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…
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…
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…
Last year was the summer of The Aqueduct: a series of mishaps, course corrections, and headaches that resulted in what I believe is a triumph of landscape art and design. This overview of the main portion of The Aqueduct dates from summer 2013. Those of you who were reading Site and Insight last summer may…
Corylus avenllana is the proper name of the tree I am following, corkscrew hazel is its common name, and Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick is its nickname. This nickname was what attracted me to the plant many years ago. That and a photo of a full-grown plant. This photo of a full grown contorted hazel is…
I have no desire to create an Italianate garden in rural Quebec. Yet many things in the Renaissance and Renaissance-revival gardens I visited this spring are inspiring me to re-examine aspects of the garden at Glen Villa. High on the list is ensuring I have the right balance. Balance between simplicity and decoration. Between open and closed…
This post is the first of several I plan to write, describing how different sections of the gardens at Glen Villa have changed over the years. Let me know what you think. Are you interested in more posts like this one? Some people plan a garden before they begin to make it, with sketches or architectural…
Edward Lutyens once said that a garden “should have a backbone — a central idea beautifully phrased.” The central and beautifully phrased idea of the International Garden Festival at the Reford Gardens in Métis, Québec is to offer garden installations that challenge conventional ideas of what a garden is — or can be. For the…
The Corylus avellana ‘Red Majestic’ has grown in the last month — not much but enough that its head now rises above the wooden rail that marks the back edge of the border. The colour of the leaves reminds me of Heuchera ‘Palace Purple.’ I chose this tree because of the colour of the leaves,…
Last year when a group came to visit Glen Villa, I asked them what I could do to make a future visit more enjoyable. Provide a map, they said. So I have. A very kind friend has revised the map of Glen Villa produced in 2007 to bring it in line with what is on…