Showing posts with label Copy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Copy. Show all posts

Monday, November 28, 2016

Enlarging Territory

Another Garden Design tool, below.  Does it pop to you too?  I'll be starting a new project in a couple of weeks, have already been to the site, and know it will have a variation of this Garden Design tool, below.  At present the new client has a horrid little sign tacked to a post, Private Road.  Their home not visible from the road.
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What to call this tool?
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It's always a good day when your Garden Design quiver gains a new arrow.
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Columns, below, Enlarge the Footprint of the home.
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Often, I use this tool, Enlarge the Footprint of the home, in subdivisions too, where the road is not a concern in the least, but scaling the home properly is.
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Back to the columns, below.  Four columns seems a lot.  Amazingly, this Garden Design arrow-in-your-quiver will also work if there were only a single column, below.
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Two mental models, below.  Place a single column, below, at the right of the lane.  The lane becomes 'public property'.  Next, place a single column, below, to the left of the lane.  The lane is 'private property'.

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Pic, above, here.
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Yes, am curious why there are 4 columns, above.  Pure ego, drama queen stuff?  Oversold by the landscape architect, getting that commission check?  Entry to a compound of several homes on acreage?  Perhaps those 4 columns are much older than the house, above, and owner of the house decided to keep them all?
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What do the 4 columns, above, say to you?
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Lastly, imagine the home, above, without any columns.  Hmm, not so good.  Needs at least one column to enlarge its footprint.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Friday, November 25, 2016

Paired Down Richness

Minimal embellishment, below, yet, I want what they are selling !  Whatever it may be.  At the front door, they have me.
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Color, potted plant, and font.
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Oddly, there's a great example too of Garden Design and downspout color.  At right, below, downspout color is the wise choice.  At left, below, must be neighbor's downspout.
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Best proof, ever, white jumps forward, and tries to act like a 'column' with a downspout.

p1070229:
Pic, above, here.
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A richness, above, having nothing to do with filthy lucre, and everything to do with warmth, confidence, come-inside, you won't regret it, for there is joy within.  And, you'll be back.
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My favorite Garden Designs are the ones with the fewest ingredients & richest living.
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Notice how they handled the slope, above?    Becomes a non-issue.
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I'd like to keep these in my phone to empower myself from time to time.:
Pic, above, here.

 christian dior:
Pic, above, here.
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Intuitively I sense, owner/s of Brassica live/breath, quotes, above.
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Garden & Be Well,    XOT

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Before & After: What Change Would You Make?

Layers of good changes with this renovation, below.
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Noticed a change I've made numerous times, different than, below, in the 'after'.
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In the 'after' pic, below, what is the glaring change you/I would make?
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Especially nice, below, is creating a walkway from the street to the front door, changing the front door, adjunct to the service court, aka driveway.  Instead, front door is adjunct to the front yard.  Lovely to enter a home thru a garden.
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Great contrast, creating the arcs at garage & front porch.
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Have I diverted you enough?  Is there a change you would make in the 'after' pic, below?  Yes, there are smaller changes I would make, but they are quibbles.  Mere quibbles.  For me, there is a big change I would make.

Facelifts for Homes. Before and after transformations with great ideas. We are home renovation contractors in Delhi NCR. We give home renovation ideas to customer. Ark Interior is best home renovation contractor in Delhi NCR. We provide home maintenance in Delhi. We provide home maintenance services Delhi. Visit -- homerenovationind...:
Pic, above, here.
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In the 'after' pic, above, I would move the mailbox.  It is crowding the front yard, scaled too large, and has zero need to out rank the front door.
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Yep, I've moved a lot of mailboxes.  Heads-up, zoning/code/deed restrictions must be met.
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A great renovation, hope they've entered it into a local trade competition, it's a winner.
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Garden & Be Well,    XOT

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Tone Change: Basket

The basket, below.  Changes the tone, with intellect.  A bit light hearted, a little sassy, nice narrative, good textural contrast.
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Lightweight, easy to use.  Keep plant in its nursery pot, no worries.  If the bottom rots away, who cares, basket still perfect for your needs.  Use whatever rubbish at hand to raise potted plant to correct height.  Spanish moss at the rim, if needed, to hide the pot.
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Best place I've found these baskets?  Thrift store.  Especially the 'laundry hamper' round (classic) or rectangular (modern) baskets.
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Brought one home last weekend, $5, best find ever, about 4' tall, round & tapered toward its bottom, the style depicted in 18th century French toile fabrics/wallpapers.  Go me !!
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Destined for the front porch atop a table, sourcing the perfect plant after Thanksgiving.  Anticipation.  Oh my.

La vita brillante: Natale nel solarium:
Pic, above, here.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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No, not all laundry hampers suitable, many rather repulsive.  You'll know.  You've got this.  Enjoying buying for my ca. 1900 American farmhouse.  Much not suitable, would look stupid.  Another reason to choose a theme, and overdose on it.  Shopping easier, faster.  

