A Garden View From Her Kitchen

Inimitably her own style, in all she does.  A bit of her kitchen, below.

Before she bought her, ca. 1940, home it had a garden, obviously lovely at one point, but tired.  She hired me to tweak it several years ago.  Axis & entries were boldened, paths redefined, focal points placed, hedges tightened & etc.

She, & her Man, have had time to do their own tweaking.  Adding layers to their garden, listening to their muse within.
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This is their garden.  All theirs.
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We talked of this magic, the garden transitioning from my input and the previous owners.  Their tweaking.  Yet, somehow, it's the garden doing the magic.
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Lunch was served outside overlooking the garden.  Salmon salad over mixed greens, wine.  We would talk, but mostly were silent.  Looking at the garden.  Then ridiculously, like teenagers, laugh in joy. 
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara 
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Told her I was stopping by the thrift store on the way home.  Ha, she came with me and we went to the antique mall too.  Love a good Saturday !!  Her garden is on tour in May.

A New Carriage House

Her color theme was chosen long ago.

 Finally, her carriage house is being built. 

 Her dream is a garden seen throughout the years in magazines.

 Love that, easy for me to copy, below.

First day of digging they found a spring.  The elevation changed a bit.  Had to come back and tweak a short & low stone wall. 
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Using evergreens, tea olive & wax leaf ligustrum, to block the neighbor's house, 2nd pic. 
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Sent her an email every 6-8 months asking, "Started your carriage house yet?"  Honestly, you should have seen the Sanford & Son shed she was living with.  Past its prime, rotting, stuffed & with stuff sitting all around it. 
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Their home is historic & it was important to site the new carriage house 'as if' it had always been there.  I lined it exactly parallel with the house.  As they did centuries ago.  And, not too far or too close to her home.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pics take earlier this month.  Her other color is black. 

Chair & Pool Color

I came to the project with the backyard.  House, gutted, had already begun its major renovation.

She wanted the new pool to be strong Caribbean blue.  We had several meetings about the coping,  pebbble tec & etc. 

New furnishings began arriving last week, top pic.

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Confirmation I got the pool right. 

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Garden & Be Well,            XO Tara

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Fountain in the beach is perfect, not too loud.  Pool is saltwater.  Pool decking goes in this week, diving board too.  She was a gymnast in high school/college.

How To Create 'Ancient' From New

The Ancient Orchard is new, its bricks are over a century old.

 4 sided, doors let you into each side.  Each door is custom, and

each door is different. 
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Doors decay, are damaged & replaced through the centuries.
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That is the narrative for this new Ancient Orchard.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Gates will be stained soon, this garden has a base trinity of colors.  Green, brown, white.  None in shades popular today. Each door a conversation of pics/ideas with owner, Magic Man, & me.  One of the walls has 2 gates, they will be iron.  And fabulous. 
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At this garden last week she told me a friend of hers was touching the wall, couldn't keep her hands off.  Of course my hands were on the wall while she told me.

Simplicity

Dare you?  This simple?
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Yes.
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Gravel to the walls, color theme, mix of stone-wood-iron, vine-on-house, evergreen cones in pots, round downspouts, beautiful views into the home, finials on the roof, custom shutters, 3-d lite over door.
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If you like it, break down the reasons.  Beauty in one spot can be translated into yours.
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House is the focal point.  House is the backdrop to the landscape.  Specifically, the front door.
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It's brutal to be this simple.  But POTENT.
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And low maintenance.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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pic via Things That Inspire .  Even a disastrous brick ranch ca. 1963 can be turned into a historic caretakers cottage.  This house , above, tells you how.  Have fun.  If you, indeed, live in the disaster.  Of course I can be this blunt.  Living in a brick 1986 box.

Copy. Price Is No Excuse.

Copy, it's one of the 1st & best rules of Landscape Design.

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It's not the price point, alone, creating this welcome.

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What can you copy?

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Lights on inside, door/walls with confidently chosen colors, urn on plinth so fabulous it can remain empty & a confidently chosen color, welcoming bench, fabulous light in maximum-3D over the door, metal boot scrape, wood mat, scoring of stone.

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Not having a welcoming entry because you don't have the money is not an excuse.

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Much to be rescued on garbage day, returned paint found cheaply at hardware store or really cheap at a thrift store, cheap pot with good shape smothered in ivy, faux paint scoring, and etc.

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Desire & intellect will provide your beautiful entry. 

