I always get a thrill of excitement at the start of a new project. It is at this stage where we can dream as big as we like, where ideas (both bad and good) are allowed to arise at will to be refined, or discarded as the design later takes shape. It’s at this time that as a garden designer I am listening and watching for every cue from my clients. I see how they interact together, I hear subtle clues like a reference to their dog, or children or inlaws, even non verbal cues such as where my clients like to stand on a construction site are important clues. Nothing is dismissed as irrelevant at this stage because these are the clues that will help me shape a garden in which my clients will live out their lives. My goal is to learn about who will be using the space so that I can give them a garden that will feel like an extension of themselves.
When my brother and sister-in-law approached me about designing a landscape for the new house that they were building I felt the same tingle of excitement. The house was drafted by the talents at SuCasa Design and was being built on a quiet country road in Chilliwack, surrounded by farmland and with distant mountain views in the background. The house was set back from the road and I knew the stone that they had chosen for the exterior would make an excellent foil for the plantings I was envisioning.
During the concept planning stage I devised a garden that had large amounts of clipped boxwood and yew hedging to complement the “old world” feel of the home. I had strategically laid out where larger tree specimens would be planted to mature over time and eventually provide a frame and foreground for the home in the background. My brother and his wife had a busy family and a busy work life and my plan was to devise a garden that would be relatively low maintenance despite its size. To achieve this my plan was to incorporate simple plantings with easy care shrubs such as hydrangeas and spirea with grasses planted en masse to fill in the spaces to create a layered look. However, somewhere between the start and finish of the installation, the plan was unexpectedly abandoned and the garden took on a life of its own!
As we began to install the structural backbone plantings and hedging, Mitch's interest and appreciation for plants began to escalate. Years before, in our teens we had worked together at a garden center and many of the seeds then planted had lain dormant for many years. Now I watched in amazement as he quickly steered the project into an entirely different direction. He wanted more plants, more flowers, more textures and more variety. Many of the plants that we remembered from our childhood garden were incorporated and welcomed as old friends into this new space. Mitch was making up for lost time and reading gardening books by authors such as Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury, Monty Don and others. These authors were advocating a naturalistic style with mixed perennial plantings rich in diversity and beneficial to insects and wildlife. Inspired by this style, Mitch wanted a more relaxed and less formal garden. Could we pivot from our initial concept, maintaining the formal beginnings and blend that with a soft and layered combination of perennials and grasses?
I had to play catch up, and make many decisions on the fly as we turned the garden into a botanical marvel containing over 300 different species. It was a challenge and a pleasure seeing what was meant to be a fairly formal and stiff garden unfold into a rich tapestry of foliage and textures. I would argue that the backbone of clipped boxwood and the formality of the layout made the garden better than if we had started the garden with the intention of creating a naturalistic space. Having started with a formal backdrop and some good evergreen shrubbery and structural trees the garden has a perfect balance of wild and formal elements.
This garden will always have a special place in my heart, because it was in this garden that I watched how absolutely transformative plants and gardens can be for the people who use them. I observed my brother’s joy and delight as planting combinations came together. I know that this garden has been a place of escape from the busy-ness and stress of work and life. Finding intense delight in gardens and plants is nothing new for me but seeing it in others is rare. This creation of this garden has brought us to know each other better as siblings and in the process has enriched both of our lives.
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