Friday, November 18, 2016

Hedging Properly

Almost on the edge of 'too busy', below, for me, the landscaping calms the interior.  I think the windows slide up far enough for ease of walking inside/outside.  Vanishing threshold of interior/garden, perfect.
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But that's a rabbit hole, and not where I'm going with this garden, below.
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Millions of mid-century to ca. 1990 ranch homes across USA, have the same landscape, below.  Except they don't know it.  Those millions of ranch homes were sold with a ribbon of green meatballs spanning the front foundation, and since then, those plantings have been pruned into a gruesome story.
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Plant abuse, millions of those green meatballs want to be tall & wide bushes or trees.  Faithfully, decades of hacking, keeping them in line.  Literally.
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Won't go any further, too gruesome, you know the game, seen it your entire life.  In defense of that ribbon of green meatballs, they are required by law to close on new construction.  However, they did not have to be in their particular configuration.
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Using those same gruesome hacked green meatballs, dig them up, in winter, planting them in a tapestry hedge away from the house, exactly as, below.  See it?  Millions of those ranch homes with foundation green meatballs face the street, and worse, are not too far from the street.  Poof, cars gone.  Double poof, toxic fumes/particulates dramatically decreased.  Triple poof, noise reduced.  Quadruple poof, privacy added.  Quintuple poof, aesthetics added, property value increased, no more looking at neighbor's homes.  Sextuple poof, lifestyle enhanced.  Septuple poof, many will have reduced HVAC expenses blocking summer sun-winter winds.  Octuple poof, pollinator habitat increased by a logarithmic factor.  N-tuple poof, maintenance reduced.  Let me know what I've missed.
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Odd to imagine so many millions of people choose to live with a gruesome green ribbon of meatballs, instead of using what they have, differently.  I hear Anne of Green Gables, "With a little imagination."

lady-wakefield-twickenham-london-uk-habituallychic-001:
Pic, above, here.
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More than secular, all of the above, the Divine.  G*d Almighty first created a garden.  Garden, above, is biblical.  Quickly with gardens, Sacred vs. profane, surfaces.  Amazing, keeping green meatballs, yet moving them, transitions profane, to Sacred.
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What began planted by the rules of filthy lucre, hacked & ignored for decades, can become Sacred.  Power of intention, indeed.
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In metaphor to moving those gruesome green meatballs I hear Charlton Heston, "Let my people go."
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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(Paradise | Define Paradise at Dictionary.com
www.dictionary.com/browse/paradise
heaven, as the final abode of the righteous. ... late 12c., "Garden of Eden," from Old French paradis "paradise, Garden of Eden" (11c.), from Late Latin paradisus, from Greek paradeisos "park, paradise, Garden of Eden," from an Iranian source, cf. Avestan pairidaeza "enclosure, park ...)
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(Daily Bible Study - What Is Filthy Lucre?
www.keyway.ca/htm2010/20101022.htm
Oct 22, 2010 - The English word "lucre" originated from a French word, lucre, which itself originated from a Latin word, lucrum, which meant to gain, or to profit ...)

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Cluttered and Sparse

Notice the straw basket, below?  Used as accent inside, and in the garden.  Dropped a load at the thrift store last weekend, ending with the obligatory slow aisle walk.  Two incredible baskets, with eye dropping low prices, brought home.
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Cozy garden room, below, draws me in.  Makes me realize my garden materials yard should be merchandised a bit.  While our garden is undergoing macro work, I wander into the materials yard, about 2x/month, knowing it fills me with joy, and strength.  Surveying what remains of my 30 year garden, anticipating how it will all be used in our ca. 1900 American farmhouse garden.

Magic garden :). manufacture-mrn.pl can help you create such a nice place. Need tables the small ones or the big ones - inside or outside, doesn't matter we will do this for you! Call/write to us any time :).:
Pic, above, here.

thomas alexandre architecte paysagiste / les jardins agapanthe, grigneuseville:
Pic, above, here.
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At the same time this garden room, above, has my heart.  Spare, all year interest, little maintenance.
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Will create both garden rooms, cluttered & sparse, yeah, providing joy to 2 parts of my brain.  Only dozens more to go, life is good.
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Garden & Be Well,    XOT

Friday, November 11, 2016

Vernacular Design

Ralph Lauren, below, more vernacular than the locals.
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Vernacular, single biggest surprise moving into our ca. 1900 American farmhouse.  Moving from a Cottage garden, 30 years there, knew it would be different.  Though correct, missed 'how' different by leagues.
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What does that mean?  Most of what I brought from my Cottage Garden to our ca. 1900 American Farmhouse garden, looked s-t-u-p-i-d.  Two truckloads of Cottage Garden went to the local thrift store.
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Did you see Leonard Cohen's obit in NYTimes today?  His song lyrics vernacular to the human condition.  He gives to his readers/listeners more of their own DNA.  What he gives to other singers of his songs?  Too wild.  It IS their song.  And, that is art.  Leonard's special art, beyond his writing.
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No, your garden doesn't have to solely choose the vernacular of your home's architecture, if you have a deep vernacular within yourself.  What does that mean?  You like all things French, overdose on your French theme.  Overdose.  Timidity shows.  Better to wear your heart on your sleeve than expose a lack of resolve.
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So, Garden Design rules.  Most, simply excuse them into oblivion.  Drive thru any neighborhood, no matter the price point, proof, rest my case there.  Using historic Garden Design rules, liberates you into your own vernacular.
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Is this easy?  No.  You must be broken to bits, and put back together, before you understand, it's easy.  Only then, has the vernacular of your DNA been allowed to surface.  

