Edith Wharton: Voids & Masses

"Proportion is the good breeding of architecture.  It is that something, indefinable to the unprofessional eye, which gives repose and distinction to a room:  in its origin a matter of nice mathematical calculation, of scientific adjustment of voids and masses, but in its effects as intangible as that all-pervading essence which the ancients called the soul."  Edith Wharton



Very nice fix, above, to scale, proportion, flow.  Yet there is an added design element not abiding to the rules of scale/proportion and landed onto the terrace from Mars.
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Which is the good fix?  Which is the ill conceived addition?
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First, brava to the terrace design flanking the entire back of the home, flowing in vanishing threshold from every window/door.
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Yet, that is not the 'good fix'.  Adding the checkerboard 'path' to the terrace is the 'good fix', a genius fix.  I sense it was not in the original design, yet makes the original design magic.  A nice reminder of, 'A landscape can be installed in a day, a garden takes a lifetime.'  Many layers of nice thought, above.
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Yet one zone, above, is awkward.
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Have you nailed it yet?  It was more common at the front end of the trend, but has tamed itself in recent years.  The fireplace.  Oh my.  It's a fireplace with a house, not a house with a fireplace.  Fireplace monument to the gods.  The monolith floating in space at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey, ca. 1968.  A fireplace with no soul, merely a good salesman.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T



Pic, above, from the movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, here.  Remember well, and not understanding seeing 2001 at its premier, not far from the Astrodome & Gulfgate Mall.  Oh my the joy of growing up shopping there, especially, Sakowitz.  Their clothes & shoes, and their fabulous decorations at Christmas.  Neiman's was a wannabe back in those days !  Odd to learn, just now, below, Gulfgate housed some of NASA before it could be completed for workers.  Helping mom choose dad's crypt the salesman shared his story of painting NASA buildings as fast as they could because NASA workers were sited all over Houston/Pasadena awaiting their buildings.
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Wikipedia, "It was the first regional mall in the Houston area, opening as Gulfgate Shopping Center on September 20, 1956 with Joske's,Sakowitz, Weingarten's, J.J. Newberry and W.T. Grant.^[2] The architects were John Graham & Company.^[3]

Gulfgate Kiddieland opened in the mall on March 21.^[4]

In the early 1960s, while the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) was under construction in the Clear Lake area, NASA personnel opened temporary offices in center in about 3,000 square feet (280 m²) of floor space donated for the purpose by the Gulfgate management. MSC had a continuing operation there until additional office, engineering and laboratory space could be leased and made ready for occupation. Operations at the Gulfgate offices were largely concerned with procurement, personnel and public affairs.^[5]

The shopping center was enclosed around 1967 and, after years of decline and competition, shuttered in 2000. In 2001 the original mall and the former Mervyns (across Woodridge) were demolished and redeveloped into a strip mall configuration, anchored by H-E-B, Best Buy, Office Depot, Marshalls, and Lowe's "

Take it Easy, Mon

What is your landscape to you?  What role does it play in your life?  How does your landscape leverage your life?  Is your landscape a monthly check to someone else?  Is your landscape full of chores?  Your landscape informs the world of your views, what information is your landscape telling me?  Have you ever thought to ask yourself, "What does my garden say about me?"  Are you to be patted on the head for keeping the HOA happy with your landscape, and no more?  
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This spring, for your landscape, choose your own perspective.
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This perspective, below, is my favorite idea of a landscape.
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In a word, do you know what that perspective is?



BACKDROP
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I want my garden to be the backdrop to my life.
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Who wants a garden, typically installed by the builder, to be endured?
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A garden backdrop to your life is leverage, joy, and grace.
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Green meatballs are usually a negative, yet look how many green meatballs are behind Tory Burch, above.  How smart her urns, never need planting or watering.  Ever.
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Green, brown, white is the most successful garden color trinity for centuries.
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If you maintain lawn/bushes, why not choose them as beautiful backdrop?  Delight in thinking, how to go beyond builder installed plantings, how to make magic from HOA rules.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Obviously this post is about certain ages of life.  Have had several clients this year, moving from their many decades family home, into retirement communities.  All of them, landscaping is provided & maintained as part of the 'package'.  All are in their 70's.  Each of the phone calls quite hard for both of us.  Life must be faced, and they are doing it in grace & elegance.

