Gardens I Have Loved Before - Part 5

If you missed the earlier posts in this series please click on the links below:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

For many years I was a city girl, working in a downtown office, but when I met my partner Jody things began to change.  We were both small town kids and while the city has its fun it wasn't the right environment for us.  So we packed up our bags and moved to Bowen Island which is located just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia.  Living on Bowen Island provided the best of both worlds.  We were close enough that we could continue working in the city but our home was a small quiet rural community.  Best of all we were able to rent a small house on 2 acres of land with amazing landlords who were quite happy to let me dig up their yard as much as I pleased. 

My desires started out small, with a couple packets of bulbs at the hardware store.  I was so excited to see those bulbs come up in the spring.  The daffodils were dainty and beautiful, the muscari were like tiny bunches of grapes and the tulips a bright shade of pink. 

And then they disappeared....  overnight. 

Oh those pesky deer. 


And so began my own troubles with deer but unlike my mother I couldn't build a fortress out of fencing.  It wasn't our property so my solution couldn't be permanent.  Instead chicken wire and old railings got put to use in a semi-temporary sort of way.

An old deck railing was repurposed as a fence

I found that deer have difficulty jumping into small spaces so as long as I didn't fence a large area the fences could actually be quite low.  This meant that my most precious plants went behind the fence but I began to experiment with so called 'deer proof' plants in other areas of the yard.  What an education that was.  I lost a lot of plants over the years we lived there.  I discovered is that if you live on a deer trail and have a half dozen or so hungry deer visiting regularly, almost nothing is deer proof.  Only the most toxic plants can keep away those four legged critters.  And even those in winter, when greenery is scarce, will be tested by deer pushed to their limits.

In addition to my struggles with deer I also came to realize that I had shade.  A lot of shade.  Those pretty bright flowers that I craved would not grow in my yard.  They would flop over, refuse to grow, or never sprout a single flower.  Initially my gardening experience was frustrating but I believe these poor circumstances made me a better gardener for I became more obstinate and insisted on finding plants that would grow.  I combed the seed and plant catalogues for any plant that could withstand low light conditions.  Annuals like the lobelia erinus and mimulus pictured below offered the bright flowers I was craving but could stand the low light.

Then I moved on to perennials such as hostas, ferns, columbine, toad lilies, sweet woodruff and the lovely great blue lobelia seen below.



But even shade loving plants aren't all created equal.  I discovered there was a difference between dry shade and wet shade.  I discovered that even though some plants are labelled as shade tolerant they have different levels of tolerance.  Astilbes for instance will survive in quite a bit of shade but will not flower unless they have a portion of sun each day.

The only patch of sunlight I had to work with was at the very front of our yard, right next to the road and thus I became a front yard gardener.

The first year plants were small and far apart.

At first I didn't think anyone really noticed what was happening in my space.  But gradually I realized what it means to garden in a front yard.  People began to stop and chat.  I was often embarassed, clad in dirty clothing, no make up.  I wasn't expecting to socialize with people but gradually I learned the power of gardens.  People were enthralled.  I remember one particular man stopping and telling me that he had been watching my garden grow over the years we had been living there.  On his walks into the village he passed by our home and he anxiously awaited the blooms of tulips, the consistent growth of the perennials, just as any gardener would watch their own garden.  He wanted me to know how much joy he derived from my efforts.  I was awed.  I hadn't fully understood the capability of a garden to capture other people's hearts and minds and now I realized that what I saw as 'my' garden really was out of my hands.  What I had put in motion became something that belonged to the community.  

Plants spread quickly in the 3 years I gardened here

Leaving this house and garden was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.  We were so very happy there for so many reasons and when we had to drive away Jody almost had to forcibly pull me into the car.   It had to be done though, we had bigger plans, for even then we were busy scheming..... how do you pack a cat, a piano and a bandsaw to drive 6000 kilometres across country?

But before we left there was one thing left to do, something to remember us by - we gnomed them....