Welcome to the GVAG Blog

Going and Coming

Before and after photos are a great way of showing the effect of changes — if you have them. Which, in this case, I don’t. Last week the weather was wonderful, with warm days, bright blue skies and a touch of crispness in the air. This week, the sky is grey and the temperatures are…

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Following my tree, down a colourful garden path

It’s that time of month again, time to write about the tree I started following in March this year. My corkscrew hazel (Corylus avellana ‘Red Majestic’) is looking about as tired as the rest of the garden — late August and early September are not prime times at Glen Villa. Something is eating the hazel…

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At the End of The Aqueduct

A few posts ago, I wrote about the journey that water makes as it flows down the hill and into the lake. A few posts before that, I referred to the ‘haste makes waste’ pond that is just above the boathouse, the final spot on the water’s journey. Today I want to show how important…

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North Hatley in Bloom

This week I was a judge in the North Hatley in Bloom contest. Organized by the town council, the contest is designed to encourage residents and commercial establishments to beautify the town and ‘up’ curbside appeal. Judging almost anything presents challenges. With clear rules and categories, the process can be easy. But sometimes judges have…

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Less is More… more or less.

A few weeks ago I wrote about The Big Rock and my plan to simplify the plantings around it, using a  lesson I learned from touring gardens in Italy. We haven’t tackled that project yet. But we have tackled another area, applying the same principles of simplicity and balance to great effect. Beside the drive coming…

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