Michele Bonan: Architecture + Interior + Garden

Much to delight, below.  

Garden design with only 2 elements.  Meadow & vine.  A combination from agrarian ideals.
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A duo screaming, This is not in USA !  At the minimum, not a USA garden designer.
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How do I know?  There is no monoculture lawn, green meatballs + concrete sidewalk from the French doors.  'That' type of garden design is pure post industrial.
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I 'see' gardens before architecture + interiors.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pic Michele Bonan.   Liked Bonan for his garden, above, then discover he does architecture and yacht design too.  Of course, he is not American.  Italian.  Alas, an American 'designer' working for a typical design-build-maintain landscape company would be fired for the garden design, above.  Why?  Not much money in meadow + vine.  Agrarian derivatives are human factored, sustainable, Nature.  Post industrial derivative landscapes are consumer, $$$, driven.
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Yes, been reading Wendell Berry in the tub again !  When you have time, click the link, it's a fabulous interview with Berry by Bill Moyers.

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.

Front Door Ideas

Puppet Barbuda's wicked eye.  

Boxwood disgracefully pruned into helmet hair, and wider at the top creating leggy hags with pockets of space at the bottom.
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Coiled hose lingering for pride of place.
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Blocks of wood anchoring exterior lights? Oh dear, at least stain them the color of the siding.

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The delight of the sweet round doormat.   A great touch.

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Charming vernacular baskets over the front door.

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Adore the shutters open in welcome.

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Why mulch when a groundcover is less maintenance & more lush?

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Elegantly shabby seeing money stretched.  The steps/rails are solidly good and tell a story.  Windows are at a crossroads of rotting but surviving with storm windows attached. 

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The window box & front door paint color tell Puppet Barbuda she wants inside this sweet cottage.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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A Cousin Cathy pic from Nantucket this summer.  This cottage reminds me of Aunt Tillie in her 80's, widowed & easily taking care of her brick cottage & garden.  Plenty of money but not one red cent to replace the furnace.  Smiling with a glint in her eye, "Let the next owner pay for it!"  Blessedly several of her antiques are now in my home & garden.  

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Who is Puppet Barbuda?  Landscape Design Critic of course.  

Small Lives Large With Axis + Focal Point

On axis with the doors, below, this tiny space lives large.  It has the potential for 3 more potent axis.

Purring at the formal lines + rusticity of plantings.
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At first I looked too quickly, thinking it was metal chairs.  No.  It's a bike & chair. 
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Don't you want to go inside? 
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That is Vanishing Threshold!
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Don't forget the Landscape Design rule: COPY
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Pics via Modern Country, taken by Shootfactory

Landscape Design Perfection: Sir Hardy Amies

I took this pic in the Cotswolds in Sir Hardy Amies garden.A complete landscape design course, in one picture.

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Looks easy, can you do it?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Money is not a criteria. Rescued plants, rescued hardscape & etc..... Yes, you can do this.

Hepcat

Finally, met a HEPCAT, below.
My right hand on his dropleaf table at Scott Antique Market this month, he anticipated my intent, before I finished my sentence, he had grabbed my right hand & lowered to his knees. Firmly guiding my hand (me clueless) to a screw. They were loose on purpose.
Bought the Hungarian chest & too cute watering can, above, before I met my HEPCAT.
HEPCAT knew loose screws would make it quicker to get the legs off the table.
HEPCAT wanted $175 for the table, (me- intense eye contact), then he said $145? I said, "You think about that price while I wander the booths & come back." "$100?" "Sold, will you keep the table while I wander?" He grabbed my hand, "Let's shake."

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There was something intensely USA-of-my-childhood, real, true, honest, earnest, delightful, a light behind his eyes, spiritual, joyful, peaceful, warm, intelligent, been thru the fire & came out a phoenix within HEPCAT.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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HEPCAT, George, was at the location inside the perimeter & selling his wares outside on the sidewalk at the end of the building. Poppets, you do realize what these acquisitions are for? My new conservatory!!!

Building Your Garden Room: 10 Steps

Think, cha-ching, this isn't for you? Poppets, PUPPET BARBUDA will not let you off easy. That measly excuse of no money? HOW TO build your new GARDEN ROOM:

1. Make decision to build a GARDEN ROOM. (Odd, this is the most important step)

2. Get envelope, label it, GARDEN ROOM. (Leftover paper money 2-3/week goes here.)

3. Tell all your friends, "I'm building a GARDEN ROOM."

4. Look at everything in your path with RESCUE eyes.

5. Bring it home. Old fencing, stone, brick, concrete, wood, house parts.

6. Get paint from the rejects at hardware store.

7. Accessorize from thrift store & sale items: TJMAXX, Marshall's, Ross.

8. Pots/urns from garage sales, big box store sales.

9. Put the right man in your project. (Alas, difficult.)

10. Hire man, & the same day, invite girlfriends to your Garden Tea Party.

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Take step #1 and your GARDEN ROOM will appear.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Charlotte Moss, pic, above. OMG, wonderful, & doable! This pic has come across my path at least a zillion times.

Man vs Crew vs DIY

Susanne Hudson & I chose the site, theme, materials & designed our Garden Conservatory, below, for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival last spring in Douglasville, GA.We also had this man, below.
Fluid of movement. Body, clothes, tools, materials, site, social skills, sense of humor, (pleasing 2 exacting women), decades of experience &, most important, intellect.

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He surpassed expectation (we knew he would), came in under budget, ahead of schedule & worked alone aside from Suzanne & I doing our girlie best.

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The other gardens created for the festival? Each, created with crews of men & heavy equipment.

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Our man? Last of the Mohicans.

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It was an honor to watch him work.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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In my garden I'm mostly DIY, in my dreams I have the skills of this man.

