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For a year or more I’ve been thinking about\u00a0opening the garden to the public. Last week I bit the bullet and announced \u00a0that on August 4, I’ll be holding an Open Garden Day.<\/p>\n
The Open Garden Day is a fundraiser for Fondation Massawippi Foundation, a\u00a0community organization\u00a0that supports land conservation and special projects in\u00a0the communities that border Lake Massawippi. Visitors will be asked either to\u00a0join\u00a0the Foundation or to make\u00a0a voluntary contribution. Will there be hundreds of people\u00a0or only a handful? I have no idea. But I hope there will be lots, and that everyone who comes will find something to admire and enjoy.<\/p>\n
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On the website this week I also announced \u00a0a new talk I’ve developed, titled Design Lessons from British Gardens. <\/strong>For the last few years I’ve been taking\u00a0groups through gardens in Italy and the UK, and I’ve learned a lot — good and bad — about how to take full advantage\u00a0of the experience of visiting a garden. (I shared some ideas about this<\/a> in a blog post a few weeks ago.) Gardens have taught me many things about design and about how to make the most of a site. (Not surprisingly, some lessons were good and others\u00a0not.) Sharing what I’ve learned is something I enjoy,\u00a0and since many of the groups I speak to keep asking me back, I must be doing something right!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Finally, in a few more days, I’ll be leaving to spend several weeks in England. After visiting a friend and spending a day at the Chelsea Flower Show to get a look at\u00a0the latest trends, I’ll be taking a\u00a0small group of knowledgeable gardeners\u00a0to see an extraordinary collection of gardens. I hope the weather in England\u00a0will be warmer than it is here, but not so hot that visiting gardens becomes unpleasant. (That shouldn’t be hard, considering that yesterday\u00a0morning the Big Lawn\u00a0at Glen Villa was white with snow.) I hope the English skies will be partly cloudy whenever I want to take a garden photo — and I can predict that if I’m in a garden, I’ll want to photograph it — since bright sunshine makes for bad photos. \u00a0I hope that rain will fall only at convenient hours\u00a0and that every garden I visit will bring inspiration and joy.<\/p>\n Am I hoping for too much? Who knows? I’ll have to wait and see.<\/p>\n To enquire\u00a0about <\/em><\/p>\n Open Garden Day<\/strong> on August 4<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Nepeta](\"http:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/design-ss-2.png\")
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