How To Get It Free

Thrift store yesterday, Donald Pliner shoes, 99 cents.

 Saving, $299.00, minimum, they've bought me

several tons of gravel, stone & a few boxwood.
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Girl math.
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But it really works.  All my dear lady clients get it.  ALL.
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Husbands groan.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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No, this isn't sexist.  I know exactly how boy math works.  Pics from Ann Mashburn's home via Atlanta Homes magazine.

How Tiny Landscape Rooms Live BIG

Paley Park, New York City, NY, below, via.

A tiny landscape living BIG.
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I've pondered why some little landscapes, including  mine, live HUGE.
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Yes, seriously, I've pondered & mulled & considered & strained to figure it out.
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It's the sky.
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With little space you still have infinite ownership of the sky.
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Use it.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Have seen Paley Park, in pics, several times thru the years.  Takes my heart each time.  Perhaps I'll get there some day!  Thank you Janelle McCulloch Library Of Design for posting this garden haven.

Historically Siting Bulbs

Hillary Clinton had 'intellectual exercise' conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt.  Remember those headlines? 

 Oddly, I got it.  Even then.

Last month I sited thousands of bulbs after "consulting the genius of the place."  I've spoken with landscapes for decades.  
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This garden, above pics, has a historic home with little but its pecan orchard intact.
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Next year anyone seeing the drifts of daffodils will think they've been there a century.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Many of you have this skill, "consulting the genius of the place", but don't trust it.  It's why I listen so hard to landscape questions.  The answers are already in the question. 
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Yes, Alexander Pope...Consult the genius of the place......

Landscape Design: What Era Will You Choose?

Whitlow House ca. 1830.  Keeping the views,

 and the house rustic are intentional.  Wanting places of repose,

outside of time.

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Garden & Be Well,          XO Tara

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Pics taken at a project last week.  Landscape Design is about designing elements of TIME & PLACE.  Received a delightful comment about my home/garden this month, "You've really created your own little world, haven't you?"

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Intimacy In Large Spaces

A folly in the landscape.  (aka, a one-room cabin.)

Light from the landscape a palpable force.
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Beyond the door, acreage in open meadow & wildwood.
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Design intimacy into landscapes with acreage.  
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Let Nature reign in open meadow & wildwood.
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Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara
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Pic taken at a jobsite last week.   I wish you could walk thru this door, into the acreage.  Know the spirit of this land.  The stewardship of its owner, dancing with Providence.

Lunch In The Conservatory

Friends for over a decade, we've kept up for too many years via ambient community, aka mutual friends & social media.

 We had lunch in my Conservatory yesterday.  Each of us brought to tears several times during meandering conversation.  Happy tears.  Tears of knowing.  Tears of bearing witness.

 Mostly laughter.  And buzzing with energy.
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Grace comes unbidden, and by nurture.  Yes, you want a Conservatory in your landscape.
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Garden & Be Well,            XO Tara
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Smallest Conservatory footprint, if you have a choice, is 12' x 18'.

Fog & Rain Dreary?

A local garden center posted on their Facebook page today about the weather (fog, wet, gray) being dreary and we should come in to buy a houseplant.  Really?  Puppet Barbuda knows good Landscape Design has no dreary days.  Returned moments ago from her garden Puppet Barbuda saw:

 Laura, above, following from inside.  Not so cute when she hangs from the chandeliers.  (Notice the terra cotta sun?  It's a wall sundial hiding a faucet.)

 With Ivy 'Gold Heart', at the front door.  Puppet Barbuda is in earnest about no dreary days.  Fell in love with this Ivy while studying Landscape Design in England.

 Sasanqua's, above, still in heavy bloom.  Native honey bees gather pollen all year in my landscape.

 Hellebores, above, opening.

 Apples & peaking gold dwarf conifer.

Crazily, with a warm January, fall leaves still falling.
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Dreary?
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Plenty of color.
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Garden & Be Well,       XO Tara
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Was in my robe/slippers getting these pics a few minutes ago.  Laura followed me, from inside, around the entire house while photographing.  Wish I had time for more pics....

