Thursday, October 18, 2012

Interior Decorating for Ornery Client

After his garden he asked for a guest bedroom.  He had parameters, "Use the furniture I own & leftover paint from the garage."  I told him what I would do, he wanted none of it.  


 Mixed Benjamin Moore Philadelphia Creme with York Harbor, resulting in a pale ocher/yellow.  The room has to be simple, its bed already a focal point.  Wow, was he verbal during set-up.  All negative.  He was asked to step away until called for.


Burlap draperies, cane chair, & thrift store lamps were my only additions.  From the hall, he didn't step far, I could hear his continuing demands.  (Whatever.  I knew what was to be done.)
.
Finally, he was called into the room.  He stood there, silent.  Looking.  He teared up, and hugged me.  This is his beloved grandmother's furniture.  I got it right.
.
Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
.
Pics taken this month on site.  This is the type of 'interior decorating' I do.  When it's using furniture already owned and there is little money.  I know where this room is truly going, very Eleanor-Roosevelt-at-Val-Kill. The entire time Mr. Negative was talking to me I was smiling at him.  So glad I'm over 50!  Younger, I would have tried pleasing his lizard brain.  Instead, my work is done for the grace of the soul.
.
By-the-way.  Same scenario in his garden.  He had a collection of hodge podge plants.  Didn't like a thing I said about placement.  Once done he said, "This is exactly what I was going to do."  Pics of that later, when plants are bigger.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Historic Yet Modern


Close to being a 'foundation planting'.  But not in the least.
Seems simple.  It is not.  Historic with modern edge.  Holbrook & Associates  created this garden for the Princess Margaret Show House .
.
Of course the house is fabulous too.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic via House & Home

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Lattice Columns

When money isn't there for impressive columns.  Charming is good.
Lattice at the ends let's you see out clearly yet have a nice amount of privacy.
.
Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
.
Never seen lattice used as columns.  And isn't that the hunt, something new & good!  Pic via Old Long Island.

Monday, October 15, 2012

What To Put On Your List

Looking in, framing the view.

2 years ago there were no bushes in the foreground or background.
.
At 200 acres every plant must pay their keep.  Once established no watering, no bugs, no fungus  & no susceptibility to late frosts.
.
AND plantings must have something coming into bloom every 2 weeks, all year.
.
Garden & Be Well,            XO Tara
.
Pic taken at a jobsite last week.  Please be this demanding with your plant list.  

Saturday, October 13, 2012

1 Hedge 2 Garden Rooms

Soon, as planned, the cabin will be hidden from this garden room.


Love when 2 garden rooms share the same hedge.  Strong bones.  Less money, less maintenance, more mystery, greater interest.
.
Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
.
Pic taken at jobsite last week.  Historic cabin is original to the acreage.  Asters in the foreground.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Art & Flowers


Perhaps a year will arrive and there is The-Big-Event, I know



exactly who should plant annuals in the garden.  Simply Flowers, Jenny Hardgrave.  
.
Selfishly I would like to see what Jenny would do based upon the art, above.
.
In satisfaction I understand these shelves.  The house is still under renovation & there are pockets of sanity, this included.  When painting, floors, carpentry are done in my home, I do the same OCD thing with my shelves.  All is chaos, but a shelf here/there.
.
Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara
.
I quit designating annual flowers decades ago.  If a garden NEEDS annuals it is a Landscape Design failure.  Love self-seeding annuals.  Simply Flowers is the exception!  Jenny's work is NEEDED.  Like air.  Something about Jenny most people don't know.  She loves jewelry, appreciates its nuances.  Totally explains her talent with flowers.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Choosing Garden Colors


These shelves are a heavy contender

for the stain color on her Adirondack chairs.
.
Interiors always tell me what colors to use in the garden.
.
Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
.
Pic from same home as yesterday's post.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

A Bedroom View

From the chair, left, a view across the new deck into their Wild Wood.


This room, above, is an almost complete addition to their master bedroom.

A portion of the new deck, above, with a door from the master bedroom.
.
She hired me for this view.  Should an arbor with swing be placed?  No.  It would stop the view from the bedroom.  Instead, a low round table with 4 adirondack chairs stained the color of her kitchen cabinets.  Views into the Wild Wood are the focal point on axis.
.
Of course we've redone the entire garden.  Simply.
.
Garden & Be Well,           XO Tara
.
Pics taken last week.  Deck will be stained.  She was kind letting me take pics her house is a tornado of renovation.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Shoes: Stupid or Fabulous ?

 Remember when maternity clothes were covered in teddy bears, elephants & other stupidities?  Baby bags too?  I know, showing my age with these observations.  Gardening wear is stuck in that era of having a walnut for a brain.
Why are there no gardening shoes with these, above, as inspiration?
.
Rubbers with flowers?  Ladybugs, grasshopers?  Gardening ensembles from hat to shoes are suitable for Aunt Clara.  Why not choose Samantha !!!!
.
Garden & Be Well,            XO Tara
.
Pic via Habitually Chic.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Simplicity Isn't For Sale


Lawn to the house.
 A simplicity best for many gardens.
Same view, above, opposite axis.
.
Why this Landscape Design simplicity isn't seen more, especially in USA?
.
 Many times thru the decades I've been hired as the 2nd or 3rd Landscape Designer.    Why?  The previous 'landscape design' work was pure SALES.
.
Simplicity isn't for sale.
.
Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
.
Pics via Greige Design.  Client last week told me, when I was done, she knew something was wrong with the previous plan she paid for.  When she saw my plan she was able to finally verbalize what was 'wrong'.  Plants were stuffed everywhere.  Every profession has their underbelly of disgust.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Practically Perfect

This would never happen 'new' in Atlanta, GA.  

