Turning your backyard into a Landscape of Beauty and Joy for Your family

I am a landscaper and landscape architect for a long time in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. A joy, creating each garden anew, revising and making up plant lists, listening and making client's dream gardens to be places of beauty, unimaginable until the garden is done being done.

During my very important tenure, first as a landscaper, then as a designer and installer, then a consultant, designer, installer, contractor and architect, people were receivers of diverse, lively landscapes replete with clusters of naturally colored boulders of green moss and dark rocks, miniature masses of red, orange, purple flowers, butterfly gardens, lush vegetation,  countless gabion baskets, thousands of feet of irrigation lines placed together as mysterious beauty.  Installing premier landscapes in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, I rarely, if ever, mis-install a tree or irrigation timer.  Mistakes I make are administrative ones, fudging the cancellation clause, paying too much for delivery, designing over budget.  In my commitment to seeing our clients have what they want I also have looked at how that has happened and committed. Yield to working with the budget our clients provide.  Our gardens are reliable for how well they work and how little, if ever, people need to fuss over them. What I've started to allow myself, from settling one business into starting another one is ease in the face of public expectations. 

A graduate of St. John's College in 2004, I spent a while reading classics, studying math and science and writing about and being fascinated with a French play written by Racine.  I was passionate about this French playwright known for the use of a unique meter that appeared to make music out of words.  Concurrently, I made spending money by working at various landscaping companies as a maintenance laborer for $7.00 per hour.  I got myself fired for mis-using electric grass-trimmers and talking way too much on the walkie-talkie phones.  I knew I wanted to make big money and operate a big company; working for that landscaping company provided the impetus that then made the dream start to happen.  Soon people were paying me $11 per hour, some people were upset for paying that, soon people were then paying me $15 per hour and by the next season I was the landscape designer and installer for an extraordinary and complex bio-diverse garden in the South Capitol of Santa Fe, a garden that remains almost entirely as it was planted then, 12 years ago.  It was the most fun I'd ever had working.  Somewhere in there it was obvious that work was now work and good feelings rolled into one.

I qualified myself by getting a master gardener certificate from Santa Fe County extension and then I continually read books and consulted with the owner of a local nursery.  It is to them that I owe the credit for Truth & Heart Landscaping becoming a company known for its responsible and conscientious attitudes toward planting. 

Now, my expectation of perfection creates the potential for turning my finances into mush and for ruining my sense of perspective and achievement.  In light of that awareness, I take on having clarity before acting, or making judgments, nothing else. 

My clients are generous, interested people, people whose lives are rounded by many facets, people, obligations and schedules.  And these people have a serious interest in my work, in their outdoor living and in seeing their outdoor living as a place of enjoyment, contemplation and entertainment for their families and friends. 

The intention of this blog is to share information, knowledge and steps to take that will transform your backyard from its current place to a place of enhanced beauty and enjoyment for you and your family. There will be one written every week!  Come on down and add your comments, opinions and feedback.  They are certainly welcome...

Thank you for your generous-ness, time and attention, 

Tara, Owner and principal. 
Truth & Heart Landscaping and Environmental Conscience, Inc.