Don't Design Bifurcate: Interior & Exterior

For years I would write the editor of a specific interior design magazine asking why they would show beautiful interiors with terrible views out the windows.  No reply, ever.
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However, the month arrived when that magazine had every interior photograph edited/photoshopped to its exterior views with a brightness as if a glare of a beautiful garden, all the ugly views, poof/gone.  And, the magazine has continued editing exterior views for years.  Nice story, yes?
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This, below, is not that magazine.
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Great interior, yet a bifurcation of decorating styles, life choices, from inside to outside.
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What to do?



Quick thought, without seeing the rest of the home's interior, stain the deck a shade, or 2, darker than the walls, above.
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Poof, interior/exterior no longer bifurcated.
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Another solution, add a shutter to lower half of the window, leaving only vistas of sky, trees, birds...
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Money is no issue solution?  Enlarge the deck, choose a new rail, stain same color as walls, turn window, above, into French doors, fix a drink, put a new album on the turn table, enjoy.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pic, above, here.

Florist Style in Garden Design

Florist Style.  Don't know what else to name it.  An assemblage of flowers or plants arrayed as if outside a florist shop, a charming florist shop, but in your garden.
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New client yesterday, and she's quite a challenge.  Children, grandchildren, she & her husband own their own business, and they have 3 homes, plus lots of travel.  Aside from mow-blow-go she has little to no garden help, unless it's the Gator.  And, she wants a delightful garden 'show' on her deck at the main home.  The deck is raised allowing for drip irrigation.  Thankfully.
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Florist Style for her deck.  Galvanized florist canisters for cut flowers, & plastic pots of flowering plants bought at the grocery store or a nursery, slipped into canisters too.  The story grows better, she loves ornamental grasses, I'll design a large prairie style grass garden for her to enjoy, and to have plenty for cutting.



Pic, above, here.

Her deck is large, and can handle several large evergreens, below.  Once they become 'tired' they can be retired to planting in her newly designed/designated cutting garden.

  

Pic, above, here.

Very little, below, yet confidently setting a 'tone'.  Exactly the top merit of Florist Style Garden Design.

 
Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.

Before our appointment I was at another appointment, with her sister.  Sister mentioned a place with an international supply of construction pieces from historic homes.  She showed me a few pics of the shop & I got the name & wrote it down.  Perhaps my new client can find a piece like this, above, for her Florist Style.
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New client mentioned a grown son and their gardening relationship since he was a boy, I'm sure she'll send him this post, for perusal and approval.  Too fun.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO T

The Language of a Garden's Entry: Not What You Think

Are you aware there is a classic repertoire of garden design language?  You know, the one without words.

A witty welcome, below, shouting, 'Come in'.  Restraint, grandeur, provincial, elegant, color, while informing reams of information about the house and its owner/s.



The language of garden design is quite simple, contrasts.  Simplicity with decadence, rustic with formal.



Designing an orchard next to this garden room, above, is obvious or at least it should be.
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I've known this fact for decades, since 1st studying historic gardens across Europe.  Only later, much later, an embarrassing slug's pace, did the epiphany arrive, Providence never separated agriculture from ornamental horticulture.  They are entwined, they are one.
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Amusing, and sad, how many elementary school gardens are planted with vegetables & herbs, without their contrasting ornamental garden.  Why sad?  It is the ornamental garden adding up to 80% increases to agricultural yields.  How?  Pollinators.  Worse, the full language of a garden is not passed to the elementary school students, nor their teachers.
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Another way to look at the top pic and garden design?  Most often, in USA, a stone wall leading to an estate or high-end gated neighborhood is fabulously planted with a cornucopia of ornamental plants & monoculture lawn, everything irrigated, chemicaled, maintained.  Ironically, copying the best high-end apartment complexes.  Often, also, a piece of farm acreage purchased to construct a fine home, builds a couple of stone plinths connected with a gate then a few plantings tossed in.  Their new neighbors wondering, "Did that land sell-out to build a starter home subdivision?"  
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Oh my, the language of garden entry ways.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T
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Pics from NaramataBlend.

