June 29th, 2018 |
Many people have asked when we will be opening the garden to the public this year. The sad news is, we won't. This summer we are working on various garden projects that need time to settle in. But I hope that in 2019 we will have one -- or maybe two -- open garden days. [caption id="attachment_6418" align="aligncenter" width="3586"] If you visit the garden next summer in mid-June, you may see this field of buttercups.[/caption] Many people have also asked about where and when I'll be speaking. Coming up on July
Read More...
Posted in Glen Villa, Miscellaneous | 5 Comments »
June 25th, 2018 |
As June shines its way towards July, I'm outside soaking it in and enjoying the garden at Glen Villa. There are too many happy-making things to show in a single post, so today I'm focusing on only four. First come the hawthorn trees. We planted them more than 15 years ago and they have proved a mixed blessing, blooming well in some years, not so well in others. This year they were spectacular. [caption id="attachment_6453" align="aligncenter" width="5184"] Seeing the trees from a distance was like seeing a cloud of light,
Read More...
Posted in Glen Villa, Plants | 12 Comments »
June 17th, 2018 |
Yesterday I spoke at the Colby-Curtis Museum in Stanstead, Quebec, home to the Stanstead Historical Society. The museum is a local treasure, housed in a classical revival-style villa built in 1859 called Carrollcroft. [caption id="attachment_6429" align="aligncenter" width="5184"] The house, its gardens and adjacent stable and carriage house, tell the story of the Colby family, a prominent local family of American origin. The family donated the house and its contents to the Stanstead Historical Society in 1992. Exhibitions provide insight into the social and cultural history of the county which borders Vermont.[/caption] The current
Read More...
Posted in Design, Reviews | 15 Comments »
June 4th, 2018 |
In just over a year, the Crabapple Allée, aka the Avenue, has gone from dream to dirt, to bloom and gone. We started with this, a dull bare field. [caption id="attachment_6400" align="aligncenter" width="4272"] I took this photo on April 24, 2017, when I became serious about planting a long allée of trees,. The walk through the trees is part of a larger project I'm still working on.[/caption] Four months later, The Avenue was beginning to take shape. [caption id="attachment_6399" align="aligncenter" width="5184"] August 8, 2017[/caption] By mid-November, the
Read More...
Posted in Design, Glen Villa, Plants | 20 Comments »
June 1st, 2018 |
I saw this wildflower in the woods last week and was surprised to learn its botanical name, Cardamine diphylla. I was surprised because only a week or so ago, I looked up the name of another plant, now growing in damp areas in the garden and in the fields at Glen Villa. Its botanical name is Cardamine pratensis. [caption id="attachment_6380" align="aligncenter" width="3264"] Lady's smock or milkmaids is growing beside the Glen Villa pond. It has bloomed for several weeks.[/caption] What is the relationship between the two Cardamines? Are
Read More...
Posted in Glen Villa, Plants | 4 Comments »
May 29th, 2018 |
One of the first projects I undertook at Glen Villa was the China Terrace, a contemporary folly that honours an old resort hotel that once stood on the property. I first wrote about it as a conceptual garden. Following that, I wrote about it sporadically, focusing on the changes I made -- the bed that shook off its annuals in favour of a moss quilt, [caption id="attachment_1565" align="aligncenter" width="1000"] Moss forms a quilt on an old iron frame bed.[/caption] and the staircase leading to the imaginary second and third story that changed, from
Read More...
Posted in Design, Glen Villa, Plants | 15 Comments »
May 24th, 2018 |
In 2016, in order to discourage Canada geese from 'littering' the lawn, we began to transform it into a meadow. We didn't follow the advice given by experts on how to create a meadow -- their process involved too much work and too much expense. Instead we simply stopped cutting the grass. We let it grow throughout the season and cut it only once in the fall, to mulch the leaves and to cut down any trees that were taking root. Now, entering the third year of this experiment, it is fascinating to see what is appearing. From a
Read More...
Posted in Glen Villa, Plants | 13 Comments »
May 15th, 2018 |
One of the decisions I have to make when groups visit Glen Villa is which way to go. Shall I to lead the group around the garden this way or that? In some gardens the choice is made for you. There is a set route that the garden maker or garden owner wants you to take. Or that the government authority in charge has dictated. This is the case at Villa Lante, the Renaissance garden built for Cardinal Gamberaia and now owned by the government of Italy. The Cardinal's garden used water to
Read More...
Posted in Design, Glen Villa | 18 Comments »
May 4th, 2018 |
A few weeks ago I posted the photo below on Facebook and asked for ideas about what to do with the trunk of an enormous pine tree that had pined away. [caption id="attachment_6219" align="aligncenter" width="5184"] The pine tree was about 150 years old.[/caption] Many people responded: make it into a table, or benches, a totem, planters, bird houses or toothpicks (hard to imagine how many of those there would be!), an art display: Twenty Ways to Commemorate a Fallen Pine. (Thanks, Janet. I loved that idea.) But that's
Read More...
Posted in Design, Glen Villa, Miscellaneous | 16 Comments »
April 29th, 2018 |
Today it is grey and rainy but yesterday felt like spring. And how wonderful that was! Despite the soggy ground, covered in many places with deer pellets and dead leaves, I spent an hour or so wandering around the garden, enjoying the sunshine and the new growth that was popping up in every warm corner. For readers who live in milder climates or in places where spring has truly sprung, the thrill of seeing new growth may have come and gone. But living in a cold climate, where snow is still lurking
Read More...
Posted in Glen Villa, Plants | 12 Comments »
