Showing posts with label Vines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vines. Show all posts

Sunday, December 27, 2009

IT IS UNCOMPLICATED

This landscape had me at its gravel. Did you notice this landscape requires no skilled maintenance?
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Pillow? Already telling us something about the home's interior.
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Vines adding lushness without taking up space.
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Pot clusters created as still life's, art. Not some stupid notion of need-a-garden-idea-here.
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Do you feel the pots, bench, plantings, gravel leading you to the back door?
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Sense how this garden room can be as easily rearranged as an interior room?
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This tiny garden room gives a huge sense of the woman living here. Does your garden look like your inner self?
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Do you think this garden was professionally designed? Yes? Me too.
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If this were your garden room, and you didn't have it professionally designed would it look this good? More importantly would it have cost so little to implement? Of greater importance would it be as easy, cost effective, to maintain? Topping the importance list, would you have created a garden room inviting you to use it?
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PUPPET BARBUDA loves this Vanishing Threshold garden.
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Pic from the movie, It's Complicated.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara aka PUPPET BARBUDA

Thursday, December 24, 2009

SO OBVIOUS

Can you name this? SLEIGH PORT !!!!!
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Carport, heliport, airport............
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Yes, another pic from Susanne Hudson's last week. She named her Sleigh Port. The antique sleigh? Americans are larger now. A pair of young teens would fit. Two adults? Barely.

Monday, November 23, 2009

LANDSCAPE APPROACH. GOT ONE?

Approaching each landscape design one of the first things I know, before getting out of my car, is the MAIN VIEW TO THE HOUSE.
Some homes are approached from both directions along the street. Many are approached from mainly ONE direction. Design to the main direction.
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Is the main direction of your house a side with air-conditioner? Garage with garbage cans stored outside? Ha, you've got serious landscape design issues.
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The main approach above? The top pic.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Friday, November 20, 2009

SUMMER HOUSE

Perhaps your garden needs a summer house. Cool respite to enjoy your garden from another vista. A place to eat, read, nap, gather.
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Think about it. And in your imagination put in a ceiling fan; keeping mosquitos away.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Saturday, November 7, 2009

TRAILING DRESS, GARDEN, HOWARD'S END

"Why did we settle that their house would be all gables and wiggles, and their garden all gamboge-colored paths?" Won't tell you what 'gamboge' is. Why take away a pleasure? A great day when a dictionary is needed. "Trail, trail, went her long dress over the sopping grass, and she came back with her hands full of the hay that was cut yesterday..." Mrs. Wilcox walking in her garden peering into her house, Howard's End. This scene from Howard's End so enchanted me I had to buy the book. Not imagined by the movie director, I discovered, but written into the story.
You must understand, walking about my garden, and peering into my house, calms & fills me with energy. A private, sublime, pleasure. Why would I share it with anyone, these thoughts? Then discovering my private joy was written about by E.M.Forster in 1910.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics via Hooked on Houses from the movie, Howard's End

Friday, October 9, 2009

POT CLUSTER

Castles to cottages, throughout Europe, you'll see pot clusters. Rather a lot, above. Sometimes it's a single pot, but wow, in that single pot is something Of-The-Moment-Fabulous.
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Don't you love gravel upholstering the ground? I'm not a fan of ornamental grass but here it's done with palpable magnificence.
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Tiny, this landscape, and erudite.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Thank you Krystol for this pic from England.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

CENTURIES OLD YET NEW

Nothing original here. It's all been done, for centuries. Yet it's fresh at each site. Easy to maintain.
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IN THIS LANDSCAPE:
* Path mown thru low meadow on axis to home
* Repetition of greens
* Contrasting shapes, oval & connical, of large shrubs & trees
* Gravel terrace scaled appropriately to architecture of home & functional use
* Pair of planters, informing you, "Yes, enter here."
* Plant on the house, Gertrude Jekyll, world's 1st landscape designer, said, "The first thing I consider in a design is what to put on the house."
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I'm already in my new cedar Adirondack chair, from Smith/Hawken going-out-of-business sale, reading a book on this gravel terrace. Of course it's stained the color of the window trim.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Thank you Krystol for sending this pic from your England trip.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

