.  Once you have Tara Turf it something that happens-to-you.  In goodness, love, Nature, health mental/physical, transcendence.

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Understanding backwards, Rainer Maria Rilke: "Living the questions embracing uncertainty allow for intuition."

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Hence, you've read this far, your intuition.  Tara Turf was pure intuition for decades.  LD, sending the real post office mail to me, above?  I designed Tara Turf into her acreage 8 years ago.  Two years into the process, we learned together, Tara Turf is maximum pollinator habitat.  Tara Turf, is life given from Providence.  

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If you dare go a step further, Tara Turf is your stewardship.

 

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

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What is your narrative now, in your landscape?  Describe it to me.  The elevator narrative, floors 1-10.

 

"We are constantly being invited to be who we are."  Henry David Thoreau.

 

Adore her hose reel, above.  Easy watering.

 

"....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."  Maria Popova

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"There is no love without truth, there is no love without discipline, there is no love without responsibility both from the one loving and from the one being loved."  B. Mosquito.

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What I know about love, and my garden.  I love my garden, my Garden loves me.  Slow down.  Let that sink in.  You love your garden, your garden loves you.  

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"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, on your own intelligence do not rely, in all your ways be mindful of Him; and he will make straight your paths."  Proverbs 3:5-6.  

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Yes you can create your garden, the one abiding in your soul.  Put words to it.  Plenty of word soup here, and you'll make it better than mine.  Why do you think I have to share?  I love it so dearly, and know you want it too.  

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My hunt has been, life Pastoral, its bucolic idealism and sentimentalism removed.  And what did I find, decades later?  Love.  

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Man #4, did not flinch.  Those 3 men fleeing my request for Tara Turf?  Tara Turf did not suit their economic foundation for nice trucks, trailers, mowers, weed-eaters, payroll, chemical & fertilizer applications, irrigation system.  AKA, industrialized landscaping.  Why tell you?  I'm an 'expert' and ran into this dystopian nightmare of industrialized landscaping.  It's not you, it's your wanting Nature in your garden. 

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Industrialized landscaping is monetized to take away everything we gain from our Garden: power, justice, wisdom, truth, grace, forgiveness, epiphanies, health, redemption, righteousness, discernment, stewardship, beauty, love. 

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Everything in my life, is in my Garden.

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Garden & Be Well,    XOT

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All pics, above, here. 

Man #4 said to me, "No client has ever told me they love their clover, much less want it tall."

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Tara Turf is a wall of division, or pure excited love, in my life, with others.  

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Question I asked in my Commonplace Book, maybe a year ago, "Why the agrarian garden?  It's God AMPLIFIED."  Below that, I wrote this prayer, Let me act toward impossibilities you see in me God, do not let fear win.

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More from the same page of my Commonplace Book:

Agrarian began with the Divine.

Agriculture began with the profane.

What Will It Take? Where Do You Start? Moving Into Your Beliefs

What are your beliefs?  When did you get them?  Are your beliefs intuitive, foundational, since childhood, newly acquired, epiphanies, at a funeral, mentored by another person or in Nature, discovered reading, realized watching an art film, driving when alone, listening to music, when your life fell apart, eating a slow good meal with kindred spirits, self evident, being with your pets, sitting in a Church pew, etc... ?

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Can you write your beliefs down?  Not for public consumption; to define them, to yourself.  Zero thoughts of a diary or journal in this, none.  Better, your own Common Place Book, 'used since antiquity', they're for quotes, themes, processes, God, Nature, "A commonplace book is a system for writing down and sorting all manner of tidbits: quotes, anecdotes, observations, and information gleaned from books, conversations, movies, song lyrics, social posts, podcasts, life experiences, or anything else that you might want to return to later."   ..

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In my 20's, studying historic gardens in Europe, Tara Turf, was OBVIOUS.  To me.  Now 60, tooting Tara Turf for decades, it's more obvious.  Yet, only, to me.  

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But first, what is Tara Turf?

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Tara Turf, below, in my garden.

