Showing posts with label Arbor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arbor. Show all posts

Thursday, December 31, 2009

NECESSITY: LANDSCAPE FANTASIES

A Woodland Walk in my tiny garden, below, aka, air-conditioning side of my house. Chair rotted long ago. Red bud tree died slowly, rotted slowly. Great fun watching songbirds gather insects & make homes in its wood.
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LANDSCAPE FANTASIES abound, "What do I want to do here? Hmmmm!"
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A beautiful garden is fabulous but having a portion of your garden in the realm of fantasy is rich indeed.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

LANDSCAPE TRANSITIONS

TRACTOR CHICK hired me for her new home, below, enveloped by bare red clay. Her mission statement was clear. A challenge, and fun to work with. In a few days the new landscape will be complete. AND HERS. Odd feelings are erupting.
One of several hallways, above, in her new garden. A Crape Myrtle 'Natchez' allee.

My garden, above. No need to feel I'm doing without.
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Bittersweet to hand over TRACTOR CHICK's landscape. It's already a life force. Her life force. I merely chiseled a statue from stone. It was there all along. Oh my, this must be a form of separation anxiety!! Intellectually I know the garden will only get better as TRACTOR CHICK takes over.
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So why am I pouting?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Friday, November 6, 2009

THE SECRET OF GARDEN ENTRIES & HALLWAYS

Did you know, the more entries a garden has the better a garden is? Why?
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Garden Entries are focal points drawing the eye, foot, imagination. Leading to foyers, hallways & living rooms. If you can do it inside, dahlings, you can do it outside.
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Above, Garden Entry with tiny landing leading directly into a hallway. See it? Can you label each section? Spread it farther. See the walls? See the ceiling?
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Creating a garden is no more than creating outdoor rooms.
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My favorite garden hallway is above. I took the pic in the Cotswolds. Don't you want to see where the hallway leads?
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How important are Garden Entries & Garden Hallways????????? Today, I'm off to finish a landscape design for a garden full of living rooms. I will add Entries & Hallways connecting them. La-Ti-Da. One of my favorite things to do.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

RETOOLING FLORAL ARRANGEMENT

Shrubs, urns, tools are the new floral design. Design techniques are the same.
But the scale is larger than life. Look close, above, old tools drape the arbor.

Fresh, silly, classic, stately, sustainable, low-maintenance, above. So old it seems new. French toile patterns date back centuries using the old tool bouquet motif.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Yes, I took these pics in Susanne Hudson's garden.

Monday, July 27, 2009

LANDSCAPE DESIGN: ARBOR & PATIENCE & NO MONEY

A Victorian woodcut print of a conifer arbor dazzled my thoughts. A pair of evergreens neatly bottom trimmed & grown wild on top. A pair of 1 gallon Leyland cypress, above, would have to do. And time. Thru the arbor a cherry tree in full bloom with petals strewing the path.

A subtle focal point, my conifer arbor, is hidden near the pink dogwood, above. Gardens are about mystery & surprise. A sense of, What's around the corner?
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Conifers, $1.99 ea., bought at a big box store, can't remember which. Patience? Ugh. They looked stupid for years. But that Victorian woodcut wouldn't leave me.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Saturday, July 18, 2009

GARDEN VIEWS FROM THE MUDROOM

Every window should have a garden view. Penny, below, has several good views.

Susanne Hudson, standing at her washer/dryer, below, has this view.


Turning slightly, below, another laundry view. The tall jar holds a collection of glass frogs. And the dryer becomes an excuse to hold another lamp. You've got to love that in anyone.

More collections in glass jars: antique wheelbarrows, flexible wire frogs, iron frogs. And a view thru the arbor over her grill.

Can you imagine doing laundry surrounded by your garden & a few of your favorite things?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Thursday, July 16, 2009

MISSIONS & PAINTS & OBITS

Faded green, color-matched from a House & Garden magazine picture circa 1990's. The home was in England, owned by a couturier to the Queen. My trim had been white. (Blinds, above, are always open but lowered to prevent birds smashing.)
Antique iron gates, Egyptian, late-Victorian, arrived rusted with hints of Robin's egg blue. It became the color for all the iron in my garden, above.

This chair, above, arrived, from Wal-Mart circa 1990's, already stained. Ick.