Face Heads Correctly in Your Garden

Dogs, horses, lions, mostly, are the heads I have the joy of placing properly in gardens.  Don't I have the best career ever?
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Heads-up, these dogs, are looking in the correct direction.  



If you have a pair of heads in your garden, their correct placement is most often, above.
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Oddly, irritates me no end driving thru neighborhoods and seeing heads facing that grand morass-muddle-chaos of the great beyond termed The Public.  Wouldn't you rather give a lion's ass to the public?  Don't give the power of your garden away, facing heads the wrong way.  It's your life, joy, beauty.  Beauty.  There is a garden design secret I discovered about Beauty.  Designing your garden to be beautiful from every window of your home, yes every window, creates beauty in the opposite directions too.
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Got heads?  Getting heads?  Think it thru.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pic via here.

Finally, A Funny Vole Story

"Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole.", William Boot in Scoop, by Evelyn Waugh.
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Have you walked across plashy fen, aka your lawn, and knew what your feet were feeling?  Have you considered the vole/mole who creates the squoosh?  Not me either.  Waugh's sentence, above, probably the funniest sentence I've read in 2 decades.
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In a client's garden, after noticing 'squoosh', I'll say, "You've got moles."  Quickly arrives the client's mole face, I-don't-know-what-this-is-but-it's-obviously-bad-look.
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Bottom line best option to get rid of moles?  A garden cat.  Traps or chemicals are not for me.




Pic, above, here.

Voles/moles do have a wicked sense of humor, manifested in an obvious manner.  Choosing gardens to dine upon they will choose the garden, above.  Why opt for the garden, below, zero impact to the owner.



Pic, above, here.
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My garden cat, Torte-de-Shelle, always brought her mole conquests to the back door.  I promptly tossed them under a bush somewhere to feed the soil.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

Consider Views into Your Home from the Garden

In a garden your home is the quintessential focal point.  Not content to leave this design facet forsaken and alone, views into your home are subsidiary focal points.
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Today, this moment, think with your mind's eye, walk in your garden, around your home, all the while, looking at your home.  No window view, into your home, can remain undesigned.  An unfinished basement window?  I don't care about the reality of the situation.  That unfinished basement easily becomes the guest suite, or perhaps the multi-media party room, in theory, depending upon your window treatment.  Again, who cares about the reality?  Reality, don't go there with me.  This is the reality.
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And, looking into your windows from the garden, you must be interesting.  I must want to know who you are from those views.
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So.  Who are you?  Do views into your windows tell me who you are?
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"Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.", "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.", Carl Jung.



Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pic, view into my home of 30 years.  Cannot wait to start working on views into our American farmhouse ca. 1900.  Not to that layer yet.  Have done the fake it till you make it views into windows at present.

Overhearing a Garden Conversation

The BBQ restaurant was closed every time Beloved & I drove by, since June.  Yesterday, the parking lot was overflowing.  Of course we parked.  Stood in line, finally sat down to eat, and it was worth the wait, literally & figuratively.
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Then, amongst the din I could hear conversation behind me.  Gardeners, of a sort, not mine.  Past middle age, it was obvious they were thrilled knowing a few botanical names, and what a plant tag suggests or the obvious stated at a master gardener lecture.  Excruciating.  Their gardens, good gardens acceptable to every mow-blow-go crew across USA.  Foundation plantings, lawn and the incurves/outcurves a good college teaches about garden design.  Aka, everything sending me to study historic gardens across Europe for 2+ decades.
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The closest comparison would be describing the Grand Canyon as a 'ditch'.
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Gardens say so much, below.  This narrative, below, has been written for thousands of years.  Gardens lasting centuries?  This is their trinity, below.  Woodland, meadow, stone focal point.  Another way of saying the same thing, high density next to low density.  Yet another narrative, below, maximum pollinator habitat.



Pic, above, here.

Fruit trees, meadow, below, woodland.  Bucolic, and maximum pollinator habitat increasing fruit yields by 80%.  Tall meadows for fruit trees are correctly named, guilds.  The path scaled for wheelbarrow & gardener.



