April 2024!
You might be wondering why there’s been a 10 year gap in ‘News’ and I’d like to tell you a great reason but mostly it’s due to 2 things – Instagram is easy to update and it’s in the palm of my hand wherever I go – and #2 I lost access to this website for some time.
The biggest news ever is that I’ve moved across the country – but I still do design for almost anywhere in Canada – because I do it without a site visit.
I live in Nova Scotia now – the incredible wave of sadness during Covid 2020 which had followed 2 years of surgeries and cancer treatment meant I prioritized living by the sea – almost – to the detriment of my marriage. (we’re fine now)
- May 23, 2014:
-
Creating An Oasis: Ask The Experts
Hamilton Magazine’s Interiors: Spring 2014
Across Europe and the Americas, the biggest garden news is the continuing decline in butterfly, bee and native pollinating insects. Pollination creates the very seeds and fruit essential to all life on earth and these creatures are critical in the process for growing the next generation of plants. While there are multiple factors affecting their demise, loss of ‘wild’ places, and consequently, major food sources is one area where we have some control.
[ READ FULL STORY ]
[ WATCH VIDEO ] - April 14, 2014:
-
RENWALD: Crisp and serene
The Hamilton Spectator: Home / Living
Renewed Dundas garden is elegant, welcoming and easy to maintain. A view of the park, a screened-in porch, fish lapping in the pond, life is good in Dundas. Mary Jo Hind and Fred Vermeulen are living that snapshot of summer. The architects with Perkins + Will are enjoying the second year of their redesigned garden. Hind had a laser bead on the kind of garden she wanted. Sitting at a table in her linear side yard she opens The Gardens of Luciano Giubbilei, a book showcasing the Italian garden designer’s elegant, edited, geometric gardens. To make it happen they worked with Venni Gardens (vennigardens.com) of Hamilton. Candy Venning is a landscape designer, husband Simon Mangan is a U.K.-trained gardener.
[ READ FULL STORY ]
- May 23, 2013:
-
Glorious Gateway to Spring: Plant a seed of inspiration and get growing
The Hamilton Spectator: Home / Living
Gardens were shovel ready this May 24 weekend. People were prancing around with pots, trowels and mulch everywhere you looked. A neighbour just got back from Europe Sunday, and before she bought milk, she bought plants. The Victoria Day weekend is a glorious gateway to spring. Sometimes it’s cold and frost threatens, this one was perfect for any sort of garden work.
[ READ FULL STORY ] - July 8, 2013:
-
Hamilton plant geeks have put down roots
The Hamilton Spectator: Home / Living
At the eastern end of King William Street, Candy Venning and Simon Mangan are practising the art of urban renewal — one garden at a time. This is a neighbourhood that has seen better days. If the omens are any indication, it will see them again. But between some lovingly cared-for houses are others that need repairs, or a coat of paint. This stretch of King William, where the street butts up against the “new” Cathedral High School and Wellington Street North, has almost no tree canopy, and many houses have parking pads, rather than grass or garden in front.
[ READ FULL STORY ]