And isn't that sad.
.
Why does everything have to be so perfect?  Mary Poppins knew 'practically perfect' was better.
.
This feels like a one sided conversation with Jane Austen.  Of course we know what type of character she would let live here!
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic via Pigtown Design.  Can't you smell the Tara Turf?

Friday, October 5, 2012

Stone Wall Needs to be Seen

A well maintained century, below, at this home.

 Stone accent wall near the entry, above, is obscured by a gorgeous Japanese maple, below.
Have asked the pruner to create tiny views thru the Japanese maple  to the stone wall.  Yet keep the Japanese maple gorgeous too.
.
Garden & Be Well,          X O Tara
.
Same house as previous post.  Pics taken with my phone & you see my little work basket.  It holds pencils, circle templates, erasers, keys, phone.....and shouldn't be in the pic.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

How To Make These Windows More Fabulous

At her bluestone terrace, below.  Inside is the kitchen.

Soon, French doors will open onto the bluestone terrace.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic taken yesterday at a jobsite.  Notice the gap in the ferns?  Saw the culprit eating them.  Her dog!  Unrepentant.
.
When I told her the windows HAD to be French doors she smiled and said it was validation.  Her thoughts exactly.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Pot Planting

A bit of clipping, drip irrigation, enjoy.


                               Oh my, the dappled light.
.
I haven't put an annual in my pots for decades.  Magazines & nurseries push-push-push annuals.  And I listen to what I'm asked for EVERY design, 'my landscape must be low maintenance & not expensive.'
.
Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
.
Gravel to the house, bushes in pots, necessity furnishings for meals, entertaining, relaxing.  Why are so many Americans afraid, above, of this?  "Let's build a deck, make it too small, add built-in seating with the rail which won't ever see use......"  "We'll pour a cement patio barely big enough for a mop, Weber grill, round table + 4 chairs."
.
Pic via Desde My Ventana

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

What Is A Status Symbol?


Can you spot the status symbol?

In the land of freeways, subdivisions, strip malls, too many people?
.
A meadow is status symbol.  A gravel/dirt drive with wildflowers & trees is status symbol.
.
This is a CHOICE, above.  It is Landscape Design.  
.
It's not a 'less than' drive because they couldn't afford to pave.  It's the intellect of knowing what's important in life.
.
Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
.
Pic via Habitually Chic

Monday, October 1, 2012

How To Create A Timeless Landscape


Landscape Design question, "Can you take black/white pics of your garden & it's TIMELESS ?


Was this pic taken 2012 or 1972 or.......?  And WHERE?  USA, Brazil, Italy........
.
Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
.
Pic via Habitually Chic.  Can you imagine having those beautiful dogs !!!  And driving on that gravel.....

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Lunch: Meandering & Productive

We've been having lunch for decades.  Yesterday's was planned for weeks.  Of course I had an unexpected jobsite visit in the time slot allotted for preparation.

 He appeared, with a bottle of wine, walking thru the back garden.
 And an appreciation for my new girls & what they're providing, below.
 Made egg salad sandwiches.  The heirloom girls are producing 6/day, they hatched the 1st week of April.
Instead of Greek yogurt with fresh fruit & local honey you see what time allowed, above.
.
He can retire & I'm pushing him not to.  His house has new rooms available, children out of college.  We met when they were toddlers.  Peers in the Garden industry we spoke a lot of community activism.  Bringing a Garden perspective to groups without a hint of Garden in their soul.  We're already doing it and leverage ideas for more.
.
Luxurious,  meandering conversation about work at the pace of lunch.  A deeper vein of gleaning.  Productive.
.
Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
.
Of course we ate in the conservatory.  No time for pics there or the garden, it's fall fabulous at the moment, we both had appointments.  

Friday, September 28, 2012

Vanishing Threshold with Color Theme

Modern addition with classic architecture, as if THAT is often successful.  More deeply sublime are the accouterments.  Garden focal points placed on perfect axis with interior doors, secondary focal points placed on angled axis.  A perfect square with the planters & a circle in stone.  


Layers of green, lean-green-serene.  Statuary & planters color themed to echo house.
.
It's obvious this is a tight collaboration between owner & landscape designer.
.
Vanishing threshold is magnificent here.
.
Garden & Be Well,         XO Tara
.
pic via Pinterest.  Which part of your vanishing threshold is 'magnificent'?

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Leggy Hags

Leggy Hags!  And this latest pruning is wrong too.  Want lush foliage top to bottom?  Prune the top of your bushes slightly narrower than the bottom.  It's that easy.
This gate is perfection.  
.
Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara
.
Thank you Cousin Cathy for sending your vacation pics from Nantucket...

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Suzanne Somers' Recipes & Landscapes

Suzanne Somers' donated a great deal of money, years ago, to a medical wing in honor of those with family/friends of addicts.  It added dimension to what I knew of her.


 Then, her home went for sale with pics of her landscaping, all the pics here.


She writes books, does product & weight loss sales, acts, lectures, & promotes-promotes-promotes.


Ironically, she doesn't promote her gardening skills.  They are prodigious.
.
Between appointments yesterday was my favorite junking haunt.  Suzanne Somers', Eat Great, Lose Weight,  $3.  I knew if I liked her gardens I would like her taste palette.  I was right.  Have already tabbed several recipes in her book.
.
Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
.
Of course I bought more.  Copper sauce pan/lid $18 & a copper soup pot/lid $16.  Both almost new with their linings in great shape.