The first Open Garden of the year will be hosted by John and Katherine Lawrence at 105 Baker Road on Sunday, March 23rd from 1.00pm until 3.00pm. Visitors should park on Old Eagle Cliff and walk down to the property via Baker Road. Non-members are welcome. Memberships can be bought on-site.
The property is located on the East coast of Bowen with views to the North, East and South. Nestled on a 100 ft cliff the house and gardens are exposed to buffeting by winds from the SE and by the cold Squamish winter winds from the North.
The garden extends over two building lots. The development of the garden on the more northerly lot was started in November of 2003. The bigger, more southerly lot, was landscaped in November 2009, after the demolition of a large 10000 ft structure brought to the Island from Expo. The garden you will see on this lot was landscaped over a three-month period in the fall of 2009. The first plantings went into the ground in November 2009.
At this time of the year, early spring, the garden is full of flowering bulbs. We have planted well over 6000 assorted daffodil varieties and more recently hundreds of snowdrops, hyacinth, crocus, bluebells, chionodoxa and miscanthus. On still windless days the scent of Daphne and Hyacinth fill the air.
Most of the property, with one small exception on the East side, is unfenced. Given that our Island is over-run with deer most of our plantings are ‘deer resistant,’ a term which defies definition as what is poison on one side of the Island is lettuce on the other!
Given that water is a scarce resource during the summer months, we have recently upgraded our storage capacity to 10,000 gallons and have plans to add more. A year ago we added a second irrigation system for the fenced garden on the Eastside.
The long -term weather forecast for Sunday promises 8 or 9 hours of sunshine. Come out and enjoy a warm Spring day with friends and family.