The saloon’s porch is furnished with 19th-century Mexican sabino-wood pieces, including a table made from a salvaged door and ox yokes | archdigest.com:
Pic, above, here.
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Garden & Be Well,  XOT

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Garden Design: Design in the Silence

Garden Room, below, designed around the Grace of silence, speaking volumes.

clean slate sawyer berson2
Pic, above, here.

 "As a writer you try to listen to what others aren't saying...and write about the silence." --N.R.Hart:
Pic, above, here.
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Image result for themistocles quotes
Pic, above, here.

 Image result for themistocles quotes
Pic, above, here.
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Many compulstions to have in a garden.  The best compulsion?  Simplicity.
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Garden & Be Well,     XOT

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Garden Design Course: In a Photo

More a Garden Design course, below, than simply another garden.  What can you label, below, as the Garden Design 'rules' followed?  Decades I've taught at the local college and Atlanta Botanical Garden.  Never, ever, tire of this phase of Garden Design.  Name it to claim it.  If you know what you are looking at, and can name it.  YOU can do it.
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Color, contrast, flow, layers, mystery, expanse, minutia, shapes.
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Color, did you know green gardens are the 'fastest' to look like something?  Green gardens are also calm, less drama, perhaps best said, more of the right drama.  Then, within the green are myriad greens.
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Contrast, big leaves next to small leaves, rounded shapes next to cone shapes, woody plants next to herbaceous.
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Flow, the pathway has me, feet want to travel, finding what's around the curve, mystery.
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Layers, all checked, pocket of open sky, canopy trees, understory trees, walls of tall bushes, wainscoting of medium bushes, low bushes/groundcovers are flooring & carpet.
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Space too large, 100's of acres, a garden room similar, below, nearish your house will warm & own the expanse.  Space to small, neighbors homes jutting into your face, a garden room similar, below, around your home, creates a huge landscape, eyes drawn to the expanse of canopy trees and sky, which is infinite.
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Minutia of hair like foliage, velvet like moss on the trees, chartreus with dark greens and etc.  Drama change for winter, the garden, below, holds together in all seasons.

Cynthia Woodyard Landscape Design & Horticultural Photography | projects > Love the Italian trees in a cluster instead of a row = very different:
Pic, above, here.

Understanding the Garden Design 'rules' and principles, above, please tell me this makes you laugh, below, in the 'knowing' what they've done, below.  Well done, dramatic pairing, fun drama with Garden Design 'rules'.

 Cornerstone, Sonoma, The Garden of Contrasts by James Van Sweden:
Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, I shot yesterday in our garden.
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Yesterday, my harvest table was finally unloaded from the truck.  Temporary location while 'macro' garden construction is completed, you know, drilling a well, graveling drives, renovating sheds, adding a porch, and too much other garden infrastructure keeping me away from my beloved 'micro' gardening.
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Laskett immediately on top of harvest table, owning it.  Behind him, the materials yard awaiting its new barn.  Yes, chaos of materials yard getting on my last nerve.  Alas, at least another full year before it's cleared.
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Harvest table denotes 1st move into my shed, Beloved using my shed until his barn built.  "Where is the Gator going if you put your harvest table there?", Beloved asks.  "No, they both won't fit there.", he responds to my answer.  I smile in return, thinking, "Go away, I've got this."  Poof Beloved's gone, I arrange table, Laskett & I do what we do so well together, bask in each other's adoring presence, Laskett affirms every thought in my head.  Sitting a moment to shoot table/Laskett/setting sun, I glance at the open space for the Gator, with a smile.
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With great pleasure, I walk to the gravel drive where the Gator is parked, crank it up, pull it into it's new space, 2' to spare, turn the Gator off, pull the brake lever up enjoying its sound, surveying the Gator's new domain.  Beloved still working in back at the pond, Laskett & I walk to the house, gardening day done.
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Best irony about my shed, it's a century old, Beloved moved it last year, renovated it, new walls, new window, new door, new floor, added a tin roof to two sides, and it's my shed.  We knew up front he had to use my shed for many of his things, many, until his barn is built.  Has been a great chapter getting here, I'm not in that chapter anymore.    You've already noticed this new chapter title, My Shed.
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Thought you would appreciate a little raw reality gardening.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO T

  
    

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Simplicity of Narrative

Last question, finishing a Garden Design, What can I take out and it holds together?
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There is so little here, below.  Yet overwhelmed in layers of narrative.  I see a story/stories, below, you must, too.
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Not, simple-gardens-are-the-best, it is simple gardens including narratives of classic aesthetics across the ages, tied to the life of their home's interior, and owner, with an ease of maintenance, those are the gardens lasting centuries.

