Simplicity is the Best Garden Design

Tasha Tudor chose one of the most powerful quotes, as the sign off to her letter writing, Take Joy.
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Take Joy.
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Did you get it?  Had you already had the epiphany?
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Doesn't seem possible.  Yet it's true.  Joy is always present.  'Take', is up to you.
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Pic, above, here.
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Green Meatballs have irritated me for decades, then this, above.  How could I not laugh?  Apparently I adore green boxes and wedges.
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Recognize the stone path, above ?  Variation of the centuries old stone wheelbarrow paths.
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Hint of Tara Turf, above, too.  Meadows of Tara Turf, pure pollinator habitat.  Tara Turf under fruit trees historically named, guilds.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Evergreens/trees, meadow, home, above/below.  Relationships.  Core connections.  House to garden, garden to Nature, us to garden, Nature to us. 
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At the front end, decades ago, I could not be this simple, above/below.  Not for me, I was still too special, knew so little, thought I knew something.  Now, the garden, above, reeks of sacred & scientific wisdom.  A gift from centuries of the best minds.  In conversation with us, if we'll listen.
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Simple?  I see layers of complexity, above.  At the front end, for years, I saw none of the complexity.  Complexity?  Aka, layers of riches. 
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Pic, above, here.
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Squished smaller, the meadow, below, is a brick terrace.  Variations on a theme.
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Pic, above, here.
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Pic, above, here.
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In all seasons, below, these gardens delight.  Design your garden for February, and you've designed it for all year.  No matter the style of your design.
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Pic, above, here.
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Aside from natural affinities of placement, house to meadow, house to hedges, house to allees, which reign, I assess an odd secondary reigning power.  Furniture.  Where do you want to sit, where do you want to eat, where do you want to visit with friends, where do you want to nap, where do you want to read....?
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Aside from the bonuses of complexity with gardening simply, these are the gardens going full measure, into age, theirs and yours, and into the Great Beyond*.  "Three chords, and truth.", as they described early Country music.
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If you aren't sure about a garden this 'simple' it's apparent, they allow you to fill in, to a greedy heart's content, with flowers/flowers/flowers.  Begin with flowers/flowers/flowers, please do.  It's how I get the majority of my clients.
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Simplicity of these gardens is a liturgy of Nature, if you see their complexity.  Nothing we have to do, everything done by Nature, for us.
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"Nothing is ever solved. Solving is an illusion. There are moments of spontaneous brightness, when the mind appears emancipated, but that is mere epiphany."  Patti Smith
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And I've been the epiphany hunter, for decades, in my garden.  
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"There’s no hierarchy. That’s the miracle of a triangle. No top, no bottom, no taking sides. Take away the tags of the Trinity — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — and replace each with love. See what I mean? Love. Love. Love. Equal weight encompassing the whole of so called spiritual existence."  Patti Smith
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And I've broken layers of Garden Design into trinities, for decades.  
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 "Just negotiating zones. No rules. No change. But then everything eventually changes. It’s the way of the world. Cycles of death and resurrection, but not always in the way we imagine."  Patti Smith
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And I've had decades with little change.  Saturday, driving the Blue Ridge Parkway, a World Heritage Site, coming back, Beloved asked which way I wanted to go.  Another highway or the Blue Ridge Parkway again.  Depths within answered, "What is first will be last, and what is last will be first."  Oddly, Beloved got it & he's not normally Metaphor Man.  
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Benediction, returning, along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  
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“The grounds for hope are in the shadows, in the people who are inventing the world while no one looks, who themselves don’t know yet whether they will have any effect…”  Rebecca Solnit
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Hope is like joy, it's always there, if we take.  

“You too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.”  Mary Oliver
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We have great help along the way, with unseen partners, heroes, liberators, teachers, lovers, and none must necessarily be human.  Gardens do this.  Whether you think so or not.
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For better and worse, growing up, my dad was an engineer, part of a team of 50 great engineers first to put man on the moon.  Will never forget something he said about electricity, "We know how to use electricity, but we don't know what it is." 
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His lone sentence, about electricity, informs beyond its basics, if you take it to.
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Recently, discovering trees use electrical current, no different than we have pulsing in our brain or heart, to communicate, I knew, finally, my communicating with gardens wasn't merely feel-good-mumbo-jumbo, nor one-way.  Science caught up, to what Garden Whisperers have understood from birth.  
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"Yes, trees are the foundation of forests, but a forest is much more than what you see… Underground there is this other world — a world of infinite biological pathways that connect trees and allow them to communicate and allow the forest to behave as though it’s a single organism. It might remind you of a sort of intelligence."  Suzanne Simard
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From Brain Pickings, "Simard, whose research was foundational to German forester Peter Wohlleben’s wildly popular book The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate, discusses her work and the improbable path that led her to it in her wonderful full-length TED talk: "  

