Showing posts with label Stone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stone. Show all posts

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Retaining Wall Lust

Have your eyes & brain accepted this, below? 
 Aside from lust pure astonishment.  This retaining wall is hidden away in the family parking court.  That murdering Roman thing with stone building slaves ca. 1 BCE, then the poverty cycle with the bricks.  Later, much later.  But here it all is, in narrative.  Mine.
 Another chapter to the story, below, at the end of the retaining wall.  Tuscan hillside, fieldstone steps are Jane Austen rusticities.

Framing my lust, below,  relative to the house.  Steps & hillside look as if they were there, leftover from some ancient Roman volcano.  Vesuvius, 79 ad?
 She, the owner, waylayed me.  Oh no, ick.   Grabbing my right arm in both her hands saying, "I'm taking you to the Bellsouth room."  I had no time for this, so deeply involved in my lust for the retaining wall, fieldstone steps, & garden.  Outwardly nice, inwardly thinking how to get away.  Get back to her garden. 
 She marched straight here, above, my arm still in her hands.  "Isn't this the greatest spot?  I love looking at it and go to the bench often, have you ever seen steps like this,  &....."
 My attitude went 180.  Couldn't get enough of her.  That bench?  Of course I hadn't seen it from terrace level.  The bench overlooks the 18th hole of a PGA yearly stop.  
Portion of the Bellsouth room, above.  We paid it 'no mind' as Neil Diamond would sing.  I was in girl-crush as we walked the rest of her house & grounds spilling life stories, work, men, spirit. 
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pics taken at my lecture venue last weekend.  Love how conversations flow with women amongst my tribe.  How did EM Forster know us so well?

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Wickedly Neo-Unprepossessing

Across Europe the best gardens, with attenuated home of course, invite you thru a neo-unprepopressing entry.
 Arriving, above, I knew it was a carriage house or guest cottage.  How?  They told me I would lecture in the porte-cochere.  Executed to perfection, below right. 
 Whoever owned the estate HAD ME at the curb. 
 In the porte-cochere, above.
The bench is a metaphor for the house and garden.  Detailed, quality, elegant, enduring, comfortable, welcoming.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Did my 4 lectures in 2 days last weekend in the porte-cochere, at Sugarloaf Country Club Garden Tour & Boat Show.  This house & garden donated proceeds to Mothers & Daughters Against Cancer.  Of course I have more pics for you.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Somethings Gotta Give A Secret Garden Path

Can you see the flagstone path below?

 This type of path is also good at making small lawns appear larger
 This house is perfectly the movie house, Somethings Gotta Give, except, below.
Front entry step is too narrow & out of scale with the home.
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This is what I've been hired for.  Their house is perfection in all other details.
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Did you observe this house was a 1950's ranch?  IT WAS.  Architect blew it up & out.  Will ask permission to get interior pics next time I'm on site. 
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken last month.  Will change a few of the foundation plantings.  They were installed to help sell the house.  Over planted and need constant pruning otherwise they will mature bigger than the house.  Not a novel issue.   

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Stone Step At The Frontdoor

We only needed a bit of a step, below.
 With great joy we found the perfect stone
on site.
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It speaks of rivers, dinosaurs, time.
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Landscape Jewelry for sure.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pic taken at a jobsite last week.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Placing Cobblestone Edging

No matter how many times, below,
 my guys create a new gravel parking court with
 cobblestone edging it feels like
a new book has begun.
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I feel something tangible with gravel & cobblestones, laid with love, appreciated in form, used for function.  As if a spirit were created to nurture those in its new, yet, ancient realm.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pics taken last month.  This incredible man, pulls a line, uses a level, does it right each time.  No matter he's done it for decades.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Door Statement

Over a decade ago I designed a garden for a town home in Ansley Park.
Doors, almost exactly as above, led into a tiny bricked back garden.
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All of the town homes had the same back doors into their garden.
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Most owners removed their gorgeous doors to renovate & 'update'.
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My client had her fabulous doors.  Yes, we commiserated over the loss of the other doors.  How the 'updated' doors ruined the entire look of the small, but choice, town home community.  How we really didn't like 'those' people.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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A delight to be be reminded of the Ansley Park doors with this image via pinterest.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