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Oddly, Tara Turf, even my own, brought out anger and resentment in someone close.  Before reaching the mowing-paths stage.

Tara Turf, is local, and native, across the globe in myriad variations.  Tara Turf is the mix of flora/fauna evolved before the dinosaurs.  Jesus walked on Tara Turf.  Tara Turf evolved with its unique soil permutations.  

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The same soil, where each of us receives our serotonin and dopamine, via our gut microbiome, filtering itself using a direct path to our brain, giving us our moods, outlook, personality, health. 

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We are made of stardust, and Tara Turf.

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Virgin Tara Turf, above.  Ready for push mower !  In my garden.

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Freshly mown Tara Turf, above.  

Last week, I bought a push mower (Troy Built - Honda engine), hired a man to mow swaths with his big mower, for my own TARA TURF.  Paths lead from house to shed, house to car, house to garden rooms, house to chicken coop, house to pond.....

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Why did my own Tara Turf take so long?  

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Beloved said he would mow my garden down, if I did it.  He did.  He wanted fescue.

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 Tara Turf was bathed in round-up ahead of his fescue.   

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One morning, Tara Turf Beliefs, vindicated.  Digging armadillos, drinking shots & beer all nite, created a muck paradise feral hogs could only dream of producing, of his fescue.

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Almost 2 years later, TARA TURF is repairing the damage.  A few small patches bare Earth, should be Tara Turf by the end of summer !

Tara Turf from my car to house, above.  

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Almost 6 years in our ca. 1900 home, finally having Tara Turf, thrilling is understatement.  Came home late sunset last Saturday, a friend's precious daughter turned 14, a great evening.  With age, knowing such evenings are huge, sharing in friends joy & love.  AND, first time ever, walking across the garden, almost dark, on a foot path, to go inside.  

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Oddly, walking the TARA TURF path, thinking, "Finally, CIVILIZED."   Interesting what the muse speaks.  Didn't expect that.

Pic, above, here. 

Discovered TARA TURF while studying historic gardens across Europe for 2+ decades, beginning in my 20's, above/below.

Pic, above, here. 

TARA TURF, below, hid a TARA TURF secret, in plain site, many years.

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In the orchard, below, at Sissinghurst, TARA TURF, used in this way, more accurately named, Guilds.

Guilds are tallish grasses/flowers blooming at the same time as your Orchard Trees.  Why does it matter?  Guilds, TARA TURF, increase crop yields by 80%.

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It's all about pollinators.

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Your health needs are not separate from these facts.  

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SOIL, TARA TURF, POLLINATORS

Pic, above, here. 

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TARA TURF, below, has a different mission statement from the Orchard Guilds, above.

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Yes, this TARA TURF, still increasing crop yields up to 80% for grazing livestock, nearby crops.

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Noticing how much mowing is reduced, below, and, above?

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Pic, above, here. 

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Did the stones, above, make you smile?  Me too.  Hope they're keeping trucks from making muck of the TARA TURF.  Looks like success.

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Moving into my TARA TURF beliefs has changed my life.  Layers large, small, unexpected.  

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Getting into bed, last Friday, first day of my life, encircled by mown 

TARA TURF, it happened again.

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MUSE spoke, "Good girl, you've got a civilized garden surrounding you, as you sleep."  Better, I could feel my GARDEN of TARA TURF around me.

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What are your BELIEFS?

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Seriously.  

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How are they received?

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Would anyone be interested in a Commonplace Book Course Online?

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What I know for sure, YOUR Commonplace Book will change your life.

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You will be MORE you.

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I used to think this is why you are here.

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Now.

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I KNOW this is why you are here.

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Garden & Be Well,    Tara

Five years ago, I received a note, below.  Personal.  Met this woman online.  Stunned she could see so clearly, from a blog post, into human relations.  

