People who drive by this remarkable garden have been known to honk with appreciation, while those on foot often loll at the gate to take in the sumptuous scene.
One woman recently wrote a fan letter to the owners, which they found incredibly heartwarming.
It’s easy to see why people are drawn to this property.
At first glance it’s the three palm trees spreading high above four different varieties of waving grasses, and the winding path edged in a thick carpet of crushing thyme.
But what soon becomes evident behind the house, which sits on a corner, are rows of espaliered fruit trees underplanted with Japanese eggplants and zucchini, enormous kale and rhubarb specimens — and masses of bees, hummingbirds and butterflies.
This garden is not only a feast for the eyes but also an edible delight, and it will be open to the public on September 7, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., as part of the Victoria Urban Food Garden Tour (see information below).
Owners Gord and Ronnie (who prefer to just use their first names) are thrilled to be supporting the community and delighted to share their garden with others.
The duo, after moving to Victoria four years ago from Vancouver, undertook a massive renovation of the house with the help of builder Lionel Gaudet.
“He was terrific and is now a friend,” said Gord, a lawyer who went to UVic.
They also give huge credit to Rebecca Lang who designed their garden and worked in stages over the last three years to create the unique space.
“Rebecca is a gem,” said Gord.
Ronnie agrees and said he didn’t know initially how deeply she was rooted in the vegetable gardening philosophy. “I soon found out and got ignited by her ideas,” said the registered nurse who works in the coronary intensive care unit at the Royal Jubilee.
When he isn’t at the hospital he’s knee deep in the vegetable garden. “I am dead-heading all day today.”
Having grown up on a farm in the Philippines, he has long been yearning for a garden and a chance to grow fruits and vegetables, especially after years in a condo.
“It was in me already, this love of plants, but now it is reignited and I’ve gone native,” he said with a chuckle, plucking a piece of pineapple sage.
“This is a favourite in salads.”
He is also thrilled to be growing blueberries, raspberries, blackberries. “I love all sorts …. and the bees love them too.” The latter passion is evidenced by an enormous poster in the house, showing all the different kinds of bees.
Both the owners love plants with low foliage and flowers on the end of long, high stems so they dip and sway in the wind. “It is very entertaining to watch the bees land and bob around.” said Gord.
They find evergreens too structured, “too regulated,” and they prefer the architecture of slender perennials and grasses because of that swaying motion. “I sit and watch the movement and become kind of mesmerized,” said Ronnie.
They didn’t plant edibles in their front garden because of deer — although they have a few “sacrificial” plants for them to nibble — so all the culinary magic happens in the back.
Here are rampant plantings of everything from Brussels sprouts and broccoli to yarrow, peaches, peas, spinach, herbs and more. One plant, from South Africa, smells like peanut butter.
“This was all basically grass when we bought the house,” said Gord, who stressed that neither he nor his partner like lawn. “It’s soggy in the winter and brown in the summer.”
Instead they have a variety of mostly drought-tolerant shrubs and perennials, micro fruit trees, herbs, vegetables and those tall wavy grasses.
“Considering how young this garden is, it really is preposterous how beautiful it is,” said Gord in wonderment, adding that amid the plantings they now have a new greenhouse, too.
It’s not tucked into corner but in the centre as a focal point.
“It’s a wonderful place to sit and enjoy the garden, to entertain, to watch the Northern Lights,” said Gord, adding they took photos there during the aurora borealis display this summer..
Their garden designer, who is owner of Any Thyme Gardening, is a big believer in greenhouses.
Lang doesn’t think of these structures in terms of a single use, as merely a shed for growing plants, but rather as a centre of attention in a landscape.
“It can be a very pretty space, a place to sit and relax, to entertain or even sleep,” and she feels that way about everything in a garden. Each element or plant should have several purposes.
A plant can be a beautiful thing to look at, but also edible and attract helpful insects.
Lang and her helper Kaleigh Valois, also a landscape designer, work with a local sub contractors to construct gardens and after completion she offers continuing consultation.
When they started this project, the only thing out front was mud and a single, 30-foot palm tree.
“We brought in two 20-foot palms to make sense of the existing one and we didn’t want to grow food out front, because of deer, so we concentrated on grasses and perennials there.
“In the second stage, we started in the back and that’s where all the food happens, and the outdoor living space, which is a really great growing spot because of the very sunny slope.
Lang contends a veggie garden doesn’t have to be a lot of work.
“If you balance the space with pollinators you have a lot less peaks and valleys of pests and disease. For example, you can balance the ecology by growing things like yarrow to attract ladybugs to eat aphids.”
She’s also a proponent of layering and encourages people to leave leaf litter and small cuttings on the ground.
As leaves decay they attract insects and insects attract birds, which help control caterpillars, for example. Covering the ground once a year with a thin layer of fresh compost is a must.
“That is the biggest improvement you can make in reducing work. I call it a lipstick layer. It covers up the accumulation, makes things break down faster and reduces weeds .… There is quite a science to it.”
Some people want a stylistically tidy garden, but that’s too much work, “and it’s a starvation diet for the micro world.”
Ronnie has taken to the technique with alacrity. “I just chop and drop, then I push all the little bits back under the plants.”
Victoria Urban Food Garden Tour
WHERE: 10 gardens in Victoria and the CRD
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday Sept. 7
TICKETS: $25 at Eventbrite. See https://vicurbanfoodgardens.wixsite.com/tour
This year’s self-guided tour is raising funds for the Victoria Rainbow Kitchen, which provides meals to those in need and works to strengthen food security on the South Island.
The tour is a chance for people to see not only some extraordinary gardens but also to learn about everything from food production and soils to pollinators, raising chickens, fruit trees, greenhouses, sustainable water use — and how to grow food in small spaces.
As well as private gardens the tour includes several plots at the Capital City Allotment Gardens.
