Garden Travels

My mom loved to travel. She liked to visit her favourite pieces of art. Whether it was religious icons in St. Petersburg or Van Goghs in Amsterdam, it didn’t take much for her to plan a trip. She taught me that time spent travelling is never wasted. It was an education, exposure to things bigger than us, an appreciation of the diversity of the world, and a grand adventure.

Mom taught me well. Harry and I always seem to find a garden or two when we travel. Now that we’re retired, we can plan our travels around exploring new gardens, with the occasional work of art along the way.

Over the winter, I’ll be updating this section with the gardens we’ve seen and adding a photo gallery. Just a warning—this won’t be a coffee-table-book collection of photos. There will be the obligatory shots of beautiful garden beds, exquisite flowers, and exotic greenhouses. But you’ll also see how my gardening mind works.

I have a whole collection of pergola and arbour ideas, as well as detailed shots of designs by my garden hero, Piet Oudolf. But the most obsessive collection of all is filled with dozens of photographs of pathways: close-ups of the surface, tight shots showing the relationship of the plants to the edge of the path, and wider shots showing how the path becomes a subtle design element within the garden. I nerd out when it comes to hardscaping.

Most people roll their eyes when we reach that part of the slideshow—but gardeners? Well, if you know, you know.