Welcome to the GVAG Blog

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Defeating the Deer

How hard can it be to build a fence around some shrubs in a field? Not very, you’d think. You’d be wrong. Or you would be if you did it the way I have. Which definitely isn’t the way to go. In 2008, I planted a few flowering shrubs along the fence that separates the…

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Circles in the garden

Does nature abhor a straight line?  Writing about triangles at Througham Court made me think about shapes and the effects that different shapes create. Looking through my photos, I noticed lots of rectangles. Squares appeared, but less often, and usually in formal settings. And then there were circles. They were used frequently in some gardens,…

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The Aqueduct, Part 4: Fine Tuning

Plugging The Leak is not really fine tuning, but before we can fine tune — or indeed, before we can do anything more on The Aqueduct — we have to do it. We thought the problem was the drain that enters the small holding pond below the driveway. We dug up a section along the…

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The Aqueduct, Part 3: Planting It

Spring in Quebec comes late. It was mid-May before the ground was dry enough for trucks to cross the lawn. And we needed trucks to complete The Aqueduct. The Aqueduct on April 6. Snow still lingers in shady areas and everything is a mess. The reflecting pool went in — first concrete blocks, then steel…

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The Aqueduct, Part 2: Building It

In my last blog post, I wrote about why we decided to build The Aqueduct (The Aqueduct, Part I: Why We Built It). I explained that we wanted to see and hear the stream that ran down the hill near the house, to replace some dangerous steps, and to create a water feature that harmoniously…

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