new orleans by laura stefan.:
Pic, above, here.
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Front door, above, reminds me of a story I was told by a friend, decades ago, in Savannah, GA.  The story teller lived in the historic district.  The story told happened ca. 1950'ish.  An elderly widow lived in elegant deep decay in a large historic mansion.  Her handy-man, an African-American, took care of her, the house, garden, and it was well known he brought her food from one of the best restaurants, he waited tables there several nights a week.
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More, they lived outwardly their proscribed rolls. Yet, within her home they were lovers, in a committed relationship.  Further, the city knew, yet lived the lie.  Protecting both, beloved members of their community.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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The lady in the story, born 19th century, lived the story in 20th century, I'm telling you in the 21st century.  Her home still standing.

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Modern Garden Design

Modern Garden Design, below.
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Where are you on the pendulum, liking/disliking, this modern style Garden Design, below?
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Garden Design has not changed since well before, oodles of centuries, Christ's era.
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In my 20's I abhorred this style of Garden Design, below.  Too smart for that boredom.  A brain full of horticultural knowledge.
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Fully living, without awareness, thereby proving yet again in a new era, "Men come to build stately, sooner than to garden finely as if gardening were the greater perfection."  (The works of Alexander Pope, esq., with notes and illustrations, by ...
https://books.google.com/books?id=shcrAQAAIAAJ
Alexander Pope, ‎William Roscoe - 1847 - ‎Literary Criticism
Alexander Pope, William Roscoe. becomes on the instant, from a ... For the honour of this art," Lord Bacon says, " a man shall ever see, that when ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come to buildstately, sooner than to garden finely ; as if gardening were the greater perfection." — Warton. The taste in gardening, like all ...)



Heijlo, 1789, Archief Alkmaar, flickr:
Pic, above, here.
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Heijlo, 1789, Archief Alkmaar, above.
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The simpler a Garden Design, the greater its Wisdom.  
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No ragrets the time nor money getting me to this simplicity, above.  Find it amusing, still, memories of strongly disliking Garden Designs, above.  
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Midnight on a too recent Saturday, sitting with a friend in a hospital emergency room, watching, We are the Millers, keeping reality at bay, while tests were being run, iv's inserted, shots given, pain endured.  Laughing yet again at everything, even laughing ahead of favorite scenes about to show.  News, not good, needed an ambulance to carry my friend to another hospital.  Greatly appreciative of that laughter, time in denial of reality.

We're the Millers Featurette - No Ragrets (2013) - Jennifer Aniston ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjkLKKgOMRY
Aug 9, 2013 - Uploaded by Movieclips Coming Soon
We're the Millers Featurette - No Ragrets (2013) - Jennifer Aniston Movie HD A veteran pot dealer creates a ...

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Furniture in the Garden: Choosing to Make it Recede

A trinity of furniture-in-the-garden pics, below, chosen for style, and to recede.  Beyond melding into the backdrop, these choices make each of the garden spaces feel/live larger.

 :
Pic, above, here.

 Front porch envy:
Pic, above, here.

 .:
Pic, above, here.
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j.k. rowling:
Pic, above, here.

 In Oneness we are all there, we are the very essence of the One Great Mystery of the Universe. ♥ -Mary Long-
Pic, above, here.

  :
Pic, above, here.

Trust the process quote. goals. dreams. advice. wisdom. life lessons.:
Pic, above, here.

Putting together your garden is not the flippancy of oh-I-like-that, it's waking up, choosing to move forward, turning the page to a new chapter, accepting the historic layers of wiser minds, they're there to work with you, their Muse waiting for your epiphany, it's all for you too, sure, you'll have myriad headwinds, you aren't special in that, everyone does, some things will have to go materially/metaphorically, enjoy the light some bridges are best burned, warning you'll lose some people in your life, but you'll understand, in Truth, the deeper you go inward the more you outwardly connect to the people you've always needed in your life, perhaps deepest of all, if you are brave enough to truly create the garden in your heart the epiphany will arrive, you will understand, why G*d Almighty first created a garden.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Pot Cluster Double Axis

Moving backward thru these blog pages you'll discover several posts dedicated to the Pot Cluster.  Studying historic gardens across Europe for decades, this American was smitten by the Pot Cluster.  Often at a front door, often at a back door, often sprinkled somewhere in the garden.  Pot Cluster, I got the memo.
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There is a common thread with Pot Clusters, they are classic or interesting pots, with a choice array of plantings.  Occasionally the Pot Cluster is on a plinth, aka table.
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Whether studying in a historic garden attached to a modest cottage or 2nd3rd5th10th... home/castle of a monarch, there you'll find the Pot Cluster.
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What else to call it?  What would you name it?  Me?  The Pot Cluster.
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Last weekend, Cote de Texas sent me a personalized post, seemed that way anyway.  Within, she posted a double axis with a Pot Cluster, and didn't even know it.
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I adore a Garden Design class in a single photo.  Pot Cluster Garden Design class, below.  More, the home, below, is huge-historic, and the garden space, minuscule.  More than a Pot Cluster Garden Design Class you are also taking a lesson in creating a lush garden in a small amount of space.  How many layers do you see, creating a lush garden in a tiny realm?  Name those layers, describe them in winter.
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If you take a garden tour in Europe always pay extra for the tea/scones.  Most often, served inside.  A Garden Design study is nothing without seeing inside the house, discovering the axis into the garden, site lines, usage for interior, and exterior.  Flow must be entirely around a garden, and from house to garden, and garden to house.  Effortless, beautiful, seamless, no matter the necessities of hvac, water/hoses, etc....
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Enough, let's go inside.



