Tell Me About the Foundation Plantings in Your Life

Moth to a flame, below, 1st time seeing this style 'landscaping' in England ca. 1988, during my 1st historic garden design study tour.  Skeletal DNA danced in its helix.
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No drifts, no incurves, no outcurves, no tall-something-focal-point-expensive-tree at the left corner, no ubiquitous ridiculous superfluous foundation planting, no monoculture lawn parading as culture, no monthly mow-blow-go, no patch of hot house annuals grown from plugs and trucked to a box store, the 'safe' personality chosen and presented as character, no fertilizer killing earth worms and poisoning groundwater, no allowance for pollinators, just conforming to the highest point of the bell curve, because it's a point inculcated in secondary education as acceptable, when it should be considered a personal failure to reach that point.
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A 'manor' house cannot be a 'subdivision' house.  Sometimes, a client is indeed in a subdivision, yet know they need to set their home free from the shackles of subdivision landscaping.  Great pleasure, releasing a manor house from its bindings of subdivision bell curve 'success'.          


Pic, above, here.
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Garden, above, quite personal.  I want to know the story.  Notice the roller at the front door?  I get the feeling Somerset Maugham, and a few others are coming for cocktails & dinner this evening, above.
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The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger. W. Somerset Maugham
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When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character. W. Somerset Maugham
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Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.
Somerset Maugham
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The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill. W. Somerset Maugham
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Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul. W. Somerset Maugham
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It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do. Moliere
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The insufferable arrogance of human beings to think that Nature was made solely for their benefit, as if it was conceivable that the sun had been set afire merely to ripen men's apples and head their cabbages. Cyrano de Bergerac
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Sometimes in someone's gestures you can notice how a parent is somehow inhabiting that person without there being any awareness of that. Sometimes you can look at your hand and see your father. Sam Shepard
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Personality is everything that's false in a human: everything that's been added on to him and contrived. Sam Shepard
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All quotes, above, here. 
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Garden Design: Life Happens in the Margins

The trinity that remains, below.  Noticed decades ago, what remains of a good garden.  Can you label the remnant layers?
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Pic, above, here.
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Open, wooded, stone focal point.
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Pasture/meadow, woodland, stone focal point.
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What I haven't known for decades, about that trinity, is its place in the hierarchy of Nature.  Had to serendipitously  learn its role.
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Did you know there is a function of meadow next to woodland?
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High density next to low density.
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Do you know where this is leading?
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 Maximum pollinator habitat.
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All roads lead back to, Life happens in the margins.
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No accidents.
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With a garden, the trinity is literal.  Not psycho babble, life-happens-in-the-margins, about creating more space in your life for calm.  Don't understand?  Create & live in a historically designed garden.  You'll get the memo.  
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Creating Garden Rooms: Foyer & Entryways

There is so little here, below, yet it is a full narrative.  Better, it's a classic foyer and front door.  The stone table is full on serious, or whimsy.
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Not your style?  Not your budget?  Evergreen hedge instead of adobe, gravel instead of stone, rescued 'something' for 'door'.
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Ironically, this zone, below, is mostly missing-in-action, in the majority of landscapes.  It's not rare for me to work a jobsite with an existing garden, all I have to do is connect the existing dots.  How?  Design foyers, doorways and halls connecting existing garden rooms.  Choose a color trinity, a style 'theme' already indicated by the house/interior, and, what had been hodge-podge-lodge becomes a classic template having survived centuries.  This isn't rocket science.
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Odd, this superpower, seeing garden rooms since earliest childhood.
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Quite fun, for me, to be in a garden, with its owner, and exactly point out where the foyers, entryways, and hallways are.  Haven't lost anyone yet.  That moment when they 'see'.  Love those ineffable moments.


Pic, above, here.
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Do you see your foyers, living rooms, hallways, entryways, in the garden?
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Best way to describe the ineffable, below.


Pic, above, here.
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Many things are outgrown, somehow, from childhood I kept this, above, the little girl at right.  She's totally absorbed, she's in the garden realm of eternity, no longer tied to Earth.  Not bound by time, hunger, getting bloodied/bruised are of no account, only being in that realm, real.  A stewardship with Nature, washing the servants feet, in gratitude.  A place to harvest grace, no matter the swirl in a life.
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Man separated, quite recently, merely post WWII for USA, agriculture & horticulture.  Buzz words with new meanings have to be invented to maintain the bifurcation.  Eco, sustainable, regenerative, organic.  Industrial agriculture, and landscaping with a mow-blow-go contract.  Whew.
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The role of animals/insects/fungi in Nature is fraught in man's stewardship.  I've been looking for something to add, to the prayer ahead of meals, about our stewardship, or at minimum, an awareness.
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Found it, in the macro,
"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals.  Remote from universal nature and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion.  We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate for having taken form so far below ourselves.  And therein do we err.  for the animal shall not be measured by man.  In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear.  they are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth."  Henry Beston, 1888-1968, "The Outermost House".      
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And another Beston, below,
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"When the Pleiadese and the wind in the grass are no longer a part of the human spirit, a part of very flesh and bone, man becomes, as it were a kind of cosmic outlaw, having neither the completeness and integrity of the animal nor the birthright of a true humanity."

