Welcome to the GVAG Blog

Screen2Bshot2B2013-11-072Bat2B5.17.042BPM.png

It’s Raining: David Francey at Glen Villa Gardens

This post comes with a link to Rain, a music video filmed at Glen Villa and in and around North Hatley, Quebec where I live. The video features Canadian folk singer-songwriter David Francey. As you will hear from his accent, David was born in Scotland and immigrated to Canada as a boy. For some years he…

Read more
IMG_2516.jpg

Ornamental grasses: Part 1, at the aqueduct

I don’t know when ornamental grasses began to gain popularity but I’d say that 20-25 years ago, few gardeners used them regularly. Thanks among others to designers like Piet Oudolf from Holland and James van Sweden and Wolfgang Oehme in the U.S., perennial grasses have become popular staples in many gardens. Their fluidity suits a looser, more…

Read more
Euphorbia-gorgonis.jpg

Fibonacci numbers in nature

Ever since writing in a recent post about Througham Court and how Christine Facer Hoffman, the owner and designer, incorporated Fibonacci numbers into the garden, I’ve been noticing photos of plants that illustrate this natural sequencing. Deborah Lee Baldwin showed this one in a recent entry on Gardening Gone Wild. Apparently this plant is euphorbia gorgonis.Who…

Read more
IMG_2294.jpg

Glen Villa in Autumn

Travelling is wonderful, but nothing beats being at Glen Villa on a perfect autumn day, when the air is clear, the sky is blue and nothing in particular has to be done. This morning I walked around the garden, my first walk-about in three weeks. A few flowers are still blooming, like the never-say-die sedum…

Read more