Garden & Be Well,   XO T

If you have no time now, mental mark to watch later.  Stunning.
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A hoot, thinking back in college Horticulture would be rather safe from new discoveries.  Dunce hat thinking.
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Earlier this month Beloved & I went to Brasstown Bald, highest elevation in Georgia.  After touring the museum, I debated speaking to the Ranger about the museum's outdated 'science' of flora in the region.
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You know I did.
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Ranger's face was frozen at 90 mph wind force.  And I had mentally prearranged my delivery manner to him in advance.  So.  You watch the TED film about how Trees Communicate, tell me how it goes ............................................................................................................
My little story about driving the Blue Ridge Parkway earlier?  First time to be in a true forest, after seeing this TED talk, above.  Changes everything.  How clueless we must be about so much more upon this Earth.     
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Thank you to everyone keeping up with Beloved.  His procedure with chemo beads into the liver cancer zone went well.  His liver transplant was delayed a year due to the prostate cancer.  He must be clear of prostate cancer recurrence for a year due to immunosuppressants given after transplant.  Those drugs make any cancer grow minimum 10x faster.
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We're considering this year a sweet spot of time.  And it already is.
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* Leonard Cohen.....and the Great Beyond, below.

Search Results

Knowledge Result

Tom Jones - Tower Of Song - YouTube

How to Start Your Garden Design: 101

Once you've toured historic gardens across Europe, twice minimum, a theme appears from the oldest, 2-4 centuries, gardens.  The oldest garden design theme is a template, process, equation, road map, truth, facts, information, trinity, whatever you wish to name it, and finally, what I name it, Wisdom.
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Pic, above, here.
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If we're lucky, we understand.  If luckier, we intuit Wisdom.
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You're looking at a garden design, above, using every element of the oldest gardens.  Can you name the trinity?
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If Earth's oldest gardens are a trinity, "Why not start a garden with what it ends with?"
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What are you looking at, above?  Trees, meadow, stone focal point.  Historic trinity of garden design, trees can be formal, above, or an existing wild wood.  Meadow can be pasture, or lastly, lawn, myriad shapes, or formal lines.
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Stone focal point, often a dried fountain, long ago unable to hold water, balustrades, terrace, plinth, folly, urn, statue, ruins of a stone house/castle.
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Trees are most often forest, a wild wood, bosque, nothing showy, yet with canopy & understory.
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A decade passed before understanding Wildwood next to Meadow.  Do you know the significance?  .
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Wildwood next to Meadow is maximum pollinator habitat, gift from Providence for survival.
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Recently, a new fact I discovered about trees, and Providence,

 "Other than God and people, the Bible mentions trees more than any other living thing."  Matthew Sleeth.
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Did you know that?  Matthew Sleeth, also linked to Charles Spurgeon, The Trees in God's Court. 
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Do you know who the garden, above, belongs to?  Have seen it several times thru the years, online, this time with provenance, Valentino's, Chateau de Widevill.
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Oddly, the trinity of Trees-Meadow-Stone Focal Point is greatly suited toward mid-century ranch homes & the flurry of split-level 70's-80's homes, calming industrialized architecture with agrarian/pastoral grace.  All homes & price points, not merely grand estates. 
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Why, exactly, start your garden design with what it will end with?  Less maintenance & expense, reduced HVAC with shade in summer, sun in winter, mental health benefits of beauty, physical health benefits Providence designed into our microbiomes without which we become ill or die.  Earth friendly, no fertilizers/chemicals toxic to groundwater, fungi, bacteria, agriculture, insects, wildlife, humans.  Friendly to even, yes, deer & armadillo, without noticeable damage. 
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Next layer, if you wish more in your garden, go for it, have fun.  No worries, if it fails, history proves it will, you'll still have a gorgeous garden Trees/Meadow/Stone Focal Point friendly to Nature, Earth and You.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T       

Garden Design: Using Only Trees

France was an education in Garden Design with Trees while studying historic gardens there.  French Garden Design, with bushes/perennials removed, leaving trees, are wicked good in intellect while magnificently more beautiful.  A concept not approached in USA Garden Design.
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This dear Garden Design, below, not French but still, only trees, no bushes/perennials. 
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Would be fun to use same plants/house, below, in the French manner.  What does that mean?  Add garden rooms, entries, allees, focal points on axis, pots, urns, gravel, stone, to the Garden Design, below. 
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Quite a few rich intricacies, below.  Trees for buffering winter winds, saving on HVAC, trees for buffering summer sun, saving on HVAC, and trees for pollinators, trees for food to the kitchen, trees raise property values, trees providing privacy, trees providing all year color. 



