My Garden

These pages chronicle the transformation of my ordinary (33' x 120') property into a colour coordinated, low maintenance, all season garden with a pond and greenhouse.

In the beginning........

There was a garden sort of. It was a nice enough garden, but my interests had changed, from growing vegetables and cutting grass to other things.
Front yardBack yard

(If you click on the picture you go directly to the Photo Album pictures.)

I started to grow orchids. Very soon I succumbed to that expensive, all consuming disease--orchid mania . Now you don't need a greenhouse to grow orchids, but they grow better, or so I'm told.

I also belong to a water garden club and I don't have a pond. Well, I had three half barrels, but not a real pond. It wouldn't do for a member of The Water Garden Club of B.C. not to have a real pond, now would it?

First was planning.

We (Wendy & I) have learned that everything must have a plan. So for six months Wendy planned our garden on a squared 8.5 x 11 piece(s) of paper. We would put stakes in the ground, string between the stakes, chairs on the lawn, objects were drawn to scale and cut out. She is the colour expert, I the mechanical. So between us we finally came up with the best plan for our property. It came down to a total remake: with all of the front lawn going, new pathways front and back, a hedge, three specimen trees, a greenhouse, a pond, a bog garden, an irrigation system, lighting, all the shrubs to give that four seasons colour and a new gas hot water tank and gas fire place.

Hot water tank and gas fire place? What have they to do with the garden? Well you see I needed to have power for my greenhouse, pond, lights etc. So I had to free up some circuits in the main panel. So in the spirit of energy conservation I decided to replace my electric hot water heater with gas and while I was at it install a gas fireplace as well.

Now to get proper drawings.

But first I need proper drawings. Little bits of paper stuck on an sheet of paper would not do. So I connected with a landscape architect who would take Wendy's hard worked drawings and transform them into a masterpiece of detail so that everything would be done correctly first time. There were to be three versions: preliminary, working and final. So finally the drawings are ready.

Then there was contracting and bidding.

How to find a contractor who: So we went to the Home & Garden show and got a list of award winners in landscaping from the Landscape Association. We already had a firm in mind having seen their work at various shows. Turned out that they did not believe that anyone could design a garden without their expertise and their bill and have it work. So we cast out nets further afield. One of the water garden club members suggested some names and one was willing and the other, well it was too far away from where he normally works. We also got a fellow who did the house next door.

So we had two. They came so close together for pricing that we decide that two bids were enough.

It is amazing though that some people can't read! With the drawing went a six page terms and conditions as well as a drawing showing where the water points(3) and power points(3) were in the greenhouse. Back comes the drawing for the irrigation with one water point in the wrong place! The irrigation person was quite perturbed that I had to have year round water in the greenhouse.

Fortunately the contractor we took had read the specs and was aware that a greenhouse needed water all year round.

Finally the execution of the Plan.

The day finally arrived, July 10, 1997. How did it come out? Well look for yourself in the following album pages. It is very graphic, I took a lot of pictures ... so
Go back to my home page.