Spool Bed In Garden Light

Spool bed, rough-hewn historic cabin, and

 natural light.

Flowing from the garden.
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Do you do this too, design your landscape for interior lighting effects?
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Amazingly this light, above,  is only minutes before the gloaming.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pics taken at a project last Thursday.

Martha Washington Table In The Garden

Martha Washington never knew how many would appear at her dinner table.  Extra tables, boards placed on sawhorses, were often set-up in the garden.  With a cloth of course.

 Yesterday, working in the Ancient Orchard we needed a table.

 Quickly, the guys had our Martha Washington table set-up.  It had been nearby in the potager.

 We were siting fruit trees.

We did use the hammer, keeping invoice sheets from blowing away.
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Obvious, more than 1 Martha Washington table is needed in her garden.
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G*d is smiling, these are FUN needs.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pics taken yesterday.  Notice my basket in the top pics?  34 years old.  English white willow.  Came from Neiman-Marcus in Dallas, Texas during their Christmas Fortnight event.  Sales lady didn't want to sell it, it was holding ornaments.  La-ti-da, acquired my target.  Yes, the lady got huffy.  Very huffy.    

Historic Southern: Flying Buttress

Downtown Atlanta, below, a former cotton warehouse.  Swoon yet?  The Flying Buttress !!

 Copy.  It's the 1st rule of Landscape Design.

MY flying buttress, above.  Though it's on a client's property, and she did pay for the lovely bricks, ca. 1899, from Milledgeville, Ga, capitol of Georgia during the Civil War, and she did pay for the labor, and, and, and, honestly, I am in love with this Landscape Jewelry !
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Garden & Be Well,         XO Tara
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Orchard not complete yet.  Fruit trees start going in tomorrow.  Gates this year.  

How To Open A Front Porch

Gravel to the walls, evergreens (few), no rails on the porch, & a fabulous light, below.

 Exactly how I described The Cottage project, below, to my contractor.  Before I ever saw the pic, above, via Greige Design.

 Porch rails will be removed, below, and stone steps added to all sides.  Foundation meatballs removed,

gravel spread, light fixture installed.  Bricks painted, shutters added to all sides (new color chosen) storm door removed and a potager nearby, it was requested and there is very little good light elsewhere.
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Love this type of work.  Tight budget, big impact, little input.  Ironically, the biggest improvement will be removing the foundation meatballs.  The gravel?  Huge impact, and laughably one of the cheapest ingredients.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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No use at present for the iron rail.  Cannot wait to discover which project NEEDS it !

Cottage Inspiration: Dining Room Walls

The Cottage, ca. 1940, has wallpapered dining room walls, painted red, with little light.

Tiny budget too.  A few days ago, inspiration via Greige Design, a bead board wall with plates, above.
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The ANTICIPATION of creating the walls is palpable.  Using Benjamin-Moore HC Lancaster Whitewash with white plates and silver plated platters.
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Soon, The Cottage will have a neo-butler's pantry belonging to a much larger estate.  It's dining room where the 'help' dines.  (Rather obvious I watched Downton Abbey last nite on PBS.)
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Along with mission statement, narrative & back story inhabit this sweet project.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara

Cats & Camellias

Low 30's, in only my gown, I went into the garden last week to shoot the current crop of Sasanqua's, (I have 5 cultivars.)

 Had bit of a surprise, above, garden cat Torte De Shelle had the correct expression at my attire.

But when the Sasanqua are this fabulous, come as you are.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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With smugness, let me add, Torte De Shelle is atop the fence and framed with the Camellia japonica.  They won't start blooming till Christmas day.

Captain Kirk Chair

I pay attention to the Captain Kirk chair inside every home where I'm designing the landscape.  Views throughout the year will be savored & used as backdrop to all the excitement and muddles life provides.  

 Where is your Captain Kirk chair?  What are the garden views?

