'No' is Design's Important Tool

As designed, below.  Orchard wall & gate copied from centuries of history.  Why figs?  Huge, ancient, figs are nearby, using the design tool of repetition.

.

A more important design tool than repetition I used, 'no'.

.

You think a Garden Designer is hired to put things into your landscape?  The most important thing I do is keep things OUT of your landscape.

.

'No' isn't only about simplicity/expense it encompasses impact-elegance-sustainability.  Beautiful historic landscapes incorporate the least amount of care creating the maximum amount of pollinator habitat, with aesthetics too.  Providence has huge wells of aesthetics, so it's allowed us too.  Grand canyon, Niagara Falls, Edisto Island, Alaskan sunset.    

At my desk, below, I listen to the site.  Every site speaks, I call the language 'gardenese'.  It's easy to tell clients, "No, that won't work because....."  Every client consultation is intense visually & listening deeply.  Their long list of desires must be edited.  I try hard to keep the deepest 'wants' using 'no' to get there which increases the impact.

.

My favorite place to be, above, my desk.

.

Drawing a garden's language.  Seeing, listening. 

.

Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara

.

Pics at jobsite last month.  

How to Choose & Site Pots in the Landscape

300 acres, 3 'mostly' matching pots totaling 3 centuries of age and no pots placed on the property, yet.  

(Does the pot, below, tell you, "Touch me."?  If it does it means you are an old soul & kindred spirit.)

Pots must be so wonderful they can remain empty, if desired.  Here, they needed to match the history of the home & be within a certain size range.

Perfect, above, they do not draw attention to themselves.  And still allow seating on the low stone-capped columns.

2 men/pot setting them in place.  My general contractor said, as the pot, above, went up, "...That's a ballsy spot."  As if he earned a response.

3 years getting to this layer, placing pots.  Best part?  Looks like they've always been there.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pics taken at jobsite last month.  Found the pots, plus several more, at Scott Antique Market a couple of months ago.
.
Did you pick up on the major component of getting the right pot in the right spot in your landscape?  Something few are good at, patience.
.
Knowing to choose pots that can remain empty is such an important 'discovery'  I claim it as one of my inventions.  If you think through the carbon footprint of 'annuals & potting soil & fertilizer' for container plantings along with your time & money you'll understand beautiful empty pots.
.
Of course planting sublime pots is a layer of fun in the right season of a busy life.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"The search for outward simplicity, for inner integrity, for fuller relationship -- is this not a limited outlook?  .....The world is rumbling and erupting in ever-widening circles around us.  The tensions, conflicts and sufferings even in the outermost circle touch us all...."

....I believe the heart is infinite -- modern communication loads us with more problems than the human frame can carry.

Our grandmothers, and even -- with some scrambling -- our mothers, lived in a circle small enough to let them implement in action most of the impulses of their hearts and minds."  Gift From the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, copyright 1955.
.
Yes, the circles of living are too big.  Without my garden I could not navigate.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pics at jobsite yesterday.  Her words could have been written this morning.

Media Bias Toward Rural America

'No Farms.  No Food.'   You'll see on quite a few bumpers in this county.

When did rural become code language for uneducated with our national media?

Media bias toward city thinking vs. farmers?

This country was created by farmers, Founding Gardeners by Andrea Wulf, is stuffed with tiny font, delicious historical facts & pleasure gardens along with the agricultural.
.
House, above, is surrounded by open & wooded acreage, heirloom livestock, potager, pleasure grounds, ponds, barns, and speaks easily to a dense social life shining a light on the many lobes & neural pathways of their minds, ripples into the larger community & crosses oceans in its reach to others of like spirit.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
pics taken last week at a jobsite.  Founding Gardeners has details about John Adams & Thomas Jefferson on their English garden tour & facts about George Washington fighting the Revolutionary War while taking every new garden idea England had & more.

Tara Maxwell: Natural Horse Training

He came emaciated, broken-hearted & mentally wounded about 2 years ago to a client's farm.

Last week he came to me in friendship, curiosity, hopeful of a treat, and told me what a fine day it was.  Tara Maxwell was hired from the start to work with him.  Horse Whisperer is the best description of her talent.

His pet dog, above, and one of the carts, below, he pulls regularly.

Most days he is in pasture with Jacob sheep, below.

It was the 1st time he treated me as a peer.  Tears were in my eyes.  Would I have the fortitude to overcome, as he has?

When Tara Maxwell & I overlap at the farm I never intrude, only watch her work from a distance.

.

The hand of Providence in action.

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pics taken at jobsite last week.  This is not a paid endorsement, just simple thanks at what I've witnessed.

Creating Backdrop for the Kitchen

Vita Sackville-West's head gardener, leaving for war, wrote her, "..whatever you do maintain the hedges."

You think you're in the kitchen.

My pride is views of the hedges.
.
At this 200 acres I was hired to create intimate garden views.  Without blocking rolling vistas.
.
Who knew you could be deeply enriched, soul filled, & ego enlarged (professionally), with a backdrop?  No need to be star of the show, the mature desire is being the entire proscenium !
.
Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
.
Pics last week at a jobsite.  If the kitchen or porch affect the garden views, it's my job to say something.  Here?  Of course I said, ".....love this."  Pan on right burner of stove?  She made us grilled ham/cheese sandwiches.

Empty is Fine. Why be perfect?

Garden Design is not about having a perfect garden.

It's about having a beautiful garden without stress.  From every window a beautiful view.  

Doesn't matter if the terra cotta pot is planted.

.

There is a realm the perfect garden matters, pollinator habitat.

.

Oddly, my Garden Design formula based on historic gardens across Europe does, indeed, create maximum pollinator habitat.  And I thought I was going after beautiful + low maintenance.  Classic story of following your heart, while others belittle what you are doing, and gaining far more than anticipated.

.

Why does pollinator habitat matter?  Increasing pollinators increases crop yields up to 80%.

.

Have a seat, hold on, YOU are a pollinator too.  

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pics at jobsite this week.  Have you ever really thought about the types of sex plants have?  Hilarious when compared to the snit about humans.  

Chiaroscuro in the Garden

Have you done this in your garden?

Caught the chiaroscuro.
.
Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
.
Oddly exciting, and moments of life most intense.  Never taken a chiaroscuro moment in your garden?  They cannot be given, only taken.
.
pic from The Vintaquarian.

Interior Design: Urn on Plinth

Urn on plinth, a little interior Garden Design.

Whoever thought this up, I adore them. 

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

pic ?  

Take This Picture: Home to Patio

Will the picture from your-home-to-the-patio tell me who you are?

"Our lives are about getting the outside to match the inside."  Jung

.

Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

.

Pic from Traditional Home, The Lisa Porter Collection.

.

Posted this earlier, it flows well with a lecture I'm presenting at Callanwolde later this morning.

Garden Road Map

Every size garden needs its map drawn.  A road map.

When I draw a new Garden Design it is on site.  I must know how it 'walks' in real life.

Garden rooms must be named.

Last month at Hedgerow Farm, finally, this was handed to me at lunch.  She knew I would be as excited as she was.

Within minutes I had already put it to work.
.
Yesterday the general contractor had questions about the next layer of installation & out came the map.
.
Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

Arne Maynard: Point of Inspiration

When I first saw Arne Maynard's work I thought, "Simple, liberating."

At a jobsite this week we are keeping a huge stupid gum-drop-on-a-stick holly.  Soon it will be topiaried into a sweet whimsy.
.
Better, it's located within the new potager.  Amazing good fortune.
.
Piquantly I know something else about Maynard's work.  In my 20's I would have reviled it !  The classic response to not understanding what you see.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic A Library of Design.

Stone Mountain: Where You are Inspired?

Most days of the week for 3 decades I'm here, below.  

Stone Mountain daisy is unique, in all the world/galaxy, to this single spot.

They've already begun to fade & their musky sweet smell of decay & death is intoxicating.  Thrilling.  A smell metaphor, "You've made another year.  You're ALIVE."  Language of Nature I understand.  People?  Not so much.
 

In the crevices & margins, above, I never cease to marvel and many times a year simply stop to absorb their lessons.

With every step this mountain lets me share in what is sacred.
.
On this mountain my place is secure.  Providence speaks the eternal.
.
Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
.
Pics taken yesterday morning.  Would love to have the perfume of yesterday, "Tara, you smell like dead daisys."  "Thank you."  I say.

How to Tame Trouble

Met a new client last nite with a no-mans-land of trees/ivy/invasives/drainage ditch/weeds.  Its ownership 'looks' like it could be their property or their neighbors.

What to do is quite easy.

An entry & path will instantly take ownership and tame the trouble.
.
Clearing invasives, controlling ivy/weeds, planting desirable understory trees & etc... will take a bit more time.  Happily, now there is a road map.
.
Garden & Be Well,             XO Tara
.
Exciting times, their brown brick home with brown shutters will soon be WHITE !
.
Pic Litchfield Hills, lost provenance of photographer.

How to Hide an Eyesore

If you have an eyesore place a focal point nearby.

Trying to hide the faucet would have drawn more attention to it.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic taken at jobsite earlier this month.  Most often, hiding eyesores does draw them greater attention.

So What is the Most Important Element of Architecture?

A small handful of homes during my decades of garden & home renovation have packed a surprise.

They appear 'normal' when I park at the first visit.  Knocking at the front door the surprise is apparent.

Saying to myself, "......this home is HUGE."
.
The reasons must be many for the illusion.  Top of the list is, proportion.
.
Ironic, architecture & life have so much in common.  Proportion.
.
Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
.
Pics taken at job site, same home as previous post.  Perhaps this is the magic ingredient of architecture engaging Thomas Jefferson........1789 Mar. 24. (to Joseph Willard) "We have spent the prime of our lives in procuring [young men] the precious blessing of liberty. Let them spend theirs in shewing that it is the great parent of science and of virtue; and that a nation will be great in both always in proportion as it is free."

2 Types of Garden Design

The underbelly of my profession sometimes falls under the heading of design-build-maintain.

Aka, fox-designing-the-hen-house, cliche.

.

Low front windows?  Sure, design shrubs growing to 15', they'll need pruning 2x/year.  Why design groundcovers, mulch needs replacing yearly.  And the list grows: mowing weekly, fertilizer & chemical treatments, irrigation, annual beds.

.

This type of landscaping has its place.  Yet this type of landscaping is hardly low-maintenance & frugal.  It just 'appears' to be.  Mr. Testosterone-on-wheels-mow-blow-go-commodify-all-I-touch is happy to put you on contract.  Again, this type of landscaping has its place, I get that.  

.

Why mention it?  Because it's incredibly sad to my heart.  Historic garden design feeds the soul, pollinator habitat, doesn't poison ground water, increases property value, reduces hvac expense, reduces maintenance, has little yearly expense,  & etc....  

.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

.

Pic taken at jobsite this month.  I didn't do the original design decades ago.  We've recently replaced mulch with groundcover at the foundation.  Luckily part shade slows her plantings from fast growth.  So, we did not replace them.

Life Demands Simplicity

Children, grandchildren, caretaking elderly parents, a beach house.  And, a husband.

Time for a needy garden?  None.  

 Have been working with this garden & in awe of her simplicity for over a decade.  Most important, she's always known she did not want her garden to have 'flowers' as the focus.  Greens & shapes are her 'thing'.  Humbling, she began where I took decades to arrive.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Why exactly would garden centers wish you to have a garden like hers?  Not much to sell you thru the years.
.
Sadly, French doors in top pic are new.  Never fun to spend money on infrastructure.  Bling is more fun.
.
Lucky me, yet another Southern matriarch to work with & know.  Why is that special?  Enjoying their knowing laughter about life.

Linda Maddox: Kitchen Renovations

Wish I had known, from the start of my career, to take pics of all the powder rooms I've seen.

This powder room tops my favorites list, and is being renovated into a butlers pantry.  

A peek at the 'before' kitchen, below.

I've worked with this client's garden several times thru the years.  Ironically, it's my own team doing the gut renovation for the kitchen, powder room, & mud room.
.
Kitchen plans were drawn by Linda Maddox.  What she configured has left me in awe.  Will show off her talent, and that of my team, when it's done.
.
Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
.
Pics taken at jobsite last month.  I see 'big name' kitchens often and know Linda Maddox could do a reality show with any of them and most likely win.  Have never met her, nor seen a completed kitchen of hers in person but what I saw with the plans at this site, oh my.  She doesn't know it yet but we will meet at some point this year!

Choosing Happy

"The more you try to fathom it, the more fathomless it is revealed to be.  No matter how much of your self you are able to objectify and examine, the quintessential, living part of yourself will always elude you, i.e., the part that is conducting the examination.  Thus you do not solve the mystery, you live the mystery.  And you do that not by fully knowing yourself but by fully being yourself."   Frederick Buechner

I was once afraid to create the garden in my imagination.  Deed restrictions & a spouse both parroting, "You can't do that."
.
Death of loved ones, infertility treatments, little money, alcoholic spouse, blah-blah, whatever, yawn.  Unhappiness grew too deep.
.
Oh my the blessings of unhappiness.  I CHOSE to be happy.  Created my garden.  Grace entered.  Now, decades of joy.
.
Many of you already know, because you live it, happiness is a choice each day.  No matter the circumstances.
.
Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
.
In my career I meet so many on the cusp of choosing joy.  Though they don't know that's what they are choosing, yet.  Ironic, these thoughts come from meeting a 50+ woman angry at the world & demanding from the world ease & support.  Without working for it herself.  She is a joy to behold, in gratitude her life is not mine.  More, she is humbling, I could be her but my unhappiness grew too great to carry.  It's all in our choices.  Happiness harbors power.       
.
Pic via 5th & State.