If asked to define an Italian garden, many of us would mention symmetry, shades of green and statuary with classical themes. La Mortella does not conform to these stereotypes. Rather, it is a garden with an international flair that sings to those with ears to hear. Located on the island of Ischia, in the Bay…
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…
This special blog post is an excerpt from Autobiography of a Garden, the book about the creation and development of Glen Villa Art Garden, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press. Questions to Ask Yourself When Visiting a Garden Context How does the garden relate to the world around it? Is the location special in…
Months ago, when we were rebuilding the foundation wall of Glen Villa Inn, the huge resort hotel that once stood on our property, I began thinking of a new planting area to complement the new wall. A photo taken shortly after the hotel burned down in 1909 showed plants arranged around the low stone wall…
In just over a year, the Crabapple Allée, aka the Avenue, has gone from dream to dirt, to bloom and gone. We started with this, a dull bare field. Four months later, The Avenue was beginning to take shape. By mid-November, the site was a mess of wet earth and newly planted…
One of the first projects I undertook at Glen Villa was the China Terrace, a contemporary folly that honours an old resort hotel that once stood on the property. I first wrote about it as a conceptual garden. Following that, I wrote about it sporadically, focusing on the changes I made — the bed that shook off its annuals…
The year after our first grandchild was born, we planted a maple tree in her honour. A few years later when our second grandchild was born, we did the same. We continued to do this. After each birth, another tree was planted. We planted the trees in a straight row, on the slope of an old farm…
The last few weeks have been busy. Preparing the garden for visiting groups and getting everything in place for Saturday’s Open Garden Day has been fun, but also a lot of work. And now that August is here, I’m ready to put my feet up — for a day or two, at least. But first,…
How hard can it be to build a fence around some shrubs in a field? Not very, you’d think. You’d be wrong. Or you would be if you did it the way I have. Which definitely isn’t the way to go. In 2008, I planted a few flowering shrubs along the fence that separates the…
Does nature abhor a straight line? Writing about triangles at Througham Court made me think about shapes and the effects that different shapes create. Looking through my photos, I noticed lots of rectangles. Squares appeared, but less often, and usually in formal settings. And then there were circles. They were used frequently in some gardens,…