Notice the lamp inside, above?  Same lamp, below.



Different time of day, below, and the lamp staged differently.



Prepared for a dinner party, below, sofa removed and table on axis with French doors into garden.




Interior & exterior of this home are a Garden Design class of Vanishing Threshold.
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No matter your price point, this is your Garden Design class.
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A friend I met at church lived in a welfare apartment.  She is a gardener.  98% found plants/pots/furnishings on her 2nd story balcony.  I had a blast designing her balcony with what she had, using every Garden Design layer used in the home, above.  Rearranged a few things inside too.
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That's the thing with me, I don't except the excuse, 'I don't have the money......'.  My story is backwards in postings, if you know a bit you know I did it without money.
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Excuse the vulgarity, mentioning money.  Perhaps it's because I remember well, in the 80's after college when my gardening began, and the Smith/Hawken garden catalogs arrived in the mailbox, I assumed those beautiful gardens were not for the likes of me, they were shot in gorgeous estates blah-blah how ridiculous those thoughts.  They slowed me down, and I don't want anyone else to be slowed by that, I've proven the money thing to be wrong.
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There's another thing the garden does for the house, above.  Will show it in next post.  Do you already know what it is, and in shock I've been able to refrain from putting it in this post?
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T  
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Why are there so few good gardens?  Why is it so difficult to create our own beautiful garden, at the front end?  Several layers, at the beginning.  Ignorance, we don't have the knowledge.  After beginning with ignorance we enter the phase of ineptitude.  Knowledge gained but applied incorrectly, typically using a fragment to expound the whole, with a strong bias towards understanding the map but not the territory.  

Monday, September 12, 2016

On the Deck: Privacy, Wind, Rain

Our ca. 1900 farmhouse is true to its year.  The house sits near the road, and near the north property line.  Next door sits a ca. 1890 farmhouse, same arrangement.  Living rural, after leaving the big city, a great irony, needing to create privacy.
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There is no having breakfast on the back deck in my gown.  Views from the deck include a meadow, woods, lake, and amazing amounts of sky framed by a few century old pecan trees.  Shutters, below, are our solution.  Sourcing shutters in earnest this week.  Farmhouse is white, shutters will be white.

The owners used the house's original cypress shutters as architectural accents for their Metairie, Louisiana porch.:
Pic, above, here.

 The Most Beautiful Porches On Pinterest | Domino:
Pic, above, here.

In addition to privacy, I'm sourcing old windows this week to create a spot, above, for the cats to be out of the elements at the back door, a small roof already exists there.
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Beloved built us an incredible party deck, and it has gotten on my last nerve not having it operate with the basic functions of living, and aesthetics.  Too generous, that last nerve snapped over the weekend.
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Treated Beloved like a client, verbally described a choice of solutions, then showed him pinterest pics.  He bit.  Only add this last morsel of information, because it's something I do at a lot of jobsites with 'Wife', Husband Coaching.  Most common Husband Coaching I do is choosing the most correct garden thing Wife must allow Husband to do, that she has been adamantly 'NO' for ages.  Paced correctly this Husband Coaching allows Wife, in the end, everything she wanted.  He's happy, she's happy, both think they won.  Cheshire cat knows who won.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Yes, it's going in reverse too, Wife Coaching with Husband.  I'm in the catbird seat, wanting the garden to be their best garden, more intensely them, than they ever dared dream, and in the greatest of simplicity.