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Don't have the courage to post drive-by-shootings of hi-end properties with ridiculous front door areas.

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You know, champagne budget , beer taste.

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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara

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Pic via Belgian Pearls.

Color On Your Doors

Typical red brick has too much orange.  True red brick is fired longer & costs more.

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 I chose Benjamin Moore, HC-136, Waterbury Green for my trim.

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French doors are a gift to myself this year.  It was easy to choose the color. 

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A Front Door should not be the trim color.  Instead, I like to choose an accent color flowing from interior art, walls, or fabrics.  AND, it works with your exterior colors.

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If you aren't confident choosing a Front Door color, Maria Killem posted 10 fabulous choices from Home Hardware.  Choose one!  

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Can't wait to finish the little stone terrace at my new French doors.

Tools At Your Door

Keep a pair of Felco pruners at your front door & back door.  Leverage yourself in the garden.
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In addition I have baskets & hats.
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This is the Stetson my dad wore working in his garden.  Now, the Stetson I wear working in my garden.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara    

Somethings Gotta Give A Secret Garden Path

Can you see the flagstone path below?

 This type of path is also good at making small lawns appear larger

 This house is perfectly the movie house, Somethings Gotta Give, except, below.

Front entry step is too narrow & out of scale with the home.

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This is what I've been hired for.  Their house is perfection in all other details.

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Did you observe this house was a 1950's ranch?  IT WAS.  Architect blew it up & out.  Will ask permission to get interior pics next time I'm on site. 

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last month.  Will change a few of the foundation plantings.  They were installed to help sell the house.  Over planted and need constant pruning otherwise they will mature bigger than the house.  Not a novel issue.   

Gardening For Children

I don't believe in Gardening For Children.  A fully formed adult, gardening from their heart will attract children.  Children of all ages, from 1-100 years old.

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What child doesn't want to peek thru this garden gate?

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Yesterday, a neighbor child, about 6 was in my garden, he didn't know I saw him.  He found my Secret Garden gate.  Promptly, he hit it with a stick several times and said, "Cool, a gate to nowhere."  Then he poked that stick at many plants, carefully, deeply perusing.

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Shazam, he ran back to his own garden.

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 This type of garden also affects grown women.  I've never had an open garden/tour without a woman, manipulating a private moment with me and she cries.  Hard.  Tears ending with our arms around each other. 

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I know where those tears come from.

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She's recognized I've let my 8 year old self out to play, with permission.  And she has buried hers.

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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

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Pic taken in a client garden last week.  Another gate made by Magic Man.  Yes, you do want to go thru.

Gravel Drive

 Oconee Pea gravel dumped, below, spread, above.  A tiny gravel from the Oconee River outside of Watkinsville, GA.  Amongst the pea is sand.  This gravel compacts, almost, in a day.  Cobblestone edging arrives next week.

Strings were initially laid, then cars & trucks driven, lines adjusted & flags placed. 
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My degree in horticulture prepared me for none of this type of Landscape Design.  Instead, I was trained to design landscapes in subdivisions where everything touched is commodified.  Lawns mowed, bushes power trimmed, mulch instead of groundcover, annuals replaced every 6 months, fertilizer applications, insecticides/fungicides. 
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What I call, Mow-Blow-Go-Testosterone-On-Wheels-Commodify-All-I-Touch.
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For 2 decades I was off to Europe studying Landscape Design.  For 3 decades I've had 4 mentors & several friendships with peers in the Landscape Design industry.
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Everything I know, have seen & done has been required of me to place this gravel drive. 
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Simple.  Tis a gift to be simple.
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Elegance is refusal....
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken this week at a jobsite.

Exterior Design & Scale

Pretty now the Chinese snowball is young.  It's bottom will be pruned away once the blooms finish.  This Chinese snowball is growing into a tree. 

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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara

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Pic taken in a client garden yesterday.  Always greedy to show off with decadent blossoms there are 2 more Chinese Snowball nearby.  They will be pruned too.  Viburnum macrocephalum, easy. 

Blossom Boxes By Steve Eaton

She needed something at her gravel parking court.  (Tara Dillard's, Queen's Pot, of course.  A pot so fabulous it can remain empty.  Do all of your pots pass this test?)

Mostly, she has Steve Eaton of Blossom Boxes plant her urns.