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Knowing her a couple of years, I browsed one of my older Commonplace Books.  Thoughts, ideas, quotes, Biblical passages, cocktail recipes, music lyrics, magazine art, my own collage art, art reviews from NYTimes....I discovered 2 pages in that Commonplace Book were filled with HER garden, from almost a decade earlier.  Before Social Media.

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Story, above, is YOUR story.  Trust your Commonplace Book, trust yourself.  For centuries, people have kept Commonplace Books.  

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Her advice spot on.  She saw.  And was right, in reaching out to me.  

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Her note, below.

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"Such an obvious aesthetic thing........and so insulting when not respected!  Yikes!  Does "beloved" trust you enough yet?  Does he respect your taste and talent enough?  I am just wondering! It is so important!!! 

Have you established your credibility.??  You certainly have with your followers on your blog and your people who pay for your speaking engagements.......and take notes.....and follow your instructions on how to create lovely and productive landscapes!  Does he "get it"?  Your understanding of European classic landscapes.......the whole understanding of the landscapes that encourage bees, butterflies......and wildlife?  (You even explained to me how I did that without even knowing!)  now I have beehives!! And have learned what to plant under my fruit trees!  A whole world has opened!!!

 My husband was befuddled by the "messiness" of our planting.....and I took him through the nature preserve next to us....a haven for birds, butterflies, bees......and wild animals.....and I explained.....this is my goal!  A pond......to attract ducks and waterbirds whose habitat has been almost eliminated here.....native plants where birds can nest......NO LAWN  (18 years ago!)  and permeable paths and terraces.....gravel.......no hardscape....we had chickens in Pasadena (the only ones....honestly!!)  and a place for them too!

Does “beloved”  want to understand these things?  Or does he just want to drive his tractor over everything!  (just asking??!!)

 I don't mean to be sticking my nose into things.....I just had a very unhappy marriage with someone who had no respect for my taste or talents......and did not have a tractor...but if he had had one.....would have mowed down everything that I created that mattered to me.....because he liked it "tidy”!  

 Saw a perhaps red flag there…..and I am not trying to make trouble…..I want nothing but happiness for you…..I know how long you were in the pit of “unhappiness”!

 I am just disturbed by the mowing of your meadow……and what feels like disrespect of your brilliant ideas! Sorry to be a buttinsky!  And I sent this privately….I just adore you and all your beautiful ideas and your descriptions of how you learned…..I just see some danger signs……I was married twice before I found my mate for life!

 First marriage at 18 (my Daddie died when I was 4);  I was in college at USC in Los Angeles…..a freshman…….divorced seven months later….(I did make him change his last name……kinda funny);  then married the second time at 21!  after graduation!   We had a child…..My daughter Ella…..now 47!

 Never studied decorating….English major….started decorating in 1970!  (scary long time ago……still love every second!!)

 (If he didn't learn from your "staging" of his "vacation house”;  which sold right away!!!!) and your vision for your lovely farm (mowing down your loved meadow because he likes "mowing"; ) are you sure?  

 I do not mean to sow doubt......I mean to let you know that it is lovely when your man trusts you and lets you do things aesthetically.....in a house and in the gardens (in my case…both house and garden……wildness in the garden!!!)  when he knows and admits you know more than he!  Frankly, you know more than anyone I have ever met!!!

 Just a slight nudge in your ear!  Please forgive my buttinski!!  I don’t mean to!  I just love you and all of your ideas……your explanations…..your knowledge….deep and thorough…..and wish for your happiness in your next relationship.  There are some men who simply do not respect and will not acknowledge talent and creativity  in others…especially women........(they know it ALL)!

 I am hoping that is not the situation…..there are just sounding alarm bells in my head…….I was there……twice.

 

I have been married for forty years……almost…..and I still have to yell every now and then!  “NO!!!  Do not cut those olive branches!!!”  “No!  That is not a hedge”!!!  He tells the gardner to stop.  Same problem!  Gardner wants to trim trim trim…..and I want him to stop stop stop!!)

