Showing posts with label England. Show all posts
Showing posts with label England. Show all posts

Monday, October 12, 2009

CECIL BEATON & CELIA THAXTER

Dear Cecil photographed his conservatory, below. At first glance I thought it was an 'illumination' by Childe Hassam.
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Then I locked eyes on the Blue/White mixed with terra cotta & wicker. A trinity that will never go out of style. A trinity I've used consistently, Ha, thinking it was original.
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Childe Hassam has pictures and illuminations throughout, An Island Garden, by Celia Thaxter.
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"He who is born with a silver spoon in his mouth is generally considered a fortunate person, but his good fortune is small compared to that of the happy mortal who enters this world with a passion for flowers in his soul." Celia Thaxter.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic from Architectural Digest Celebrity Home, 1977, via, Mrs. Blandings.

Friday, October 9, 2009

POT CLUSTER

Castles to cottages, throughout Europe, you'll see pot clusters. Rather a lot, above. Sometimes it's a single pot, but wow, in that single pot is something Of-The-Moment-Fabulous.
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Don't you love gravel upholstering the ground? I'm not a fan of ornamental grass but here it's done with palpable magnificence.
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Tiny, this landscape, and erudite.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Thank you Krystol for this pic from England.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

DOUBLE AXIS IN YOUR LANDSCAPE

If you have a focal point bench in your landscapeyou must be able to sit in the bench and see another focal point. Double Axis.
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My invention, Double Axis. Realizing all the best gardens have it. And. Yes, dahlings, more. The more axis views a focal point has the better it is.
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From the house, above, you see an Enfilade to the focal point bench. From the bench, above, you see an Enfilade to the focal point house/terrace/urns.
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Isn't it amazing how one line in a garden looks like 2 gardens when viewed in opposite directions?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Thank you Krystol for your English pics.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

OVERDOSE YOUR THEME

Choose a theme for your landscape and overdose on it. French? Cottage? Conifer? Perennials? Italian? Native? Color? Historical? Japanese? Victorian? Chinoiserie? Focal Point Axis? Paths + Entries? Mid-Century Modern? Lutyens? Jekyll? Vanishing Threshold? Mediterranean? Desert? ??????????
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My frontdoor, above. Victorian doorknocker a gift from SHIPMEN while they worked in Malta.
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Yellow? It works well with my red brick which has too much disgusting orange. Painted over previous incarnation, Williamsburg blue. Playing with a chinoiserie pattern. Thought I would paint over the chinoiserie pattern the day it was done. Instead, years later it remains.
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Does your frontdoor tell me who you are?
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A frontdoor does not have to be painted your shutter color.
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What color should your frontdoor be?
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Choose from your artwork, wall paper, fabrics. Make sure the color works with the exterior colors of your house.
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"Our lives are about getting the outside to match the inside." Jung
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My theme? Very English!!
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Friday, August 28, 2009

LANDSCAPE DESIGN WITH A ROUNDABOUT

Roundabouts, below, are the 2nd most common landscape design conceit. After Enfilades. Roundabouts add drama where 2 paths meet. Above, you can walk straight past the urn or make a right/left angle turn.
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Not low maintenance, above? The urn, Queen's Pot, doesn't need to be planted. Perennials? Compost them & plant flowering shrubs. Turf? Create Tara Turf or rip it out & put in flagstones with creeping thyme in the cracks. (Shade? Plant dwarf mondo in the cracks.) Flagstones too expensive? Use #89 granite gravel.
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Turn the Roundabout, above, into an Enfilade? Removed plinth from urn. Place bench or small summer house at far stone wall. Voila, you've made an Enfilade from a Roundabout.

Note: Paths, above, are hallways. Roundabout, above, is a foyer. Enfilade to fictional bench or summer house is a living room.
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Honestly, this landscape design stuff is simply moving the couches & chairs & tables about.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Thursday, August 27, 2009

LANDSCAPE FOR DOGS

Wickedly delightful dogs, below, at Chatsworth in England. By the front door this window tells you who lives here, Vanishing Threshold. Before entering the frontdoor, below, entering Chatsworth by bus.
Water For Dogs? Chatsworth had my heart before my feet hit the ground.
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Perhaps you know Chatsworth from the movie, The Duchess, with Keira Knightly & Ralph Fiennes. They portrayed the Duke & Duchess of Devonshire, whose home was Chatsworth.
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Chatsworth was home to one of the world's most celebrated Head Gardeners, Paxton. That is the movie I want to see. Paxton & The Duke.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

POT OF POTS

Perfect pots? They are so wonderful they can be empty. No fan of CUTE in the landscape. Wit, charm, style are attractive, classic, intellectual.
IT'S WHAT WE DO WITH WHAT WE HAVE.

In England last January at Whichford Pottery. Do you know what it feels like to be in an English pottery yard, nearing sunset, snapping pics and needing to get to the cashier before she shuts it down? What did I buy? Cane toppers. Know what they are?
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Will keep you in suspense until I've taken pics of them in my garden. Bought some years ago at Great Dixter too.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

FEEDING THE MUSE

Designing landscapes is science & poetry. After college I thought science would be enough. Ha. Science is easy. It's the poetry I'm after. When the Muse is not fed what remains is science.
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Feeding the Muse? Books, music, travel, pets, movies, friends, collage, gardening, spirit & serendipity.
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A shortcut, 3-4 seconds by car. This stern building, below, variously abandoned or occupied thru the years, feeds the Muse. Building, meadow, trees, all delight. Its current incarnation redolent of its caretakers.

Many years pass with debris & unkempt trees/bushes. Not now. The motivation is a belief in God.

The delight, in a city of millions, of trees-mosses-broomsedge-more caressing the side of my car at road's edge. This is the extent of the woodland & road.
Taking me back to Europe, each time I travel the road, of the many church's I've seen maintained with sweat equity vs. money.



There are no graves at the Flat Rock Primitive Baptist Church, what a name, but there are sacraments in the ground, below. Perfect atonement of roots-soil-moss-lichens-more.

Taking these pictures and seeing for the 1st time lace curtains. Hung with love.

Someone keeps the grounds clear as has been done in Europe for centuries. Seeing human spirit, not lack of landscape or architecture. Its very lack creating richness.

Seeing, above, in this side of the church another church and its side, below.


Flat Rock Primitive Baptist Church hasn't the provenance of the church, above, but it does.


At its base, a crown of lichens. Atonement: building-man-earth-spirit.
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Exactly the job of a landscape design, atonement of home-garden-earth-life.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T

Friday, June 5, 2009

GROW A ROOM

Why build an arbor room in the garden when all it takes is 8 trees? I would choose more comfortable furniture.
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Easy to do this with 6' trees. Perhaps fruit trees, or redbuds, from Wal-Mart when they go on sale? Sooooooo much cheaper than building a wooden structure, which will never bloom. Flagstone terrace, comfy furniture and DONE.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Another pic I took last January while lecturing in England.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

TEA & PEE or PEE & TEA?

Always, but always, take the tea&scones option when touring European landscapes. You'll experience more axis in the landscape. Life is good when the sign, below, greets you. Your biggest decision of the day will be, Do I tea first or pee first? Really good days include this decision 2-3 times. Did you know scones on a garden tour in Europe have ZERO calories?


Stopping in quaint villages, for lunch, en route to more gardens requires an action plan. Choose food you can eat from your hands while walking. This will get you into every junk shop, thrift store and antiques purveyor in a tiny village.
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If you're really serious about lunchtime shopping stash food & napkins in your pockets. All of your time will be spent traipsing junk shops and getting pics.
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But of course darlings, I took the pic, above, in England last January while lecturing. Eating & walking in this Cotswolds village I came away empty from the shops but did get some pics.
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Frivolous? No, it's part of wringing every moment from a study tour of landscapes in Europe.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

DOUBLE AXIS: SINGLE SHOT

DOUBLE AXIS: if you have a focal point bench, below, you must have a focal point to view while sitting on the bench. If you have a focal point folly, below, you must have a focal point to view while in the folly. DOUBLE AXIS is a Tara Landscape Design Rule. It's also my invention. I shot this DOUBLE AXIS at Bodnant Garden in North Wales.
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The DOUBLE AXIS, above, is also an ENFILADE. A view thru to a view. From the bench, or folly, your view is across lawn, over pond, thru a double flowering shrub/perennial border.
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Studying historical landscapes gave me the DOUBLE AXIS epiphany. Also, my mentor, Margaret Moseley. She's now 92 years old. Wherever you go in her garden it's a double axis.
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Spanning 2 decades of symposia + college degree I've never heard anyone lecture about creating the DOUBLE AXIS or ENFILADE.
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Yes, I am this nerdy. DOUBLE AXIS + ENFILADE have been in plain view for centuries. It is incredibly satisfying to isolate them as important functions of landscape design. And don't give me the, I-don't-have-money-for-it, routine. Visit my landscape or scroll backward in this blog to see pics of my garden. I do my own gardening and my budget, ah well that's a laugh. An important laugh. If I can do DOUBLE AXIS + ENFILADES on my minuscule budget,

YOU CAN.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

THE QUEEN'S POT

Do you think this is an empty pot? At Glamis Castle, Scotland I wandered away from the group in the garden. A meadow & copse beckoned. Honestly, I thought it was off limits. Raising the siren call.
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Of course I went. Stopping first and investigating an area labeled, DO NOT ENTER. More about that happy adventure another day. On to the copse.
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In the frisson of meadow & copse, a pot. Tall, on a plinth. Big, you could bathe in it. Old, mortals could never afford it. Royalty? Obviously. And, GLORIOUSLY EMPTY.
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The pot was permission, YES, COME INTO MY LOVELY WOOD. I discovered an arboretum with every tree labeled and mature. I was walking in the pages of a picture book.
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No one from my group ventured into the copse. Those elegant trees were mine alone. One of the happiest moments of my life. This is when/where I invented, THE QUEEN'S POT.
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Tara's landscape design rule: your pots must be so incredible they can remain empty.
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Yesterday's snow & my Queen's Pot out the bay window.
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You can't bathe in her but she's bruised some men !
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Saturday, February 28, 2009

WHAT INSPIRES & WHAT BORES

Vanishing threshold landscapes inspire me.
House, garden & life in perfect accord.
.......... INSPIRATION. Botanical garden glass houses BORE me when I'm in them. But their pictures resonate, later.
You can pick up a few ideas. Pots on a roof, above.

A dramatic display template to copy, above.
I wanted to go down the stairwell to see the heating system. No Entry...said the silly sign.

The path, above, shouting, Walk Thru & Go Away.
.................The inspirational picture, top, shouting, Stay--Enjoy Life.

Everyone 'WALKING THRU'. No invitation to STAY. Darling, this is BORING.

Enjoying the mechanics of drainage more than the expensively glassed conservatory landscape.

Ok, I was seduced by some curves!

Nice, above, but it's landscape design boredom.

Mechanical jewelry, above. A crank to open the glass roof. Who was the man placing beauty into its function?

In the States it's rare to see a beautifully pruned hedge, above.

Curves, above, are sumptuous simplicity.

Opposite side of sumptuous simplicity, above, amusement park chic.
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Have you noticed homes with AMUSEMENT PARK CHIC LANDSCAPES aren't really homes with a gardener?
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Have you noticed homes with SUMPTUOUS SIMPLICITY LANDSCAPES are the home of an exquisite gardener?
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Oh my, how quickly I traveled from What Inspires & What Bores, to, The Sacred & The Profane.
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Often, I have to 'SELL' clients less than they ask for.
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Steering away from elements of AMUSEMENT PARK CHIC. Knowing we all go thru the landscape design archetypes..............
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Yes, I'll write more of these things later.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
Top pic via Euro Antique Market, remaining pics I took at Kew last month

Friday, February 27, 2009

VANISHING THRESHOLD: POTS ON ROOFS

Does it get any better than pots on roofs? What fabulously crazed person thought it up?
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Life is better living in a home with roof top pots-urns-finials, did you know?
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Enfilade = View from inside conservatory to outside architecture to landscape beyond.
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Pic from Kew taken last month during my lecture tour.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T

Thursday, February 26, 2009

LATE VICTORIAN COLOR

Walking in London last month I saw this. Late Victorian tiles. Who knew? COLOR! PERMISSION! From curb to center of your house, vanishing threshold. Color, style, theme, intelligence, wit.
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Weedy looking 'weed' edging the path is Forget-Me-Not. Pure SOPHISTICATION.
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Can you imagine the blue blossoms spilling along the edge of the path? Calendar Shot.....
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This morning, watching the dawn thru my baywindow, I glanced up from reading the NYTimes. 'Oh my gosh, the sky is the same color as those pathway tiles in London.'
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A color splash lasting moments but still transmitting serotonins-dopamine-crack thru neural pathways.
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Does color affect you this way?

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

A WINTER LANDSCAPE--A LITTLE HOWARD'S END

Enter as I did. A gap in the hedge. No hint of what lies beyond. Curious? Standing in the gap, seeing a charming garden. A small Howard's End.
Echoes of the frontdoor................
.......in the back wall of the summer house.

More evergreen hedges, below, leading where? Mystery. A potager? Clothesline? Chaise lounge for sunning nude?

Flagstone terrace, not lawn, at the house. Extending the house.
This house doesn't have a back. Each side is delightful.
Lead horse trough now a rain butt.
All the sticks & browns soon to become blossoms, calendar shots.
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Winter's bleak chic more important than the ease of spring/summer blowzy caresses.
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I didn't want to leave this Howard's End-a new clip- world-life-feeling-energy-joy.
This dirt path is landscape design brilliance. A feeling of the country in the city & cementing the idea of being in another garden room. Leaving the garden through another gap in the hedge. Tara's Golden Circle: the ability to enter/leave a garden room through 2 or more doorways. A little design trick I observed in the best of old landscapes.
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This landscape is a several hour design class but you're busy. Thanks for taking the time to walk in the garden with me.
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I shot these pics last month at the Birmingham England Botanic Garden.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T