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OUR GARDEN
Japanese maples at the front door. Our garden is quite large. It is located on a hillside facing south. As far as we can see, there is virtually no naturally occurring soil anywhere on our property. Everything is either solid bedrock or loose chunks of rock that have broken off and locked together in sort of scree. Snowberries, firs, arbutus trees and moss are the only plants that seem to grow here naturally. It's hard to figure out how they do it on all this rock. 
Another Japanese touch. We might have been better to leave our garden the way it was - natural. But Penny wanted to garden. Gardening is a wonderful way to get in touch with the earth and the plants and animals that live with us. Digging in the garden gives you a whole different understanding of of the earth - all those rocks and a chance to see an earthworm's eye view of the world. A gardener works with nature to co-create something - but gardeners are not in charge of their garden. A gardener can only set things on their way - providing soil and moisture, planting seeds, moving plants and pulling out weeds. Then its up to the garden and the sun to do their thing. In 2008, we brought in tons of seasoil to build beds by the new driveway and we planted three good-sized Japanese maples to replace the luscious pink camelia that had stood by the front door when we moved in. |
In 2010, we brought in almost 30 cubic yards of topsoil to build up some of the beds. That's 30 tons of topsoil that we moved ourselves with the help of a power barrow. We thought of it as a fitness project and called it our "2010 boot camp." 
In the winter there is a fair bit of rain in our part of Vancouver Island. We feel as if we live in England and should have an English garden. However, once summer begins, we can go for several months with very little precipitation. We realize then that we actually live in Sicily where English flowers do not grow. We try to use water wisely. 
Our garden is now a perfect place for birds and urbanized wild animals to live. Bald eagles and crows nest in the trees near our house. Robbins, finches, sparrows, nuthatches, chickadees,starlings, towhees, and many other small birds live in our shrubs. Raccoons live nearby. For the last two springs a mother raccoon has raised her family under our back deck. She growls at us when we walk on her "roof" and we can hear the babies chirping. The occasional river otter and rabbit pass through. But our most frequent visitors are deer. Click on Deer to see how we are learning to create and maintain a "Deer Garden." 
The wildlife particularly love our pond, where they can always find a drink among the water lilies. |