Showing posts with label Pond. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pond. Show all posts

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.

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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.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Pond House

At pond's edge we're deciding architecture.
 

 Historical American.  Large enough for small gatherings & fishing gear.

 A fireplace for sure.
Nature at the pond will remain, embellished of course, to look MORE natural. 
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Our pond has an island too.
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Delight, and amazement, to find kindred spirits with these pics.
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Cannot wait to post 3 corresponding pics of our Pond House.  Of course it will have to be 4 pics.  We have an area to create a 'rocky beach' for wading & pushing off with kayaks.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Found these pics looking for landscape pics of What Not To Do.  Title for the lecture I gave last nite at our state's largest trade group, Urban Ag Council.   
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Total brain fart, I did not save picture source.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Moody Water

Near their kitchen door, in a courtyard, on axis with window views, below.
 Subtle, quiet, good.  I delight in the green slime & hear nature's song in these drops.
 I knew the pump was adjusted, 'just so'.  Laughing with knowing eyes, they said it was.
 Often the biggest gestures are simple.
 Their moody water taking the courtyard for its own.  Redolent of the lion
in Cinema Paradiso.
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Garden & Be Well,              XO Tara
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Water in a garden can be this diminutive yet take your heart in metaphor.  Don't overlook simplicity.  Top pics I took in a client garden.  Bottom 2 pics I copied from the movie, Cinema Paradiso.
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Garden Designers Round Table is all about water today.
Read More !!!

Water!

Water; water everywhere…or not enough at all!  Water is the lifeblood of every living thing, and yet it can be destructive in its extremes.  It’s a resource that is ephemeral and unpredictable – be it by natures’ vagaries or politicians’ whims.  The partnering of thoughtful water management with appropriate plant selection is crucial to any garden design. Today the Garden Designers Roundtable presents the topic of water.
We are delighted to introduce Debra Lee Baldwin as our guest blogger this month.  Award-winning garden photojournalist Debra Lee Baldwin lives in the drought-parched Southwest, near San Diego. “Water?” she asks. “Ha! I wish.” Debra authored the Timber Press bestsellers Designing with Succulentsand Succulent Container Gardens.   As a renowned authority on these elegant, easy-care and waterwise plants, Debra shares her expertise in print and online, via radio and TV, and at horticultural venues nationwide. She is one of several acclaimed authors and photographers who share the blog www.gardeninggonewild.com. More info: www.debraleebaldwin.com.
Now, please follow the links below, joining our special guest and members of the Roundtable, as we write about water.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Focus

Looking in, below, my new conservatory.(Hope you've seen, I Capture The Castle, from the book below.)
Knowing I wanted the Conservatory was easy. Clear focus was not.
A pond had to be removed, my property is tiny, to site the Conservatory.
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Mr. Beloved Bullfrog lived in this pond, his pond was on perfect axis from each window at the back of my house. I lost focus; emotions were involved.
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After contacting a bullfrog expert (it's important to know the right people) a plan was devised. My guys dug a trench draining water slowly. We captured Mr. Beloved Bullfrog in a large bucket. He was trotted to his new home in my other pond.
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Siting the conservatory & creating a landscape design were easy, once the focus was clear.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Clear focus. But tough choices. Love my Conservatory, no regrets about the pond.

Monday, March 1, 2010

SPRING IS EASY

This garden, below, gets it right. How do you know?
The bones (evergreen structure, axis, focal point, hardscape) hold together in deepest winter, above.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Top pic from Wing Haven. Bottom pic I took last week at Wing Haven, Charlotte, NC.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

THE GARDEN IN WINTER

Design your landscape for winter & it will be pretty all year. Design for May & you're apt to have only May be beautiful. Peonies, foxglove, clematis, roses, hydrangea, verbena are fabulous but they don't pay the rent.
2 weeks ago, above, in my sweet little garden. A sideyard exposed to a cul de sac of neighbors.
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A reality I've chosen to obliterate. A tiny garden rich in garden rooms. Yet it lives big.
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Why? Look closely at the top pic. I own the sky.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

POT WORK

Why plant when the pots
look this good?
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Choose wisely & never plant, water, fertilize pots again.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken during an Italian study tour of gardens, yes, a warm sunny summer afternoon.
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Note from PUPPET BARBUDA: Sustainability of annuals? Not. Wholesale greenhouses with heaters, swamp coolers, irrigation, manual labor, trucking of soil, containers, fertilizers, & more. Then, trucking of annuals to retail sites, more labor, watering, losses, then driven home to final user, more watering, potting soil, fertilizer, labor. Hmm.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

DESIGNED TO LOOK UNDESIGNED

Bits of this landscape look UNDESIGNED, yet nothing was left to chance.
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A potent landscape design tool:
CONTRAST FORMAL VS. INFORMAL.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Thanks Krystol for your pic.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

LAMPSHADES + LANDSCAPES

You've got to adore a woman who eyes a lamp, a regular everyday lamp, and thinks, I'll put that in my garden. Lamps happen to be another fetish of mine. Susanne Hudson's too, above.
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Under a tree and near a pond this lamp is on 24/7 and has been for years.
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The little glass jar? Fish food.
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Notice the clay saucer atop the silk lampshade? A practical detail.
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The fence? Susanne scoured books for which style to choose for her, over 100 year-old, home.
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Another BIG THING in this tiny little nothing of a garden pic?
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SUSANNE'S COLORS: green, brown, white.
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Throughout the landscape Susanne only uses green, brown & white.
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Tiny garden picture with lots to teach.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Saturday, May 9, 2009

DESIGN TO MESMERIZE

Lecturing in Aiken, SC years ago I stayed with DANCING COUPLE. This picture, below, of the many taken in their landscape continues to mesmerize. Their pond mesmerized in real time and I realized, only this week, designing to mesmerize is an element of landscape design.
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What mesmerizes in interior design? For me it's the enfilade of interior view to outside view. Still life of furnishings leading to the kinetic still life of landscape.
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I still marvel at seeing trees, blue sky, white clouds, breeze upon the surface of the water, koi rippling the water as they live their life and rocks lining the bottom of the pond.
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What design elements mesmerize you? In the landscape? Inside your home?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara