Garden Jewelry: Windows

This kitchen was a 1980's time capsule at my first visit earlier this year.

With kitchen & house renovations complete I was back at the jobsite this month to fine tune garden plans.

The kitchen window is new too.

From the garden, below, the window is pure jewelry.

The bricks were saw cut to enlarge the opening, barely visible, and soon the bricks will be lime washed.
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Exciting times, I've never worked with a window so stunning.  Sure, we'll have cobblestone edging & a stone terrace but the window will still be the focal point.
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Have known for years exterior lighting is jewelry for the garden, now windows are added to the list of jewels.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pics taken at jobsite this month.

What Can You Do With a Blank Wall?

Along the side of her home she wanted to know about plant spacing.  Move them closer, prune larger, replace?  Perhaps none of those I said.  It's easy spacing for routine maintenance,  pressure washing or painting.

We decided leave-well-enough-alone!

Next.  What to do about the blank wall?  Espalier a shrub, plant a small tree?

Yes, the wall needs something but let's keep it simpler.

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Her home is historic Williamsburg, we are sourcing a reproduction wall mounted sundial now.  Of course it can't be too small.  Scale matters here.

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Fun, the hunt is on.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken at jobsite this month.

How to Get Guests to the Front Door Instead of the Back Door

Welcome to the front door.   Many park here, below, the family parking court, then walk to the back door.

Perhaps a pair of historic marble urns at the granite step?  An invitation of welcome to the front door.  Not in the original plan but something shouting possibility.

By car, above/below, a drop off at the brick path.  Another possibility shouting!

Front door, above.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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History & subtlety are major goals in this garden.  For decades I've known if mistakes are made they must be on the side of Too Simple.  Easier & cheaper to add something later than to undo paths, trees, bushes....  This isn't a mistake merely the garden speaking its wisdom and us paying attention.

Humility in Teamwork for a Garden

They gathered under the mulberry tree & I knew to stay away.

I know the value of their collaborations without me.  Homeowner, crew chief, general contractor.

Don't want my strong personality to discourage new ideas.

After their gathering, there are plenty of moments to walk & talk with each of them.  Of course we meet as a 4some but getting their unfiltered ideas is precious to the garden.
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Humility.  Odd how easy it is to be humble for a garden.      
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken this month at a jobsite.  Amazing how often an off-hand comment is the 'exact' magic a garden needs.  This garden also has Silent Partner.   By far the team member with the most humility.

Furniture on the Porch

Hydrangea 'Tardiva' are so easy you must

really plant enough to give blooms away.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pic taken at jobsite this week.  H. 'Tardiva' begin blooming in August and will grow into a small tree in full sun where they thrive.

Before + After: Path & Hedges

Hedges + paths are designed, and installed, before the borders.  Hedges + paths are the backbone-skeleton-workhorses of the garden.

Hedges + paths, above, 2 years ago.

Yesterday, above/below, with borders filled-in.

Follow this garden design rule and you'll save labor-money-time.

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TIME, more important than labor-money.  No person can manufacture more time.

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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

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Bottom 2 pics taken at jobsite yesterday, top pic taken 2 years ago.

Do you really know what you're looking at?

Young fruit trees, meadow & guilds.

Targeted plantings to increase pollinators to the flowering fruit trees.  Increasing fruit production 60%-80%.
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Pollination guilds have been used well before Christ's era.  Without them, people could die.  How did we lose this basic knowledge?  Worse, today, meadows & guilds are sprayed with weed killers and fruit trees are genetically modified to be resistant to those weed killers.
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I'm a proponent of fruit orchards & guilds for schools instead of vegetable gardens.  Much easier to caretake, greater lifespan, & pollinator habitat is increased.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pic taken in client garden this month.  Jefferson followed us across the acres!  He knows it is all about him.  A bit more about guilds.

Subsidiary Focal Point

Tucked in 'as if' it were being worked.

Subsidiary focal point.

Yes, this client is waltzing with her garden now.  Leading too.
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She surprised me with this little cart.  And was correct, never seen one before.  Years of fun ahead with this cutie.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pics taken this month in client garden.  We've worked almost 3 years to get to this point.  Pure play.  Of course plantings still arriving in layers too.

On the Porch: Table Toppers

The clay in her county is well known for its pottery.

Her bouquet of comfrey reminds me I've never once planted it myself.

The wicker arrived from a local junk shop a couple of summers ago.
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Her childhood and most of adulthood were in subdivisions yet on acreage she wields latent powers, including the placing of livestock fencing.
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Profoundly miserable in the subdivision, what if she didn't follow her soul to this acreage, instead going to a therapist?
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pics taken at jobsite this month.  Watching her is to bear witness.  Providence in action.  Humbling.    

Do You Know When to Edge a Gravel Drive?

Soon the crape myrtles will arc & touch over the gravel lane.

Designing this century old property back-to-its-history the edges of the gravel lane, above, have been designed with extreme concern.  Perhaps you think they are undone?  Not considered?  Messy?  Amazing how subdivision landscape design taints perceptions.  I can see Flannery O'Conner walking down this lane not a curbed concrete ribbon in one of today's subdivisions.
 

