Bring Garden Light Further Inside

Every window is a garden view in my home. Not serendipity, once the epiphany was made the plodding began.  And the garden transformed.

Newest epiphany? Bring garden light further into my rooms.  Where should mirrors be hung?  Been sourcing junk/thrift mirrors, months of plodding have produced a nice selection, in my garage, awaiting placement.
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One mirror, similar to the above, a joy at $10 from the local thrift.  None of the mirrors, all antiques, top $30.  This is the result of plodding.  Plodding pays.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic Brooke Astor's New York library.
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
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Details about online design services.
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Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
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Details about lecture titles here.
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I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Moving Home

A few gifted souls create Pixie Dust, and this note from a client yesterday was a jolt.

"Tara,

  Are you up to a serious challenge? We have moved back to Valdosta, where our law practice is because of changes in the firm and how much travel we had been doing every day. We need a simpler, less complicated life and more time to enjoy it.

  We have purchased a Craftsman bungalow from the twenties that had serious issues. We have now taken care of most of the serious infrastructure issues and taken it back to the beginning from an unfortunate 60s remodel.

  I refer to it as Boo Radley’s house, from To Kill a Mockingbird. An elderly gentleman, Tom Dean, went to GA Tech in the 30s, had a breakdown and never left the house again. He was much loved by his family who looked after him until he passed away several years ago. When we bought the house his mama’s fur coat was still across the chair, his daddy was a General in WW1 & 2 and his uniform was still upstairs.

His family was very reluctant to sell it but since I am a distant cousin they finally relented rather than have it fall in which would have probably happened within a year or two.

  Outside also has serious issues. Tom swept the yard every day so there is not a grain of top soil, the last known particle was sighted in the 50’s. He was also obsessed with water encroaching on the house and dug major ditches everywhere. We have an acre, but our backyard is a 25 acre pecan orchard. Our neighbor is a funeral home. We have a fence between us and I have planted Confederate Jasmine to separate us from the grieving families.

  There was a garage behind which we have taken the sides off of for a back porch. We have a wonderful front porch and now having become charter members of the Dull Dogs Society, one of our favorite activities is watching the neighbor’s 20 something cats cross the street for meal times.

  We are having to pay a bucket of money to sell the Milledgeville house, but I would rather do that than lose Charles because of the stress we have been under. This means we have a very limited budget to work with but I believe a good plan is the most important thing and we can do it in stages with us doing most of the work. I know we are going to have to plow in tons of compost for anything to grow.

My 1^st priority would be the front. I see a cottage garden with picket fence to  give it enclosure and garden rooms. Our daughter, Anna, may be getting married in the next year and I would love to have a garden reception in front yard, Anna may have other ideas. Our house is in town and in walking distance to church and square. Next would be a Koi pond near the back outdoor living space and possibly a potager. I am afraid we are probably looking at serious grading issues.  "

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In 'Valdosta', I know we will have a good cry at the start, knowing the depth of what they left.  Because these are people that create Pixie Dust I also know we will quickly be in their new chapter of life.  New ideas, laughter, a filling of the spiritual well.  Their previous home is scheduled to be in Southern Living this summer, it was shot last year.  All names & places were changed.

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Are you living in the realm of Pixie Dust?

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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara

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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
.
Details about online design services.
.
Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
.
Details about lecture titles here.
.
I've written several garden books available on Amazon.
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Pic via Paris Through My Lens

Front Door: Create Your World

Your front door must create its own world.  What does this mean?  Block views that are not part of your world.  Do you see the neighbor's garage & parking court, below?  It is there.

Kitchen view, below.

2 decades of a holly hedge were shaded into sparseness & removed.  Anise, shade loving shrub, will be planted this week.
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At the end of the day,  it is understood, we must all create our own world.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pics taken at jobsite last week.  This client fascinates, she does not like blooming shrubs in her garden.  Layers & swaths of evergreens in mixed textures.  Quite smart, low maintenance, gorgeous all year.  She does have a sweet perennial garden.  We are adding evergreen ground cover at her front door zone, large boxwoods with square stone edging for each, a low brick wall with stone cap behind her perennial garden.  And she's choosing a historic garden gate for my carpenter, Magic Man, to make a pair.
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
.
Details about online design services.
.
Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
.
Details about lecture titles here.
.
I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Vanishing Threshold: Roof

This room is not about: textiles, lamp, table, chair, woodwork, paint, carpet, hardwood floor, scale, placement....

