Terry LeBlanc has a wheelbarrow full of design ideas for making a small garden look and feel larger than it is, and she used all of them recently in her newly petit plot in the Camosun area.
The need arose after she bought a property that was much smaller than her former showplace in Uplands, often the site of gardening tours and visiting plant aficionados.
鈥淚 had to downsize from my much bigger Midland Road home where I had almost three-quarters of an acre,鈥� she explained, adding her new property is a standard lot of 50 by 120 feet.
Her property-pruning exercise was more stressful than she had imagined, not only because she had to delete many beloved belongings, 鈥渂ut I didn鈥檛 quite realize how intense the real estate market was at the time.鈥�
She was looking for a home in the $700,000 to $800,000 range and her agent showed her an Oak Bay residence listed at $769,000 that was involved in an intense bidding war.
She didn鈥檛 join the fray, because she found the house utterly unappealing: 鈥淚t was one of those stucco boxes and you had to walk up about 10 horrible concrete steps just to get to the front door.鈥�
Her agent suggested LeBlanc look at something outside her preferred neighbourhood of Oak Bay, and that's when they visited a home in the Camosun area, just south of the Lansdowne campus.
She immediately spotted latent possibilities.
The owners were asking $709,000 and it was much larger than the Oak Bay home, with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and 2,200 square feet.
It also had curb appeal and a street-level entrance.
The garden was nothing to speak of, but that was no problem for LeBlanc, who has her own small landscaping firm. And today, while still in its salad days, the two-year-old garden is a little gem, and being featured on the benefitting Victoria Hospice.
鈥淵ou can achieve a lot by totally using every space,鈥� said LeBlanc, who is also gardening down the narrow sides of her house as well as on the boulevard.
Focusing on vertical interest, she had Dan Can Wrought Iron make several bowers for one side of the property, and bought more arches at Capital Iron for climbing wisteria, roses and clematis. She also started things up and over her garage and used many pots of various heights, some on plinths.
鈥淚 had to think of colour more than I usually do, and be more disciplined, using mainly three colours in the back 鈥� yellow, purple and white.
鈥淚 also used only my favourite plants and chose trees that will not overpower the property. In a small garden you have to go for slower growing, smaller, more decorative trees and be prepared to do a lot of pruning.鈥� So she has planted Chinese lantern tree, forest pansy and mini magnolias.
A mirror on one of her fences helps extend the look of her small space, as does her theory of repetition.
For example, in her back garden she repeats only a few plants 鈥� lambs ear, iris, allium, agapanthus, mock orange, blue phlox, blue hydrangeas and blue thistle - with three small dogwood sprinkled between.
Her most dramatic improvement was the removal of a double hedge on the back property line, where two rows of evergreens had been planted side by side. She took out one entire row, cut the second back to the trunks, and added a split cedar fence.
鈥淚t looked really raw at first, but I wanted to put in a pool and the hedge came almost to the edge of where I wanted it to go.
It was more than three metres thick and took up most of the back garden.鈥�
She now has a beautiful black-interior pool. 鈥淚t had to be lifted right over the house by a huge crane. That was all handled by DeShaw Pools, which did a great job of organizing and taking care of everything.鈥�
The home was built a century ago but was completely redone a dozen years back, with heated floors and extensive millwork.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 love the colours in a couple of rooms but they were mostly OK, and I brightened the place with skylights. It鈥檚 amazing how you can transform a place with skylights, and they are not that expensive.鈥�
She was also surprised to see how perfect the dark rooms looked once she brought in her light-coloured sofas and art.
鈥淭he family room used to be one big, cavernous room with dark walls and an 80-inch TV,鈥� but she added a chimney and wood-burning fireplace for about $9,000, and two walls of white shelving and cabinets from IKEA. She hired IKAN Installations to do the measuring, prepare the design and install everything 鈥� and the room was transformed.
When she moved inm there was a large, raised, rectangular deck off the family room, but it was too symmetrical for her taste. So she removed paving stones around the edge to soften the look, and this has become her herb garden. Interspersed between chives and parsley is a forest pansy tree, standard hydrangea and dogwood.
鈥淭he house has worked our phenomenally well and I鈥檓 very happy here,鈥� said LeBlanc.
鈥淲hen you have a large house and a large garden, it鈥檚 not only a lot of work, but also expensive.
I used to spend $4,000 a year just keeping my old garden watered.鈥�
She credits her 鈥渟uper鈥� team of Lindsey Alton, Naomi Black, and Tyson Harrison, for helping to manifest her new garden, which required the spreading of truckloads of soil mixed with sea soil before they could even get started.
