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…
A group of serious gardeners will be visiting Glen Villa on July 2 and I’ve been busy getting the garden in shape. This takes time and effort, as every gardener knows, and the results never seem good enough. Particularly in large gardens, there is always too much to do and not enough time to do it.…
When I look at the wildflowers blooming in the fields and woods at Glen Villa, I wonder why I plant a garden at all. How can I hope to compete with this? Buttercups turn the Upper Field to gold.The partially visible metal structure is a sculpture called Bridge Ascending,by Louise Doucet and Satoshi Saito. Simple…