Front Yard: Simple, More Simple

Seems so simple, below.


Pic, above, here.

More simple, below.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Austerity of great depth.
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Richness in choosing 'no'.
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A garden must say who you are from the curb.  A garden must say you really do want to come inside.
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Amazing array of good choices, that list is not short, made for both houses & gardens.
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How simple can you make your landscape while giving it, and your home, deep riches ?
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T

Feng Shui: Journaling, Garden, Life

Smith & Hawken had a lecture series at their store on Peachtree Street for years.   Much anticipated was a Feng Shui speaker.
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Wildly, and pleasingly, the talk was validation for all I was already doing for Garden Design and aligning it with home & life.  A trinity.
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Later I met Tracy Miller of Gazelle Feng Shui.  Have enjoyed being on her email list, Gazelle Feng Shui Tip of the Week, arriving Fridays for years.
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A few nights ago I was googling information, and this pic, below, was in the large response.  Ironic, it's a pic of my own garden.  My 30 year Cottage Garden.  Soul satisfying, this pic is taken in my sideyard in a cluster home subdivision with at least 10 houses stuffing the view.  See them?  Didn't think so.  More, if I must give any sort of accounting for my time on Earth, that garden will be on the list.  As accomplishment, and in thanks.  (Slow, 'washing of the servants feet', but I got-it !! )
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In addition to having several books published, I write journal books for myself.  They have quotes, passages, lone words by the hundreds, pairs of words, torn fragments of photos/art, torn more, into collage pieces taped onto many pages, processes of thinking, myriad methods of finding your way out of the woods Dante's Inferno describes, yet we arrived in those woods of our own free will.  The books are not linear, and fresh items are put into whichever, no scheme, other than heart, and a passion that is broad and still hungry for understanding, much.
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Apparently, journal books are a type of methodology of Feng Shui in Tracy Miller's world.  The power of intention.  My journal books are not wish books, more potent, action step books.
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I see this pic of my garden, below, and cannot believe all that was given to me.  Given.  Yet it was my effort of mind/heart/body/checkbook/time/bruised-bloodied, creating the garden.  It feels, totally, freely, given.
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Pic, above, shot in my garden.
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A journal entry, below, ca. 2007.  This darling sassy man, and his home.  Had no clue who he was at the time, merely adored his sass.

Pic, above, from my journal, via, NYTimes.
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2015 arrived, less than 2 years ago, and I found a house on Zillow.  Knew it was the wrong house driving to meet the realtor, too far, located in nowherevilleruralusa.   E.M.Forster awoke when I walked thru the front door, every fiber of my being 'knew', this is my home.  A few minutes later, I walked into this room, below, now my office.  Already a mass of jello from E.M.Forster communing at the front door, now, in this pink room, below, (as Forster did with the charwoman meeting the 2nd Mrs. Wilcox at Howard's End for the first time), I got the 2nd memo, as if the 1st memo wasn't beyond galaxy realms huge.  Offer was made for the house within 24 hours.
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Pic, above, shot in my office this morning.
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Soon I will begin the hunt for kaki blazer/pants, purple shirt, pocket square, and stand with sass, at my office fireplace, with a good photographer.  No, I didn't want a pink office, white fireplace, kaki pants suit while journaling the photo from NYTimes.  
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More than this has arrived into the present, from my journals.  And, I had merely been saving/journaling to help my methodologies, and understand, from Dante's, Inferno, Line 1, "Midway on our life's journey, I found myself in a dark wood, the right road lost."  James Hollis has a great question to ask yourself, if the right road to take is unclear, and options are myriad yet opaque, "Which path enlarges me, and which path diminishes me?"  More, "This means leaving behind what's comfortable but confining.  Like Dante, we need to find the path to our best, freest selves.  If you get stuck...We might be frightened by the answer, or intimidated by what it asks of us.  But it will always tell us which way to go."
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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Tracy Miller of Gazelle Feng Shui, below.  (Tracy gave me permission to share her work, and I am receiving nothing in return. )

