The Open Garden Days are coming soon and you are invited! I’m pleased to announce the Open Garden Day dates for 2023: Saturday, June 17 Saturday, July 15 Saturday, August 12 Tickets sales will begin in early April. All tickets must be booked in advance. Spaces for morning and afternoon tours are…
A few weeks ago I visited Innisfree, a wonderful garden in Millbrook, New York which I first visited fifteen years ago. Unless my memory is out of whack, the garden hasn’t changed significantly since then, but I have. In the intervening years, I’ve visited hundreds of gardens around the world, and as I entered Innisfree,…
La Seigneurie is part of Timelines, the trail at Glen Villa Art Garden that explores ideas about history, memory and our relationship to the land. Choosing the route wasn’t easy: there were many choices. I knew, though, that Timelines had to explore the terrain on both sides of the road that runs between our neighbouring…
When I was a girl, you grew flowers in a flower garden, vegetables in a vegetable garden. Never the twain did meet — at least not if you were in tune with fashions of the day. But there is a long history of growing companion crops, and today flowers and vegetables are often grown together,…
For many years a large spruce tree stood at the top of the steps to our front door. We decorated it with lights every Christmas, turning the tree into a celebration of the season. On winter days when all was white, its dark green needles added a welcome touch of colour. I don’t have a…
What a wonderful thing it is to fulfill a life-time ambition! I’ve wanted to visit Levens Hall since the early 1960s. That summer, a young English girl arrived in Virginia to spend a year living with me and my family and, as a gift, she brought us a book about English gardens. On the cover…
Glen Villa has a new website! No longer Site and Insight, the place to go for garden news and reviews is now Glen Villa Art Garden On this new site you will find the same write-ups of gardens I visit around the world and the same punchy opinions and commentary about…
Last week I was in Austin, Texas to give one of my favourite talks, about using art in a garden. I was there as part of a series called Garden Spark, arranged by writer and gardener extraordinaire, Pam Penick. (You can find her regular blogs at www.penick.net/digging) The talk was held outdoors at Barton Springs…
When I look out my bedroom window, this is what I see. Or what I will see before long. Lake Massawippi isn’t frozen yet, but frozen or not, the prospect reminds me that this is the time of year to look ahead. And to look back. What did I accomplish in the garden…
Shrubs are a key element at Glen Villa Art Garden, my garden in North Hatley, Quebec. Unfortunately deer like shrubs as much as I do. So when I decided to plant shrubs in an old farm field to add seasonal colour and to block a view of the road, I knew I needed a fence.…