Chickens Designed the Classic Potager

Originally designed without the low hedges, below, merely four corners accented with boxwood & a gravel path.

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A small patch to grow cut flowers.

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What went wrong?

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Chickens.

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Centuries of gardens with low evergreen hedges, especially in the potager.

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Not a design conceit, a design function, to keep the chickens out.

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Decades spent thinking the little hedges were there to be 'cute'.

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No.  And there arrived another lesson in humility with Garden Design.

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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

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Pic taken in client garden.  We learned this lesson together.

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Providence was well pleased with us to teach a lesson in humility so humbly.

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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

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Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

.

NOTE to my gardening friends... look for changes to come. 

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.'   Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

.

Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'.  Saved the article for a year before reading it.  Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

.

Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0.  A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life.  Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact.  Signed up  for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow. 

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Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method.  Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix.
.

What do YOU want?

.

Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

.

Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Just so you know... 
 I  welcome your input.

Microbiomes: Doctor Designed Landscapes

Contrast.  A potent Landscape Design tool.

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Green foliage next to chartreuse foliage, spikey flowers with round flowers, etc.

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This wall of the orchard, below, faces the house & formal lawn.  Its gates, I knew, had to be formal to the point of being jewels.

Another wall of the orchard, below, faces a gravel drive and several barns.  This had to be a rustic gate for saving steps & time.  Both gates are custom, and each received detailed vision questing.

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Beautiful easy landscapes created from my Landscape Design formula are based upon decades of study across Europe of centuries old gardens.

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My heart is on my sleeve about these gardens, every ounce of brain-spirit-effort in trinity as a moth to flame.

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These gardens, le jardin rustique, I realized decades after discovery are profoundly greater than their beauty.

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Science is catching up to their performance.  Beyond the obvious of less maintenance, no chemicals/fertilizers to poison soil/water, beauty increasing property values, shade/sun to reduce HVAC, and the less obvious of greater pollinator habitat, they are home to the microbiome our bodies evolved with.

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"We humans have more than 20,000 different genes. Recently, we've learned that the bacteria that live on and in us have 5 to 8 million genes. Do the math: The microbes on and in us have nearly 400 times more genes than we do! The genes of all those bacteria and other microbes are collectively called the "microbiome." Genes of the microbiome make proteins that enter our bodies and affect our body chemistry." Dr. Anthony Komaroff

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Those homeowner association rules about landscapes?  Killing us, literally, and the microbiomes we need to thrive.

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As a native American Indian said more than a century ago, once the white man has strung his phone lines across this land he will cease to live and merely exist.  Perhaps he inherently knew, that existence would be shorter and more sickly in body as well as mind.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Pics taken at jobsite last week.

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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.

.

NOTE to my gardening friends... look for changes to come. 

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.'   Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

.

Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'.  Saved the article for a year before reading it.  Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

.

Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0.  A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life.  Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact.  Signed up  for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow. 

.

Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method.  Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix.
.

What do YOU want?

.

Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

.

Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Just so you know... 
 I  welcome your input.

Sir Roy Strong: Temper Tantrum + Bon Mot

An odd thing has happened with my favorite living garden designer, Sir Roy Strong.

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His garden has been turned down by the National Trust.

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He's having a public temper tantrum.  Which I thought he would have been too smart to contemplate.

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Worse, a more recent picture of his garden, The Laskett, was incredibly Hodge-Podge-Lodge.

Sir Roy Strong is on my Google words list, and this morning proved delicious.

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Lavender's Blue wrote about,  The Irish Georgian society + Island Hall Godmanchester, including this bon mot, " At least we didn't have to resort to flowers!", from Sir Roy Strong.

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Exactly.

Pics, above, from the article, prove, No-Flowers-Needed.

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Until reading the article, and seeing the bridge, above, I was unaware my life was bereft of a rococo Chinese Bridge.

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However, saying, "I need a rococo Chinese Bridge", aloud, feeds the soul as a poem.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Of course gardens need flowers, however, if a garden design must include masses of showy annual flowers & sweeping perennial borders to lift it above the mundane, it is a failure.

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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.

.

NOTE to my gardening friends... look for changes to come. 

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.'   Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

.

Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'.  Saved the article for a year before reading it.  Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

.

Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0.  A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life.  Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact.  Signed up  for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow. 

.

Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method.  Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix.
.

What do YOU want?

.

Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

.

Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Just so you know... 
 I  welcome your input.

Renovating a Landscape: Before - After

A jobsite desk this week, below.

New homeowners bought the 30+ year old home/garden last year.

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Gut renovation.

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Sadly, previous owner let the landscape degrade into majority invasives.

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Had to use the Caterpillar to remove them.  Dumpster in the driveway hauled them off.

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After clearing, below, silt fencing added, topsoil was brought in & contoured, irrigation ditches dug.

Fescue sod, below, chosen to match the historical theme of the home's renovation.

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Beyond the new #89 gravel path, below, is a stream.  A destination.

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Where margins meet, drama reigns.  Here it's formality of lawn, rustication of path, and finally, wild wood.

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Kitchen view, below,  Foundation for the Summer House was built into the modest swale.  Neighbor's rainwater had flooded the back yard for decades.  15 minutes work with man/Caterpillar, water flows in desirable watershed management to the stream.

 There is an order to installing landscapes.  Here: clearing, contouring, placing paths/edging/gravel, laying sod, next, plantings.
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Another view from the kitchen, below.