Yet, at the end of the crape myrtle lane, above, a parking court is tucked in with neatly clipped hedges & gravel edged with cobblestones.  Formality.  Bang.  Huge garden design decisions not meant to be 'noticed', but, deeply intuited.  Even by those not interested in gardens.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pics at jobsite last week.

Overdose on a Theme: Coke

  We knew the red table was perfect.  

In context, above.  Overdose on a theme.

Out of context, above.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pics taken last month shopping with client.  We knew another layer had arrived for her property and had a successful day at Scott Antique.  Ironic, how many times have I passed things by because I saw no context!
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Remember well when I could not tolerate any garden design rules.  Any.  Now, quite a few are my favorites.  Overdose-on-a-theme is at the top of the list!

Work in the Barn

Left open with intention.

Come inside.

Unfinished & mostly empty, the old barn has pulled us inside for over 2 years.  Structural & mice & wind & electric & rain & heating & flooring issues are done.
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The completed list is a definition for 'beloved'.
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Big plans.  Of course you will be kept in the loop.  And I'm sure, one day, invited.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pics taken at jobsite this week.  Incomplete, the power of intention is already producing results from this space of grace.  Often I design the Poverty Cycle into plans.  This barn is literally historically from America's poverty cycle.  Top pic is instructive.  Do I include that much integrity of personal character from the hand-heart-mind that built this barn?  A rich thought, humbled by a barn.          

Desk & End Table on the Porch

Perfect place to get a few things done on the laptop, a quick lunch, perhaps a grandchild coloring?

Maybe it's only an extra chair.

A magic table:  end table AND desk.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken yesterday at jobsite.  Did you notice the garden view in the top pic?  Decades of experience, studies in historic gardens across Europe, college, seminars, knowing  simplicity is the 'skill'. .

Mr. Checkbook & My French Doors

Their old dated vintage pool is almost as cool as Steve McQueen's tan lines.  

Mr. Checkbook did not want to put the French doors to the pool during renovations.

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Mrs. was all-in.

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Blessedly financing was s-l-o-w.  Thank you bad economy!

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Me?  Never wavered.

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Full frontal verbal.  For weeks.

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Mr. Checkbook & I have history, this is our 3rd garden together.

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Mrs. surprised me this month, "Come for a consult this week."

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French doors installed & Mr. Checkbook beyond pleased.

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My Intergalactic Wimbledon Finals backhand down the line winner with the perfect amount of insouciant speed against Mr. Checkbook for the tennis title win of all time.

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Except this is better, he wins too.

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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara

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Remember this pic from the 60's Life article?  

Full Moon Landscaping

The old barn was updated for wine tastings & dinners.

Beyond the doors are tall & short meadows, fat curving gravel roads, views of the Appalachians, and vineyards.
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By accident I think they've come upon the perfect landscape design for the light of a full moon.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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My little suburban garden mimics many 'large' garden design ideas.  This?  A league of its own.

Glass Rain Chain

Rain chain you'll want to have.

These chains, hooked to a drain, remain taut & sheet water beautifully.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic last weekend.  Where have I been, this was the first glass rain chain I've ever seen.

Simple & Functional is the Goal

Looks simple.  Isn't simple.

Major functional too.
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Reminds me of the cliche, restraint-of-tongue-and-pen.  We know it when we should do it yet don't !!
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Do you know what the vine on the house is called?  Vertical lawn.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pic provas bc.

Hiding Houses with Landscaping

Here is the western full frontal side of my home, below, shot from the neighborhood street.

This is a neighbor's home, below, at the western side of my home.

Another pleasing view of my home from the street, below.

Within this hedge, above, is a pond, arbor, stone terrace, paths, & my home.
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I should have been the Benevolent Duchess of Hambrick in Alice In Wonderland, "I don't want to see those houses."
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken in my garden this month.  Amazing, and amusing, how large my property looks in pics.  It's teeny in real time.  Of course it is indeed large in relationship with the depths of my life.  Do you love coming home to your garden?  You know I do, it's never boring.  Always something new, delightful, charming.  As if the garden anticipates and desires to please me.  And knows my reactions.

Perfect House

Acreage?

I see this on wheels.
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And made of rescued materials.
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No, one of these would not be enough.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pic India Hicks.

Create Mystery

A path into my tiny back garden, below.

 A coop, conservatory, flagstone terraces & etc. are slipped with precision into their setting.

Who wants to see everything at once?  Discovery & delight are fundamentals of garden mystery.
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Plants are allowed to be themselves.  Mostly.  Camellias, azaleas, hydrangeas, tea olive, roses, boxwood, itea, aucuba, akebia, daphne.  Something is blooming every day, all year.  Now, it's hydrangeas & crape myrtles.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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pics taken last week in my garden.  The entire lot is a mere 8500sq. ft.  Paths are integral to creating mystery in my garden.