The Two Energies of Feng Shui

Hi All, Feng shui as seen through the eyes of most people consists largely of manipulating the tangible (physical) environment. Most of the time, we are looking at the layout of the land, buildings, the position of furniture, trees and roads, and also colors and shapes of things. Sometimes referred to as "Sying" energy, this physical practice is a very good way to make adjustments to an environment to support the chi of the people who live there. But it's not the only way. There is a second aspect of feng shui that isn't as well-known but that is also a powerful way to change the chi of a person or a place. This energy is known as "Yi", which can be translated loosely as a wish, or an intention and/or an imposition of will. This type of energy might be accessed through a house blessing, through reading intentions daily, and by adjusting our inner feng shui to align with what we are desiring in life. It is the reason we like to look at a house's history and the way a person arrived at a place to see if there is a pattern of energy present there that needs to be considered. What intangible elements are impacting the space? This Yi energy is equally important as the physical aspects of the space. By tying these two energies together, a level of success can be attained more easily than by using one or the other by itself. For example, it's great to read your intention every day to find a new relationship. It sets your mind on the purpose at hand. You might even meditate or pray on this desire which helps align your inner world with this intention. But to bring a turbo charge to this desire, you will also want to adjust your physical world by enhancing the relationship areas in your home, by getting out to meet people, and creating a nurturing environment around you. In this way, you are in essence 'covering all the bases" to take you where you want to go. Of course, life isn't predictable. There are no guarantees. By using feng shui methods, we are simply trying to increase our chances of attaining our goals by tapping into the best energy (chi) possible to take us there. All gardeners know that if you plant a seed, water it, use the best soil possible and have great weather that you have a very good chance of growing a wonderful vegetable or flower. On the other hand, perhaps at the height of harvest time, a deer jumps the fence and eats the whole thing. We're not in charge of the universe, but we do our best to live in it. That's a very important feng shui concept. Until next time, Tracy Tracy Miller Gazelle Feng Shui www.gazellefengshui.com

Tara Template: The Table

Following historic Garden Design rules, creates wildly unique gardens from the same templates. Every time.
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Sure, ignore historic Garden Design rules, go commando, walk off the reservation, reinvent the wheel, hello ubiquity.  Worse, aside from frittering money.  Time.  Life's precious commodity.
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Who have I become?  What happened to that young woman?  The one who needed perennial borders, shocking amounts of hydrangeas & gee gaws galore, first?  No longer a young woman, joyful victory, fully bloomed woman, humbly remaining a young gardener.  My life, To Sir With Love, lived into, Thomas Jefferson.  Hungering for more.  More, than the young woman who merely thought she hungered.
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Tara Template: The Table
















All pics, above, here.
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On August 20, 1811 Thomas Jefferson wrote to Charles Willson Peale, “I have often thought that if heaven had given me choice of my position & calling, it should have been on a rich spot of earth, well watered, and near a good market for the productions of the garden.  “no occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, & no culture comparable to that of the garden. such a variety of subjects, some one always coming to perfection, the failure of one thing repaired by the success of another, & instead of one harvest a continued one thro’ the year. under a total want of demand except for our family table I am still devoted to the garden. but tho’ an old man, I am but a young gardener.”  Monticello Blog.  
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To Sir with Love

Lulu

Those schoolgirl days of telling tales and biting nails are gone
But in my mind
I know they will still live on and on
But how do you thank someone, who has taken you from crayons to perfume?
It isn't easy, but I'll try

If you wanted the sky I would write across the sky in letters,
That would soar a thousand feet high,
To Sir, with Love

The time has come
For closing books and long last looks must end
And as I leave
I know that I am leaving my best friend
A friend who taught me right from wrong
And weak from strong
That's a lot to learn
What, what can I give you in return?

If you wanted the moon I would try to make a start
But I, would rather you let me give my heart
To Sir, with Love

Songwriters: Don Black / Mark London

To Sir with Love lyrics © EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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To Sir With Love, the movie, made quite an impression watching the first time as a teen.  More amazing is the source my life was given, as mentor, my Garden.  To Garden, with Love.

Garden Design Class in a Single Pic

Hello gorgeous, below.
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You got me with your almost brutally modern architecture, smashed into historic Garden Design.
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Then you dropped those orbs with a glint of art nouveau reverie taking a ride with Tinkerbell.
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Your furniture borders on cliche excepting it's an ode to cubism.
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Well do I appreciate the hands & intent pruning, a cocky marvel, to those who know.
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Finally, ending with how lush can you be with the smallest amount of input.
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You're darn tooting I want to see the rest of the garden.
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Pic, above, here.
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Adore garden pics telling a story, and teaching a Garden Design class.
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What do you see, above?
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T

Red Queen Thinking: Get Where You're Going

Extreme example, below, designing views into your windows.
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Where to begin your Garden Design?  Why, of course your Garden Design begins in the middle, of your house.  Looking out into the garden from every window.  Yes, this is Red Queen, Alice in Wonderland truth.  Naturally, will finish with the Red Queen, you must create a double axis and design views into your windows, from the garden.  Story gets better these are 'my' garden design rules.  You know, all those decades of empirical data points gathered traipsing across Europe studying historic gardens.  Now, you're in the story, and it makes me laugh, you're understanding my Red Queen dictums.  And doing them too.  Beautiful garden, beautiful life.