New floors installed, sanding/staining late this week.  Back came my Captain Kirk chair. House in chaos yet I couldn't resist this spot.
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How could I, the sasanquas are blooming, the Christmas tree lites are on in the Conservatory, and the garden cats about their lives.  As Anne Of Green Gables said, there is so much "scope for the imagination."
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 I travel farthest in my garden, perhaps honestly, it's farther still in this chair.
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Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara

Collections During Renovation

A few days ago, at The Old Post Office, in Stone Mountain, Ga Village, I found this painting.  

It has a few issues, easily overcome by the $15 tag.

On the back, interesting scrawl,  "Dec. 26, 1930, Friday Nite, JGB"
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A story I would like to know.
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Now, it's leaning on a table with lamps, bowls, flotsam-jetsom, awaiting it's debut.  A bit of construction in my house this Christmas.  Men, machines, materials, saw dust.  Cats safely tucked into their new room upstairs, unamused.
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Excited about the new year, construction complete, things placed properly, and a decrease in quantity.  Editing. 
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Framing garden views from every interior window.  Looking into every window, from the garden, making sure it's worthy of being a backdrop for my garden.  Double axis.  Vanishing Threshold.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara

Cotton In The Conservatory

In the garden, below, 2 days ago, looking into my Conservatory thru the century old French door.

 It's an arcane delight, looking into windows.  Seeing cotton (or anything pretty) already 'painted', not real, in the past.

This is my first high cotton.  Literally, this year, in-high-cotton.  Inside Conservatory, above, looking into my tiny back garden.
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The old pottery jug, above, with broken handle, was a very good day at the thrift store, $2.94.
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From the house seeing this jug of cotton has been a joy.  A garden view, it's why I garden.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara

Choosing Color: Small House, Northern Light, Dark Bedrooms

The Cottage, 1200 sqft,  is entirely northern light.  Benjamin Moore - York Harbor, a yellow, is already lighting the house.

Impatient for the lamps, mirrors, furniture, textiles, art, books.
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Both bedrooms will be York Harbor.
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Bunny Williams, An Affair With A House, has been no small inspiration.  She uses yellow.  It doesn't seem to be popular at the moment.  Bunny transcends 'popular'.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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pic taken at a project last week.  Oh no, I've neglected to look into this room from the garden.

Tea & Toilets

Tea, below, at Le Jardin Blanc last week.  We toured 2 gardens & did a drive-by of another, all had been in national magazines.

 Lemon curd, Devonshire creme & scones were included, of course.

 Each place had a unique teapot.

At a project the same day, below.   Discoveries about a plaster wall were made when an old toilet was exchanged for new.  

 Bead board, all four walls, was the solution.  Plaster issues?  Poof, gone.  (Keeping, above,  the ca. 1940's wall sink with it's chrome ca. 1950's levers.)

Touring gardens in England I've appreciated signage with arrows.  Especially when Tea and Toilets are prominent.  Necessities, each.
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Garden & Be Well,           XO Tara

Simple With No Styling

Fabulous garden views from every window is Vanishing Threshold, and cat entertainment.

 Yesterday, above/below, at my desk.  Vintage chinoiserie curtains ca. 1970 were hung this summer after decades of being in a box.

These windows are upstairs overlooking the Tea Olive Terrace.  Birds, sky, garden, do you think I see the neighborhood surrounding my home/garden?
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This has taken years, creating garden views from every window.  Creating views into my windows from the garden.  Wanting it all to be simple with no styling.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Laskett, is at left and Laura at right.  I removed the curtains from a house to be torn down.  Free is good.  The lamp was a fun day at the thrift store.

Intimacy In Large Spaces

Moments of intimacy are designed into this home on acreage.

 Human scale, framing vistas, entries & etc. using materials with patina.

Plantings: tough, beautiful, fragrant.  Feeding the soul, and served at table.  Soon, an iron gate will ask you to enter here, above.
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I want her to look at her acreage and love all she sees.  No matter the season.  Never look at her beloved land and think, "I must do this, that must be done, that's a mess."
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pic taken recently.  And small landscapes get the big vista treatment along with intimacy.  Must remember this for posting, a little landscape and one with acreage.  Amazing how they both 'live'.