Welcome to the GVAG Blog

I took this photo on April 24, 2017, when I became serious about planting The Avenue.

Crabapples in Bloom!

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.     Four months later, The Avenue was beginning to take shape.     By mid-November, the site was a mess of wet earth and newly planted…

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cardamine diphylla (1 of 1)

What’s in a Name?

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…

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Moss forms a quilt on an old iron frame bed.

Terracing the China Terrace

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…

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Saturday late afternoon-020

The Big Meadow, Year 3

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…

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The Grotto of the Deluge marks the division between primitive life and the beginning of civilization.

The Way to Go, or Not to Go

  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…

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