Pic, above, here.

In my house, below, Garden Designed from inside to outside.  Bay window, pot on plinth sited directly upon middle row of glass panes.



Pic, above, shot by me in my garden.
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Pic, above, shot by me in my garden, same bay window.


Pic, above, shot by me, same window.


Pic, above, shot by me, same window.
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Exactly where your Garden Design should begin, above, the middle of your home, looking out the windows.  "I don't know where to start.", is the refrain.  Common, common, alas, common, and Red Queen of Alice in Wonderland has the answer.
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Pic, above, shot by me in my garden, same window.
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Lamp, above, now in the dining room, blue/white, above, now in the central hall, lamp at back right, above, now in the laundry room kitchen, and the beat goes on, as Sonny Bono sang so well.  Less than 6 mos after moving from my cottage, above, had to have a heart-to-heart talk with myself.  Self, you cannot 'remember' where everything used to be, everything is now in its right place.  Twenty four hours later, after much focus, those memories let go of me.  Too exhausting.  Loved my cottage, and now, love my farmhouse, though not Tara'ized yet.
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Moving from my home of 30 years, pics above, has been wildly beyond expectation.  From cottage I built ca. 1986, to historic ca. 1900 farmhouse.  Zero clue this lone fact would be a 180.  What was I thinking?  Data still arriving, and Red Queen of Alice in Wonderland, having great sway, at present.  No worries, a plodder, no fear to pull a trigger.  Beloved doesn't get this process, asked me while riding in the Gator to the pond last month, "This blah-blah has to get done, it is a mess, looks terrible, you need to get rid of xyz and etc."  Red Queen, slowly turned her head toward him, "I'm not to that layer yet."  No, you don't want to know the look on Red Queen's face, or her tone, nor what she was thinking. "Can't you SEE the layers? "
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Garden & Be Well,     XOT
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Want more crazy?  Inhale the Red Queen of Alice in Wonderland, you'll begin the garden design of your dreams.  Promise.  Why else would I expose crazy thinking?  It's to give away the best story ever told.

MLK: Mission Statement for Living

"If you want to understand how a lion hunts you don't go to the zoo, you go to the jungle." David Sable

Going into the internet, first time, zero clue to anything about it excepting what I had read in newspapers or magazines or heard on tv.
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Lovely afternoon.  Hooked.  Two memories of that 1st voyage, discovered in-depth writings of Martin Luther King, and, bought an airline ticket.
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Yesterday, serendipitously, found a well defined description of those thoughts written by Dr. King, yet never written into a journal, saved, or printed.
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"  His (King's) enduring ethos, at its core, is nonreligious — rather, it champions a set of moral, spiritual, and civic responsibilities that fortify our humanity, individually and collectively. "   Here.
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Pic, above, here.

My first study tour of historic European gardens 2+ decades ago, tossed me directly into a new world, hitherto unknown, in relation to landscapes.  People cared about the landscapes they created for themselves, not merely for themselves, or even first for themselves, but as a civic duty to community and neighbor.  Going deeper, even a duty to who will own the home/garden after them.

 
Pic, above, here.

Continued studies abroad with historic gardens, intuitively realized their landscapes went beyond a duty to self and community.  Their landscapes included duty to Nature.  Spirituality.
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"His (King's) enduring ethos, at its core, is nonreligious — rather, it champions a set of moral, spiritual, and civic responsibilities that fortify our humanity, individually and collectively. " "
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"Nonviolence … does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding. The nonviolent resister must often express his protest through noncooperation or boycotts, but he realizes that these are not ends themselves; they are merely means to awaken a sense of moral shame in the opponent. The end is redemption and reconciliation. The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community, while the aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness."  Dr. Martin Luther King.
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Too often, stories of HOA's, shared with me are not under the heading of redemption, reconciliation & beloved community, but tragic bitterness. Incredible mission statement for living, above.
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Was excited to come across these beautiful words again, as Dr. King wrote them, and wanted to share.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Top pic, amuses no end.  Did not like, could not abide, too stupid for me, topiary forms in the garden.  Now, I understand their iconic use, and why.  Love, when appropriate, topiary in the garden.  Looking at the picture, admire the garden, and smirk kindly at the person I used to be.  Isn't it amazing how fast we see quirks we used to have, within others !!

