Showing posts with label pots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pots. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Front Porch: Remove the Rails

No rails.


Shutters are full length door scale, adding 'height'.  Screen door with long top panel, and a plain bottom panel, again adding height.
.
Gravel to the house.  Yes.  Downspout is piped away, and round, very nice.
.
To enlarge the space further, add step across entire front & side.  More flow/movement.  Cole Porter's, Don't Fence Me In.
.
Wonder how the shutter color is being used inside, curious about the color on the ceiling.
.
Ironically, everything is done with a sure hand except the pots.  They seem like mere filler (or magazine staging at its pinnacle of pots/pillows) until the correct pots are chosen/planted.
.
Historically designed, low maintenance.  Unskilled labor could easily keep this in shape.
.
Maria Killam had this pic recently & nailed it on the color.  Made me laugh, all I could see was the 'entire' excellent garden design, color included.  Of course I'm always happy seeing a front porch rail liberation. Would like an architect to do a post on this pic next !
.
Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
.
For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon
.
Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.
.
Construction by Award Winning
Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Garden Design: Hydrangeas in Pots

Ripe. 
.
 Notice, below, the color echo?  Wonder where the axis leads from the paired entry?  Garden design tenants are rife: spikes with rounds, all layers accounted for sky-canopy-walls-floor, contrasting textures, mystery, repetition, copied, color theme, change thru the seasons, low maintenance, maximum pollinator habitat, no chemicals needed, a historical template.
.
Does your garden tell me who you are?  This one does, as all good gardens must.
.
Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances Mayes, her sister asked, "Have you seen her house."  Frances knew, she's asking, "Who is she, what is she like?"
.

Hydrangeas do great in pots.  Choose mopheads, PeeGee, Tardiva, Limelight, etc.
.
Worried about hydrangea's brown sticks in winter?  Move on from that chapter, it's too shallow for you.  Good Garden Design backdrops normal changes thru the seasons in beauty.
.
Focal points change by the day.


Tara Turf, above/below.  Garden Design is fierce in this garden.
.
Fierce?   Simplicity is hard, keeping elements of the poverty cycle is hard, good Garden Design is hard.
.
 Getting to this iteration of his garden, I know the gardener grew through, and blew through, many life chapters.  Many.
.
 Self -will ended.  Gardenese is spoken here.  A life language.  More, the language of Providence.


Garden Design's status symbols, above, are now gravel drives, no edging.  Tara Turf.


At the front end of studying the best historic Garden Design across Europe I 'got' that.
.
If you want this type of Garden Design, I can do that for you.
.
If you want a Garden Design to meet HOA requirements, and no more, I will not do that, anymore.
.
If you wish to push your HOA rules to the max, and have to ask for approval, I will be happy to do your Garden Design.
.
Understand, I've blown thru chapters and books, and continents, to get here with Garden Design.
.
Ripe.
.
Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
.
Pics taken this month.  Top pic best shows the humidity in the air.  Was with Susanne Hudson, Liz Tedder, and poor Martha Tate (we missed yo) had to zip in/out ahead of us.
.
Think you can do Hydrangeas in Pots like this?
.
Takes the full arsenal of Garden Design.
.
Which is either simple or will take you a life time.
.
For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon
.
Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.
.
Construction by Award Winning
Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

What Bunny Mellon's Terra Cotta Pots/Topiaries Can Teach Us

House, cabin, barns, pastures, lakes, meadows, orchards, livestock are part of her domain.
.
Family, friends, church, community building, volunteering are more of her domain.
.
She's recently asked for something 'small', local terra cotta pots, known not to freeze/crack, with plants.
.
Property is ready for this layer but how to have this layer leverage her garden & life?
.
Plainly, "How do they get watered & how do they not add more work to the farm?"
.
.
Connected with a potted plant specialist yesterday, we will meet at the farm next week to see if it's a good fit.  Aside from maximum talent, need a team player, someone willing to build a long term relationship.  
.
Once the 'fit' is finalized I look forward to sharing her work with you.
.
My job, keeping things fabulous yet easy, demanding magic from my muse & each person on the team.
.
Leaning toward creating 3 greenhouse zones for myriad potted plants, drip irrigation included.
.
Caretaker will move the pots, as the owner chooses, for events.  To move pots from greenhouse to garden a 4-wheeled wagon with tallish sides that can be pulled with the Gator.
.
1 greenhouse, small, in the courtyard next to the potager, for the owner to easily use for the house & covered porches.
.
Live plants in terra cotta pots have been a missing layer in her home.  According to me, & of course I told her.  Go me.  (This type of thinking, and blurting, does get me into a pickle or two.)
.
For sure, ivy topiaries in several sizes/shapes, orchids, old fashioned begonias-geraniums, whatever the client wants, and lastly the potted plant specialist creates wonderful potted plants we don't know we need yet.
.
Exactly, teamwork.
.
Have been a fan of Bunny Mellon for decades, she had many homes & a busy life.  How did she manage her terra cotta pots with plants?  With greenhouses & a caretaker.  Voila.  Caretaker is already part of our team we simply need to add the greenhouses with drip.
.
If you see any disaster zones let me know.  If you see something fabulous to add, let me know.
.
I wake up at 3am too often, but know to push my brain into a garden.  This morning at 3am it was 'this' garden.
.
Garden & Be Well,     XOTara
.
Pic found online, no provenance.
.
For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon
.
Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.
.
Construction by Award Winning
Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

