My son named it the ‘mosquito trap’ and he wasn’t wrong. The small pool of water in a depression in one of the large boulders on the lake side of York House was a perfect place for mosquitoes to breed. But the watery space was also an opportunity. The question, though, was how…
My garden is one of the true pleasures of my life. When I moved into my new house about a year and a half ago, the garden’s potential excited me, but I knew that I needed time to assess how to develop it to its best advantage. Enormous glacial boulders surround the house, protecting it…
One of the great advantages of visiting gardens is collecting ideas for your own. Recently I was in Japan, and while there, I visited several magnificent gardens. I drank in their quiet beauty. I revelled in the shape and placement of rocks. I marvelled at the cloud pruning that revealed the…
With warmer weather finally arriving, Jacques, Ken and I have been working on the new garden at York House, just outside North Hatley, Quebec. We extended the border that backed onto the woods, widening it and backing it with a low stone wall. Here is the view before we began work. Here is…
Starting a new garden on a piece of familiar land is like embarking on a journey into a country I thought I knew. For years my daughter and her family lived where I now live, and since my old house was only a short walk away, I visited frequently. So I thought I knew…