 Fortunately….even though my husband……and my beloved…….(total);    doesn’t understand…..he pretends to understand…and the branches do not get cut.  That is the secret.  He respects my taste here…..and , most importantly, he knows I know more than he does about the aesthetic part..  We have been published in lots of magazines….(I don’t think that is the reason……he also listens to what people say).  Visitors…..sigh….and they “get it”  Key.  Isn’t it?  Have people who "get it” visit often!  

 But there are lots of men who don’t get that some people “get it” and some don’t!  Who knows????

 I send this with love…..I just hope you are not springing against a brick wall……I know what that feels like.  I did it .  It doesn’t work. Ever.

 I admire you so much!  And my goal is a speaking engagement here this year!  YAY!!! "

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Receiving her note, above, I did know.  Thought I could hold it together.  Yet every layer of my life, screamed TARA TURF.   

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Janis Joplin, sang, "Freedom's just another word when you've got nothing left to lose.".  Bobby McGee is gone.  What have I learned?  I have everything to gain.  

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Sent a note, to my friend, above, after he left, told her what happened.  And, asked her, How did you know?  She didn't pause a second, "He didn't respect your work."

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Which part of spraying TARA TURF with round-up was I trying to hold together?

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Now you know why I've been gone.  I'M BACK.  God is good.  

How to Site Urns on Stone Walls & Simplicity of Garden Design

Stone Wall & Finials.
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What will you use?  As a finial?
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Pic, above, here.
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Pic, above, here.
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Pic, above, in my garden last weekend.
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Sited at end of stone retaining wall, above.  In case you were wondering how I chose 'exactly' where to site the urn.  Siting, in addition, for top of the urn to be 100% level.   
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Notice what's special about the urn?
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Subtle color, and no planting needed.  It's cast stone, and will be someone's delight at my estate sale.  Remember: When Choosing a Focal Point it Must Be So Wonderful it Will Be Fought Over at Your Estate Sale.
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Something else is beyond special about this garden, above. 
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If you want to be regenerative, which is far superior to sustainable, you must know the key ingredient to the garden, above.
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Tara Turf.  No lawn.  Total low meadow with clovers, violet, dandelion, pink sorrel and what the wind blows in.
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In addition, the shrub, above, is the native Buckeye.  It will get 10' tall x 12 ' wide, sun/shade, moist or not. 
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Gardening became so easy when I got out of the way.  When I listened.  When I copied Providence, and centuries of European landscapes studied across Europe.
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Stone Walls & Urns.................made for each other.
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Garden Design Question.  How much can you take away from a Garden Design and it holds together?
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It's the last question I ask myself when designing. 
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Do you dare be this simple, above?
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Why be this simple?  I want my garden to give beauty & joy for aging into my 80's, causing no stress, only grace.
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My style of gardening is not popular with Garden Design/Build Firms.  Can you see why?  Their staff is gauged successful by the quantities of plants, lawn, mulch, stone, irrigation installed, gaining the yearly maintenance contract for mowing, annuals, pruning, chemicals, fertilizers.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Engine of Providence

Low Tara Turf, below.  From 1st meeting adored its charm, character, function.  Here, perfectly balanced with formal pruning, canopy, open, woodland beyond.
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Did you immediately understand all these things too?


Pic, above, here.
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Oddly, decades after falling deeply for Tara Turf, an epiphany.
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More than 'aesthetics', pure function.  Engine of Providence.
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Tara Turf next to canopy/understory are maximum pollinator habitat.
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My adoration/desire no different than the attraction a bee has for flowers.  None.
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Life at its most basic.
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Tara Turf, indeed.  Drama. Bees have known, since bees have been.
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Maximum pollinator habitat can increase crop yields by 80%, do the math.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO T
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TARA TURF

TARA TURF IS UNIQUE TO EACH REGION. 
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TARA TURF, in GA, is a mix of grass-moss-clover-mondo-ajuga-dandelion--mazus-and what the wind blows in. Add crocus, dwarf daffodil, thyme if desired.
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TARA TURF is mowed at 1-2-3 heights, below. Beneficial to wildlife, organic, sustainable, fragrant, low maintenance, eco and only uses rainwater.