Brain Pickings: Rachel Carson & Dorothy Freeman

Most of the historic gardens I've studied across Europe for 2+ decades are farms.  Never anticipating I would be designing a single farm garden.  Majority of my work, to date, has been in subdivisions attached to large cities.  Learning at the historic farms, best ever choice.
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Farm, below, quite typical of gardens I've studied.  Great dividing line of farm & formal at the ha-ha.
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Pic, above, here.

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, published when I was a small girl, made the tv news.  That black/white screen bearing witness to MLK's murder, Vietnam, a President shot, the Texas Tower Shooting, and race riots.  Well before the age of 10, all this stuff plastered tv news.  Nope, in the wisdom of a 6'ish year old, Rachel Carson, was just another bitter story.      

 
Pic, above, here.

Time passes.  Of course I learn she's done something quite wonderful.  And I had to study at those historic farms, learning how to insert Nature into subdivison landscapes.  Nature, my great love.

 
Pic, above, here.

Until this year, Rachel Carson remained a 'persona'.


Pic, above, here.
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Following a short rabbit hole of diversion, I discovered Rachel Carson the person, today.  A dear friend, at lunch yesterday, Brio on Peachtree, shared with me something wondrous that had happened to her.  Before the sharing I knew something was different, she was luminous in her beauty, radiating peace.  A terrible bitterness she had carried, over 2 decades, lifted.  Gone.  Whew.  What a lunch we had and I don't mean the food (wedge salad &lobster bisque).  
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I don't see my friend often enough, at least once a year we try to spend the nite, sharing the same bed, not wanting to miss a moment of time with each other, talking till way too late.  This friendship quite important to both of us.  And it has had its moments of angst, nevah you doubt, but never an option to part.
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Brain Pickings had an intriguing link about a friendship, a deep friendship between a pair of grown women.  With memories of yesterday's lunch still glowing today, you know I took the click bait.
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Rachel Carson is one of the women.  This article about deep friendship, turned Rachel Carson the persona, into Rachel-the-person.  A nice read of depth, as only Brain Pickings does, I finished the article with moist eyes.  And, clicked afterward to buy her books.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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If you don't take my click bait, above, here's an excerpt:

"In September of 1963, shortly after her testimony before President John F. Kennedy’s Science Advisory Committee became instrumental in the first regulatory policies on pesticides, Carson wrote a stunning letter to Freeman. It contained a contemplation of her own mortality so profound, so poignant, so tenderhearted and transcendent that it could only be articulated to the person who knew her heart most intimately. She writes:

Dear One,

This is a postscript to our morning at Newagen, something I think I can write better than say. For me it was one of the loveliest of the summer’s hours, and all the details will remain in my memory: that blue September sky, the sounds of the wind in the spruces and surf on the rocks, the gulls busy with their foraging, alighting with deliberate grace, the distant views of Griffiths Head and Todd Point, today so clearly etched, though once half seen in swirling fog. But most of all I shall remember the monarchs, that unhurried westward drift of one small winged form after another, each drawn by some invisible force. We talked a little about their migration, their life history. Did they return? We thought not; for most, at least, this was the closing journey of their lives.

But it occurred to me this afternoon, remembering, that it had been a happy spectacle, that we had felt no sadness when we spoke of the fact that there would be no return. And rightly — for when any living thing has come to the end of its life cycle we accept that end as natural.

For the Monarch, that cycle is measured in a known span of months. For ourselves, the measure is something else, the span of which we cannot know. But the thought is the same: when that intangible cycle has run its course it is a natural and not unhappy thing that a life comes to an end.

That is what those brightly fluttering bits of life taught me this morning. I found a deep happiness in it — so I hope, may you. Thank you for this morning.

Rachel  "

Garden Design Course in a Single Photo

In many others, and my own, there is a demanding Muse for Garden Photography.
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Every layer, below, Muse's demand, decadently satisfied.
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A Garden Design course can be taught from this pic, below, alone.
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Muse's demand?  Speaking to Jean Cocteau, Sergei Diaghilev said it best, "Astonish me.".


Pic, above, here.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO T
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Want bonus points?  Label every layer, above.
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Love pairs of words, ASTONISH ME, double lovely !  Had to use this new pair after discovery in an article about Andre Leon Talley in NYTimes yesterday.

Binary Thinking is Not For Garden Design

Anatomy of designing a garden first for winter, below.