Pic, above, here.
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Pic,above, here. 
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Quite fine, above.  I know you're both.  Put it all in your Garden Design.   
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Pic,above, here.

 
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Pic, above, here. Maybe not French, but amazing.....trees.
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Pic, above, here.
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" I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want to own.   Andy Warhol    " 
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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"So the tree rustles in the evening, when we stand uneasy before our own childish thoughts: Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness."  Hermann Hesse
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"It all starts with the wolves. Wolves disappeared from Yellowstone, the world’s first national park, in the 1920s. When they left, the entire ecosystem changed. Elk herds in the park increased their numbers and began to make quite a meal of the aspens, willows, and cottonwoods that lined the streams. Vegetation declined and animals that depended on the trees left. The wolves were absent for seventy years. When they returned, the elks’ languorous browsing days were over. As the wolf packs kept the herds on the move, browsing diminished, and the trees sprang back. The roots of cottonwoods and willows once again stabilized stream banks and slowed the flow of water. This, in turn, created space for animals such as beavers to return. These industrious builders could now find the materials they needed to construct their lodges and raise their families. The animals that depended on the riparian meadows came back, as well. The wolves turned out to be better stewards of the land than people, creating conditions that allowed the trees to grow and exert their influence on the landscape."  Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate.  Via, Brain Pickings, here. 
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Pic, above, here.
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Pic, above, here.
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Designing with only trees too simple ? 

Reducing Electric Bill Summer/Winter: Trees

"The loss of trees in the planet's water cycle is critical to the advancement of climate change.  their removal exposes land to the drying effects of the sun.  Trees also play an important role in absorbing greenhouse gases."  NASA
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Trees are pollinator hosts, and feeders.  How much of our beneficial gut biome is dependent upon bacterias dependent upon trees further up their life stream?  Watershed management from trees in incalculable.  
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This isn't about climate change, here, trees are about money.  
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Early in Obama's tenure, he said in a speach I saw, not something I read, Americans should be paying more, a lot more, for energy.  Almost double.  He got my attention.  That fall, I planted 2 more deciduous trees, deftly targeted, and not small, they arrived in their 35 gallon pots, about 8' tall.  Years earlier trees were planted to shade my home from the afternoon thru setting sun, deciduous, once leaves fall bright sunshine helped heating.     
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Once the threshold of 'affordable' energy was threatened, I was more than willing to shade my beloved mid-morning sun.  
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In our new house, ca. 1900 American farmhouse, it is a classic of energy use for its era. Coal.  We have 4 coal fireplaces, none working.  More, it's a central hall design, 9' wide X 50' long, 11' ceilings.  Rooms along each side 'had' a door leading into another room.  Odd, yes?  Each door into the central hall has its original thick, tight fitting door threshold at bottom.  Not something I wondered about, until living through our first winter.  Flash, epiphany.  Our home was designed for all the central hall doors to remain closed in winter, the central hall was not heated.  Passing from room to room, via their interior doors.
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In summer, the central hall, aka dogtrot, pulled the breeze, cooling the house.  Several century old pecan trees remain, none properly sited for cooling in summer.  An evergreen magnolia was planted at a western flank within the past 2 decades.  Oh no.  Plenty of blocking against summer sun, alas, blocking the winter sun too.  How we wish that magnolia were an oak.  Money in the bank if it was.  
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Trees.  It's really all about trees.  How trees aid water in the forest vs. suburbs, here.  Including how trees remove toxins & metals too.  I know you're busy, save to read the link later, it's that interesting.


Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.

Gingko tree, above, commonly lose their leaves in a day.  And that day has the fragrance of cooking sugar.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Jekyll Island, Driftwood Beach, above.  Have never been to Jekyll Island and not seen a bride/groom/photographer coming/going from Driftwood Beach.  Finally, walked Driftwood Beach this year, 1st time.  Only one word comes to mind, to describe being on Driftwood Beach, Sacred.
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Trees.

Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Alexander von Humboldt: Note to Self ca. 1801

Today, ca. 1940 Atlanta backyard, below.  In the city, you can see a fly-over freeway ramp.

Our lead man Victor, above, and magnolia tree.

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Too many rabbit holes with my work, note to self, Focus.

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Hard to focus when Man & Tree become iconic, if for a moment.

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Alexander von Humboldt, "I was spurred on by an uncertain longing to be transported from a boring daily life to a marvellous world."  

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Exactly, THAT is Nature, a marvellous world.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Pic today at a jobsite

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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.

Tree Arbor

Have never understood the concept, "I can't afford a nice garden."

Can't afford an arbor?  You can afford a few trees.  Contact your Extension Service and discover myriad trees available for pennies on the dollar.
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Site the trees along the western exposure of your home and save money each warm month on a/c.
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Trees raise property value.
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Choose native trees as butterfly hosts in addition to bird habitat.
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Mary Sarton is wrong, gardens aren't silent.  Who can live without the sound of wind thru leaves?
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Trees teach me every fall, trust Providence, let go & be enriched.
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Garden & Be Well,       XO Tara
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pic via Bumble at Home.  In a small garden, for above, I would use #89 granite gravel instead of lawn less maintenance.
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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.

Large Pots

Something new to desire.

                           
                        And I don't mean man or child.  How did I miss these pots in Paris?

Desire, undervalued & counterintuitive.
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Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara
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Wonder which client past/future will have these in their garden.  Love Magic Man, I know he can make them!  Will have to tack on a pair to an order for me-me-me !
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pics via Paris Through My Lens.

How to Prune & Live

"... mental discipline of a scientist and the emotional responsibility of a poet."

              Peter Schjeldahl

Exactly the knowledge needed for pruning.  And living.
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Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara
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Pic taken yesterday in Ryan Gainey's garden.

Rule for Pots

After seeing the Queen mother's pots at Glamis Castle I knew the Rule-For-Pots.

Pots in a garden must be so fabulous they can remain empty.
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These pass the test.
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Do yours?
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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When I lived on 50 acres in a 3 bay carriage house I saw my first Tulip Magnolia, Magnolia soulangiana, it was larger than this, above.  I walked to its trunk, wrapped my arms around it, held on, and stared up.  That was over 30 years ago.  It was obliterated years ago for a Wal-Mart parking lot.
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pic via Quintessence Lifestyle

Wire Chairs & Color Echoes

Those chairs !

Echoing in titillation the color of the square planter, blue stone terrace & into the distance with the door.

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Even the gardener is color echoed with the landscape.

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Do not underestimate that last bit.  Monet had his gardeners wear blue shirts.

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Of course the white blossoms & silver foliage echo pop.

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Garden & Be Well,          XO Tara

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Found the pic last weekend via Dirt Simple.  Layers of green, canopy & understory trees, shrub walls, flooring & etc of perfection.  This garden has been loved into being with a sure hand.

Science: Tree Power vs. Solar Power

Trees increase pollinator habitat increasing yield on crops, decrease HVAC bills, increase property value.

 

 Fruit trees feed wildlife & people.  Evergreen trees to block winter winds.

Trees are a known resource to improve health. 

In the eastern USA what would happen if the average front lawn were replaced with the design, below?  In addition to the benefits listed, no weekly lawn mowing, no watering once established, 2-4 x's/year maintenance needed.

Where is the science & math on this simple solution?
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Have done this design numerous times thru the decades for clients wanting low maintenance.
Garden & Be Well,             XO Tara
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Deciduous trees, evergreen trees, canopy trees, understory trees.
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Pics Architect Design.  Small house living large with its garden.

Trees vs. Mr.-Mow-Blow-Go-Testosterone-On-Wheels

I've taken Christopher Lloyd to bed again.  Already 2nd-3rd time for his books.  He's new & fresh, each time.

"By exercising  a little vision you will come to realize that the tree, which has a possible future, perhaps a great one, may be more important than yourself, nearing your end.  So it's worth thinking more about the tree and giving it a good start in life in the right position than about yourself, except in so far as it is a great delight to see the tree responding and developing under your sympathetic treatment."
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Cool your house in summer with an understory deciduous tree, it will warm you in winter too.  Site an evergreen tree in path of winter's winds.  Sited properly trees increase property value.  Chosen properly  insects/wildlife expand pollinator habitat.
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Studying Landscape Design across Europe for decades it's obvious what survives: trees, meadow, stone focal points.
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Mr.-Mow-Blow-Go-Testosterone-On-Wheels commodifies landscapes into grass to mow, bushes to prune, annuals to plant, chemicals to treat, irrigation system to install.
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Ok, I'll stop here.  Too quick getting from trees to Mr.-Mow-Blow-Go-Testosterone-On-Wheels.  Not enough time to pontificate fully today.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pic taken at a client's property last month.