                           Pic, above, I shot at Sissinghurst.

TARA TURF, mixed heights, above, in England.
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Studying landscapes in Europe I noticed, NO LAWNS. TARA TURF is used commercially and residentially.
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New neighborhoods lack smell and mixed insects. Did you know there are more good bugs than bad bugs?
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Old neighborhoods smell like my childhood. Clover, grass, bugs, dirt, all the good things.
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Most new neighborhoods have deed restrictions outlawing TARA TURF.
TARA TURF, I shot, in England, above.
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The outlaw label, against TARA TURF, should be amusing but the stakes are too high.
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The cost of mow-blow-go is too high. Lawn mowers are not regulated. One hour of lawn mowing is equal to 11 hours of driving a car.
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Fertilizer, insecticide & fungicide kill machorizal fungi, and are toxic to groundwater.
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 TARA TURF, I shot, in Italy, above.
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And drain into groundwater. Atrazine in our drinking water was on the front page of NY Times 8-23-09. TARA TURF uses no chemicals.
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Yes, I design lawns. Preferring TARA TURF but using what deed restrictions require. 

Southern Living Magazine: A Garden

For 20 years of my career, Southern Living magazine was 'the' resource for clients.  Most had pages dog-eared or torn out ready to show the garden of their dreams.  In return, equally, it was gratifying to reproduce those beautiful images.  Aside from reading Southern Living myself, for pleasure, I 'had' to read it because it was an expectation of clients.  
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Then came John Floyd's retirement in 2008, the editor for those glory years my clients adored.
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After John Floyd, Southern Living became a magazine for Southerners written through the prism of those outside the South.  Dropped my subscription after an article that can only be described as snarky & demeaning, lacking in inspiration, choosing the trite & hackneyed, without intellect or stewardship, time enriched became time wasted.  How could they.  Get John back.
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Oddly, another magazine had just been founded a year prior to John Floyd's retirement, Garden & Gun.  What a title.  It sputtered, as all businesses did during the debacle of 2008.  Time passed, about 5 years ago clients would start a sentence, "Did you see the latest Garden & Gun"?  Never was it about a garden, but someplace to eat, travel, or an article richly configured splaying open an epiphany, or two.  Three years ago, after buying a few copies on news stands, knew I had to get a subscription.  Zero disappointment.  However, the 'garden' part of Garden & Gun seems shallowly formulated, still in its infancy.  Don't care.  The rest of the magazine gives more than enough.
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Saw a garden picture, below, recently and love it.  Enough love, had to discover its source.  Well, go team, Southern Living magazine.  Hope this spark turns into a fire and I get 2-3 clients saying, "I saw this in Southern Living...."




Just wow, above/below, simple, comfortable, easy to maintain, leveraging life, not sucking the life out of you trying to keep it up, and historically accurate.
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The story gets better with this garden, above.  The Southern Living article includes the interior.  This is a second home for the owners, and part of their joy in this home is sharing it with others, whether they are there, or not.
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Yeah, Southern Living magazine is back on the radar.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Oh irony.  Garden & Gun hired a lot of staff from NYCity, relocating them to the South at its founding.

Anna Wintour has Tara Turf?

Age 8, saw my 1st garden like this, below, in Augusta, GA.  The adults were content to stay inside & chat.  I did the rude child thing, and begged to go outside.  They were glad to get rid of me.  Had to be, I was more than glad to be gone from them.  Not until I saw the movie, Beetlejuice, did anything describe how I felt, going outside that house, that day, into the garden.  Another world.
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The garden was entirely green, wild, mischievously wild.  Looking ahead, left, right, the garden was telling me to go everywhere, all a fabulous mystery, yet speaking to me in a language I knew.  And, that feeling of being alone, in this adventure, perhaps explains more fully, in adulthood, studying historic landscapes across Europe for decades.  And creating the garden for myself.
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Few ask for. or understand, this type garden, up front, in USA.  I design as much of them into the ubiquitous requests, as I can.  A tiny handful, across 3 decades, have asked for the full monty.
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I was caught by this garden, below, being presumptuous.  It's owner, in the public eye for decades with an international successful career, and public persona so Cruella Deville, Meryl Streep played her in a movie.  The garden, below, takes her mask off.  Anna Wintour's garden, below.    