The Nicky Haslam Guide to Lining Up the Pots

Do it like Nicky Haslam.



What is Haslam doing ?
.
Copying.
.
Specifically, below, he's lining up pots and statues/plinths, and repeating a minimalist color theme.
.
Copy the copycat.  He's not original.
.
Yet, totally original.
.
Copy, it's the 1st rule of Garden Design.
.
I discovered, Lining up the Pots, while on a tour of historic gardens across Italy decades ago.
.
Been lining them up ever since.
.
Not convinced?
.
Still wanting to be original & unique?
.
If it's beautiful in another garden it will be beautiful in yours.
.
Every site is unique.
.
Price point has no claim to this garden design rule.
.
When choosing your pots to line up they must be so fabulous they can remain empty.  
.
If the pots lining up do not match, their rims must be at the same height.
.

 Liking a good sentence, it's not uncommon for me to bath with Nicky, below.

.
Perhaps you should start bathing with Nicky.
.
Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
.
Wall Street Journal pics of Nicky Haslam's home.  And, mine at bottom.
.
For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon
.
Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.
.
Construction by Award Winning
Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Top Garden Design Feature to Help Sell Your Home


For decades this, below, was a bare slope with mulch.


Now, flow exists around the entire home.
.
Flow.  Is it easy to walk around the entire home?
.
90% of my out-of-state Garden Design work has come from past clients hiring me for their new home. They've each said the same thing, "You helped me sell my home, fast."  The ubiquitous beauty, color, lighting, etc. was important but I know the, unexpected, #1 reason they assume their Garden Design helped sell their home.  Flow.
.
Flow.  Get you some.
.
Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara  
.
For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon
.
Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.
.
Construction by Award Winning:

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Monday, June 23, 2014

Front Porch: Formal + Informal


Design Rule: Contrast.
.
A touch of the Queen + Ellie Mae Clampett.
.
Urn on Plinth + Galvanized Buckets hanging with ropes.

.
Your garden must tell me who you are before stepping inside your home.
.
Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
.
Pic taken this month.  Jeri Farmer's lovely home/garden was on the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival Garden Tour.  Jeri & Susanne refreshed the garden this year and time/money were both running short yet pots were still needed for the ferns.  Of course Susanne said, "Put them in galvanized buckets."
.
For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon
.
Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.
.
Construction by Award Winning:

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Garden Design Course: Free in a Single Pic

Under a pecan tree not much grows.
.
Tara Turf is best.
.
Why?
.
Increased pollinator habitat increases crop yield up to 80%.
.


 Susanne Hudson found herself with 4 benches needing a home.  Exquisitely, they found a home.
.
Please put this on one of your Pinterest boards.  It's a free Garden Design course !
.
Garden Design: backdrop, canopy-understory-groundcover aka ceiling-walls-floor, color, texture, scale, flow, garden rooms, mystery, serene, poverty cycle, curb appeal, focal point, subsidiary focal point, vintage theme, simplicity, low maintenance, pollinator habitat, urban gardening, structure all year.
.
Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
.
Pic snapped with my phone last week.
.
For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon
.
Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.
.
Construction by Award Winning:
Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Friday, May 23, 2014

2 Important Facts about the Pots in your Garden

All of your pots must be so wonderful they can remain empty.
.
Every pot you own should be so fabulous it's fought over at your estate sale.
.
A pot by Deborah Silver, below.

.
Curating pics to Pinterest many Deborah Silver pots are on my Focal Points board.
.
Her pots are seriously well chosen and the plantings majestically yet simply arranged.
.
I subcontract pots, well executed pots, to 3 different specialty companies.
.
Look around your garden today.  What are your pots telling you?
.
Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
.
Pic from Deborah Silver.
.
For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon
.
Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.
.
Construction by Award Winning:
Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Garden Pantry: Staples

Bare essentials, below.