It's about the view.
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A wildly successful interior decorator hired me for his private garden.  His dining room view was asphalt roof & ridge line.  Disaster.
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He had been enjoying the tour of his home he was giving me.  Until I stopped in horror at the view.  It-was-a-moment, is understatement.
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You know what I designed, at the end of the ridge line, atop gable's peek, a lovely urn.
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His garden needed few tweeks.  He was horrified at his omission of the dining room view.
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Garden & Be Well,             XO Tara
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This interior designer, little story above, is off the radar of publicity.  He works for those with several homes, & deep pockets, across the globe.  Googled him before writing this post to give a link.  Not a single image online.  And, he's probably the best I've ever seen.  
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Pic via Cote De Texas.
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
.
Details about online design services.
.
Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
.
Details about lecture titles here.
.
I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Don't Overlook the Mundane

In the garden & inside you must have cloches.

Seeing, above, I knew my predilection for the unusual inside-a-cloche completely ignored the mundane.
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A good day includes at least 1 epiphany.
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Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara
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pic Paris Through My Lens    
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
.
Details about online design services.
.
Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
.
Details about lecture titles here.
.
I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Design Tools

Trinities are often a good template.

If you don't have matching pots, make sure the rims are each the same height.
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Of course this is also a marvelous display of repetition.  Your most important Garden Design tool.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pic Janelle McCulloch, Country Estates of Australia.  Visit Janelle's Library of Design.
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
.
Details about online design services.
.
Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
.
Details about lecture titles here.
.
I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Conservatory Dreamtime

You must have a Conservatory in your garden.  Direct connection to an experience of Australia's Dreamtime.  

Too many busy days had passed without being in my Conservatory.  I feel its loss in my spirit.  Yesterday's 14 minute lunch had-to-be in the Conservatory.  Short & out of proportion to what is gained.  Spiritual well is filled.  No words to describe this direct line to Dreamtime.  

Moments in the Conservatory are atonement.  And abiding.
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Garden & Be Well,       XO Tara
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
.
Details about online design services.
.
Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
.
Details about lecture titles here.
.
I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

All Creatures Great & Small

All Creatures Great & Small, by James Herriot.

Original episodes.

Sets, lifestyle, characters, pets, livestock, gardens, cricket, clothes, food, cars, scenery, romance, architecture, a way of life, change of seasons, humor, drama, it's all here.

If you don't know who they are, above, buy the dvd's.

Meet Tricky Woo, and you'll want to order the books too.
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Enjoy.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
.
Details about online design services.
.
Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
.
Details about lecture titles here.
.
I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Chandeliers

Often I'm designing a garden when the interior is being renovated.

I adore seeing the lighting chosen.  Breakfast room, above, master closet, below.

A chandelier in my music room will soon grace the harvest table on the patio.  Beautiful & violent it has hit  many people in the head.
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Anticipating the new harvest table & chandelier on my patio is a January joy.
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Sourcing chairs now, table must seat 10.
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And which bonbon from the garage will grace the harvest table center?  Yes, this is fun.
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I'm not impatient.  This layer, the hunt, is excitement.
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Garden & Be Well,       XO Tara
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Pics taken last year at a client's home.   Before pics are already taken of the patio!
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
.
Details about online design services.
.
Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
.
Details about lecture titles here.
.
I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Choosing the Best Urns

Urns that don't need planting are the best.

Rustic invitation leading to greater simplicity at the house.  My favorite template.
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What is the USA fascination with lawn to the street?
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pic via Old Long Island  
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
.
Details about online design services.
.
Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
.
Details about lecture titles here.
.
I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Front Door Pendant Light

Endangered object, below.

Sweetly scaled pendant light.
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A front door is always a focal point.  When architecture & materials are already good why compete?  Beware 'too large' exterior lighting at your front door.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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pic via DIY Home Staging Tips.  You'll love the link, it's the best tips of Home Staging for 2012.  Of course, too many decades of USA homes lack good materials/architecture, mine is one, so you want to consider the possibility of large exterior lighting.  Then, beware of lipstick-on-a-pig.
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
.
Details about online design services.
.
Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
.
Details about lecture titles here.
.
I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Color vs Light

 Pulled to color or light?  Both?  Yes, both.  I would love to see this room, below, when it's raining, at nite, in fall, winter, a storm.....