 Homeowner chose white for the home.  Cannot wait for that phase to be completed.  My Landscape Design included French doors from the terrace level, into the garden, plywood, bottom right, Of course a few windows and bricks had to be knocked out.  Ironically, husbands think a Landscape Designer will waste their money on 'flowers'.  The force-of-Tara is quickly realized when they see I've knocked holes into their home.  Big holes.  Flowers, indeed.  One must see flowers easily, and get to them freely.

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Cobblestone edging is used nearer the home, rustic rubbles further away in the Wild Wood.

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Crazed week with this project.  Client panicked during the process.

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Once the invasives were gone she wanted groundcovers to be planted first.  No.  Will trample them to oblivion with equipment/materials if that is done first.  "Oh."

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Truly panicked.  It's ok.  The process is older than Christ's birth, no voodoo.  A scientific template.  Trying to direct men/equipment/materials, client created great angst for herself, and my team.

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Every delay created, men/equipment standing idle, cash register bells rang, good weather fading.  Hence our angst.

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Finally, when the bones of the garden, above, went in, her panic eased.  She could 'see'.  Their was a method to all the men, machine, materials, dirt.

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Cannot wait for her next changes to the landscape installation.  They will arise from context, not panic.

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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

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Pics taken this week.

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.

.

NOTE to my gardening friends... look for changes to come. 

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.'   Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

.

Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'.  Saved the article for a year before reading it.  Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

.

Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0.  A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life.  Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact.  Signed up  for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow. 

.

Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method.  Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix.
.

What do YOU want?

.

Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

.

Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Just so you know... 
 I  welcome your input.

Historic Design: David Hicks Door

We could do anything, below, at this portion of the Orchard wall.

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Money was not the hunt.

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Creating a historic garden is the decadence.

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Nearby, century old fig bushes were thriving at Long Barn.

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Overdose on a Theme, was the design rule followed.  

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Notice the 1st major choice, before the figs?

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Tara Turf.  Vintage meadow, and pollinator habitat, increasing yields of any crop grown.

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Another design choice, below ?  No cobblestone/brick edging.  Meadow meeting gravel.

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First design choice was siting the brick orchard walls & choosing dimensions on axis with a gable of the home.

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Once I saw how close this corner, below, was to the gravel drive, 'I knew'.

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Perfect element of 'wonky', imperfectly perfect.

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Parent fig bushes, below, to the cuttings taken, above, almost died last winter.

This near-kill, above, was too close.  The relief of having taken the cuttings is huge.
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Historically digging, the client learned farmers commonly planted fruit bearing trees/bushes in odd places about their land.  Micro-climates are the difference between death & thriving.  Not only to the fruiting plants but sometimes for livestock & people.  May those days never return.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Pics taken at jobsite this month.  Door, above, copied from David Hick's garden.  Another garden design rule, Copy the Best.
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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.

.

NOTE to my gardening friends... look for changes to come. 

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.'   Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

.

Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'.  Saved the article for a year before reading it.  Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

.

Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0.  A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life.  Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact.  Signed up  for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow. 

.

Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method.  Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix.
.

What do YOU want?

.

Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

.

Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Just so you know... 
 I  welcome your input.

Design: Finding Numinosity & Beauty

This is what I know, for sure, in seeking beauty & numinosity.

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They take conscious effort, never arrive in the expected, and leverage every layer of living with energy & calm.

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Furniture on the porch, above/below.

A trinity of pics, taken quickly.  Recording great effort, years of experience from every member of my team, and the client.

Seeking numinosity, & beauty is. too often. suspect.

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From the outside it seems beyond plodding.  Perhaps dereliction of duty?  Yet, results say otherwise.

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If you have read this far I know you want more than a pretty garden, you are seeking numinosity, and beauty.

Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara

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Pics taken this month at a jobsite.

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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.

.

NOTE to my gardening friends... look for changes to come. 

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.'   Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

.

Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'.  Saved the article for a year before reading it.  Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

.

Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0.  A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life.  Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact.  Signed up  for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow. 

.

Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method.  Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix.
.

What do YOU want?

.

Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

.

Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Just so you know... 
 I  welcome your input.

Most Important Design Element?

With the might of my (perceived) intelligence, 3 decades later, do you see the work, below, I'm most proud of?

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Designed/planted 3 years ago.

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My present self says to my younger self, "Oh, girlie, you are pitiful.  Really?  Step it up, you've done nothing.  A holly hedge.  Pedestrian.  Ridiculous girl."  

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When Vita Sackville-West & Harold Nicolson's head gardener marched off to war, one of his first letters admonished them, "Whatever you do, maintain the hedges."

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Last weekend, in this client garden, above, they had a ceremony unveiling a historical marker.  Quietude reigns, above.

Yet, on the other side of the hedge, the ceremony is underway.
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How little can you do in a garden, for the greatest impact, with the least amount of ongoing maintenance, maximum pollinator habitat, beautiful views in the garden and beautiful views of the garden from inside the home?
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FYI, the habitat, above, is maximum pollinator habitat.  Do you know why?  High density meets low density.  Woodland with meadow.
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Few are brave enough to be this simple.  Lucky me.  I get paid to be simple.  More, my type of simplicity pays money into the future.  Higher property value, lower HVAC & maintenance costs.  Once established no irrigation, no chemicals, no fertilizer.
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Perhaps the best reason to pay attention!
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This is the most important design element.  All of the, above.  With curiosity I want to know what your takeaway/s are.  Please.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara

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.

.

NOTE to my gardening friends... look for changes to come. 

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.'   Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

.

Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'.  Saved the article for a year before reading it.  Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

.

Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0.  A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life.  Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact.  Signed up  for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow. 

.

Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method.  Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix.
.

What do YOU want?

.

Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

.

Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Just so you know... 
 I  welcome your input.