I rarely share links with other websites, whether garden related or not. But this morning, I read an article that I found truly thought-provoking. It is called “Head (and eyes) in the clouds” and appears on the Substack blog, Why It Works. Written by Chris Young, landscape designer and consultant and former editor of The…
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 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…
When our children were young, I dreaded taking them to the grocery store. If I was lucky, the expedition would be quick and easy. But some days, the little brats screamed for chocolates or put unwanted items into the shopping cart, and when I took them out, they created a scene. Unpleasant for me and…
In 2005, I started to cut a trail at Glen Villa; that trail became Timelines, the walk through fields and forests where art installations explore ideas about history, memory and our relationship to the land. I’ve written about this trail in many blog posts; I wrote about Continuum, one part of the trail, in two posts last fall.…
Recently an article titled “Gardens Need Criticism” was posted on the garden website Veddw. Written by Veddw’s garden maker Anne Wareham and originally published in Garden Design Journal in 2002, the article prompted me to think about the art of critiquing gardens and the art of receiving critiques. Last year a well-informed group of landscape architects and designers visited…
In January last year, I laid out six garden goals for the year ahead, never believing I’d be able to achieve them all. I put them on paper nonetheless to give myself something to aim for and, to my surprise, I find that over the last twelve months I completed five of the six. This may be due…
Over the last few weeks, while the weather was remarkably kind, I’ve continued to work on an extension to Timelines, the trail that explores ideas about memory, history and our relationship to the land. I wrote about the initial work on Continuum in my last blog post, almost a month ago. Since then, lots has happened. We added a…
“There is often a huge difference between an idea and its realization. Ideas must be put to the test. That’s why we make things, otherwise they would be no more than ideas.” Andy Goldsworthy’s words ring true for me. I have more ideas than I can realize, certainly more than I can act on in…
Walking through the woods recently, I passed this installation, called The Forms. The colours of the plexiglass shapes stood out from the muted tones around them, attracting me like a magnet. Closer, I noticed leaves scattered on top of them, some haphazardly, some artfully arranged. The contrast in colours atop the orange…