Pics, above, here.
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Full article from NYTimes, here.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Mowing Heights Matter

What's your 1st thought about the mowing, below?
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Not fair, asking from a photo's view.  Best to ask in real life, being there.  Aside from that, what is your gut instinct about the mowing, below?
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First time in a garden with this mowing, England of course, almost 30 years ago, from my DNA, I knew the mowing was 'correct'.  American mowing, just a bill of goods being sold.  Amazingly, that was enough, I never ventured further intellectually about why to mow at mixed heights, aside from less maintenance.
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Recently, about 4 years ago, I realized 'why' the mowing was correct.
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It's all about stewardship.  Mowing low- medium- tall, allows Nature to 'work'.  Pollinator habitat, healthier ornamental plants, and higher agricultural production.  Less monoculture of lawn, insects, mammals, reptiles.  Stewardship of ground water, soil microbes, ourselves.
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Since first awareness, I've called it Tara Turf.  Unique to each zone/micro-climate.
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If it's good enough for the Queen, below, good enough for me.



Pic, above, Daily Mail.  Interesting story, I think you'll like it, history writ personal
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Garden & Be Well,  XOT

Tara Turf & Guilds

Visual pun, below.  Formal hedges with Tara Turf.  Tara Turf?  Tall meadow mix of grasses, herbs, flowers, what the wind blows in, singular to each locale.  Mown, as below, creating formal with informal.
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Look closely, below.  This Tara Turf is under fruit trees, an orchard.  Heightening the visual pun, but I'm easily amused (enriched?) by such.
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Under an orchard Tara Turf is also a guild.  Quickly, a guild is a mix of plantings attractive to pollinators which will increase crop yield by 80%, more here, and here.




Pic, above, here.
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Cecil Beaton, below, on his Tara Turf.



Pic, above, here.

Barefoot.  Smart man.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO T
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Beloved is a brave man.  Mowing our Tara Turf too l-o-w.  Walking from the chicken coup, across a meadow of blooming Tara Turf, early this month, I thought to myself, "Cannot believe this is my life."  Within 24 hours Beloved mowed it all away.  All.

Creating Flow: Garden Design Equation

With an engineering degree, and horticulture, you know I've invented a Garden Design Equation, moons ago.  Yes, good gardens are math.
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Will do a long post about the Garden Design Equation, but not today.  Promise, you will love the Garden Design Equation, and totally 'get' it.  Have taught it in my college classes and seminars losing no one yet.
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Living in our new American Farmhouse Architecture home, ca. 1900, for a total of 3 nites, the Garden Design Equation beckons.
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Blessedly no gardening has been done here for decades, Poverty is a Great Preserver, indeed.  Why is this good?  Not a lot to 'undo'.
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Focal point on axis, below.  Vanishing Threshold.



Focal points must be sited as focal points from more than a single direction.  This type of focal point, urn above, is one of the best.  Do you know why?  Needs no planting.  Low maintenance.  Let your garden leverage your life.  Your garden works for you, not the reverse.
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From the outside, below, first impression, your garden must tell me who you are, this garden does.
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But my narrative, above, has skipped some of the 1st elements of the Garden Design Formula.
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Focal point siting is often 'obvious' but must wait until 'flow' around the property is managed.  Flow for cars, and walking, maintenance, and larger spaces, a gator/golf cart.
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Do you see what else is obvious when creating flow?  Turf is included in 'flow' equal to a gravel path-drive-terrace.
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This garden, below, is designed for low maintenance too.  Did you already spot that?  The tractor can easily do its job, and the evergreens need once/year attention, no irrigation needed, no chemicals, no fertilizers.
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Had to laugh when I saw this pic, it's exactly where my Garden Design Equation is percolating at our new home.  Flow.
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Drive & Parking Court, below.
 