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

GREENHOUSE OF OLD DOORS

Rescued doors (aka free) + cacti bought on sale at big box stores, below, in Hogansville, GA. No, the doors don't match. Why should they?

Cobbled together with more rescued bits this greenhouse is instantly charming.

Testament to a woman's growing love, fascination, passion for cacti.

Inside, above, refrigerator shelving + old windows creating a roof.

Attached to the house the greenhouse only needs 3 sides. Above, one side.

Above, the other side. A free greenhouse !! Not your style? Paint it.

Inside. Aaaaaaaaaaaaah. Something about greenhouses does it for me. Neat, messy, empty, full, being in a greenhouse has always melted my heart. Each one, no matter its condition, a life force. Telling me stories. And the smell. Oh my, the smell of a greenhouse. I would buy the perfumes.

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Shopping at Born Again Antiques, spottedsheep@hotmail.com, 304 East Main Street, Hogansville, GA 30230, 404-422-8504, last week for my garden, Allan Boyer, co-owner, said his wife, BJ Boyer, filled the front window with her cacti during winter. A come-on line if I ever heard one. Within 15 minutes I was walking with BJ, & her newest dog, into her garden. BJ makes new antiques by cobbling together broken antiques. The woman has got an eye. (This is not an ad for them, I am simply passing along a very interesting, fun place. Maybe you can go?)

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

STREET VISIT WITH A CLIENT LANDSCAPE

SHIPMEN invited me to a picnic yesterday. Thought you would like a few street views of their landscape. Path & perennial border, below, led them to hire me. Years ago.Don't you love this hint of entry, below, luring you further? SHIPMEN purchased their neighbor's backyard and extended their garden beyond the entry, above. A few steps further, below, and you see their gate.

A few steps more, below, and you realize the entry is an ENFILADE.Entering the gate, above, but before arriving at the 2nd gate, welcoming urns of geraniums. Notice the lattice walls, below, painted black. Perfect.

Sneaking thru their garden, because I could, and I knew you would want to peak into their conservatory, below. A hint of one FETISH.

SHIPMEN adore antique chandeliers. They're shipped home from across the globe.SHIPMEN use their conservatory for dining & plant propagation. It's not for show.


Leaving thru the same gate, above. These were only street views. Tempted to see more?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

A CHALLENGING LANDSCAPE JOB COMPLETED

I was implored, Keep us dry! My clients carriage house is several yards from their home. Arriving home in the rain meant getting wet. Now, they're dry and have a garden room.

I copied colors, dimensions, shingles, faux stone & light fixtures of their home creating a summer house & breezeway. As if it had always been there.

My clients asked for, perhaps, a canvas breezeway thru the middle of the garden space. Oh gosh, that had me stuck during the design phase.

A canvas covering over black aluminum rails to match their fence. Ouch. It wasn't working. And why solve a problem with an ugly solution? Ugly costs money too. More ouch.

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Then I asked myself, because the house is English, How would this be designed in England?

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Voila! The garden would definitely be preserved as the focal point, they would stay dry and there would be a place to sit and enjoy the garden. Yes, the English do know how to put a garden, with challenges, together.


Only a few days old in the pic, below, viewed from the upper porch.

The sunny day flagstone path thru the turf is barely visible from the summerhouse. Their beloved long-haired Jack Russell Terrier has a nice green canvas to begin his yellow splotches.

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I'll keep you posted on this project as the furnishings and garden progress.

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Can't wait to show you the faux balcony soon to arrive on the carriage house.

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FYI: I knew these people were wonderful the first time I knocked on their door. From their formal dining room window I saw kittens playing on a tall carpet covered jungle-gym. They had recently lost a much loved cat. He was replaced with 2 kittens. Every visit with this couple has us laughing at the antics of their kittens & Jack Russell. The 3 in love with each other and slip-sliding on the wood floors, behaving like cartoon characters.

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MONEY TALK: Yes, my solution cost more than the canvas & metal but not by much. However, my solution increased the value of the home immediately. They spent money to make money. How many investments can you USE while they make you money?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

GROW A ROOM

Why build an arbor room in the garden when all it takes is 8 trees? I would choose more comfortable furniture.
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Easy to do this with 6' trees. Perhaps fruit trees, or redbuds, from Wal-Mart when they go on sale? Sooooooo much cheaper than building a wooden structure, which will never bloom. Flagstone terrace, comfy furniture and DONE.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Another pic I took last January while lecturing in England.

ARE SHADOWS DESIGNED INTO YOUR LANDSCAPE?

BETTER THAN WALLPAPER. Like my shadows? Of course you do. I designed them.
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The epiphany of designing shadows was instant wicked potent delight.
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PLAYING WITH SUNBEAMS.
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Shadows to fall, fold, envelope, embrace & caress a landscape and you.
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Sensuous shadows alighting on interior walls of your home. Pitching art where there was none before.
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Hmm. I've never seen a landscape design lecture about creating shadows. Perhaps I should include it in my list of titles?
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Chair is in my summerhouse.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

SINKING INTO CAMELLIAS

A bouquet. These are camellia sasanqua in late fall. Behind is the Summer House.
Alexandra Stoddard wrote about the golden ratio in Living A Beautiful Life. I used it to design the summer house. My lot is less than 8500 sqft in suburbia. MY LANDSCAPE IS IN DENIAL OF SUBURBIA BECAUSE I AM.

With a landscape design client in Michigan I dreadfully missed camellia.

Mother Nature, please let me SHOW OFF with sasanqua. JUST ONE. Next to the conifers.

Use white blossoms for plantings further away from your home. They show up better from a distance than pink or dark pink.

Honeybees come on cold fall days to the sasanqua. Follow them home? Fantasies about tasting sasanqua honey.