"You must learn now, that the important lesson – as long as you have your health – is that the divide is not between the servants and the served, between the leisured and the workers, but between those who are interested in the world and its multiplicity of forms and forces, and those who merely subsist, ......." A.S. Byatt Before computers & cell phones, handouts at my lectures had the quote, above, at their top or bottom. USA landscaping is broken, knew this decades ago. My big discovery, above, Le Jardin Rustique. Blessedly discovered, in Europe, decades ago. Created from thousands of years of refinements. Le jardin rustique's have created, & refined me. . Never tire of experiencing another's awakening to le jardin rustique. . High, medium & low meadows, above. Came home with Tara Turf at first siting. A well known blogger, saw similar and said, "they even have daisies in the grass." He saw, without comprehension. And, he's a degreed residential architect, USA of course. . What is this enfilade, above, to le jardin rustique? Survival of mind-body-spirit. Literally, and metaphorically. . Aside from beauty, unskilled labor to maintain, no chemicals or n-p-k poisoning groundwater/killing pollinators, no irrigation system, canopy-understory-walls-groundcover plantings to increase pollinator habitat & shade/sun the house as needed thru the years/seasons, increased property value/decreased HVAC, increase of crop yields by 80%, scientifically proven need of our bodies to harbor beneficial bacteria given to us from these habitats reducing auto-immune diseases, ADD, depression & more, there is a simplicity of relationship with Earth, as we intellectually engage, Earth provides & sustains beyond what we know we need. . We all need a-room-of-our-own, Virginia Woolf, “When a subject is highly controversial, one cannot hope to tell the truth. One can only show how one came to hold whatever opinion one does hold.” . If you have read this far, and have a mow-blow-go-testosterone-on-wheels-commodify-all-I-touch-landscape, why? Rejection with those landscapes was upfront with me, without knowledge of their replacement. Decades have been spent finding the answer. More than resonate, hope your inner core, from your gut, feels the words, above. . Garden & Be Well, XO Tara . Jung knew, "Our lives are about getting the outside to match the inside." The time this takes & riches to be found are, indeed, our life. . Links to scientific studies meander in previous posts, no time to look them up today. . Pic via Pinterest. . " ‘Like life,’ said the painter. ‘We eat and are eaten, and we are very lucky if we reach our three score years and ten, which is less than a flash in the eyes of an angel. The understanding persists, for a time. In your craft and mine.'” – from “Christ in the House of Martha and Mary”, by A.S. Byatt . 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.