The Little Terra Cotta Pot: Give it Away

Terra cotta pots.

Your secret weapon to bring inside.
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Plainly with patina and an herb, or geranium.  Perhaps a topiary.
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An old ironstone plate.
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Once you get good at this, have several.  Invite a young kindred spirit to lunch, someone you don't know well but would like to.
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As they are leaving, hand them the terra cotta pot & ironstone plate.
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Lunch Ministry.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic via Fanci Taste.
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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

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Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Choosing Color at the Front Door

Moving the pots, below, a mere inch wider will make the doorway wider.

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Staining the pots the same color as the siding, and moving the pots 3" wider creates an entirely new entry focusing on the custom door.

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What is the right answer?

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Don't know without seeing the interior.

REPETITION,  is your best friend in a small space.

In the Daily Mail Associated Press pic, above, I forgot about the topic/article I clicked on when I saw these pots.  Elegant, understated, quiet, no need to show-off, seemingly bespoke.
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Ironically, & counterintuitively, designing small spaces is tougher than acreage.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Top pic, 5th & State.
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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

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Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Wendell Berry: Poem Pics in a Garden

"....If a lonely soul
did ever cry out

in company its true
outcry to God,

it would be as though
at a sedate party
a man suddenly
removed his clothes

and took his wife
passionately into his arms. "  Wendell Berry

Love laid bare.
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Penelope Bianchi's garden, love laid bare.
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Tell me, again, the comforts/securities/spirit of mow-blow-go-commodify-all-I-touch-lawn/green meatballs/annuals-weed killer-fertilizer subdivision landscape?
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Do you have the landscape you want?  You know, the one in your heart.  Life is short, time to let your love lay bare, in garden & home.  
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Beware, you'll attract the life you've dreamed of.  But, better.
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Garden & Be Well,       XO Tara
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Pics Penelope Bianchi.
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Terry Hershey, "...where I talked about Scandalous Love and a woman in the Gospel of Luke and how her incautious, imprudent anointing and kissing of Jesus' feet raised a few eyebrows. About a woman who finds herself--her equilibrium, her salvation, her healing and her wholeness--by falling in love. That place of vulnerability, when all of our boundaries--of control and answers and solutions and theological or religious piety--melt away, and we see who we are and what we want and who we can be and who we have pretended to be all along."
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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

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Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Oscar de la Renta: Simple Garden Trinity

Backdrop + bench + meadow = Fabulous Garden.  A trinity working hard long before Christ's era.

Dark green + Chartreuse green = Fabulous

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Thank you Oscar for playing dress-up in a garden.

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Within simplicity, aside from elegance, you'll discover Albert Einstein's, 

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"The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives."

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Oscar's book, updated, Here.

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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Choosing Exterior Paint Colors

Exterior colors begin inside.  Wallpaper, sofa, art are your resources.  Especially for the front door.

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Trim & window colors are often dictated by the brick, stone, or mortar, on your home.

Exterior colors should look old the first day they are applied.  No waiting.  Benjamin Moore Historic Colors are a favorite.

I'm hard on my interior.  Loving faded colors on wood & textiles.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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pics in my kitchen yesterday.
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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Gardens: Flow First, then Plants

"What plant should I put there?", is the common question.

Choosing specific plants is the last thing I put into a Garden Design.
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Flow is the first.
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What is flow?
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What direction do most people approach your home from?  Where do you park?  Which door do you mostly enter your home from?  Where are your garbage cans?  What path do you traverse to the garbage cans?  Where do your guests park?  Where do your children park?  Do you have dogs needing to go outside?  Where are your garden tools & how do you access them?  Where is the compost pile and how often do you walk to it?  Do you gather firewood in winter to carry inside?  After a storm do you have branches to pick up and where do you place them?  Where are your outdoor lights?  Can you walk, without obstruction, around your entire home?  How do you get from your deck/patio to the back yard?  Raining, can you walk your property without getting your feet in puddles?  Do you have young children/grandchildren needing a safe place to play?  Where should you put a swing-set?  How should the swimming pool be placed?  Where should the new barn be sited?  Which door do you use to get the mail?  Which door do guests knock on first?  Do guests come to the door you want them to?  Where is the fire hydrant and is it a clear path in case of fire?  Where is the circuit breaker for the house & can it be turned off quickly by emergency personnel if you are not home?  How often do you need to walk to the Pole Barn?  Where should the Conservatory be placed & how often will you use it for meals?  And, etc.
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Yes, Flow before plants.
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Get the flow right and your property begins at the center of your home to the property lines.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Drop-Leaf Table