Design Winter Shadows Into The Landscape

Others wanted to cut the old redbud, Cercis canadensis, down.  Men with machines looking into my eyes, awaiting a shake of my head.  Instead, a firm, "No."
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Wall, nor garden, are finished, above.
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Later I came upon the shadow.  In that moment, it let me know why the universe was formed.  And my place in it.  Humbling.
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Providence speaks loudest to me in a garden.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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pic taken last week in a client garden

Design The Past Into The Future

"There is no future in the past." A narrow, mundane & sad thought.  'With little imagination', as Anne of Green Gables would say.  

 It's a thrill to Landscape Design century old farm buildings & trees, 'the past', into the future.

Using plantings & methods of the past, and the gardens of ancient Italy as template.
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Creating a sense of intimacy when the space is 100's of acres.
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FRISSON:  Excitement at the front end of winter, bare branched trees.  Sasanqua's coated in bloom at the tail end of fall.
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Each, at the same moment.
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Creating a landscape taking care of your spirit more than you will ever have to take care of it.
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I love putting a new future into the past.  
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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pics taken last week at a project.

Landscape Design Is Architecture: Ceilings

When I begin a Landscape Design I create ceilings: sky, trees, arbors. Within a landscape design a cone shaped plant should be in each garden room, drawing eyes to the sky. My tiny property lives as large as the meadow/pole barn, above, I own the sky, and use it, framed by trees, as ceilings to my garden rooms. Landscape design upon acreage is the same for a postage stamp.
Sir Hardy Amies, above, uses sky, canopy/understory trees, cone shaped summerhouse, and the wit of cone shaped obelisks with balled toppers.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Vertical Gardening

Every garden must have at least 1 cone shaped evergreen. Draw eyes to the sky. More about this Italian garden, above, here.
Gertrude Jekyll, famous landscape designer, said, "The first thing I consider is what to put on the house." At zero point in college or symposia has anyone said this to me. Took this pic in France, a private garden. In addition to vines on a house, I like espaliered woody flowering shrubs, they need no trellis or wire.
Vertical gardening on a tiny subdivision lot, above, canopy & understory trees with climbing roses. If Monet could have a climbing rose thru his understory trees, so can I. That's my garden, above. The window? It's where I'm typing this post.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Quite selfish leading with the pic I took in Italy. A garden brimming with epiphanies. While I was in it and after.

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3 Vertical Gardening concepts, get started.

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Garden Designers Round Table: MORE Vertical Gardening Posts !!

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Garden Up! Vertical Gardening

March 22, 2011 by susan morrison

When you hear the phrase “vertical gardening,” what comes to mind? You might think about roses scrambling up a trellis, or an overhead arbor dripping with wisteria. Those with a contemporary aesthetic may envision a mosaic of succulents hung on an outdoor wall, while edible gardeners see a riotous mix of creative containers, with tomatoes and peas reaching for the sun.

Vertical gardening is all those things and more. To celebrate the publication of Garden Up! Smart Vertical Gardening for Small and Large Spaces by roundtable members Susan Morrison and Rebecca Sweet, this month our designers share their own unique perspectives on this exciting garden trend.

Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK
Pam Penick : Digging : Austin, TX »
Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In the Garden : Los Altos, CA »
Scott Hokunson : Blue Heron Landscapes : Granby, CT »
Susan Morrison : Blue Planet Garden Blog : East Bay, CA »
Tara Dillard : Vanishing Threshold : Atlanta, GA »

This Garden & Its Mistress

Carriage house, fescue, boxwoods, pair of elms, stone wall/stone terrace/steps, below, all new, perhaps 12 minutes old in the pic.
Client is successful, headstrong, bold, smart, athletic, spiritual, demanding, puckish.

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Today she is in a hospital bed unable to move or speak.

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Before surgery she directed her brother to finish her landscape with us.

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My hope & prayer? In addition to complete recovery, I want to hear her ask: why those boxwoods are 6" off, why didn't you get bigger elms, why isn't the potager edged with dwarf boxwood, why aren't existing boxwoods-in-pots sited & etc.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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This story, this incredible woman, has dug itself in. She's in my prayers.

Why You Shouldn't Decorate With 'Cute'

"On the outskirts of agony sits some observant fellow who points." Virginia Woolf
When I NEED her words I don't need a cute stupid sign or focal point (cheap resin is particularly offensive, ha, expensive resin too) in the garden as I gaze out my windows.
I need beauty, strength & wisdom.
Upon a winter's day Providence laughs. Slowing me. Taking me away, for a few moments, into a realm of grace.
Away from the 'outskirts of agony' .

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Closer to seeing the 'fellow who points'.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken at Pecan Orchard's garden this month. Ugh, straining to see the 'fellow who points'. Knowing I will when I let go.

Choices

This oak tree made a choice.I am humbled.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic taken in a friend's garden last Saturday.