Pair of square planters, pair of round planters, and jewelry.
.
Just as salt/pepper are pantry staples, gardens have staples too.
.
Love the garden jewelry, above.  Garden jewelry?  The rails.  Pure jewelry.  Lights too.
.
Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
.
Pic via Habitually Chic.
.
If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Friday, March 21, 2014

The Little Terra Cotta Pot: Give it Away

Terra cotta pots.


Your secret weapon to bring inside.
.
Plainly with patina and an herb, or geranium.  Perhaps a topiary.
.
An old ironstone plate.
.
Once you get good at this, have several.  Invite a young kindred spirit to lunch, someone you don't know well but would like to.
.
As they are leaving, hand them the terra cotta pot & ironstone plate.
.
Lunch Ministry.
.
Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
.
Pic via Fanci Taste.
.
If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Choosing Color at the Front Door

Moving the pots, below, a mere inch wider will make the doorway wider.
.
Staining the pots the same color as the siding, and moving the pots 3" wider creates an entirely new entry focusing on the custom door.
.
What is the right answer?
.
Don't know without seeing the interior.


REPETITION,  is your best friend in a small space.


In the Daily Mail Associated Press pic, above, I forgot about the topic/article I clicked on when I saw these pots.  Elegant, understated, quiet, no need to show-off, seemingly bespoke.
.
Ironically, & counterintuitively, designing small spaces is tougher than acreage.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Top pic, 5th & State.
.
If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.
                                                                                 .
Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Friday, December 27, 2013

Creating Lush

Vertical lawn, below.


Don't have a stone villa?  Espalier a woody shrub.  No wires or trellis needed.
.
Oddly, the perfection above is undone without the  rattan chair.  Then it becomes an ad for patio furniture.
.
Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
.
Those white cushions?  Not in my garden, crape myrtle tree debris would win in a day!
.
How lush can a garden be and have very little?  That is the best gardening question.  This garden, above, wins.

Pic Veranda magazine.
.
If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.
.
Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.
.
Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon.

Friday, November 29, 2013

Pot + Plinth: Making the New Timeless

From the 1st appointment earlier this year I KNEW a focal point should be on axis with the front door.


Earlier this week, above/below.


A few minutes old, above, this urn looks as if she's been reigning at least a century.
.
She's designed empty, with a floral designer brought in for catered events.  Remember, a pot must be so fabulous it can stay empty.
.
Found the pot/plinth resourcing materials at the Americas Mart with client.  A great 1/2 day.  Would have taken a decade, at least, to hunt/gather what we found !
.
Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
.
Pics taken earlier this week at jobsite.  Shovels, 5 men, a level, were involved getting this beauty 'right' !

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Port Cachere: Before + After

I was hired to 'refresh' the landscape.
.
Leaving the port cachere as-is was not an option.  This is their main family door.  
.

We went shopping at the Americas Mart in downtown Atlanta last month sourcing merchandise.  Not everything had arrived by this week but enough to get started, below.


This table is temporary, above-below, a very nice temporary.  Soon, once a vintage large French buffet is sourced I'll get you more pics.


I made do with the few pots/flowers she had last Monday, above/below.


Small moments of beauty, above.
.
As she gets into her car to leave, and then returns, her port cachere is embracing arms for going into the world & returning from the world.  A matriarch in every layer of her life, she has a lot going on and appreciates all Providence provides.  It's in the small moment thanks are deeply felt.
.
Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
.
pics taken at jobsite last Monday.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Things That Inspire

Their home is large, and so are the drives, garages & port cachere.  Beyond the garages, a fenced garbage can area.  
.
Really?  Beyond the garages?

.
Guess where she keeps a garbage can?
.
Of course, near the back door.
.
Planter, above, is in my Garden Design.
.
Behind the planter, her garbage can.
.
Years of ugly, she's excited to see the planter from her kitchen & family room views.  
.

.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic Things That Inspire.

Friday, November 8, 2013

Empty Fabulous Pots

Pots so fabulous they can remain empty are the best pots.
.
Why?


What fun to doll-them up for a party.  And that's only reason #5.
.
Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
.
.
Had the empty pot epiphany at Glamis Castle, and named this garden design rule, The Queen's Pot !  

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

How to Site a Focal Point

Chunky hunka aged concrete, below, is a railroad abutment ca. 1900, found in the garden.


Perfect for a plinth it was easy to place.  It's on perfect axis with the dominate gable of the house, below.


When something requires a Caterpillar to move, perfection is required.
.
Driving the Caterpillar he says, Are you really sure?  These moments are amusing.  Of course I'm sure.  His eyes say, Glad I'm not you.  This is my job.  KNOWING where things go.
.
Ironically, the urn is temporary.  We are still sourcing the right statue.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic last weekend at the jobsite.