How Tiny Landscape Rooms Live BIG

Paley Park, New York City, NY, below, via.
A tiny landscape living BIG.
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I've pondered why some little landscapes, including  mine, live HUGE.
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Yes, seriously, I've pondered & mulled & considered & strained to figure it out.
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It's the sky.
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With little space you still have infinite ownership of the sky.
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Use it.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Have seen Paley Park, in pics, several times thru the years.  Takes my heart each time.  Perhaps I'll get there some day!  Thank you Janelle McCulloch Library Of Design for posting this garden haven.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

How To Place Stones

A pair of stones is the minimum, below.
 One stone reaching for the sky, one representing earth.
When these ridges were made, above, continents hadn't split.  The Atlantic Ocean was in the future.
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Seeing the lichens knowing they have no vascular system.
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These stones were sited before my friend moved into her Hayesville, NC home.  The builder obviously a Stone Whisperer.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Friday, October 7, 2011

Sir Roy Strong & Mirabel Osler

Sir Roy Strong & Mirabel Osler will be in conversation
October 19, 2011, Castle House Hotel.
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Both Strong & Osler are authors of  "life, gardens and travel."
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Please, go, if you can & put it all on YouTube for me/me/me.
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Look closely at the path, above.   Melts my heart.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pic & more information via Hereford Times.  A garden nerd I have Sir Roy Strong on google alerts.  Monty Don too.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Stone In Your Landscape

Rose Tarlow, below, interior decorator, furniture designer & a master with stone in the garden. It's a rare landscape that cannot benefit from a tree trunk base & stone top. Tom Wilhite's book, below. Amazing how many of my clients already have this book at our first appointment. If you're thinking of DIY with stone, or not, this book is for you. Buy it here.
Sir Hardy Amies garden in England, below. With stone this good it would be difficult to get the plantings wrong.
Stone Mountain, GA, below. Nature's stone. Teaching stone. The wildflower, front of pic, growing on the stone, Mother Nature's patience adapting a root system/foliage/flower to growing in shade with trace amounts of soil & less water.
Then there is Michael Eckerman. His ideas in stone
changed mine.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Top pic via Rose Tarlow, bottom pic via Michael Eckerman.
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All about STONE today with Garden Designers Roundtable.
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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

A Slope In Italy: Drystack Stone

Olive trees sold long ago. These stones have retained this slope for centuries. No mortar.A new Drystack Stone wall begun by a recent DIY client.
Copy brilliance, I do.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Cannot wait for my client to finish their wall & send a pic.
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A previous contractor told me (with attitude), at a jobsite, this type of wall could not be built, "It has to be mortared." Should have quit using him with that job. But he was young & I thought I was mentoring. Alas. Months later 2 women clients (they don't know each other) called me in the same week, using the same word, misogynist, about this contractor. I'm sure he's missing my referrals.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Landscape Design: Copy

Tea Olive Terrace, below, yesterday morning, pic taken from my upstairs office window.
Why shouldn't I copy what I loved while studying landscapes in Italy? Copy, it's a rule of Landscape Design.
No money & no time are no match for DESIRE. (Tea Olive Terrace, aka side-yard, abuts the street. Private, gorgeous, emotionally enthralling EVERYDAY.)
English Daisy's blooming, annual blue ageratum will bloom late summer, rudbeckia fulgida x fulgida, yellow, bloom now till Christmas.
In Italy, above, this week. Nothing I don't have in a 'working class' cluster home subdivision in USA.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Bottom pic from Paul Gervais in Italy. Enjoy his blog, I do !.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Landscape Design Zero Plants: Before & After


Landscapes take 3 + years to look good, on average. Most gardens get stuck in the '+'.
Unfinished, this garden is ready for showtime. Those pallets of stone, above, MAKE the garden, below. Ha, no plants, yet a garden is born. Why?

Landscape Design 'listens' to the site.
The biggest focal point in a garden? Your home. Vanishing Threshold.
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Consider: paint colors, light fixtures, shutters, doors, views into windows, turning windows into doors, getting rid of disgusting foundation plantings, pathways to move the eye + foot thru your garden, land stewardship, how to be in the garden for pleasure (tea-wine-canapes-luncheon-reading ipad-etc.), historical concepts of landscape design, thriftiness, no watering once established, no chemicals ever, no fertilizing once organically stabilized, groundcovers instead of mulch, succession planting, something coming into bloom throughout the year, canopy trees, understory trees, evergreen walls, & more.
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Consider all of the above & you won't wait 3 years, or 3 seconds, for a beautiful garden.
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Proof is in the pics above.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Look at the new frontdoor again. See what I did? Took out the transom, replaced with a taller door. Getting rid of that subdivisiony horrendous aspect, ca. 1970's, of windows/door at same height. Guess how we chose the color for the frontdoor? (Another post.)
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Eco Gardening is a SMALL concept. Vanishing Threshold is how I create a garden.
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(Puppet Barbuda has zero attitude, she's all PUPPET'ude !)

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Landscape Design Perfection: Sir Hardy Amies

I took this pic in the Cotswolds in Sir Hardy Amies garden.A complete landscape design course, in one picture.
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Looks easy, can you do it?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Money is not a criteria. Rescued plants, rescued hardscape & etc..... Yes, you can do this.

Monday, March 14, 2011

This Garden & Its Mistress

Carriage house, fescue, boxwoods, pair of elms, stone wall/stone terrace/steps, below, all new, perhaps 12 minutes old in the pic.
Client is successful, headstrong, bold, smart, athletic, spiritual, demanding, puckish.
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Today she is in a hospital bed unable to move or speak.
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Before surgery she directed her brother to finish her landscape with us.
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My hope & prayer? In addition to complete recovery, I want to hear her ask: why those boxwoods are 6" off, why didn't you get bigger elms, why isn't the potager edged with dwarf boxwood, why aren't existing boxwoods-in-pots sited & etc.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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This story, this incredible woman, has dug itself in. She's in my prayers.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Finally, Fabulous Fake Stone

Cobblestones, below. Manufactured by Belgard.Flagstone, below. Manufactured by Belgard.
Finally.
Fake stone that isn't crap.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Poppets this isn't only aesthetics. Think cost savings with uniformity of materials. I've NEVER used Belgard. This year? They changed my mind !! No, Belgard did not pay me, or ask me, to mention their products.
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Alas, Belgard still uses old fashioned photography in their sales literature. Don't let it scare you.
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Horrendously, Belgard still uses the equivalent of avocado refrigerator/shag carpet/pink Sunbeam mixer for exterior furniture styling with their sales literature. Don't let it scare you.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Materials Indicate Movement

Parking at the left with concrete block/gravel, enter the home at stones + wood steps, driving lane of cubed stone/gravel.Stone at doorway, below.
Concrete blocks/gravel for parking, below.
Cubed stone/gravel, below, for roads.
And, below,
they look great together.
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Did you notice something FABULOUS? Each is water permeable.
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Nice to pull onto these surfaces & hear their bit of crunch and feel their texture under your tires.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics from Mixson, my project in Charleston, SC.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Create Magic At Each FRISSON

FRISSON's are potent. Do you see this one?FRISSON's, done well, create magic.
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Transitioning mortared steps to a step set in dirt is a FRISSON. Sure, I could have designed all the steps with mortar but I wanted a more exciting FRISSON (and this path is not a high traffic area).
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Consider each FRISSON in your landscape. Where: potager meets woodland, turf meets flowering shrub border, house meets garden, terrace meets Tara Turf, path meets pond & etc........
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken during construction in a client's backyard last month. Client is DIY with some of the plantings, dwarf mondo will be planted between the stones set in dirt.
Andre Breton, photographer-poet-writer-surrealist theorist-expert on Soviet Modernist architecture was the one drawing my mind, via his photography, to the importance of FRISSON. Gertrude Jekyll was big on the FRISSON.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Front Porch: Before & After

3 decades of ugly, below, a single step to the front door & porch. A limitation to the eye & foot. Remove the limitation, below, open the porch to proper scale.
The new terrace caresses the porch on the left, below, and
right, below.
A new front door, paint colors & light fixtures are next. Of course the downspouts will be
painted Sherwin-Williams Best Bronze. Look again at the dreadful white downspouts.
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Stay tuned, there is furniture for the flagstone terrace and plantings to go in.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken last week. Can't wait to see this finished project. We've done a stone terrace in the backyard too and a neo-rondel in the orchard.