Sometimes trees are part of a forest, sometimes they stand alone. As a child, the lone tree at the top of the field by my grandparents’ house in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia was a beacon, calling me out of the fenced farmyard and into adventure. The fact that it was a forbidden destination only…
I’m in Toronto, Ontario for the annual get-together of garden lovers who write online about gardens and gardening. This is the eighth Garden Bloggers Fling — and it’s an exhausting and exhilarating few days of garden visits and garden talk. Our program started earlier this week with a visit to a downtown Toronto garden where…
It’s a commonplace to say that a garden is different each time you see it, but my most recent visit to Villa d’Este at Tivoli confirmed that some truisms really are true: you can’t step in the same water twice. Not that I was stepping in water. I was surrounded by it, however, since water…
Yesterday I returned from three weeks in Italy. While there I visited almost 20 gardens, some on my own and some in the company of the group of ten I was leading, along with my friend, travel consultant and organizer par excellence, Julia Guest. I write this blog once a week, and generally publish it on Sundays.…
Last year, Michael Gordon, a gardener in New Hampshire, wrote about a book called Go With Me: 50 Steps to Landscape Thinking. In his blog post he described how he used the book to enrich a tour he was leading through gardens in England. His description intrigued me and I immediately ordered the book on…