Alexander Reford is a historian and the director of the Reford Gardens of Metis, Quebec and the co-founder of the International Garden Festival of Metis, a festival that has drawn gardens designs from young designers such as Claude Cormier, NIP Landscape, Paula Meijerink (TG 10) and Chris Reed of Stoss Landscape Urbanism (TG 15). Alexander is on the board of directors for the Canadian Tourism Commission as well as the president of the Quebec Gardens' Association and Tourism Gaspésie. He has written a number of books and numerous articles in the fields of Garden Design, Canadian history and tourism. In dispatch 22, Alexander talks to us about the 10th edition of the Metis Garden Festival, its future, the origin of Reford Gardens, the effects of tourism on the landscape and blue sticks. June 27, 2009