Pic, above, here.

Vanishing threshold, below, garden & house.  Enjoying both.



Pic, above, here.

Vanishing threshold, below, a proscenium for meals, alone time, or tete-a-tete.

  

Pic, above, here.

 

Gardening many years ago the epiphany arrived, "You choose the plants in your garden, choose the people in your life."  Memo received, people ejected.  Zero regrets.



Remember, when the leaves fall they enrich the tree.



Sometimes I wonder how G*d has time for other people.  Really, another lesson, for me, pinpoint accuracy, no less?


This bothers some people, above, in my life.  Really?



In the South, Bless their heart, covers this one, above.  What covers it in your region?



No matter how hard I tried, it wasn't real, decades passed, finally, I saw.  This one is a lot of fun, with kindred spirits.  Much laughter.



Saying 'no' is often more important than saying 'yes'.






These lessons, above, are writ large for each of us, yet whether we see them or not is on our own shoulders.  Once seen, garden lessons, oh my the laughter, realizing the years of not seeing.





A lifetime exists, daily, in my garden.  Having lived too many years for 'tomorrow' and losing all that was gained, everything, I live each day.  With zero fear about this choice.    



In my city garden, above.  I set the stage for poetry, music, lessons, narratives, etc.  Tell you how to dig a hole & plant a hydrangea macrophylla?  You're smarter than that, the Grand Canyon is not a ditch.
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More, the path, above, led into my backyard from the sideyard, in a cluster home subdivision, the lot 8500sf.  Yet, my garden gave me acres of joy.
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Today, my gate, above, waits with its twin on a pallet next to the dairy cattle pasture & lake.  Living, less than a year, on our little farm built ca. 1900.  Outward validation of learning the lessons, above, knowing more are on their way.
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No worries, I have my garden.
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And, you should see the stars here at nite.  They are like a blanket lightly dropping down and wrapping your shoulders.  Never considered the stars when buying our farm.  Yet, out they come, a present.  A benediction.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

Not Hiring a Garden Designer? What You Should Know

I keep thinking, "It's spring, what's the most important thing to pass along to a new gardener, who won't hire a garden designer?"  The typical, have a job, home, family, little time, tight budget, new gardener.  If you've read this far I know you are a stubborn sort.  Headstrong.
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Gonna do it your way.  You will figure out the bonafides of a garden, and do it better.
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Yes, you, I'm considering you.
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Found both pics, below, recently.  Probably not at all what you are considering.  Yet, you should consider both gardens, intently.
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For starters, describe elements, below, of each garden.  You probably don't have a vocabulary to describe these gardens.  With your impatience, I'll give you some garden design words, axis, double axis, cross axis, fine texture, coarse texture, layers, high density, low density, focal point, focal point on axis,  views on axis, color trinity, flow, contrast, repetition, seasonal focal points, cross axis, evergreen, hardscape, deciduous, herbacious, pollinator habitat, property value, HVAC costs, seasons, walls, ceiling, floor, groundcover, backdrop, historic, modern, deer proof, low maintenance, drought tolerant, pleasure garden and etc.
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Name it to claim it.  Corny, and true in garden design.
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Both gardens, below, though different are the same.
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What is the most important fact about both gardens?  Hint, it's a single word.
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This important fact, is for you, the new gardener.  Peruse the pics, the 'word' describing both is at bottom.



Pic above, here.



Pic above, here.
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In addition to the most important word about both gardens, above, you have a personal arrow in your quiver of garden design.  A mission statement.
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Liking words, a few words, tossed into zero order, in describing what I want for/from my own garden design as a mission statement: thought opera, traditional notions, intellectual journeys, obscure, subliminal, engaging, layering events, penchant, gaggle, lacy melodies, cello, ruminative, densest moments, ravish, musical fodder, droll, matter-of-fact, jester, astute, hepcat, pervades, dance to their tune, dramatis personae, sprite, poignantly, and you get the idea of how I wish to live in my own garden design.
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So, you've had time, what is the best word, describing both gardens, above.  Why would I choose them for you, a new gardener?
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Fast.  Both gardens will give a 'fast' effect.  Too many garden designs take 5-10 years to be anything.  Both gardens are loaded with structure, trees, hedges, paths, lawn.  Notice what each garden does not have?  Loads of flowers.  Flowers are secondary in garden design, structure is primary.  Ironically, human nature is all about flowers.  This, at the front end, is strongest in my heart to tell you, the new gardener.
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Links for both pictures have slide shows of more good gardens.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

What is Special About this Garden?