If you're fortunate a garden colors your light.

In your home, does garden light stop you in your tracks on occasion?

If your garden isn't doing this for your interiors it's time to rethink your garden.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Top pic via House Beautiful.  Bottom pics last week in my bay window.
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
.
Details about online design services.
.
Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
.
Details about lecture titles here.
.
I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Historic Template

Shelf-steps, terra cotta pots, topiaried evergreens.

Big impact in the garden & easy resource for your interior.  A historic template.
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Recognize her?  Bunny Mellon.  I adore everything this woman does in her gardens.
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Garden & Be Well,                XO Tara
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
.
Details about online design services.
.
Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
.
Details about lecture titles here.
.
I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Create Enfilades

My childhood home was built around an open courtyard, many were during that decade on Galveston Bay.

When the courtyard is designed to be part of the interior an Enfilade, a view into a view, is created.
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Enfilades are the most common photograph of gardens to be chosen for hardcover books & magazines.
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A fact I noticed decades ago, and began then, creating as many enfilades as possible.
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Why should YOU create enfilades?  Copy what the best garden designers & photographers do.  Enfilades are historic for a reason.  Great impact with little input.
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Garden & Be Well,            XO Tara
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Pics  of Pablo Paniagua's work.

Real Gardens

Historically inspired gardens demand Pleasure Walks, lunch with friends, wine by the pond, naps in the Conservatory, reading on the terrace, mental traveling, hearing Providence, exaltation at the cadence of Nature, gazing at the views.....
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When has testosterone-on-wheels-mow-blow-go-commodify-all-I-touch ever inspired any of this?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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pic via Castles, Crowns & Cottages.

How to Laugh at Fear

Decades ago, a great idea, and he (his house too) would say, "You can't do that." Garden plans would be diminished or stopped altogether.

Several years of this circus, I got off the merry-go-round.  No fear.  Began going to Europe, studying historic landscapes, received another degree, horticulture.  Opened a Garden Design business, new decades of family disapproval, "Use your engineering degree, don't be a bag lady."  Thanks for that refrain, dad.
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Many lean years.  To the bone.  I didn't care.
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Went to a career coaching weekend a decade ago & had an epiphany, "What would I do tomorrow if I were not afraid?"  Fear is a sure thing, it will keep coming back with new expertise/costume guaranteed.
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Jumping forward to the last 3 years, worst economy since the Great Depression, I've had the top earning years of my career.  Moved 'him' out, bought my own home & another home nearby to use as an office/guest cottage.
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Ironically, getting rid of fear taught me how to know if I'm doing the right thing in my career.  Choices are tough but once made, the choice is FUN.  And the choices aren't in my head, I ask my heart.  My head is a lizard brain.
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Are you afraid?  What would you do tomorrow if you were not afraid?
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pic via Habitually Chic
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"Wherever our most primal fears reside--our fears of the dark, of death, of being devoured, of meaninglessness, of lovelessness, or of loss--changes are good that beneath them lie gems of wisdom and maybe a vision or a calling. Wherever you stumble--on a tree root, on a rock, on fear or shame, or vulnerability, on someone else's words, on the truth--dig there." Gregg Levoy

Overdose Your Color

Choose a color theme.

Overdose on your choice/s.  Works every time.
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Garden & Be Well,         XO Tara
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Of course the cat is white.
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Pic via Whimble

Exterior Color: White on White

A client's yellow house is going white-on-white.  Cannot wait to see the results.

Pay no mind to the landscaping, above.   Totally subdivision, 1960's brick ranch let's make green foundation meatballs a la testosterone-on-wheels-mow-blow-go-commodify-all-I-touch.  And those pots?  Lipstick on a pig.
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Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara & Puppet Barbuda
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I adore Veranda, and subscribe, but know, too well, gardening is a pitiful stepchild to most editors.  Great exception was House & Garden magazine during the 80's.  See any at the junk shops buy-buy-buy.
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Pic via Veranda.