Coming home from a tour of English gardens I felt a short, sharp shock. Everything in my garden looked inadequate, not up to the standard I had come to expect. I moped. I complained. Why can’t I grow the hundreds of plants I saw and admired? Some of them must surely suit my climate. So why don’t…
The weather at this time of year does strange things to the mind — and to the wardrobe. One day is cold, the next is hot. Changing locations makes the uncertainties even worse. What do I pack? Summer dresses or winter woolies? I arrived in England a few days ago on a chilly morning that…
NOTE: Several readers have let me know that this blog post only had photos without any words so I’m posting it again. A walk in the woods at this time of year is a journey of discovery. So many things are there in miniature, waiting to be spotted if you take the time…
It’s that time of month again, time to write about the tree I started following in March this year. My corkscrew hazel (Corylus avellana ‘Red Majestic’) is looking about as tired as the rest of the garden — late August and early September are not prime times at Glen Villa. Something is eating the hazel…
When I look at the wildflowers blooming in the fields and woods at Glen Villa, I wonder why I plant a garden at all. How can I hope to compete with this? Buttercups turn the Upper Field to gold.The partially visible metal structure is a sculpture called Bridge Ascending,by Louise Doucet and Satoshi Saito. Simple…
My last two posts have been about some of the Italian gardens I visited recently while leading a small group of women on a 9-day tour. I still have a lot to write about what I saw, and what I thought of it, but in the Eastern Townships in Quebec, where my garden Glen Villa…