Friday, September 9, 2016

Conservatory & Coop House

Working as a professional propagator for 2.5 years, moons ago, left its mark, deep & rich.  More than knowing how to propagate, I miss the work.  Literally, the physical work of propagation, and its 'time', its progression thru the seasons, from seed/cutting/plug, to plant for sale.  Early mornings, first arriving to the myriad greenhouses, end of the day, closing the myriad greenhouses for the nite.  Thru all weathers, the daily life of it.  Fragrance of the various soils, each green house with its unique smells thru the year, differing temperatures catering to myriad greenhouse crops.  And, of course, Kelvin, who taught me all he knew, by doing.  Working with him, side-by-side.  Hands/bodies laboring, conversation & laughter flowing.  He remains one of those friends never seen for years, then spying each other at a garden event, the big run to hug, and I feel tears of pure happiness, merely seeing Kelvin again.  
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Seeing this pic, below, recently, and realizing how badly I miss seeing our poinsettia crops growing from plugs to maturity.  Didn't know I missed that specific life experience until seeing the pic.  There must be a word for this, probably in French or Italian, American too paltry for such a word.
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Instantly this bit of color thru the Conservatory, below, got put onto my list.  Fourteen months in our ca. 1900 American farmhouse, we're getting a lot done on the 'list', but we're not to my Conservatory or Chicken Coop yet.  And, what a fabulous blessing.  Their architecture improves by the month, free of charge.  Smartly, I'm staying quiet about this private architectural joy with Beloved.  If he knew, he would have already built my Coop & Conservatory, square, historic, plain, good, done.  Poor thing, he said to me, not too long ago, "You get your mind set on something and nothing stops you."  It was in the tone of exasperation, my reply was quick and happy, "It's my best trait.  Your next point?"  Nope, he doesn't need to know about the architectural renderings, yet, for the Coop & Conservatory.

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Pic, above, here.

We have a similar bank of windows, above, brought home from a house we renovated for a client recently.  Here's the odd fact, I like being near my chickens, hearing/seeing them, aside from calming I think they are hilarious, they make me laugh.  My chicken coop must have a bit of 'Conservatory/Shed' for me.  A place to be in all weathers/seasons, to read, have lunch with a friend, a glass of wine late on a Saturday afternoon with a new book that just arrived on the doorstep, happy rich solitude.

 Garden shed.:
Pic, above, here.

From the house I want to see my chickens in their coop during winter, this wall of windows, below, perfect.

 love the windows in this garden cottage studio "The Conservatory" Includes 6…:
Pic, above, here.
Great garden potting shed:
Pic, above, here.

Nice roof, above, for my personal section of the Coop, especially in winter, all other roofing will be metal.

 Feeding the Chickens, Antonina Dolinina. Russian, born in 1925:
Pic, above, here.

More than the roosting rack, above, and stone steps, below, I get it about these painters.  Aside from major talent, they love chickens too.  Caring for my chickens is not work or a chore, instead, a delightful part of my days.

 Hubert Shuptrine (1936-2006) WATERCOLOR:
Pic, above, here.

She, below, is one of us, a Chicken Whisperer.  Have no clue why Providence put chickens into my life past age 50, but I'll take it, say thank you, and keep chickening on.

Never get between a girl and her chicken.:
Pic, above, here.

Patina Farm new chicken coop:
Pic, above, here.

Best chicken run, above, ever.  Instantaneously with seeing it, onto the list it went.
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My Conservatory shed, with large lean-to metal roof at front, and at back, is already built and awaiting Beloved's barn to be built, his stuff is in my Conservatory shed.  Not far away is the temporary Chicken coop/run Beloved built in the shade of 2 century old pecan trees, it's chain link with a flat metal roof.  For months I've been having breakfast or lunch under the back lean-to roof at my shed, overlooking the coop, lake, woodland, meadow.  Poor Beloved, all that scope-for-the-imagination of Anne of Green Gables in action.  I hear Marilla Cuthbert, "Finest property on the north shore."
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Have no interest creating the finest Conservatory or Coop, only the finest Conservatory and a Coop, for me.  Now, this phase, vision questing, quite fine in its own merit.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Woodland Path

Totally designed, below.  Obvious pruning is at front left near'ish the top.  A mini-cathedral design.  Not so obvious are layers chosen NOT to be in the design.  Just as much thought goes into Le Jardin Rustique design as a more obvious potager.
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No, this is not a woodland walk that just 'happened'.  But you knew that.
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Tapestry hedge, below, not a mono hedge.
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If you have the good fortune for a tree such as this, magnificent tree, and can create a path, copying this, in a brand new USA subdivision, about 98% of your neighbors will complain.  Knowing you need to clear the brush away.  More, none of those neighbors will be inclined to speak to you.  Nope, the HOA nasty gram will land in your maibox.  They aren't bad people, but they are people who cannot 'see'.  By extension, not liking this patch of your landscape, they won't like you.
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Personally, I think it's wonderful how a garden can push people away, or draw them in.
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If you've been reading for awhile, you know what's next in the design for this garden room, below.  Correct, a garden room with more formality.  Preferably with a meadow too.  Gardens are all about contrasts.
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Often, thru history, homes/gardens that are left as a museum, lose the Le Jardin Rustique portion rather fast, about a decade.  Why?  As wise as the new stewards are, they don't 'get' the Le Garden Rustique, at all, in the least.  It goes back to Nature.  Finally, someone steps in, the teacher, in reality a garden shaman.  The 'Foundation' sees what the benefactor created, and now must be created anew.  .
Winterthur is a good example of this phenomenon.  Hmm.  Seems a new naming opportunity has arisen.
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Are you here yet, in your garden passion?  Hungering for Le Jardin Rustique?
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Ironically, it is the Le Jardin Rustique maximizing pollinator habitat and increasing crop yields nearby.  Only 'Man' would educate, in 2 different schools, agriculture/horticulture.  In America the schooling dividing agriculture/horticulture begins early, if there is schooling at all.  Someone decides to volunteer a school vegetable garden.  Go team.  Alas, that school vegetable garden disregards, completely, ornamental horticulture increasing crop yields by 80%.  When you know this, you are a garden shaman, indeed.
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Thomasina, has this character, a 'nature' shaman, she's the character of the witch, 'Mad Lori', in the woods.
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Same story line, in metaphor, of Babette's Feast.  The majority wanting what they know, not accepting something different from what they know, aka HOA nasty gram.  Yet, when the abstainers, through happenstance, gain entry into the unknown, they are changed, they understand what the shaman knew all along, and want it too.
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When is a little woodland garden path, more than a little woodland garden path?  Today.  Here.  And, always.

Day's morn by Lancashire Lass Photo's, via Flickr:

Pic, above, here.

Garden & Be Well,    XO T

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Duck Pond: Copy

At the back of our property is a pond with 2 damns.  Big in winter, small in summer.  Dug around the turn of the century, with oxen, the neighbor's dairy farm surrounding us, has an upper pond just beyond 1 damn, and a very nice lake just beyond the other damn.
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Beloved said he wanted a property with open, wooded and a lake.  I produced.  He should have been more specific, G*d not only laughs when we tell him our plans, he often provides exactly what we ask for, then laughs.  Beloved wanted to be on the lake, well, the lake belongs to our neighbor, but it's our view, they have no view of it.
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At most we plan a small dock, below, and recently Beloved mentioned a stone wall for our little pond.  
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Brooke & Steve Giannetti's pond, below.

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Pic, above, here.

Several times late this spring, and summer, I've walked to our pond and rustled a pair of ducks.  No normal ducks.  The pair is entirely deep cobalt blue.  Grew up with a pond & creek behind our house, never, did I see blue ducks.
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Before the dock, before the stone edge, a well must be dug, pole barn built, coop built, etc.  But there is something for 'now'.  The floating duck house.

DSC_0511_2

Pic, above, here.

Ponds, above, belong to a pair of California girls who met through their blogs.  Brooke Giannetti tells the story of meeting Penelope Bianchi, here.
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Penelope, I was drawn to, from her blog, with a style matching my dear mentor Mary Kistner.  Long after I had written Penelope a fan letter, and now we are friends because she wrote me back, and we still write each other, I came across one of my journals, several years old.  Penelope's house/garden had been in a magazine & I journaled it in the style of Mary Kistner who exposed me to the work of Kurt Schwitters.   Did not realize I had journaled Penelope's home/garden until years passed & I had moved, came across the journal, casually went through it, then pow.  Pow.  A Batman & Robin POW !!!
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Brooke was inspired by Penelope's pond.  And it shows.  Penelope & Brooke, below, at Penelope's home/garden.

 

Pic, above, here.
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You know what Garden Design rule this is?  It's the 1st Garden Design rule.  Copy.
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Garden & Be Well,    XOT
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Image result for batman & robin pow

Pic, above, here.

Friday, June 24, 2016

Walled Orchard

With an engineering degree backing my horticulture degree there is always an element of wishing I had been there at construction while studying historic gardens across Europe for decades.
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About 4 years ago a client said she wanted a walled orchard.
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Oddly, I knew where it should go, how it should look, how big it should be, how many gates it should have, and what each gate should look like.
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The Orchard is coming into its own this year, and will be ready for showtime pics next year.  I've taken pics starting with virgin pasture.
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Sideways learning.  Knowing, with confidence, how to design the orchard.  Century old bricks, each gate custom.  Yes, the expense matches its wonder.  Building a pool or walled orchard, without confidence, I would have to step away.  Too much money on the line, for mistakes.  More, it's building someone's dream, one they will have to live with.  No margin for error.
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image:

Pic, above, here.
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       "He started to worry though that he would get stuck in a job doing something he didn't believe in, so he quit and moved to Spain with his wife and he started to write poetry."            .

I come across sentences, above, humbly pausing.  Deciding to pin the safety of life's earnings upon a garden design career, with huge blow back & fear mongering from family.  Even years of pitiful earnings, never swayed my choice.  After 2008's debacle to the economy, and my career trajectory stronger/better, all the previous years mount into decades, it's obvious, best choice ever.
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Joseph Campbell is right, Follow your bliss.  When you get into the pure groove, all types of unseen hands, the universe itself, partakes in your bliss, along the way you get private acknowledgements that you're indeed in your groove, someone asks you to design/build an old orchard, oddly you know exactly what to do, and already have the experienced talented team to execute.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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There was a question about the orchard, one of the corners too close to the gravel lane.  One of my favorite aspects, the lane evolved around the orchard, not the reverse.    Corner & lane built as designed.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Garden Design: Temporary Focal Points

Years ago, before the advent of cell phones, driving, I passed a huge white wisteria, in full dripping bloom, engulfing a mature loblolly pine.  I made a mental note to get my camera, and drive by again.  Somewhere in the bowels of my slide boxes, is that picture.
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Someone else thought the combo, white wisteria/loblolly pine, was threatening.  Within the week, both cut to the ground, gone, poof.  As if they had never been.  
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Finding this, below, on Pinterest, recently, I'm able to relive those moments, a-thing-of-beauty-is-a-joy-forever.
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More particularly, the few days/moments of bloom, are Temporary Focal Points.  In designed gardens, there is great humor, to me, in the Temporary Focal Point.  Without effort Nature reigns, like electricity, all we can do is harness the magic.