TAKE PICTURES OF YOUR LANDSCAPE

Climbing Rose 'New Dawn' on my garage. RIP. Dead, last year, of drought. Wow. Coming across this picture made me 'lose' the rose again. Remembering when I planted the rose, after Hurricane Opal blew thru Atlanta killing my mature 'Lady Banks' rose. Too much drama!
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Still in the fantasizing phase on what to plant now. Happy I've got this picture. Take pictures of your landscape. I promise you they will become little gifts to yourself.
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Off to Texas visiting family for a week............
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

YELLOWBOOK IS A SMASHER

Returning home to my garden yesterday wasn't pleasant. Yellowbook threw their newest edition at my front door. It smashed onto the birdhouse, above, knocking it to the ground. Destroying sections of roof, perches and lovely curved wall.
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For over a decade, this house has raised 1-2 nests of wrens, and the unfortunate cowbirds, each spring.
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Thankfully, birds were safely fledged before CSI: Birdhouse.
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Wisteria 'Amethyst Falls' is the vine.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

GARDEN TOOLS**GARDEN ART

Nationally acclaimed landscape architect, Norman Kent Johnson's tool bouquet had me rethink mine. What to use, how to get it on the wall, and knowing it's floral design not landscape design. My late friend/mentor/client/artist/rancher Mary Kistner instilled her mantra well, It's what we do with what we have.
Junk, glorious garden junk. Can you believe I do get rid of things...occasionally?

Unexpectedly, delightfully, the garden bells clap in the wind. Do you think this looks like a pile of junk on the wall? That's fine. Each piece of junk has a backstory making me smile. One piece involves a police chopper, ooh-la-la. Another was found in England at Great Dixter.
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An odd thing about this assemblage? I read it like a story book of my gardening life.
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Creeping fig on the wall, above, Hydrangea 'Penny Mac' in top pic.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Thursday, June 11, 2009

LANDSCAPE ECONOMY: ARBOR, GRILL, SINK

Landscape ideas with charm aren't always expensive. Copied from a 1920's garden book, the arbor. At least I've seen similar arbors in old garden books. Not part of the 'landscaped' garden this outdoor kitchen has loads of character for little cost.
Repeating the arbor, below. Repetition is as important as simplicity in a landscape.


Vines on a house, or espaliered shrubs, are easy. Adding lushness with little effort.
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In a perfect world my slides from Italy would be digitized by now. I've got pics of a villa, which should be posted here, using the same idea above but the style is centuries old Italian. Great style transcends genre.
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What's happening in my garden today? Pulling akebia vine from hydrangeas, camellias, azaleas, viburnum, & more. Ugh. Then a bath and off to design a backyard.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Saturday, May 16, 2009

GARDEN WALKABOUT IN BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

My hosts in Birmingham produced a proper custom garden walkabout. It began in the English Village area on Cahaba Road at Continental Bakery. Of course I had a scone, orange cranberry. We lolled about in conversation & laughter before heading out on foot in search of enticing gardens. Less than a mile away we found our quarry.
This little garden, literally, 2' wide, and about 45' long.

Crunchy gravel, lovely understated pots, lots of serene green, touches of chaos, touches of order. Big dose of tasty aged architecture. Can you believe this is Birmingham, ALABAMA and not Birmingham, ENGLAND?

THE Norman Kent Johnson, landscape architect, bought a falling down shed 2 decades ago and created this Norman delight. Notice thru the window, above, the house is 1 room deep. It has only 1 bedroom (upstairs).

Yesterday I forgot to mention, rub tools with boiled linseed oil if you want to copy Norman's idea. Don't worry it comes boiled. You don't need to do it.

To the left of the front door a most civilized welcome. Don't you want to go inside?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

LANDSCAPE DESIGN: WASHINGTON PARK, ALBANY, NY

Gertrude Jekyll, world's 1st landscape designer, said, When I design a landscape the FIRST thing I consider is what to put on the house.
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Near Washington Park Jekyll's edict is planted. And there's a thrilling roof. Stone shingles are larger at the gutter, tapering toward the ridge.
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Having something on your house does not always mean a vine. I prefer espaliered woody shrubs. No wires or trellis needed. Vines are often too much maintenance vs. an espaliered woody shrub. Nearby, below, what my LANDSCAPE DESIGN EQUATION advocates. When you create a landscape design begin with trees. What survives in a landscape? Trees, meadow & stone focal point. If you care about low maintenance, organics, sustainability with rainwater only, creating a realm of beauty to live amongst & leaving something for the future. TREES.
With age the trees have become more spectacular than the house, below.

