Welcome to the GVAG Blog

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Observing and learning

A few months ago Don Stratham, a New York state garden consultant, wrote a blog post about garden mishaps, or learning from failures in the garden, in his blog called Rooting for Ideas. He listed some of his mistakes — and what they had taught him. But what his post made me think of was…

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Looking ahead: Glen Villa in 2014

I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. But planning ahead for the garden is a regular winter activity. So this is what I plan (correction: make that hope) to do in 2014. 1. Clean up loose ends. This category includes more things than I like to think about. I often start new projects before the old…

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A study in black and white, bowed and broken

After several more days of snow, our landscape is a study in black, white, and grey… Birch trees on the hillside: an arrangement in grey and black, minus Whistler’s mother. with the occasional touch of green… Spruce trees in the lower field and yellow. A touch of yellow on a broken ash tree. So many…

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The dangerous beauty of ice

For the first time since I started writing this blog, a post is late, and by several days. Oh, well, it’s the holidays, you may think. But no, for almost a year now, I’ve managed a timely entry despite holidays, vacations and intense pressures to come away from the computer and enjoy myself. So it’s not…

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Extreme gardening

How hard can it be to go from this… On the beach in Perth, West Australia to this? A snowy day at Glen Villa Very hard! But it is even harder to go to this… Montreal on a cold win’ter’s day: the view from my apartment window When I left Perth, West Australia, on Friday,…

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