Had already told Beloved I will design a gravel drive, gravel parking court, gravel paths, with boxwoods and Tara Turf.
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The Garden Design Equation formula at work.  Historic too.  In the greatest of ironies, I studied historic gardens across Europe for 2+ decades learning how to design a garden with 'plants'.   What was truly learned is flow, repetition, rooms, axis, max pollinator habitat......etc.




Oddly, too, I've had this idea, below, in mind for the area with my above ground propane tank.  Cannot wait for the before/after shots of my propane tank.  Who knew such delights could be had?  Adore taking the worst a garden offers and turning it into use and beauty.



Big effect, below, little input.  Been done thousands of times across the centuries, and will be done again at our new home.  Copy.  NEVER worry about copying.  Each site is unique, making each iteration new/fresh.  Again, the Garden Design Equation, and why it works.  Your garden is unique, and the brain cells you apply enhance every effect.



Gratuitous, below, if you know anything about Historic Garden Design.
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And, of course, I will copy it too.  Daffodils
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Notice something else about all these pics?  Deer proof.



Luckily my new bathroom needs a 'tweak'.  And, there is a window overlooking the new orchard/rose arbor.  This is exactly how my tub will site, at its window.





Single story, our American Farmhouse, is quite long.  3 days here, I know for sure, both front/back doors will have their own set of work shoes/shovels/pruners/wheelbarrow/hats.
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A garden must leverage your time.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics via Cote De Texas, from Elle Decor. 

Historic Design: David Hicks Door

We could do anything, below, at this portion of the Orchard wall.

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Money was not the hunt.

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Creating a historic garden is the decadence.

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Nearby, century old fig bushes were thriving at Long Barn.

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Overdose on a Theme, was the design rule followed.  

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Notice the 1st major choice, before the figs?

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Tara Turf.  Vintage meadow, and pollinator habitat, increasing yields of any crop grown.

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Another design choice, below ?  No cobblestone/brick edging.  Meadow meeting gravel.

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First design choice was siting the brick orchard walls & choosing dimensions on axis with a gable of the home.

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Once I saw how close this corner, below, was to the gravel drive, 'I knew'.

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Perfect element of 'wonky', imperfectly perfect.

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Parent fig bushes, below, to the cuttings taken, above, almost died last winter.

This near-kill, above, was too close.  The relief of having taken the cuttings is huge.
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Historically digging, the client learned farmers commonly planted fruit bearing trees/bushes in odd places about their land.  Micro-climates are the difference between death & thriving.  Not only to the fruiting plants but sometimes for livestock & people.  May those days never return.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Pics taken at jobsite this month.  Door, above, copied from David Hick's garden.  Another garden design rule, Copy the Best.
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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.

                                                                                 .

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.

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NOTE to my gardening friends... look for changes to come. 

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.'   Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

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Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'.  Saved the article for a year before reading it.  Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

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Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0.  A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life.  Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact.  Signed up  for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow. 

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Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method.  Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix.
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What do YOU want?

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Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

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Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Just so you know... 
 I  welcome your input.

A.S. Byatt: Le Jardin Rustique

 "You must learn now, that the important lesson – as long as you have your health – is that the divide is not between the servants and the served, between the leisured and the workers, but between those who are interested in the world and its multiplicity of forms and forces, and those who merely subsist,  ......."  A.S. Byatt

