Image 1 of 21 from gallery of House Carezza / Tara Architekten. Photograph by Davide Perbellini

Studying the best historic gardens in Italy, decades ago, it was obvious their gardens are in relationship to the home/villa. . USA landscapes, I was taught in college, are to be designed from the street, looking at the house. Preferably by testosterone-on-wheels-mow-blow-go-commodify-all-I-touch. (Zillion situations where this is fine, too.) . Easy to understand the joy/love getting my horticulture degree, yet agony in its belief system. Hence, trotting off to Europe for decades, truly learning about gardens. Yesterday, on Pinterest, I saw both homes, above/below. . Zero school needed, to decipher which garden is European or USA style. . One garden is in relationship with its house, the other, tacked-on quite adequately. . Yet, both gardens have the same ingredients. . When a garden is not in relationship to the house, aside from it likely being the builder's special du jour, I call them Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey gardens. . 2 pics, all you need to become an expert at deciphering a garden in relationship to its house or a pin-the-tail-on-the-Donkey garden. . I adore learning thru pictures. . Vanishing threshold gardens are first designed from inside the home, not the street. . Garden & Be Well, XO Tara . The thing about 'judging' anonymous gardens is unfair. Please don't think I'm doing it here. . Too many reasons a garden cannot be judged. One never knows if it's a job loss, elderly widowed owner, alcoholism or other addiction may live inside, major health issues, working too many hours with travel included, some people are happily oblivious with deep interests elsewhere, & etc, . 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. NOTE to my gardening friends... look for changes to come. Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.' Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day. . Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'. Saved the article for a year before reading it. Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar. . Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0. A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life. Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact. Signed up for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow. . Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method. Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix. . What do YOU want? . Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention. . Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years. Just so you know... I welcome your input.

Tara's house isn't your typical Florida home. It's filled with gorgeous busts and colors that bring to life English and French style that will have you feeling like you've entered a museum.

Image 5 of 21 from gallery of House Carezza / Tara Architekten. Photograph by Davide Perbellini