What is special about the landscape, below?  Take away the lovely home, insert a 3 bedroom 1960's brick ranch with a carport, and still, every drip of special about the landscape remains.  Small input, huge output, in the garden, but specifically, why is it special?



Most USA homes are entered from the driveway.  Above, a garden entry leads you into the home.
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Normally, the garden entry, above, is lawn next to the driveway.  Perhaps you would like a pretty garden instead.  Welcome home.
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Note, too, layers of green.  Layers of green never fail, and succeed quickly.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic via Pinterest.

Structure Your Life By Design

Structure Your Life By Design---Not by Default, at bottom, a headline guaranteed to get my attention.  Late to the game, I signed a CBS-TV contract the same day I signed a book contract, age 45.  Needing to keep my day job, designing landscapes, how to carve time for book & TV work too?  Without delay I hired a client who had recently become a certified Career Coach.  Best decision ever.  Together we came up with a template to get all the work done, while keeping a private life, and no stress.  She also recommended I hire an image consultant.  Another best-decision-ever.  Who knew image consulting is a complete science, much like landscape design?
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Myriad facets aligned.  A designed garden, designed career, designed personal image, each made life easier.  What else could I design?  Interior of my house, from attic to crawl space.  Again, more steps taken to add beauty/function.  Life became more simple.


Picture Aerin Lauder via Eonline   

Then, I was given 8 heirloom chickens for a birthday.  Wanting them, it was a surprise what they gave me, a degreed landscape 'expert'.  My garden had already been on tours, in magazines and on tv, yet the chickens taught me more deeply about gardening, perhaps the most profound gift, beyond structure-your-life-by-design.  And the chicken lesson made me laugh out loud, in my garden.  Isn't that the way with koans?  Moments of intuitive enlightenment.  Stewardship.  With the chickens I knew gardening is about stewardship, in the macro, and micro.  Macro?  Micro?

Stewardship is a gift in any life.  Stewardship is everywhere, once you understand.  G*d almighty first created a garden.  Indeed.  More humor.  Until understanding 'stewardship' I had thought my gardening was entirely my brain/physical effort/monies/talent/desire/spirit, la-ti-da.  Without ceasing, until the epiphany, my garden had been in constant stewardship of me.  Constant.  Washing of the servants feet, cliche comes alive in stewardship.  So too, take- my- yoke- upon- you.  No worries, this is no altar call, but an understanding of historical metaphor abiding in stewardship.  A source of energy, and delight in doing, for things outside of yourself, bringing a depth of wealth to your spirit no amount of money can purchase.

E.M. Forster knew well the trap of money, for those living without stewardship, using layers of humorous narrative, for the observant.  In particular, Where Angels Fear to Tread, ca. 1905.  One character wonders about another, both wealthy, what will she do, she has no resources.  Interesting.  Wealthy character without resources?  She's rich, of course she has resources.  Quickly to my 6" Websters, and learning resource is also the capability or skill of meeting a situation.  Forster understood Jane Austen's method of writing, I already knew this character would not prosper, with his effortless, lighthearted disdain surrounding the word 'resources', though I originally had zero clue to its specific meaning.  Have you noticed when Jane Austen describes a character's garden, with defects, so too their character, but that's implied with the garden slam.  Go Jane.  

Back to, below, Structure Your Life by Design, and, "...    Mary Elizabeth knows how to create authentic designs for learning linked to full system change. Mary Elizabeth shares design thinking as a process clients can use to imagine new possibilities for personal and professional change. Mary Elizabeth helps dynamic, motivated change leaders structure their lives by design, not by default...super quickly. "   Without stewardship I cannot imagine tackling a single layer of Mary Elizabeth's structure your life by design.  None.  Too much effort.  With stewardship, I see what she is doing, and know it is doable.  Easily.                    

You are invited to attend:

Structure Your Life By Design—Not By Default

with Mary Elizabeth Bongiovanni of Learning Through Design

Tuesday, February 16, 2016 from 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Whether you want to implement a new initiative at work, craft a high leverage concept, or rethink your brand, the Design Process powerfully moves you from inspiration to implementation. The process helps you:

• Identify important design challenges for your personal and professional life
• Frame your challenge as a design question
• Declare the ultimate impact you want to have
• Envision possible solutions to the problem
• Understand the context and constraints you are facing

These are essential dynamics of the Design Thinking—a process that allows us to imagine a better future and take steps to make it happen.

Mary Elizabeth Bongiovanni is a professional leadership coach and Chief Engagement Officer of Learning Through Design. Having served diverse learning organizations for 23 years, Mary Elizabeth knows how to create authentic designs for learning linked to full system change. Mary Elizabeth shares design thinking as a process clients can use to imagine new possibilities for personal and professional change. Mary Elizabeth helps dynamic, motivated change leaders structure their lives by design, not by default...super quickly. "

Chose pic, above, of Aerin Lauder for every layer of its design, and stewardship.  The house, she inherited from her grandmother, without changing much she made it completely her own, using it for pleasure and work.  

In its deepest sense I know beautiful-garden-beautiful-life.  Seeing pics of Lauder's personal/professional life it seems she's projecting, subtly, beautiful-self-beautiful-life.  All roads lead back to Joseph Campbell's, "Follow your bliss."      

Fill in the blank for you, Beautiful- ______- Beautiful- Life.  What is yours?  

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

Design: Speak Volumes With No Words

Live - Love - Laugh blares a painted garden sign, on the shelf, with price tag.  Next time you see any garden sign/plaque for sale think, "Danger Will Robinson.", while asking yourself the Dante'sque question, Does this path enlarge, or diminish, my thought?
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Mostly, if words are put into a garden Alexis de Tocqueville has been given another arrow to release at USA.  Mostly.  And that's one of the joys of designing your garden, knowing when to use your tiny percentage allowed, to break rules.
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In a garden it is important no matter the joys & sorrows amongst your days/years, you know you have a place actively nurturing sorrows and increasing joys.  Without effort.  This layer of garden design is rarely mentioned, but inherent.



Made me laugh, above.  No words.  Is it whimsy, or a pun?
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Doesn't matter.
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Secondary smile, above, at the height of the evergreen wall.  Noticed decades ago the economics of gardens and hedges.  The 4' hedge easily maintained by the owner.  The 6' hedge, still maintained by the owner, but a ladder is involved, or hired gardener.  8' + hedges pruned with scaffolding or cherry picker for hired gardener to reach.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Found pic on Pinterest, and it had no link to provenance other than what is stamped on the picture, Getty Images.
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"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.", Alexis de Tocqueville.

Dowager Duchess at Edensor House: Gravel Paths

Dinner tonight in honor of a friend's beloved grandmother.  She would have been 99.  Grandma's chocolate pie will be the star, and focused conversation for all, about grandmothers.  

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A dinner ritual for many years, I was unaware & suppose my continual mention of my grandma earned me an invitation.

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Days a bit longer and  will be able to see my host's garden before last light.  Designed her garden about 2 years ago, and they are totally DIY.

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Snakes are a problem at their home, and they have 2 young daughters.  

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Gravel is designed up to the house, and stones within the gravel, as needed for easier main paths.

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Gravel with pathway stones has been done for thousands of years.

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Another benediction for gravel with stones, below, Debo, Duchess of Devonshire, if Debo does it, case closed.

Duchess of Devonshire, below, at her dowager house, above, Edensor House, an old vicarage, she called, Old Vic.  Note, exquisite pruning, below, to the right of the door?

Centuries old, below, the backdrop landscape behind the Duchess is no accident.  None.  

Old Vic, below, rendering to be sold at Sotheby's.

The Duchess, below, was keen on many outdoor activities, in one of her books, can't remember which, she mentioned how cold/wet/mucky some pursuits were but the game was on for all included, Show No Discomfort.  

Before pie, we'll walk the new gravel paths.  Today, temps are freezing, winds gusting to 20mph, and we will do our best to show-no-discomfort.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pics from Sotheby's .  The Style Saloniste has a bit more about the Duchess, here.

Washington Post: Richard Arentz Home & Garden

My construction team laughs at my proclivity for garden designing French doors from windows, adding retractable screen doors too.
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From the French doors, below, site a focal point on axis, add a path to the focal point, plant an allee of understory trees with flying buttresses of canopy trees, underplant with an evergreen groundcover, finish this garden room with its walls, an evergreen hedge.  Put in a cross axis just behind the evergreen hedge.
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This garden design, written, above, pictured, below, is a classic 1,000's of years old.  It sites beautifully along the sides of a home too.




Notice, potted plants each side of the French doors, above, become interior floral arrangements.
Choosing a rounded bowl for the orchids was no accident, nor choosing the arching/caning habit in contrast to the exterior understory trees.
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Staging this shot, they've used both house/garden as 1 proscenium.
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In addition to describing how to design this house/garden, above, the verbage is correct.  Most often, clients know what they want, have a pinterest board, yet do not have a vocabulary for what's in their pictures.
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Garden, above, is also little maintenance, and with the right plants, deer proof/drought tolerant/no chemicals/pollinator habitat.  If the house, above, is facing western sun, the allee of trees is shading the house in summer, dropping its leaves allowing the winter sun to help heat the house, lowering HVAC costs.  And, raising property value, while increasing the joy of living here.
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Pic, above, from Richard Arentz's Washington Post article, by Adrian Higgins.
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Biggest take away?  House & garden are a single proscenium.  Site the garden from inside your home.

Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Garden Design Rule: The Tablescape

Vanishing threshold, below, a fecund tablescape.

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A tablescape proscenium.

Across Europe, studying historic gardens for decades, have seen tablescaped tables on  terraces, luring, without words, propelling feet & intellect to investigate.  

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Their insouciance ineluctable.  

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So often seen, having a tablescaped table on a terrace/deck/patio/porch seems to be a Garden Design rule. 

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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara

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Pic by Carolyn Barber from here. 

Why You Need to Take Pictures of Your Construction Project

Working with a property under contract a few years ago I was on site when the lawn crew arrived to mow.  With 1st look I knew they were my type of company, well worn truck, trailer, and the person in charge had boots matching truck & trailer.  In addition, Mr. Magic Boots did something quite smart, before starting he took a few pictures, when finished he took more pictures.
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A seemingly modest property and a modest job for the mow-blow-go team.
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Those 2 facts penetrated.  Get pictures.  Always.
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Fast forward 2 years, we began a landscape job for a new construction high-end home.  Pics taken before, during, after.  During the job we noticed the plumbing sub-contractor attached new plumbing of the home to the existing plumbing from the 1940's tear-down originally on site.  Mind your own business, is the mantra.  Excepting when you see something egregious.  After a day of discussion, should we tell the builder, we told the builder.
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The builder had his plumber fix the issue, a few days later, we don't know why, the builder hired a new plumber.  Not pleasant for anyone.



From The Telegraph.

The job progressed, we continued with pictures, we finished.  A couple of months later the homeowner calls, they have water in their basement.  The builder was called 1st, and carefully described how the 'landscaper' was responsible for flooding in the basement.
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We go to the site, meet with the homeowner, and had pictures showing step by step our work was not playing a role in the basement flooding.  More than proving flooding was not 'landscaper' caused, our pics proved the builder and 2 of his sub-contractors caused the basement flooding.
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This story is more unpleasant knowing the builder is degreed from a prestigious university.  Mr. Magic Boots had more integrity.  Thankful we had the pictures, imagine how thankful the homeowner was.
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Hope this story was layered properly for you.  Get pictures, everyone, contractor, sub-contractor, homeowner.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO T
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Yes, wish I had a drone, video camera 'on', when the builder received his phone call, "The landscaper has pictures showing their work is not at fault."  Karma is usually much slower than its path in this story.

Nicky Haslam & Miles Redd

Copy, it's the 1st rule of Garden Design.  If you don't like rules, who does, you'll like this one.

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Each permutation of 'copy' is unique, guaranteed.

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Copying from the best means you are opening a treasure chest to major talents across the globe, and time.

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Copy, it's a 1st rule of Interior Design too.

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Nicky Haslam, below, at a Sussex Farmhouse. 

Miles Redd, below, at his Momma's house in House Beautiful.

Copy, it works for 2 of the best, above.  It will work for you.

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Copy, glad my epiphany came, but why was I stubborn for so long, thinking I could recreate the wheel?  My work became more original once I knew to copy.  Who doesn't enjoy riffing on a theme?  Though, beware the trap of derivative works becoming stale.  

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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Before - After: What is Your After Here?

If you've read my books or blog you are ready to be the Garden Designer today.  Great before/after, below, yet there is a change I would make to the exterior.  Better, it's a historic answer, cheaper than what was done, and more functional.  Anytime a trinity appears, it thrills beyond measure.
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Take your time, my answer is way at the bottom.  You design the 'after' facade and yard.
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Again, you are today's Garden Designer, what would you do, above, to the facade & yard?

 

Off topic, above/below, giving your resting brain more time to create the Garden Design, I'm a strong believer in using left/right brain.  Furniture, below.  I am a fiend for seeing out windows.  Twin beds, below, I would turn footboards to the windows.  Miss a moment laying in bed seeing stars, a lightening storm, quarters of the moon, snowfall, birds, fall foliage, tracery of winter tree branches, the moment before sunrise when all is chiaroscuro?  Not 1 second would I miss.  Window views are the most exciting part of interior design, and living in a house
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This is a great hint about how to design the front garden.  Consider people first, better, consider your maximum selfishness in the richness available with this front yard.



Obvious from the 'before' picture these are good people, rescuing this home.   Of course they are good people, look at their sweet dog, below.



What is your Garden Design solution for the front yard?
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Seriously, I want to know.  Place it in comments, and thank you.
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Seeing the chimneys, in the 'before' pic, I knew this home was prior to 1890.  Do you know how?
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Coal was common in the South 1890 to 1910.  Chimney flues are narrower for coal, these chimneys are for wood burning fireplaces.
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Ready for my Garden Design answer?
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Remove front porch rails, remove foundation plantings, add granite stone steps to each end of the front porch and at each section where rails are removed, let Tara Turf nestle the home.
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Flow, no dead ends.  Currently each end of the porch is a dead end, walking straight out each front door is a dead end.  Historically, the more entry ways a garden has the better a garden is.  Historically, the more axis a garden has the better the garden.  Historically, the more double axis a garden has the better the garden.  Creating more entries, creates more magic circles for people/pets to flow.  These ideas are not Tara'tude, they are historical.  Garden Design is science, and art.
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Don't forget, leave me your ideas.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Pics, and fuller story, here.  

Florist Shop Technique in Your Garden

I remember well going into the old tiny white clapboard house, engulfed with oleander, gardenias, and sago palms, on the way to League City, TX, with its front half turned into a florist shop, they lived at the back, with mom when she needed to send sympathy flowers.  In the 60's this was not a phone call or internet purchase.  The large glass front refrigerator stuffed with flowers awaiting, scents, vases, ribbons, cut stems in a pile, no, I was not waiting in the car.  Life was electric in that tiny shop & home.
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Saw that house, long abandoned, during my last trip home in December.
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No matter its current state it has sailed a thousand ships in my work.  I have a Pinterest board for Florist Shops.  Clients with acreage, and little time, I send to that board to inspire when they have an open garden or private function.  Temporary beauty easily arranged.
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Claus Dalby, below, from Denmark uses the Florist Shop Technique.  No matter your continent, style, budget, the Florist Shop technique is for you too.    



Pic, above, Claus Dalby.
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Florist Shop Technique.  My favorite type of gardening, see it do it.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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Thank you Janelle McCulloch for another great find.