Before computers & cell phones, handouts at my lectures had the quote, above, at their top or bottom.   USA landscaping is broken, knew this decades ago.  My big discovery, above, Le Jardin Rustique.  Blessedly discovered, in Europe, decades ago.  Created from thousands of years of refinements.  Le jardin rustique's have created, & refined me.
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Never tire of experiencing another's awakening to le jardin rustique.
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High, medium & low meadows, above.  Came home with Tara Turf at first siting.  A well known blogger, saw similar and said, "they even have daisies in the grass."  He saw, without comprehension.  And, he's a degreed residential architect, USA of course.
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What is this enfilade, above, to le jardin rustique?  Survival of mind-body-spirit.  Literally, and metaphorically.  
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Aside from beauty, unskilled labor to maintain, no chemicals or n-p-k poisoning groundwater/killing pollinators, no irrigation system, canopy-understory-walls-groundcover plantings to increase pollinator habitat & shade/sun the house as needed thru the years/seasons, increased property value/decreased HVAC, increase of crop yields by 80%, scientifically proven need of our bodies to harbor beneficial bacteria given to us from these habitats reducing auto-immune diseases, ADD, depression & more, there is a simplicity of relationship with Earth, as we intellectually engage, Earth provides & sustains beyond what we know we need.  
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We all need a-room-of-our-own, Virginia Woolf, “When a subject is highly controversial, one cannot hope to tell the truth. One can only show how one came to hold whatever opinion one does hold.” 
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If you have read this far, and have a mow-blow-go-testosterone-on-wheels-commodify-all-I-touch-landscape, why?  Rejection with those landscapes was upfront with me, without knowledge of their replacement.  Decades have been spent finding the answer.  More than resonate, hope your inner core, from your gut, feels the words, above.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Jung knew, "Our lives are about getting the outside to match the inside."  The time this takes & riches to be found are, indeed, our life.
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Links to scientific studies meander in previous posts, no time to look them up today.
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Pic via Pinterest. 
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" ‘Like life,’ said the painter. ‘We eat and are eaten, and we are very lucky if we reach our three score years and ten, which is less than a flash in the eyes of an angel. The understanding persists, for a time. In your craft and mine.'” – from “Christ in the House of Martha and Mary”, by A.S. Byatt
.
For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

.

NOTE to my gardening friends... look for changes to come. 

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.'   Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

.

Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'.  Saved the article for a year before reading it.  Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

.

Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0.  A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life.  Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact.  Signed up  for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow. 

.

Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method.  Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix.
.

What do YOU want?

.

Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

.

Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Just so you know... 
 I  welcome your input.

Pinterest: Furniture in the Garden

Still glowing & fragrant, Southern for sweaty-from-the-day, 48 hr whirlwind with Susanne Hudson in good gardens.

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Had to share at least 1 pic from our jaunts, below.

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Acreage, antebellum, private home of _____________.
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How have I not known/met this man, or heard his name?
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Unavailable, he gave us access to his gardens & barns.
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A garden design class is in this pic, above, but for now it is merely enough to know Furniture in the Garden.
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Pinterest, at present, is a joy to eye & intellect.  Adore intuitive learning from good pics.  Since childhood I've been attracted to British shows on PBS and furniture-in-the-garden.  OF COURSE I titled one of my Pinterest boards, Furniture in the Garden.  Click, here, to see it.
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Local interest, Martha Tate owner of HGTV's Gardener's Diary, and Liz Tedder, 19 times (so far) in Southern Living magazine were with Susanne/me.  Met Martha in my early 20's professionally and sadly only recently met Liz Tedder, she came to the Conservatory Susanne & I built for a Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival display 3 years ago, which is now fronting editor's letter of Better Home's Gardens magazine this month.  1st time in Tedder's garden.  How does that possibly happen, should have been 76th time.  Best news?  Liz is writing a book.  And, I was demanding of what it should have.  Don't you do that?  Why not ask for what you want to see pics of and know about?  This doesn't begin to cover spending the nite in Susanne's world famous garden, again.  Luff, luff Susanne's mom.  Asked her if I could call her, MiMi, today, she's 80's & I'm 50's.  Hugs & kisses in both directions.
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Drawing a garden for a Federal style home tomorrow.  Life is rushed, and good.
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Notice Tara Turf, above?  How could I not adore this 'new' friend?  Will post more pics, and his name/link once I meet him and get permission.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.

For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

.

Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

.

Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

Construction by Award Winning

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.