8798 views on Imgur: The magic of the Internet

I’m very happy to review the new book, Past Perfect, just published by Rizzoli. The book details the houses, gardens and ideas of Richard Shapiro, the notable Los Angeles designer/antiquaire/ art collector. I’ve written about Richard Shapiro many times — first in C magazine, for which I am an editor, and in extremely popular posts on THE STYLE SALONISTE. In 2011 I wrote a very detailed post about Shapiro’s dramatic Malibu house, a chic reinvention of a beach shack. In 2014 I wrote about his Los Angeles house and garden, a lifetime project involving the re-invention and dramatic. His accomplishment is the metamorphosis of two properties, each dramatically different and equally challenging. Congratulations to Richard for this beautiful new book. I wish him every success, happiness, and pleasure from each page. Rizzoli’s ‘Past Perfect’ is a tribute to Richard Shapiro’s extraordinary houses, his art collections, his antiques and photography, his design and style tips, and a Holmby Hills garden that was two decades in the cultivation. I’m very happy to see Richard publishing his ideas. At the back of the book, his masterclass in design reveals an extremely interesting and original mind. A Look Back on The Style Saloniste I published two highly detailed blog posts, in 2011 and 2014, about the two Richard Shapiro residences and gardens. Let’s take a look at Lisa Romerein’s beautiful and sensual photography that accompanied my text. Let’s take another look at Richard Shapiro’s genius concepts and ideas and bold gestures. Malibu Revisiting Richard Shapiro’s Malibu House on THE STYLE SALONISTE The photography, dreamy and elegant, was by Lisa Romerein. Shapiro turned a featureless property, in Malibu a derelict shack, into a retreat and escape from the mundane. It’s a masterful project, with his hand and eye on every inch. I visited Richard Shapiro’s California coast house on a bright day, with sun glinting off the Pacific Ocean. Once beyond the locked entrance gate, a romantic territory crafted over many years, is revealed. “I originally planned it as a weekend house, and I’ve found I’m spending more and more time here,” said Shapiro. “Friends drive up from Los Angeles, we have drinks and watch the sunset, and enjoy dinner on the terrace with a big fire on cool evenings.” The villa is so polished, so perfectly at home on its site, that it’s hard to imagine Shapiro’s property formerly included a tumbledown beach shack, roofless and windowless, in a tangle of vines. “I loved the fact that I’d be starting from scratch, creating whatever I wanted,” said Shapiro. “Tall hedges and bougainvillea disguised the adjacent houses, so nothing would intrude on my concept.” “I’ve always been in love with antiquity, the Mediterranean, North African architecture,” said Shapiro, a longtime collector of high-profile contemporary art. “This house is a folly, designed to look like an ancient building I discovered hidden beneath the undergrowth for centuries on this remote bluff, “ said Shapiro. “I planned the interiors to look old, too. I’ve always been attracted to antiquity, and want to live in another time.” Holmby Hills — A Green Dream: A look back: Richard Shapiro’s Los Angeles Garden on THE STYLE SALONISTE In Holmby Hills he took a treeless tract of land and with skill created poetic and dramatic studios, a residence and dream gardens. Let’s take to this day exceptionally elegiac. Richard Shapiro, a world-renowned art collector, furniture designer, and antique dealer based in Los Angeles, is also, secretly, a superbly creative, accomplished and daring landscape designer. Richard has created for his pleasure an extraordinary private garden that surrounds his Hispano-Moorish residence on a quiet street in Holmby Hills. Hidden behind walls of Boston ivy and a forest of timber bamboo, it is an utterly silent and tranquil domain, his escape from the world. Shapiro’s garden is a dreamscape of sculptural clipped box. Meandering paths lead past a reflecting pool to hidden corners with dramatic steel sculptures. This verdant world—vivid green year-round—feels much larger than its half acre. Boundaries are blurred. Even his residence is entirely shrouded with overgrown vines and feels part of the garden. “I view my personal garden as a vast canvas and the creative possibilities are limited only by my imagination,” said Shapiro, who works on the landscape every day, pruning and planting. “Rather than a garden, I think of it as a vast installation of land art.” Overlooking the large pool and designed as the focal point of the garden, is a charming folly. This pool house was inspired by a Palladian villa, complete with a handsome antique stone fireplace, hand-carved columns, an antique mirror, and a large-scale lantern, all designed meticulously by Shapiro. It’s a chic stage set, and entirely convincing. CREDITS: All images from THE STYLE SALONISTE features on Richard Shapiro are by Lisa Romerein. www.lisaromerein.com. Book cover and images from Past Perfect are courtesy Rizzoli, www.rizzoliusa.com PAST PERFECT, RICHARD SHAPIRO, HOUSES AND GARDENS By Richard Shapiro, with Mayer Rus, edited by Mallery Roberts Morgan. Photography by Jason Schmidt. Hardcover, / 272 pages, 200 color photographs. Publication date: April 2016 / $55 U.S./Canada. Rizzoli. ABOUT THE AUTHORS: RICHARD SHAPIRO is a designer and antiquarian and the principal of his furnishings and design firm, Studiolo. He is also an active artist and collector. MAYER RUS is a design writer, editor, and critic. He is currently the West Coast Editor of Architectural Digest MALLERY ROBERTS MORGAN is a writer, curator, and designer. She is the L.A. correspondent for Architectural Digest France and she has created residential interiors in London, Los Angeles, Paris, Mexico, and New York.

The Star Monument Haryana is another monument of exotic beauty, which is in the shape of a star white in colour and having beauty of its own. The monument is a replica of a star from the heaven and…

Worst question, ever, "What plant should I place here?" . Coming to Garden Design after receiving a BS Engineering, I remember well that line of Garden Design thought process. . Not merely a terrible question, it lies in the wrong galaxy of where to base questions about Garden Design. Then came the degree in Horticulture. More galaxies of wrong thinking. That education taught me to be a man with a truck, power equipment, bags of chemicals, monthly contracts, designing to commodify every layer of Garden Design for the maximum need to manage the landscape for hire. And, design the 'landscape' while standing in the street, looking at the house. . What plant goes here? Garden Design begins inside your home, below. What are the views out your windows, where do you mostly live in your home, how do you use the various rooms with window views? What is the style of your interior furnishings? What colors have you chosen? What type of art have you surrounded yourself with? What theme does the architecture of your home present, what theme do you want it to present? Pic, above, here. Looking out the windows, above, of your home are the lines indicating where to place focal points, below. Pic, above, here. More, once those focal points are placed in the garden, from interior views, the views into your home must be Garden Designed, below. Now, we're having some real fun, double axis. Pic, above, here. In addition to the eye traveling from inside your home to outside, the foot must flow as freely, below. How will you handle foot traffic? Lawn, sidewalk, stepping stones, how will feet move easily throughout your property? Flow. Pic, above, here. If you already have trees, below, the paths will situate themselves. No trees? Design your trees, ahead of paths. No sense placing paths, only to move them later due to a tree's growth. Pic, above, here. Canopy trees, above, are the tall trees growing 30' and higher, understory trees, below, give nice shade, yet grow to only about 30'. Tree, below, planted to shade a 2 story home with 11am-setting western sun. More, this understory tree was chosen to be deciduous, allowing the winter sun to heat the house. Pic, above, shot in my garden. Once the mechanics of focal points on axis from inside your home, flow around the entire property and trees are accomplished, a place for dining, below, near the home/kitchen/family room, is designed. Furnishings must match the style from your interior. Pic, above, here. Next layer of Garden Design, below, evergreen shrubs. Hedges with purpose. Pic, above, here. Next layer of Garden Design, below, deciduous flowering shrubs. Pic, above, shot in my garden. Next layer of Garden Design, below, groundcovers. Mulch is a great conceit of the mulch and landscape maintenance industries. Yes, mulch is needed initially, but your Garden Design should include groundcovers to eradicate that need within 3-5 years. Groundcovers are cheaper in the long run, less maintenance, and more lush. Dead brown mulch vs. living green groundcovers. Pic, above, here. Pic, above, here. Next layer of Garden Design, below, perennials/annuals. It's rare I do a perennial garden. Why? High maintenance & too seasonal. Instead, I use flowering shrubs, and a few stalwart perennials needing little care, no water, no fertilizer, resistant to deer. Garden Design, above, is low maintenance, pretty all year, functional for outdoor living, and views from home into garden. Maintenance? Blow, whack, done. And, not much whacking in a year. Pic, above, here. A small Garden Design test, below. Label what you see. Pic, above, here. Pic, above, I shot in a client's garden. Next layer of Garden Design, below. A place in the garden to sit/relax, and have views into your home, above. Pic, above, shot in my conservatory. . This conservatory, above, is 23 steps from the back door of the house, yet realms away in spirit. . Wood, windows, antiques, wood stove, conservatory above, were rescued over a decade's time, stored in my garage, till money was saved for the carpenter/electrician. Not having money for your garden has never been an excuse for me. I had no money, and still had a garden. Only mentioned here because at the front end, fresh out of college with the first degree, I too thought 'money' was what was separating me from the beautiful garden I wanted (aka deserved). The more I learned about Garden Design, it became clear, Garden Design is for all, no excuses, merely how your brain can execute. Game on ! . Garden Design Equation. I completely draw a garden, in the order of the layers described above, before choosing the first specific plant by name. Flow, shapes, placement, uses. . Along the way, I spent decades studying historic gardens across Europe, created my own garden, and toured myriad gardens across USA. Taught at the Atlanta Botanical garden and local college for decades, lectured at symposiums/garden clubs/corporate retreats, designed hundreds of client gardens,written several books, had a TV show, yet at the base of what I do, it's all listed, above, for you to take and create the garden you want, and deserve. . This time knowing 'deserve' in the poetic sense of Wendell Berry. By what you've learned, and created with your own hands in relationship with Nature's realm. . Of course there are templates within the templates, but this Garden Design Equation template, will get you where you're going. . Garden & Be Well, XO T . Tara Templates are being written for a 3 day workshop. A proven method to create a beautiful historic landscape, sustainable for you, and Earth. Who is the audience? Anyone wanting to create their own Garden Design, realtors, interior decorators, master gardeners, horticulture school students, lawn maintenance companies. Allied and collateral professions needing a Garden Designer on their team. Nothing is hard about Garden Design. Oddly Garden Design is wildly counter intuitive, with many layers, seemingly non-existent, yet a base to every Garden Design. What are the unseen layers? . Interested in taking the Workshop? Let me know what you want it to include. Not interested in taking the workshop, let me know what you think it should include.

Interior designer Tara Bernerd celebrates her studio's 15-year anniversary with the release of her beautifully illustrated monograph titled Place

Image 2 of 21 from gallery of House Carezza / Tara Architekten. Photograph by Davide Perbellini

Meet the energy-efficient retreat: the husband-and-wife team behind IdS/R Architecture designed it following Passive House standards.