Original stain finally wore away and I stained, above, the chair Saturday. You knew, of course, I do these chores myself? Then, as it dried on the patio the rains came.
Choices had to be made, above, painting this iron gate with wood post. Stain the wood, as all the wood is stained, faded green, or go with Robin's egg blue? After that, choosing the bird's color was easy.
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Robin's Egg Blue: from Lowe's color matched, Olympic exterior oil gloss, base 4-73704, B57-3, Kingston Aqua exterior gloss oil, 101-24 102-28 103-3 Flat egg Sat s/g gloss. Note, they don't sell oil anymore.
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Faded Green: from Lowe's color matched, Olympic maximum, Deck Fence & Siding Stain. 100% acrylic Latex Formula, clear base, custom color, manual dispense 113-5Y40.5 115-2Y1.5 114-2Y47 102-1Y8.5
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Staining teak or an arbor aren't easy choices. My regret was waiting to make choices. The colors never bore. They are different in shade, sun, morning, evening, rain & etc.
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Painting & staining in the garden completed the interiors of my home.
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I live from the center of my home to the property line. Before, I only lived from the center of my home to its walls.
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A delightful obituary in the NYTimes Tuesday for Edward Durell Stone, Jr., landscape architect included, ...Most recent honor , the ASLA Landmark Award co-sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Presevation for PepsiCo's world headquarters in Purchase, NY was particularly gratifying. Designed over thirty years ago, PepsiCo's corporate campus was recognized for its excellence and inspiration to its people and their purpose.
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Why do anything less for yourself?
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A home & garden to inspire your daily life & your purpose in this world.
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Reminds me of something from Oprah magazine, What is your life the answer to?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Monday, July 6, 2009

THIS WAS A RANCH?

SURFER CHICK & TENNIS bought a dystopian ranch. Then hired architect John Knight . Do you see any hint of the ranch? It's still there, all of it.

SURFER CHICK & TENNIS liked my idea of French doors off the dining room, above. Creating a magic circle.
After the landscape design was complete TENNIS said he wanted a level frontyard.
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Hence the stone wall, above.
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Plantings are not yet a year old. A true dwarf loropetalum 'Purple Pixie', above, will soon soften the wall. Along with gardenias, variegated pittosporum, hydrangea, Southern Indica azaleas, & perennials.
Stone for the wall copies what John Knight chose for the house.
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Repetition & copy are 2 landscape design tools.
The new landscape is redolent of another era, 1930's, using pass along plant favorites.

John's details are fabulous, above, round copper downspouts, and a slight pitch to the shingle siding where it meets the brick.

Entry to the garden from the street, on axis from the front door, creates an enfilade. Adding depth, warmth, welcome, focal point, movement.

Thru the black-eyed Susan's, above. Pairs of gardenia are used at the front entry near the curb and at the front porch.

Last Friday I was on site to draw the backyard landscape.
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I've added another pair of French doors to the left of those above. And 2 new arbors. One extending from the screened porch and the other directly opposite. Ceiling fans on the arbors, cozy seating with Adirondack chairs and a harvest table with chairs.
Potting table & gravel terrace (#89 granite gravel) will be added in front of the back wall, above, with the oval window. Camellia sasanqua hedging will embrace the gravel terrace.
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The upper lawn, above, will keep it's tapestry hedge of azalea, ligustrum, liriope, camellia. I've added several oakleaf hydangea and a new sitting area.
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The front door has an enfilade thru the French doors, patio & lawn, above. A bench has been placed on axis with it in the plan.
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And I'm feeling negligent I didn't get a picture of the plan for you.
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I'll ask SURFER CHICK to send a picture of the plan AND a picture of their original ranch.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Sunday, June 21, 2009

LANDSCAPE DESIGN: MISSION STATEMENT

For each landscape design I ask for a mission statement. Often a single mission statement is enough, sometimes one for the front yard & another for the backyard. Ha, some of you need several. Don't think you're hiding from me.
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TRACTOR CHICK's mission statement: "Create an outdoor living space that will not be an extension of my home but where my home will be an extension of my garden!" TRACTOR CHICK chose her home for its lot. For the landscape. The backyard is incredible.
A few challenges in the front yard. Driveways & garages drawing attention away from the focal point of the front door.
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I haven't drawn this plan yet but I already know round downspouts are needed, an arbor over the double garage wrapping around the corner and Bahama shutters, below, on the bare wall between the double garage & single garage.
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Why have the arbor and Bahama shutters? Softness, depth, asymmetry and creating the illusion that living space is balanced on each side of the home.

Bahama shutter pic, above, from The Window Shutter Site, other pics taken last week.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara