Colour preference is intensely personal for everyone. What one person loves another loathes. If you’re an artist or designer, you will be familiar with the colour wheel and the theory behind complimentary and adjacent colours and how to combine them to create pleasing patterns. In the end what really matters is that you love what you are looking at every day. In the garden, colours … Continue reading Colour Combos
Well this has been a strange spring. We are in the last day of June and I still have paeonies blooming together with roses, a first for me! Normally the paeonies come first with their ephemeral but glorious blooms then I get to enjoy the first wave of roses before the japanese beetles hit! Now I have both but no beetles (fingers and toes crossed) … Continue reading In the Garden this Week
Back in mid April (how time flies…) I went to England to see the glorious woodland bluebells and a sample of the stunning gardens that dot the fair isle. The first few days I spent in London in the up and coming area of Southwark. As I wandered the streets, I noticed the sheer number of green spaces crammed in tiny corners, small garden areas, … Continue reading Urban Landscapes
Spring is on the way!! Nothing like snowdrops to chase away the winter blahs. My new website and blog page are now live. Please visit me at Garden Graces Plantscapes and subscribe to my new blog postings on the blog page or at gardengraces.ca/blog 🙂 Welcome to a new season! gardengraces.ca Continue reading Spring
As I reflect on the past New Year’s eves and where I have been: Canada, South America, Europe and Dubai; I thought I would share with you the gardens I’ve seen around this time. Some are in the dead of winter and others in the height of summer. Chile My garden at the time and others in Santiago are in their full glory at this … Continue reading Happy New Year!
It is a bright sunny -8deg celsius here in southwestern Ontario, or 17deg fahrenheit for you Americans enjoying your Thanksgiving today. May your day be warmer than mine! My hectic landscaping season came to an abrupt end with a snowstorm and plummeting temperatures but such are the vagaries of weather in our times of climate change. My season was success as a garden designer, head … Continue reading End of another Season
A number of years ago, I had the opportunity to visit the palace and gardens of Versailles. The palace itself is a baroque wonder but sadly jammed with people most of the time now. The gardens are another matter, built on a grand scale by André Le Notre to showcase the Sun King’s power and ambition. André, a gardener and landscape architect was first commissioned … Continue reading Garden of Versailles
Here we are in the third day of fall in southern Ontario and it’s a steamy 31 deg celsius (88 F). I have watered more in the last week than all of the summer! Annuals are blooming madly and the butterflies are still hanging about. A swallowtail on my lantana However, it is fall and time to plant bulbs, trim back dead summer leaves and … Continue reading Fertilizing 101. part 3: fertilizers for the fall
A quick look in photos at the life of a monarch butterfly: Eggs on a leaf. There’s safety in numbers! After hatching a caterpillar’s life is spent eating… Hanging out with friends eating… And more eating! After about two weeks, the journey begins… To find a suitable spot… To hang… And transform into a chrysalis. Any spot … Continue reading A snapshot in the life of a butterfly
Colour and colour combinations are a very personal choice and when clients ask me to do what “I think looks good” because they don’t know, I make sure to get a feel of the colours they like. I look at their interior colour schemes, deep jewel like tones or pale neutrals and carry that out into the garden. Make sure the colours harmonize or alternatively … Continue reading Summer Colour Combos