//White wisteria in Japan. #gardenflowers:

Pic, above, here.

Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Within a week of photographing the white wisteria, and about a mile away, I discovered  dogwood tree in full creamy white blossom, dripping with long light purple blossoms of a wisteria.  Got pic of it too.  About 2 years later, dogwood/wisteria were cut to the ground.
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John Keats, 1795-1821, below, from here.

A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever


A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old, and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
'Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
All lovely tales that we have heard or read:
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.

Nor do we merely feel these essences
For one short hour; no, even as the trees
That whisper round a temple become soon
Dear as the temple's self, so does the moon,
The passion poesy, glories infinite,
Haunt us till they become a cheering light
Unto our souls, and bound to us so fast
That, whether there be shine or gloom o'ercast,
They always must be with us, or we die.

Therefore, 'tis with full happiness that I
Will trace the story of Endymion.
The very music of the name has gone
Into my being, and each pleasant scene
Is growing fresh before me as the green
Of our own valleys: so I will begin
Now while I cannot hear the city's din;
Now while the early budders are just new,
And run in mazes of the youngest hue
About old forests; while the willow trails
Its delicate amber; and the dairy pails
Bring home increase of milk. And, as the year
Grows lush in juicy stalks, I'll smoothly steer
My little boat, for many quiet hours,
With streams that deepen freshly into bowers.
Many and many a verse I hope to write,
Before the daisies, vermeil rimmed and white,
Hide in deep herbage; and ere yet the bees
Hum about globes of clover and sweet peas,
I must be near the middle of my story.
O may no wintry season, bare and hoary,
See it half finished: but let Autumn bold,
With universal tinge of sober gold,
Be all about me when I make an end!
And now at once, adventuresome, I send
My herald thought into a wilderness:
There let its trumpet blow, and quickly dress
My uncertain path with green, that I may speed
Easily onward, thorough flowers and weed.

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Backyard: Lawn vs. Gravel

From the 1st time studying historic gardens in Europe over 20 years ago, gravel changed every thought about a 'lawn'.
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Perhaps it was coming from a region of USA with ubiquitous patchy backyard 'turf' lawns.
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Gravel, below, set with a top rate template of plantings too.  No worries what the plantings are, below, use the best plants in your zone fitting the appropriate sun/shade, size, foliage evergreen/deciduous.
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Best plants?  Don't know best plants for your zone, USA?  Go to your county/state/extension office online.  Typical mission statement for the Extension Service,        

"Mission

Our mission is to extend lifelong learning to Georgia citizens through unbiased, research-based education in agriculture, the environment, communities, youth and families.

UGA Extension offers educational programs, assistance, and materials to all people without regard to race, color, national origin, age, sex, or handicap status. "

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Your county Extension Service will have a listing of the best trees/shrubs/groundcovers/vines.  Motivation is for the proper plantings, not to sell you something.
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Knowing the best plants for your specific location gives you liberty to copy good gardens world wide.
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Don't feel comfortable choosing the best plants for your garden plan?  Take a picture of what you want, perhaps below, and ask your Extension Service agent, or their volunteer Master Gardener to choose for you.  This service is paid for thru your tax dollar.

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Pic, above, here.
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Choosing gravel, align with color that may already be used with your home's exterior, or interior.  If there is a predominate stone in your location, choose it.  Measure square footage you want to cover with gravel, 2.5" thick and place your order.  The stone source you order from will turn your square footage/depth into 'yards'.  Small gravel is best, more residential.  Large gravel is commercial for parking lots or building construction.
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If you're fighting a poor turf lawn in your backyard, consider gravel.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO
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My 1st phone call to Extension Service was ca. 1985.  Going to the mailbox I noticed a vile odor.  Exploring, discovered ooze at the base of a large oak.  Their diagnosis?  Slime flux.  Solution?  Poor a mix of clorox/water on it.  It worked, and I'm still friends with the Extension agent helping me.  Weirdly, he's retiring next year.  How is that possible?  He's also the 1st person ever asking me to speak.  He created a new layer in my career.  In return I've never said 'no' when he's called asking me to speak for Extension.  About 6-7 years ago he asked me to speak on pollinators.  A disaster I thought, but said 'yes'.  Pollinators?  Boring.  How was I to know it would become one of my most requested lecture titles?  He called earlier this month, one of our 'peeps' is moving back to Georgia.  A young woman we watched grow in her horticulture career and are both so proud of.  She took a lot of my seminars, always asked the best questions, a great can-do attitude.  She moved away for a huge huge huge job, but Georgia family/friends are pulling her home.  He asked if I would give her a reference.  As if !!