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Through the year, let Nature take its course or play with seasonal plantings in the urns on plinths, below.

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Perhaps lighting in the pond/pool, below, shining in a direction you wish to see wavy watery shadows in the evening.  A fountain for sound?

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Maybe flowers/candles floating in the water for a party.

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Get the point?  More than a garden, below, it's a proscenium for your life.

Pic, above, here. 

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Binary thinking does not lend itself to Garden Design.  

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"No truly great thinker is siloed in a small territory."  And, that is the mind, a truly great thinker, creating the garden, above.

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"Quantitative thinking is knowing the dose makes the poison."  Just enough, above, any more, and the Garden Design is poisoned.  Had a super talented assistant manager when I worked at a nursery for several years.  Alas, he always poisoned his talent, Garden Design, in the last 5 minutes.  He put in too much.  We would wait for him to leave, and take away the poison, leaving the true beauty of his work.  Never, did he get angry with us.  Instead it was always a great smile, after his initial questioning gaze.

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Binary thinking is a fixed mindset.  Garden Design is a growth mindset.  "Blame is a big part of the fixed mindset."  Garden Design receives the blame, too often, and erroneously, of "I can't afford it.".

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No time to go there at the moment.  Another day.

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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

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Quotes pulled from, Creating A Growth Mindset, by Carol Dweck.

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I didn't save her quotes for Garden Design, though they fit.  Instead, been taken to my last nerve dealing with binary thinking from....  And, happy to get this lens of thinking to up my own game, when my game is stalled.  A growth mindset, for sure.

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.


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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Pic, above, here.

 
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

Design: Binary Thinking vs. Jungle Thinking

At the front end of having a garden, finally, after college graduation, not counting the garden whispering decades prior, from birth to 22 years old, I knew if I loved a plant, it was the right plant to acquire and put into my garden.
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I was so happy, get plant, put into garden, next please !  Worse than a Labrador chasing a stick.  Much worse.  Growing up with a Texas'tude, making it my own, Tara'tude, works in many/most situations, total fail in tiny amount of others.  But that tiny amount, a mushroom cloud, Fail.
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Binary thinking did not create a beautiful garden.  How could Tara'tude know it had approached a multi-layered nuance of perfection, eons old?
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Binary thinking?  If I think a plant is fabulous, it will make my garden fabulous.  Binary thinking, closed loop, fiasco in the making.  "If you want to understand how a lion hunts you don't go to the zoo, you go to the jungle."  David Sable.  Binary thinking, about creating the garden of your dreams, literally what you've saved to Pinterest, keeps you at the zoo.  So long as you are in the zoo, those who've marched on, to the jungle, see.  Your mushroom cloud isn't the elephant in the room to us.
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No worries, the jungle also taught us to be matriarchs.  We benevolently await, nurture, and enjoy anyone leaving the zoo, walking into the jungle.  If you've read this far, welcome to the jungle.  "No truly great thinker is siloed in a small territory."  
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Here's what I know, too, about gardens & binary thinking.  Remember, these thought processes were my mushroom cloud, until I saw exactly where to enter the jungle.
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Taken from, Creating a Growth Mindset, by Carol Dweck, "You don't believe in growth, you believe in right and wrong and any suggestion of change or adaptation is considered a criticism.  Challenges or obstacles tend to make you angry and defensive."  "Blame is a big part of the fixed mindset."  And, oh my, didn't all those pretty gardens cost a lot to create?  That was my excuse, my blame, not enough $$$.
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Blessedly I wanted a beautiful garden more than I wanted to be right.  Providence entered, 1985, when I bought myself a birthday present.  A garden book.  Little knowing , English Cottage Gardens, by Ethne Clarke, was my portal into the jungle.  Pics and writing devoured in a long afternoon, the epiphany arrived before sunset.  Gardens are not about plants, Gardens are about backdrop.  The house, the country side, your neighbor's air-conditioner.  At those points you enter the jungle.
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Great Dixter, below, is great backdrop.  Same garden, below, would not be so wonderful at a mid-century brick ranchburger, worse, in winter.  In winter, below, historical oast houses take the stage, a ranchburger, no.  Enter the jungle.  What do you need to do to create your mid-century brick ranchburger into a stunning backdrop?  Color, light fixtures, window treatments & views into them from the garden, where to place proper evergreens for beauty in February, create flow with paths and lawn, solve every slope issue, put focal points on axis from inside the house, perhaps a new front door, moving the foundation hedge out from the base of the house, create 3-D elements on the flat walls, for starters.  Jungle thinking !    


Pic, above, here.



Pic, above, here.