More than interiors, drop-leaf tables

are perfect for covered porches & patios.
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Have often placed a drop-leaf table, cut in half, at each side of a front door.
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Primed, & painted with outdoor paint.
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Amazingly, vintage drop-leaf tables seem to always be low priced in metro Atlanta.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Design: Cones & Balls

Cones & lollipops.  

A garden contrast working hard since before Christ's era.
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Every garden must have a cone shape.
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Cone shapes draw the eye.
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Serious gardener?  Every garden room must have a cone shape.
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Cone shapes in Italy live by a different law than the rest of the world.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Ignore garden design rules at your own peril !  I adore garden design rules, breaking them with intelligence creates magic.  Stringently following garden design rules creates magic.  Go it alone, you create a feckless mush.
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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Enlarging Corners

Hired for the Garden Design I could not ignore the pool decking.

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Pool is Olympic in scale yet the decking was Liliputian.

The mortar isn't even dry, above.
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Will go back this spring for full photo shoot with more enlarged corners, rims and furnishings styled.
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Have enlarged corners for driveways too.  Perfecto!
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pic in client garden.  Love pics full of narrative or, like this one, a 'see it & do it', no explanation needed.  
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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Trinity: Stewardship, Wendell Berry, Chickens

The chickens will bring eggs, I thought.  

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Instead, they've given stewardship.

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8 heirloom chics, 4 breeds.  Some cats others livestock in personality.

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Nothing from the kitchen is wasted, every restaurant meal ends with asking for a left-over container.  Girls go wild for pizza.

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Almost 3 decades in my garden, What would it be now with their poop the entire time?

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More, What would I be like?  Yes, the girls have taught that much.

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Ironically, seeing several clients over a spread of years showed how easy chics are to caretake.

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Sadly, the Stewardship was invisible.

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America was founded upon this Stewardship.  Culture bypassed its tenants.

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  A particular client educates me with every third sentence and every hour starts a sentence, Wendell Berry says.  How can I not pass Wendell Berry along to you?

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Founding Gardeners, is the resource for Stewardship.

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I found what I wasn't looking for, one of life's deepest veins of gold.  From chickens?

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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Garage/Atalier: Leverage Life & Garden

 Aside from the ubiquitously expected, your garage must leverage your life.  Beautifully.
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In my garage, below.

 Adore loading my so-ugly-it's-cute van for work, below.

Tools, chandeliers, speaking props & etc all awaiting to make life easier.

Vintage French garden chair made the move to the chicken coop.  And the ca. 1918 door is now a table in the office.

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How well does your garage leverage the caretaking of your garden?  Your life?

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Did you know this is an element of Garden Design?

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I didn't, until I went to Europe to study history's best gardens.  

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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara

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Pics in my atalier, aka garage.  

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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Edna St. Vincent Millay: Burn Your Light

Light from the garden, below.

Interesting legs, garden light a few of my favorite things.
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Oh my the criticisms, for decades, for leaning inward, to seemingly insignificant small joys.
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Edna St. Vincent Millay, "My candle burns at both ends; / It will not last the night; / But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends — / It gives a lovely light!"
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I met Peter Pan yesterday, and he wasn't lost.  With a bigger life I doubt I would have known.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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My bedroom, above, renovation still needs yellow/white French check draperies a la Charles Faudree.   Walls, Benjamin Moore - Sundress.  Hence you won't see more till then!  Painting by, Christine Gholson.  Truly, the light in my home is enriched by the garden.
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A quote in NYTimes long ago, "The more you go inward the more you outwardly connect." Pure permission, be-who-you-are.
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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

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Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

  

Overdose your Theme: Wicker Weakness

Overflow wicker, above, yet they're used at least 1/month.

