With small succulents, delicate ferns, water lilies and Japanese irises, the creator of this landscape evokes botanical magic along the banks of a meandering stream, two ponds and all through her North Saanich garden.
Leda Bower also reveals her design inventiveness inside her home, using her salvage talents to combine French antiques and artworks with eclectic materials.
It all started in France.
鈥淭here is something about France and the way people live there that has always fascinated me,鈥� said Leda, who also has a French poodle.
She appreciates the joie de vivre the French pour into every aspect of their lives, from food and family to fashion, wine and romance.
鈥淚 really love the French philosophy of life, the way they walk down the street, the way they use their beautiful things every day, they way they live with a style that鈥檚 both simplistic and elegant.鈥�
Her passion can be seen in every room of her house 鈥� and outside, too, in the newly constructed conservatory and stone terrace that looks as if it鈥檚 been air-lifted from a chateau in the Loire Valley.
Her garden is featured in the upcoming Victoria Water Garden Tour. Visitors will see alliums, salvias, clematis, roses, lavenders, astilbe and other annuals and perennials. Leda also warns visitors they might get lost in her property.
That鈥檚 because it鈥檚 full of hidden spaces, little green 鈥渞ooms鈥� that look utterly different depending on which way you enter them. Here and there is the faint burbling sound of聽water flowing down a long, winding stream.
Leda鈥檚 husband, Rick, a consulting chemical engineer who commutes to Alberta, does the heavy labour. 鈥淣one of this would have been possible without him, if he hadn鈥檛 entertained the fact I have an unusual personality,鈥� she said with a chuckle.
Rick hasn鈥檛 always shared his wife鈥檚 passion for France, 鈥渂ut it is slowly establishing itself and I鈥檓 a Prairie guy, so I go with the flow,鈥� he said.
鈥淪he鈥檚 the one who knows what鈥檚 nice and is able to put it together, while the only talent I have is to move a wheelbarrow. I think what she鈥檚 done here is spectacular. It鈥檚 all Leda.鈥�
Back in 2007, when they were looking for a waterview home, property values were going through the roof. When they saw this North Saanich place, they fell in love with it.
They decided to replace the 1970s home鈥檚 windows and add wooden floors, but that led to the discovery of more essential work.
鈥淲hen we told people we were renovating, they said knock it down and start over,鈥� said Rick. 鈥淲e probably should have blown it up, because when we had torrential rains, the water 鈥� flooded the basement. We had to do all the perimeter drains and redirect the water to a creek at the edge of the property.鈥�
They also found the home needed 14 new laminated beams and posts to support the roof. While they were at it, they raised the ceilings on the top floor, to look like a Paris apartment, with sloping ceilings and unusual angles.
Having launched her own antiques business at age 27, Leda was keen to start decorating. Her home now features charming French d茅cor 鈥� monogrammed linen drapes that date from the 1700s, hand-painted leather screens from France and Italy, fleurs-de-lis on top of the conservatory and grills in the terrace walls from a castle in France.
The terrace is a work of art in itself.
Made of 鈥渇ull bed stone鈥� from Montana, it required the efforts of Saltspring stonemason Roben Doobenen, who cut and placed the four-by-four-foot blocks, Keith Hayton Construction to build it and Farmer Construction to pour the concrete foundation.
The owners decided which rocks would go where, hand-picked feature stones, had a frieze embedded along one section and made sure some of the rock edges disappeared into the wall. Leda gleefully points out green algae that is starting to add to the patina.
The Bowers鈥� kitchen is another showcase of continental style.
鈥淚t鈥檚 called a furniture kitchen, because all the pieces can stand alone,鈥� said Leda, noting custom deep drawers resemble those she鈥檚 admired in France. The stove is French, of course 鈥� a La Cornue enamel range with a hood that Leda designed and had fabricated from old tin.
French doors throughout the house were salvaged, as was wood for the staircase, which came from an old school in Vancouver. Railings are from an old Queenswood home and floorboards are from army huts formerly on the University of Victoria campus.
Backsplash tiles in the kitchen and terrace alcove are from Belgium, vintage light fixtures are all from France and the living-room mantle came from a demolished Vancouver home.
Many pieces were sourced through Leda鈥檚 connections in the antique business, as well as stores such as Traders of the Lost Art in Calgary and the Antique Warehouse in Vancouver, but her European-inspired, steel-frame conservatory was built by Alliance Engineering Works, and lifted by crane over the house when it was installed in 2015.
Some of her 400 orchids live here, while cool-tolerant varieties from the mountains of Ecuador grow outside in the one-third-hectare property.
鈥淲e changed the garden to a tremendous degree when we moved in, because what I found missing was the mid-storey of plantings,鈥� she explained, noting the previous owner, co-creator of the Yukon gold potato at the University of Guelph, loved trees.
鈥淲e removed some of them and I added shrubs and smaller trees that are less labour-intensive,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his garden is a lot of work, but it鈥檚 my therapy.鈥�
Rick said he and Leda are happy to support the For the Love of Africa Society, which has built four schools, a medical dispensary, an orphan centre and a trade school in Tanzania.
Several years ago, he and Calgary partner Brent Allardyce created a foundation of their own to support children鈥檚 dreams.
Their projects include creating hockey camps, baseball diamonds and a high school garden in sa国际传媒, as well as a school dorm in Lesotho, a small kingdom encircled by South Africa.
鈥淲e are two old boys, both in our 60s, who want to add value 鈥� to give young people the tools they need,鈥� Rick said.
鈥淚 started with hardly anything myself and was able to build a career and enjoy the fruits of that career. Same with Leda.
鈥淲e鈥檙e at a point where we want to give back and there鈥檚 not a much better feeling than seeing a person succeed and knowing you helped.鈥�
The owners wanted their ponds to have a more natural look, rather than the formal flat style created by previous owners, and they wanted a stream to connect them, so they turned to Dave Jewitt of Ponds Victoria for help.
鈥淭he existing ponds had been put in some years ago and were leaking and needed some work, so we redid the whole upper pond, created a waterfall off that, and a stream about 60 feel long into a pond below,鈥� Jewitt said.
鈥淲e jackhammered all the concrete out, put sand and cloth down, relined it and made the edges higher.鈥�
He said good filters with ultraviolet light treatment and skimmers will keep a pond clean and healthy, as does a stream, which oxygenates the water and crates a living ecosystem, just like in a real river.
Jewitt said most people like water because of the sound.
鈥淚t鈥檚 like a crackling fire. The noise of a river or waterfall is very pleasing and attractive.鈥�
Homeowners don鈥檛 need big ponds to make a big splash in their gardens, but he said it鈥檚 important to dig down to create little pockets and pools.
鈥淭his one has several twists, turns and drops to make it interesting,鈥� said Jewitt, who has been in the pond business for 10 years. Before that, he worked in the oil field for 19.
鈥淭his is a hobby that turned into a job. I love going to work every day. The best part is when you turn it on and owners say they never imagined it would look this good.鈥