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<\/a>The shrub border seen from across the Upper Field is beginning to look autumnal.<\/p><\/div>\n
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The weather in the UK was exceptionally good. We had sunshine and warm temperatures most days, and the occasional rainfall only made the gardens glisten in the sunshine that invariably followed. During the same time, the weather\u00a0in Quebec\u00a0was\u00a0surprisingly hot, and I’m glad that I\u00a0missed temperatures that rose to 33 C (90 F)\u00a0with humidity to match.<\/p>\n
Only two days ago\u00a0it felt \u00a0like summer. Today is bright and sunny but the temperature has dropped. \u00a0And although autumn doesn’t officially begin until tomorrow,\u00a0the signs are everywhere to be seen:\u00a0fading foliage …<\/p>\n
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<\/a>The leaves of Darmera peltata are looking frazzled. Is this because of the unusual heat or is it a sign of the changing season?<\/p><\/div>\n
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yellowing leaves …<\/p>\n
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<\/a>The linden tree has a patch of yellow that makes me think of a shock of hair coloured blue or green or purple. Definitely not coloured grey.<\/p><\/div>\n
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… and touches of colour that soon will be everywhere.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Virginia creeper climbing one of the stone walls at Glen Villa changes colour early in the season.<\/p><\/div>\n
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The ornamental grasses at Scampston Hall, a walled garden in Yorkshire designed by Piet Oudolf, were spectacular\u00a0…<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Molinia caerulea ssp caerulea ‘Poul Petersen is laid out in great swathes through closely mown grass in the section of the Walled Garden called — almost redundantly — Drifts of Grass. This garden was stunning during and after a light rain.<\/p><\/div>\n
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but the feather reed grass (Calamagrostis<\/em> ‘Karl Foerster’ ) by the Skating Pond at Glen Villa holds it own in comparison.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ shimmers in the late afternoon sunshne. Other ornamental grasses at Glen Villa are yet to come to their full autumn colour.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Visiting gardens in the UK often\u00a0makes me envious. How lucky gardeners\u00a0there are to be able to grow so many plants that won’t survive a Quebec winter. Envy is more than balanced, though, by the ideas generated from visiting special places.<\/p>\n Broadwoodside, a private garden near Edinburgh, was full of copy-worthy ideas. In a courtyard\u00a0organized on a grid, a parrot cage sat in the central square, with a talkative bird who mostly refused to speak. The remaining grid was dotted\u00a0with equally spaced maple trees; each tree bore a label identifying it — incorrectly. This\u00a0light touch made me laugh. It points out an experience we all have shared — plants clearly misidentified, and bare spots of ground with labels announcing what might once have been there.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the Upper Courtyard at Broadwoodside, maple trees are variously mislabelled as walnut, lime, willow and other types of trees.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Those mislabelled trees made me more determined than ever to use words in the landscape at Glen Villa. Some words appear now. On a path in the\u00a0woods, I erected a tree trunk painted\u00a0yellow\u00a0to\u00a0mark\u00a0where the path splits.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Two Roads diverge in a yellow wood. Whichever path you take leads to the same destination. Eventually, at least.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Over a stream that separates our property from a neighbour’s, I designed a \u00a0Magritte-inspired bilingual message.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The sign in the foreground says\u00a0‘This bridge is not\u00a0\u00bb. On the other side of the bridge a second sign ends the phrase, saying\u00a0\u00ab\u00a0a metaphor.\u00a0\u00bb Crossing the bridge in the opposite direction, the words are in English. A metaphor for relationships between neighbours \u00a0or for Quebec itself?<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Tree Rings, a project that I hope to finish within the next month, will include three words. I hoped to complete this project months ago but \u00a0choosing the right words\u00a0took far more time and thought than I expected.<\/p>\n Even so, I plan to add words to other parts of the garden and in the woods and fields that surround\u00a0Glen Villa. In part I do this because it gives me pleasure. I also do it because it allows me to question the way I look at and think about the land that surrounds me. Defining and labelling aspects\u00a0of the garden suggest ways to think about it. And I hope they will affect in a similar way the increasing number of people\u00a0who visit.<\/p>\n In the use of words I’m inspired by Little Sparta, the extraordinary garden of the poet and garden maker Ian Hamilton Finlay. Many of the words used there speak\u00a0of time and its passage. Others add touches of humour. All, I believe,\u00a0add and reinforce meanings that go miles\u00a0beyond ordinary garden talk.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>