Both Great Dixter garden rooms, above/below, would be a mushroom cloud fail at most USA subdivision homes, in a front yard.  All those pretty flowers, above/below, are beautiful 2-4 weeks/year, many months of the year they are herbaceous, disappearing.  Worse, these garden rooms are high maintenance, needing, dead-heading, dividing, weeding, all for a measly 2 weeks of glory?  Not a viable option for most.  Except for me during my days living/thinking in the zoo.  Sure, I was the perennials queen, planted them with exuberance, got on the board of the Georgia Perennial Plant Association, yet seeing my garden, it was not fabulous.  Every perennial above/below you can be sure I've had.
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Once in the jungle I knew, for me & my time/money, no more perennials, only flowering shrubs, trees, groundcovers, bulbs and my house as backdrop.


Pic, above, here.
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My journey from binary thinking in a silo, to fully fledged member of the jungle, is never dull, nor stops.  More, it has brought an authenticity, an ability to traverse worlds within worlds.  An abiding joy, a grace and atonement.  "We're not particularly well integrated.  One of the curiosities can be the differences, rather than the similarities, between people walking down the street--differences in expectation and privilege, in wealth and opportunity.  It's not tension or aggression, but a kind of guarded indifference.  We coexist rather than create communities."  Anthony Minghella.  'The more we go inward the more we outwardly connect', don't be afraid of the jungle.  You'll discover it to be the most incredible community.  Scare yourself, what it gives in return is beyond measure.  The pearl of great price.  Selfishly, when you do, I want to see your garden, and know your journey.  Your mushroom cloud fails too.  
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Adore the laughter with others in the jungle, sharing their fails !
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT
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Ok, I'll give you 1 particular sentence from a friend's journey in the jungle. "I had no car after the divorce so worked at the dry cleaners nearby, I could walk to work, one morning opening the drive through window, there were 3 cars already waiting, each with a man, I was dating all 3.   Yep, the story gets better.  In addition to money issues, she has cronic health issues.  But, oh my, you should see her garden.  Through it all, you should see her garden.  

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."


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 ...)

Easy Garden Furniture

Furniture in the garden has intrigued me from childhood.  Thankfully, my parents had a cool iron chair, I adored.  Bought new in the 60's, it had arms, tall back, detachable iron 'bonnet', separate foot rest, it turned 360, rocked, and had nice cushions.  I rocked, whirled, read books, and even napped, with my orange marmalade cat, Tigger, in that chair on the screened porch with deep overhangs, Galveston Bay always hot/humid.  Most memorable moment in the chair, awakened from a nap by a loud chorus of tree frogs.  Looking around, none visible.  Still, the chorus.  Found them, by the 100's, rimming the underside of the chair cushion.  Managed to hop out faster than an Olympian, without harming a single tree frog.  50 years later, I cannot see a tree frog without thinking of that chair.
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Time passed, mom gave the chair away.  I see those chairs occasionally in advertising, or at antique shop.  None, complete with bonnet & foot rest.  A good thing, I would probably buy the chair, if it were complete.
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Dad had the worst end of the deal with that iron chair.  Cleaning the patio, hosing it off, he had to move the chair at least once a month.  Maybe it was him, glad to give the chair away.
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Now, easily moved garden furniture is the hunt.  Aside from lightweight, it must have arms, a back tall enough to rest the head back, and nap.  More than the personal, garden furniture must leverage having friends in the garden.  Create a setting for conversation, laughter, lingering.  Especially after meals.


Pic, above, here.
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Have the good fortune of sourcing 3 of the wicker chairs, above.  Each for a song.
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Amusing to see Freud in a photo new to me, attracted by the outdoor furniture, round circle of iron in the railing contrasting so well with squares of the French doors, and those chows.  Freud.  Not my cup of tea, more Jungian.  Thankful for both.
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That balcony.  So much narrative, without a word, wisely playing backdrop.  Yet, take away the man/dogs, the backdrop narrative immediately jumps forward, owning the stage.
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These are the things I design in gardens.  Some, too rich, think it's all about a few bushes and a little garden furniture.  Those, are not my tribe.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Front Door Garden Design

One reason, below, I must see your home interior before being able to design its garden.
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Was it obvious, at first glance, below, the problem?
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A dark foyer.
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Many houses I've designed the 'matching' glass door.  We source the door to match the existing front door, and our carpenter cuts away the panels, replacing with glass.
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Have never tabulated a list, but so much about Garden Design does not involve plants.