Why is this painted brick, below, working for me? I used to hate painted brick. This painted charmer is near the homes pictured above.

And each of the homes edge Washington Park in Albany, New York. Yes, I was there during the tulip festival.

Original plan, below, for Washington Park. Much of the land has never been privately owned.

Below, the wisdom of what lasts in a landscape (trees - meadow) contrasted with the ephemeral (tulips).

Contrasts, another landscape design tool. Above, see the tree design? Canopy, understory, cone, weeping, horizontal, burgundy foliage, deciduous, evergreen, brown bark, white bark, grey bark.
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There is a template for landscape design with trees. I didn't learn the template in college for horticulture. No. Studied landscapes in France. They don't muck about, as the English would say.
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Pics of Washington Park from their website.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

AKEBIA VINE & SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT

Akebia vine is blooming. Pretty but not showy. It's FRAGRANT. With akebia blooming, I feel like a dear friend has returned. A once a year fragrance, akebia flowers aren't sold during the rest of the year, that I know of.
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Is this what the SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT is about? Creating a sense of drama, desire, appreciation. Skip the eco, carbon, sustainability, la-ti-da.
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Savoring smells, tastes, textures.
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Giving up the world of choice and gaining the world within the fragrance of akebia.
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Akebia quinata - 5 leaf akebia, zone (4)5-8. Plant only 1. They like to have SEX.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Friday, March 6, 2009

SLEEPING WITH FARROW & BALL

Falling asleep the past 2 nights reading the new Farrow & Ball color chart. Exhausting delight. Imagining color combos with shutters, patio furnishings, trim, frontdoors, arbors & etc. THEY, yesterday's client, have a new house in an old neighborhood.
Shutters in their breakfast room are usually closed due to the view of the carriage house, below. Solution? I designed a pair of French doors, iron balcony and jasmine 'Madison' to climb and soften.

Their covered porch, below, exposed to the neighbors. Behind the chairs I've designed shutters, sconces, sofa table, pair of lamps, and an ottoman for the chairs. The floor will be stained 2 tones darker than the house trim and a sisal rug will be placed.

The stacked wood wall, below, has got to go. Until then it will be stained the trim color of the house.
A stone wall will be built with a modest column for an urn. Across the street, below, is the type of stone wall their landscape needs.

Changing the subject, below, yesterday's lunch on the well-placed chair. Remember what the chair looked like 4 days ago?

Yes, snow, 4 days ago. Atlanta has crazy weather. It was zone 7, now zone 8.

Bought the footstool, below, with thoughts of paint & recovering. It's been in my garage for years.

Brought it into the house yesterday and discovered a note pinned to its bottom.


Horse hair and excelsior stuffing, maybe original? I googled the names on the note and found one of them. Will sleep again with Farrow & Ball deciding on a color.

I have a footstool fetish. Anyone else?
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Why the disparate mix of topics? They all happened yesterday. Are your days this sublimely variable? Tears yesterday also. I found a disc of pictures, several years old. Pictures taken in Penny's garden, Hydrangea Heaven. Friend, mentor, travel companion, compatriot in crime, lecture partner, and too long gone from this Earth.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Sunday, February 22, 2009

ATTACHING VINES TO YOUR HOUSE

Gertrude Jekyll, Englishwoman & world's 1st landscape designer, said, When I design a landscape the first thing I consider is what to put on the house. Fascinating. College degree, uncountable lectures attended and not one person ever, ever, mentioned what to put on a house. I design with vines and espaliered woody shrubs on homes.

You can vaguely see the wires on the house, below. Vines with outward growth add a dimension of lushness & softness.
In winter, the wires are barely visible. Entirely cloaked in summer.

Run galvanized wire in horizontal lines 2' apart.
I use masonry screws for brick walls & a jackhammer drill. Copper wire doesn't carry the load of galvanized wire.
Woody shrubs espaliered against a home need no wires or trellising. Use espaliered shrubs for low maintenance.
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I took the pics last month in England at Wisley, Royal Hort. Society.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara