Welcome to the GVAG Blog

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Evaluating Canada Blooms 2013

Flowers do not a garden make. Nor a garden show. Nonetheless, for me flower arrangements were the highlight of this year’s Canada Blooms. And I am not a flower arranger. Not any good at it, and not interested in becoming any better. But I do like art, and to see amazingly artful compositions made with…

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Is Canada Blooms a garden?

An extra post, from Toronto As I write, I’m on my way to Toronto to visit Canada Blooms, Canada’s largest garden show. I’m speaking tomorrow about using art in a garden and am pleased to be doing this. I set myself a goal when I first started giving talks about gardens and garden design, and…

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The Sound of Summer

It seems perverse to write about the sound of summer when winter winds still howl and more snow is forecast. But how better to keep warm than to anticipate? And to remember. For years my husband and I spent our summer vacation with our children at a cottage next door to Glen Villa.  My brother-in-law…

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A Garden Review: Sunnylands

I visited one well-designed public garden in and around Palm Springs, the garden that surrounds the visitor’s centre at Sunnylands, the modernist house built for Walter and Leonora Annenberg. Entering the estate, you get a preview of what’s to come: lots of barrel cactus arranged in rows that reminded me of dots on an old-style…

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