Pic, above, here.
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Have had the opportunity to walk into several big box stores this fall, always going in via the Garden Center.  Vulgarians at the gate have won.  Literally.  Greetings via shelves, rows of shelves, dedicated to chemicals, and seemingly innocuous fertilizer.  Beware, n-p-k fertilizer is toxic to ground water, kills earthworms, kills mycorrhizal fungi on roots.
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Had a knowing laugh reading Schopenhauer yesterday, "When we read, another person thinks for us; we merely repeat his mental process.........read themselves stupid."  Yep.  Me.  At the front end of gardening I read myself stupid.  Realized popular garden writing wasn't for me, went back to college for horticulture degree, more stupid.  To the core of my DNA, knew it was stupid.  Thus began decades of studying historic gardens across Europe.  No more books, foot on Earth.
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Then to Machiavelli, "A wise man ought always to follow the paths beaten by great men and to imitate those who have been supreme, so that if his ability does not equal theirs, at least it will savour of it."
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On to Seneca, "Men who have made these discoveries before us are not our masters but our guides."
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Further with Farnum Street, "We need to digest, synthesize & organize the thoughts of others if we are to understand....It's how we acquire wisdom.  How we acquire foundational knowledge.....Without this foundational knowledge we are unable to separate the signal from the noise."
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

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.

 
Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.
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Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.

 
Pic, above, here.


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

Hidden Layer of Design in Plain View

In plain view all pics, below, the Garden Design affecting each photo.  A layer I've never read about in a Garden Design book nor heard spoken of in a Garden Design lecture, not mentioned in a garden show on TV.  I have written of it in past postings maybe 1-2 times.
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Designing my previous garden I had no awareness I was creating this 'unknown' layer of Garden Design seen in all of the pics, below.
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Living in my previous garden 30 years, beginning with bare Earth, this 'unknown' layer had to grow, perhaps 20 years worth.  Once arrived, I knew immediately it had been there much longer than my date of awareness.
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Do you see this unspoken layer of Garden Design, below?  Do you have it in your home?
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Enjoy the pics, below.  I'm a firm believer in epiphanies.  If you don't know this layer of Garden Design I'm focusing upon, below, hopefully you will see it with your eyes/heart and be able to give it a name.






























All pics, above, via Cote de Texas.
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The garden, above pics, paints the light inside the home.
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Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Garden Design Class in a Pair of Pics

Attracted to the marvelous sliding doors, below, the wood stoop and small planters had me send this fabulous home & garden to my Pinterest Changes board.  Lastly, a 3rd issue from garden to kitchen for the Changes board.  Especially a home with young'ish children and these gorgeous interior wood floors.  
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A mini Garden Design course in 2 photos.
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Do you see all 3 changes immediately?
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I'll give you a moment to look at both pics carefully.  There is an easy inexpensive solution for the stoop, and a better, not inexpensive solution for the stoop.  At the open sliding door threshold is a minor 4th issue.  See the easy fix for issue 4?
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Classic mistakes, below.  Human nature !  At the front end, before getting a Horticulture degree, then traipsing Europe for 2+ decades studying historic gardens I made the same mistakes too.  Once you know what the Garden Design mistakes are, your eye is trained to see them, correct them, easily, every time.
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Of course there may be zero mistakes, below, solutions could already be designed, just not installed.  A likely scenario if you take a tour of the interior, here.
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Look at the pair of pics, below, again.  Got your Garden Design solutions?





Pics, above, here.
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Change #4, the door mats inside & outside should match.  The tight space will enlarge, flow, and become more of a 'foyer' between inside/outside instead of the current abrupt divide.  My choice would be a pair of door mats, large, similar in looks to the existing mat inside the home already.
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Change #3, transition from beautiful stone terrace to gravel to wood stoop to interior of home.  This change makes me smile, I made the same mistake as a garden designer in my 20's.  Matching stone from the terrace should be installed into the gravel transitioning to the wood stoop.  Why?  Significantly reduces amount of gravel stuck in shoes, or paws, to be tracked inside, and gouging/scratching that beautiful wood floor.
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Change #2, Dinky is Stinky, need much larger pots at those sliding doors, and wider apart, setting them left/right off the wood stoop.  Remove 2 bushes at right of wood stoop, replace their planting bed with more gravel.
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Change #1, will start with cheap/easy do it today.  Stain the wood stoop same color as sliding doors.  The house is much too elegant for this wood stoop left over from the set of F Troop.  A more expensive change to the wood stoop, replace it with a single slab of stone, custom cut the same or a bit deeper.  Wood stoop vs. stone landing.  Already the verbage is a nicer story.
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Again, seeing the interior of this home, I think the 'Change' layers I've mentioned are already on their to-do list.  Their attention to detail quite wonderful.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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Put that green extension cord under the gravel.  I know you already thought that.  A funny thing about gardening, the small victories.  Just getting the cord buried is a big deal, having the door mats match.....