 She wanted a gate leading into her woodland, fabulous.  But it needed another Queen's Pot, this time on a taller plinth, above.  And, it's on double axis.  More another time, (miss priss) forgot to get the other axis pic.

 No sun reaches her front door, Blossom Boxes keeps her pots always lush & green. 

Another pot, in her backyard, above.  Blossom Boxes stayed true to his name: pansies, violas & dwarf snapdragons.
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Met Steve Eaton over 20 years ago.  Have seen him in gardens & flower shows ever since.  Had him in an episode on my TV show. 
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I thought you should know such a man, Steve Eaton of Blossom Boxes, exists.  That there is a world where men plant flowers & girls design gardens for their daily bread.  A world, they know, is their own Camelot.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pics taken in a client garden last week.  Steve Eaton, Blossom Boxes,  770-337-8840, sceaton3@yahoo.com.  

Gate Is Born

Her gate has to let a horse & carriage thru, we left a 12' opening.  Before choosing the new gate a new drive was in use and a new vista beheld.  Unexpectedly, this gate became, almost, a front entry view.  Deer are an issue plus I wanted a bit of mystery & enchantment.

Yesterday, above, her new gates. 
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I perused dozens of pictures, sent 3-4 to the owner, voila-poof, she chose my favorite gate, top pic.
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Of course it came with no dimensions/details.  Our carpenter, Magic Man, scaled it to the site.  He used the curve a fly-fishing rod makes to judge the correctness of his top curves.  He asked me a few questions about proportions. 
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You normally don't see unfinished pics here.  But the work, above, of Masonry Man & Magic Man is enough to speak for itself.
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More pics as this project continues.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Top pic found online, did not keep the origin.  Had no idea I would be showing off with it.  Love, love, love the pace of this project.  Love more the team I'm working with.

This Landscape Never Has Chores

Under the Chinese snowball Saturday.

I don't have to do any garden chores.  Ever.  Have you noticed?
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Sure, the petals will have to be blown when they brown.  How can that be a chore?
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It's an act of grace.  And thanks.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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When you have good garden accidents you know you've done it right. 

Mrs. Wilcox, Howard's End

Mrs. Wilcox walks in her garden around her house, Howard's End.  It starts the book & movie.  E.M. Forster knew a few things about people, especially women.

 Meandering my garden, above, I see beauty, time, love, atonement.

 I see strength, & gain energy.

 Small, middle-class, probably 'working class' as the NYTimes would say, this bit of garden is a great joy & pure grace. 

 Like Mrs. Wilcox, looking into my windows, the garden & house are beyond measure.  To me.

To have created this tiny garden amongst a huge metropolis within a crammed subdivision I count one of my greatest successes.  In life.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics from my garden this month.

Renovation Bling

 Yesterday, above, lighting bling was being installed.

 Over the breakfast table, above.

 Guest room, above.

 Jack and Jill bath, above/below.

 Master bath, above.

Master closet, above.
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This renovation has gutted an entire floor.  Blown it out too.
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Scrumptious part of my job, for decades, seeing the work of myriad decorators + architects.  Alas, I get to see train wrecks before completion. 
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Garden & Be Well,         XO Tara
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This project, took the pics yesterday, has been a joy.  Watching every phase develop.  Beautifully. 

Vanishing Threshold: Perfect Bathroom

Lighting is even designed to hang from the tree.  Garden nor room are too big.  Simple.

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Humbling, the talent designing this.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Pic from Velvet & Linen.  Years of beautiful interiors & gardens with Brooke & Steve Giannetti and they only get better.

Still Life

 Waiting, below, for the next event.  Quiet still life.

 Her old Dairy Barn coming alive for various gatherings. 

 Simple.   

Meeting needs.  Spare, with deep richness. 
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Abiding.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pics taken earlier this month.  Her sense of abiding is palpable.  A gift.  When she told me this inner most feeling I understood immediately.  Feeling atonement on my land. 

Well Placed Chair

The potager is hidden from view, above, but the chair hints at the mystery destination.
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Have sat here many times thru the years and in all seasons.  Having a bowl of cereal or lunch or perhaps talking on the phone.
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And to think, I placed the chair there for aesthetics.  Instead, it's lifestyle.
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Discovered the Well Placed Chair phenomena while studying gardens across Europe.
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Copy, it's a fabulous rule of Landscape Design.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pic taken in my sweet garden last week.  Especially proud of this garden room because its backdrop is the rest of my subdivision.  And we don't want to see REALITY do we?