Vintage wicker, above/below, glass topper for the sagging table top, below.  Adore the chipping paint.

Small wicker baskets, below, perfect for quick trips with keys, sunglasses, cell phone.

White willow English wicker basket, above, for Laskett.  Yes, he is moody.  What can I do, we're in love.

Tucked in the bedroom, above.  Mahogany Sheraton buffet arrived this color, & marked down 2x at the antique shop.
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Tool Bouquet over my fireplace.....
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Overdose Your Theme is merely an excuse for,  Wicker Weakness.
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At Lowe's this week the cashier asked, "Can I feel your basket?".  Girlfriend has Wicker Weakness too.  Along with great taste, it was a handmade Amish basket that day.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Most of the wicker came from Thift Stores or yard sales.
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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Little Input, Big Impact

A bit of meadow, stretch of wild wood, bench.  Done.

In the depths of winter, still, one of the best invitations.
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Pictorial definition, LITTLE INPUT, BIG IMPACT.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Front Porch: Color Choices for Views & Guests

Built in the late 50's for the Queen's sister, Mount Corbett has a few original pieces remaining, below.

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This table wasn't designed for meals, propping feet, or bridge.

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This table leveraged conversation, cocktails, cigarettes (I can hear, & smell, the Zippo lighters shutting), & considering the era, 'stuff'.

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More than views, colors were mutedly chosen to show case people.

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How I would love to go back to the early years and see the clothes, hair, jewels.

Instead,

alone on the veranda, I was the color.
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My Ken Doll did  construction & landscaping at Mount Corbett a few years ago, hence my afternoon lolling in the pool & enjoying views while he gabbed with friends at the estate.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pics taken this month in Jamaica.  We both wanted to prune the hedge blocking the views.  Alas, or maybe good for you, Mount Corbett is for sale.
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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

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Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Be Prepared: Wine & Canapes

Have you noticed the Cool Chicks, (ok, roosters too), are always prepared for unexpected Wine & Canapes with friends?

   Stopped by a friend's garden yesterday, and we sat, above, comfortably ensconced on her front porch.
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Notice her Fairy Garden, above?  No accident it's charming.  She creates/makes/sells them nationally.  Several styles, colors, sizes.  Have had 2 in my garden for over a decade.
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No longer exclusive, you can now order her Fairy Garden houses & troughs direct, Mary Braswell.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Mary did not ask me to post this nor will I receive any monetary funds for doing so.  We are friends.  
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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon.

Hedgerow Farm: Buck Valentine

At work last Friday, Valentines, below.

Buck was flirting.  Resting his chin on a shoulder, nibbling hair, rubbing his lips along our jaw.  

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We had finished work with preliminary siting of the new timber barn & I had time to tag along with other chores.

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A subdivision child, watching a horse behave like a loving Chihuahua was a first.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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And, that SMILE on Farm Hand !!!  Farm Hand always overlaps my days at HF, yet we rarely get to speak, merely wave at distance.  He's always in motion.  

If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon.

Val-Kill, Royals, Tara Turf

FDR & Eleanor hosted the King/Queen of England at their home.  Appearances mattered greatly in this era.
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A dip in Val-Kill's pool, above, was included amongst the entertainments.
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Tara Turf touches the coping, trailing to a dirt path & wild wood.
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Contemporaneously with pioneering Tara Turf it was intuitive, Tara Turf is a status symbol.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Put, This I Remember, by Eleanor Roosevelt on your list if you haven't read it yet.  Cote de Texas has more about the royal's visit with Roosevelt's, here.
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Amazing path, Tara Turf as status symbol.  A meadow or pasture, life itself, are merely empty spaces to be taken at whim for financial gain in popular culture.  Truly heart rending.
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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

                                                                                 .

Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon.