Showing posts with label Axis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Axis. Show all posts

Friday, June 27, 2014

Does Your Landscape Describe You?

Beside the front porch, below, is the mudroom entrance.
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 I feel the welcome & delight in each detail.


The wreath is in honor of the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival & this home/garden are on the tour.
Been in Southern Living magazine too.


As if the bench still-life were not enough, the little wall, below, along the path is 'done' too.


Precociously my Tara Dillard garden design rule, "I must know who you are from the garden before ever entering your home.", is wowza answered here.
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Today, seriously look around your garden & home's exterior.  Do they tell me who you are?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.
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Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon
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Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.
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Construction by Award Winning:

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Elements of a Garden: What do you see?


Formal with informal.
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Designed garden with controlled woodland.
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Garden rooms flow in contrast to each other.
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Color theme, green-brown-white.
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High density & low density for maximum pollinator habitat.
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Every garden room needs at least 1 cone shape.
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Cone shapes draw eyes to the sky.
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Cone shapes are hard to design, easy to do too many.
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Pair of cone shapes at an entry way expand the invitation.
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Contrasting shades of green,
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Contrasting sizes of foliage.

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Designed for structure 12 months of the year.
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Clipped hedging.
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Axis.  Double axis.
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Paths easy to walk.
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Fencing & gates chosen to flow with the house.  How do I know?  I just do.
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Stone in the paths matches stone elsewhere in the garden and on the home.  How do I know?  I just do.
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What did you see when you looked at this pic?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Lost provenance on the pic.
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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.
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Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon
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Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.
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Construction by Award Winning:
Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Monday, May 5, 2014

Design is in 2 Directions: Double Axis

Walking further into the back garden from the house, below, 


At the back of the garden, below, waking toward the house.


Same focal point, double axis.
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Gardens MUST be gorgeous in both directions.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pics taken last week in the garden of Paul/Lisa Brown.  It will be on the Atlanta Botanical Garden Connoisseurs tour Mother's Day weekend, May 10-11, 2014.
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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon
.
Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.
.
Construction by Award Winning:
Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Friday, April 11, 2014

Views In: Conservatory at Dusk

 Looking into my Conservatory at dusk this week, below.  Your home is the backdrop to the garden.  Views in must be seductive.  Inviting.  Every view in must tell me who you are.


Returning from a lecture I gave in Chicago/Moline Wednesday there was a little pile of cards & gifts on the harvest table in the kitchen.
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The best present was working, aka lecturing, on my birthday.  Adore a job on my birthday every year.  Gift to myself, loving what I do.
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Back to the little treasure trove.  Had Beloved gather everything, I grabbed the champagne, and we trotted off to the Conservatory.  Fine way to spend a late afternoon.
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This morning, and the Conservatory pic, I realize pics must be made for every window of my home, from the garden, at dusk.
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Game on.
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Tick Tock
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Deadline, Dec. 2014.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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First time to Chicago/Moline, far too short, grand hospitality, will go back.  
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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon
.
Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.
.
Construction by Award Winning:
Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Phoebe Howard: Bedroom Views

Birdhouse view, below.


Thru the years about 30% of my clients have had views into the tree tops.
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Good fortune, indeed.  Hardly possible to 'fake' a tree top view from level ground & zero trees.
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If the chair, above, is the only seating in the room I would have Howard back to fix its direction !
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic Phoebe Howard.
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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.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

How to Design the Best Landscape is Not What You Think: It's Easier

Design your garden for winter, it will be pretty all year.


Spring, roses, hydrangeas, foxgloves & etc. get all the calendar shots, yet the true test remains, winter.
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Rosemary Verey's, The Garden in Winter, is the garden design book you want.  Garden design facts are counterintuitive.
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Another counterintuitive garden design rule?  Copy.  If it's beautiful in another garden it will be beautiful in yours, and original.  
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic Belgian Pearls.  A wonderful resource taken from Belgian Pearls, 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.
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Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Simple Complexities


More than pretty, easy to maintain.


This is great pollinator habitat.  High density mixed with low density.
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Focal point on axis with the front door is also on view from every front window of the home.
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The more axis a focal point has the better the design.
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 Sir Roy Strong says gardens must have a sky mirror.
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Of course there is more detail, it's almost a Landscape Design course in a single pic.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic I Love Your Style.
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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.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Double Axis: Consider Both Directions

Outside, at the tiered fountain looking into the window, I wonder if the wreath is double sided.


Double Axis, if a view is pretty in 1 direction it must be pretty in the opposite direction.
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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.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.
.
Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Garden Design: Bedroom Axis

Try this for your interior tabletop design.  The largest piece...outside.


If there is another window in the room, I swoon.
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You do know about rooms with windows on 2 walls?  We are hardwired for them in our DNA.  Christopher Alexander,    A Pattern Language, describes the architecture our souls desire & thrive best with.  
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Ginger Barber, above, decorating.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic Ginger Barber found at Cote de Texas.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Where to Site a Garden Focal Point

In the garden, your house is the main focal point.
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For centuries, this, below, has worked.

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If something has worked for centuries, there is a reason.
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And, it will work for you.
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Urn on plinth.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Never had a college instructor or seminar speaker say, In the garden your home is the focal point.
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Why?
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What did those 'experts' miss?  Paint colors on the home, lighting, hardware, views into windows, style choices, where to correctly site exterior focal points.  For starters.
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Most common question I receive, Where should I put this plant?
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If only that were the question.
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Garden design is about where to put a plant?
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Hardly.
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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

How to Site a Focal Point

Chunky hunka aged concrete, below, is a railroad abutment ca. 1900, found in the garden.


