When you visit a garden, do you prefer to walk around on your own or to take a guided tour? A few years ago I wrote something on this topic but never used it. Recently, though, cleaning up my computer, I came across the article and sent it to my friend Anne Wareham. …
My son named it the ‘mosquito trap’ and he wasn’t wrong. The small pool of water in a depression in one of the large boulders on the lake side of York House was a perfect place for mosquitoes to breed. But the watery space was also an opportunity. The question, though, was how…
My garden is one of the true pleasures of my life. When I moved into my new house about a year and a half ago, the garden’s potential excited me, but I knew that I needed time to assess how to develop it to its best advantage. Enormous glacial boulders surround the house, protecting it…
One of the great advantages of visiting gardens is collecting ideas for your own. Recently I was in Japan, and while there, I visited several magnificent gardens. I drank in their quiet beauty. I revelled in the shape and placement of rocks. I marvelled at the cloud pruning that revealed the…
It can be risky to review a garden with a big reputation. When that garden is as well known as Claude Monet’s garden at Giverny, the risk is enormous. Will I like it? Everyone else does, so why should I be different? Certainly I knew what to expect: the iconic Japanese bridge, floating waterlilies,…
I’ve been focused so closely on my new garden at York House that walking today around my old garden at Glen Villa was a real delight. Yes, I saw much that needs to be done — when does any gardener see only the good parts? But seeing the garden with fresh eyes gave me…
With warmer weather finally arriving, Jacques, Ken and I have been working on the new garden at York House, just outside North Hatley, Quebec. We extended the border that backed onto the woods, widening it and backing it with a low stone wall. Here is the view before we began work. Here is…
Starting a new garden on a piece of familiar land is like embarking on a journey into a country I thought I knew. For years my daughter and her family lived where I now live, and since my old house was only a short walk away, I visited frequently. So I thought I knew…
The Open Garden Days last summer were very popular, but now that I’m in a new house, adjacent to my old one, things have to change. There are no Open Garden Days this summer. BUT … here’s the good news. You can still visit the garden! All you need to do is gather a group…
If asked to define an Italian garden, many of us would mention symmetry, shades of green and statuary with classical themes. La Mortella does not conform to these stereotypes. Rather, it is a garden with an international flair that sings to those with ears to hear. Located on the island of Ischia, in the Bay…