Where do ideas come from? Recently I’ve been working on a talk about using reflecting surfaces in gardens – things like mirrors, water, metal and glass. In the process, I’ve been thinking about gardens in a general way. What is the point of adding a reflecting surface to a garden – a piece of shiny metal,…
I’m a big fan of ThinkinGardens, the British website edited by Anne Wareham. While the bulk of the posts relate to gardening and gardens in England, posts also cover topics of wider interest. As the website itself says, it’s a website “for people who want more than gardening from gardens.” ThinkinGardens isn’t modest or retiring, and…
Today, when nothing for me but snow and ice is underfoot, I am thinking about garden paths and how they affect the way we move through our gardens. The material used for the path, its width, whether it is straight or curved, whether we can see where it is leading or not — these aspects and more…
Last year I ‘followed’ a tree, a rather pitiful corkscrew hazel, becoming less and less enamoured with it as each month passed. But I enjoyed the process of closely examining the tree and chronicling the changes month to month — and I enjoyed following other trees written about by other tree lovers from around the world. I…
Snow came early this year — our first snowfall was in the middle of November. The light snow added glamour to slightly tattered bergenia leaves. Sunlight shining through exposed the veins and highlighted the range of colours. The snow didn’t last, thank goodness. In fact, we had a few days of almost warm weather,…
Don’t you hate reminding yourself of resolutions made and forgotten? Yesterday, as a gloomy December began, I re-read a blog post I wrote in January. I was looking ahead then to what I wanted to accomplish in 2014. There were loose ends I planned to tie up, and new projects I hoped to start. I’m sad to say…
Water and mirrors are probably the most common reflecting surfaces in a garden but glass, which shares many characteristics with them, is another source with additional possibilities. Unlike mirrors, glass is both reflective and transparent. Webster’s Column, a glass and stainless steel sculpture I made to commemorate my husband’s long career in journalism, both reflects the surrounding…
Who could walk past this scene without pausing to admire the clouds reflected in the water below? Reflections show the world around us. They can reveal aspects of a scene we might otherwise miss. They are — or can be — great additions to any garden. But using them well requires thought and planning. Water…
Et, voila! Welcome to the new Glen Villa Gardens website, Site and Insight: Reflecting on Art and Landscape. The new Site and Insight merges my old website and my weekly blog, and adds new features with more information about gardens, landscape and art. I’m delighted with the appearance and the ease with which readers can move through the various…
Site and Insight. I’ve used these words many times in talking about gardens, in thinking about landscapes, in writing about both. Recently I’ve added a third word to the list. Sight, Site and Insight. This is what art, landscape and design are based on: looking at what surrounds you, observing the lay of the land, the…