Perfect for a plinth it was easy to place.  It's on perfect axis with the dominate gable of the house, below.


When something requires a Caterpillar to move, perfection is required.
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Driving the Caterpillar he says, Are you really sure?  These moments are amusing.  Of course I'm sure.  His eyes say, Glad I'm not you.  This is my job.  KNOWING where things go.
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Ironically, the urn is temporary.  We are still sourcing the right statue.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic last weekend at the jobsite.

Saturday, October 5, 2013

How to Choose a Design Direction: Before/After

You know what to do, below, of course?  Extreme rustic requires extreme


formal, below.  Contrast is one of the sharpest arrows in your quiver.


Of course an allee was needed between the Chicken Coop & Long Barn toward the Pole Barn.


For added formality Crape Myrtle standards were chosen along with espaliered sasanquas, below.


 Not quite before/after pics, pairs of urns not sited correctly and another 2 years of maturity needed.
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Path is wide enough to set up small round dinner tables during parties or a harvest table with twinkle lites in the Crape Myrtle canopy.
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Are you doing this?  Design your garden to enjoy in the fullness of life.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics last month at a jobsite.  Wish you could have seen the heirloom turkey trying to get rid of me while taking these pics.
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Contrast won't steer you wrong and keeps you from ever being 'stuck' on a direction.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

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.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

A Path

Looking into the street, below.  Without my garden 5-6 homes would be visible, 2 streets + stop sign.


Looking into the path, above, from the street, below.


Yesterday, someone said about my garden , "You cannot walk in it."
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Perhaps this day you aren't meant to walk in my garden.  Its narrative stepping from metaphor caressing the spirit.
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Going within, and to my garden, to do Jung's universal, "Our lives are about getting our outside to match our inside."
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How can you not see, my garden lets me fly to realms not meant to be walked.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics shot in my garden yesterday.



Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Is Your Garden 'Art' on the Wall?

Every garden view should be 'art' on the wall.


2+ decades ago I visited a garden in Greensboro, NC with every window view taken into consideration.  Every window.
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Again, something learned from an 'uncredentialed' gardener changing the direction, forever, of how I design landscapes.  Not once during college did any instructor mention being inside a client's home to design a garden correctly.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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pic via Castles, Crowns & Cottages.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Front Porch: Long & Narrow

Placing table + chairs at the 'L' of a porch must be in the helix of our DNA.


The web has enough pictures to fill a seductive hardcover coffee table book.


 At the opposite end of the porch, above, more seduction, below.




Places to read, serve a meal, have conversation a basic trinity for your porch.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pics shot last month on Susanne Hudson's porch.  A field gathered collection of furniture with a tight trinity of color: green, brown, white.  Comfort oozes in her still life's.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Covershot Garden Design

Gardens must have rooms which includes halls, foyers, parlors, and the roundabout, below.


Leaning left, below, at the roundabout.


Leaning right at the roundabout, below.


In the roundabout, below, turned & shooting back.  What is this called?  Double Axis.


Same hydrangea, above/below, a few days apart.


Same roundabout, below, different axis.


See your garden thru the camera.  More, see your garden in February thru the camera.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics this month in Susanne Hudson's garden.
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Where today, in your garden, can you take covershot pics?  No?   Why live that way?  
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Yesterday, late afternoon, fuse to my Conservatory blew.  Tried all the breakers, no go.  Immediate call to 'my guys'.  One will be here today.  It is not too much to ask that Conservatory chandelier & lamps light my days & nites on view from every angle I live. 

Monday, June 24, 2013

Double Axis & Before/After

With a view, below, you must be able to turn around


and have an equally fabulous view, below.  Double Axis.



Had the good fortune to visit Susanne Hudson's garden again a few days after this pic, below, was shot.


Without the roses peaking, below, the arbor resumed its status as Focal Point.


Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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All pics shot this month.  Created a garden this weekend and put in one of these arbors, above.  With pendant lite.  We'll use a historic fence template too but one with a bit more privacy.  We won't use white, they already have a delicious dark putty color on their home.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Conservatory: Multiple Axis

Near the door of Susanne Hudson's conservatory, below.


And her great garden pun, below.  A plant in the conservatory!  As if.  What?  As if the Conservatory were for plants.  Ridiculous.


The same lamp, below, from a different axis.


Another axis, below.


Same hydrangea, below, different day.  Heavy rains in the interim.


The more axis a focal point has the more successful the Garden Design.
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One of the best arrows in your quiver.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken in Susanne Hudson's garden this month.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

What's the View from Your Porch Door?

Diffusing the view, Kimberly Queen, below.  Tolerates full baking sun or part shade, and she's not a shaggy mess unlike the Boston fern.


On perfect axis with the porch door, below, she diffuses the view in too.  Aka, double axis.


The lattice?  Regular, common, off the shelf, a disaster for any home but, in context, understandable here.  This home was rescued and is the Cultural Arts Center in Douglasville, Georgia.
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Back to the lattice.  For pennies more special order panels with thicker wood slats, they look custom.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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The fern stand is real, and almost a century old.  Been decades since it held a fern.  Pics taken earlier this month at the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival in Douglasville, GA.