One of the most rewarding as well as most encompassing tasks I’ve faced as a gardener over the past 5 years has been the landscaping around our home here in BC’s Gulf Islands. These small but absolutely gorgeous islands are one of the best places in the world to live, in my opinion.
Garden View
The islands are populated with interesting and accomplished people – painters, photographers, gardeners, writers, musicians, boat builders, poets, world class chefs, and commuting executives just to name a few. My husband is one of the photographers (these are his photos). I’m one of the gardeners, and also one of the aspiring painters. Many of my paintings have used the garden we designed and created for inspiration.
Bee's Eye View
Since our island is over-run with the small island deer, as a gardener, my biggest challenge has been finding a way to deter them from eating everything I plant. I’ve known them to decimate an entire squash patch in one night, chewing right through the tough outer skins. They once ate every tomato plant I’d grown, right down to the roots, again in one night. And those tomatoes were behind a screen of deer-proof (hah!) netting.
Corner Rockery
The answer was for us to design and build a sturdy seven foot fence around the area I wanted to have as a landscaped garden, and allow these pesky critters free run of the rest of our 8 acres. So far it has worked. You can see our labor of love fence here.
Although the deer have never made it through or over the fence, many plants I’ve chosen are deer-resistant. Texture and color contrast are important garden elements. So is low maintenance – thank heavens for perennials and shrubs!
Color and Texture
We now have our home for sale, since we are preparing to start a new life chapter, part time in South America. We will both miss our gardens here, but know that the new owner will have the joy of them.
Lavender California Poppies
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this post is very usefull thx!
The photos and painting are beautiful. You must have done a good job keeping the deer away.
My grandfather in Washington state loves to garden and was always trying to outwit the deer. He built a fence around the veggie garden that looked like something out of a military compound, but the rest of the property looked great. I wish I had more photos of the landscaping work he did.