Kapiti Coast
Gardening highlights from Julian Matthews’ trip to Canada
We have the extra fun of picking out familiar plants in unfamiliar environments and finding inspiration in the way people in far-off lands go about making gardens as well as taking in the tourist attractions which can be enjoyed by all.
This was so for us when we visited Canada recently. We saw no famous gardens, as our focus for the trip was to catch up with some of my Canadian-born wife Liz’s relations and old school friends. But horticulturalalong the highlights.way there were many
Wandering the streets of Victoria, the quaint capital of British Columbia, where beautiful old brightly painted houses are a feature, there were many things to take the eye. Having often felt the need to duck beneath low-lying branches on Kapiti Coast footpaths, I was pleased to see that the locals have signs to warn them of such hazards. That’s so much nicer than hacking off offending branches.
Very low branches are likely to be chewed by deer, which are plentiful in Victoria.
On one occasion we spotted three on the footpath as we drove past Liz’s cousin Tom’s house. He has a gorgeous small garden, full of foliage plants and interesting pots left over from exhibitions at the museum where he used to work.
There are hostas galore, much loved by the deer, which used to jump over the high gates to come and browse. He’s beaten them additionsby addingto the sometops of sculpturalthe gates. iron I was intrigued by the little viewing grilles in Tom’s gates, which I’d thought were a purely ornamental addition. Sadly, they are a security feature, as he has been troubled by folk stealing from the garden and now likes to see who is trying the handle before letting them in.
Wandering downtown, we made for the famous Empress Hotel, a grand old building reminiscent of a French chateau.
But, horror of horrors, its covering of Boston ivy had been removed by new owners and it had lost much of its charm, so we hurried by, thankfully distracted by the artfully planted orca sculptures on the next corner.
The use of Alternanthera ‘Little Ruby’ to cover the orcas was intriguing, as was the Festuca glauca grasses at the base, showing the possibilities for using this plant on the vertical wall plantings that are becoming popular here and abroad.
Travelling north to our Savary Island destination, we called on more relatives.
One of them lives on a large plot of wilderness land. We wandered the small clearings during the day, noting that the anthills had been flattened by the bears who consider their contents a delicacy and admired the crops growing on raised platforms and covered with netting to prevent deer feasting on them.
There were good compost heaps here too, but I did wonder if it was wise to add old apples to them as this attracts bears, their nighttime progress tracked by a security camera. When the footage was replayed one morning recently it showed a guest from the sleepout stepping out to relieve himself in the middle of the night. What he hadn’t realised was that he had his back to a very large bear mere metres away beyond a low fence, apparently intent on heading for the compost and unconcerned by the nearby human.
Later we travelled on to Alberta, a harsh climate for both humans and plants.
But paeonies love the cold and it seemed that every second house had several flowering profusely in their front yards. The brother-in-law’s neighbours’ sons at his lakeside house had been snow ski champions when they were teenagers. Later their wrecked skis were incorporated into distinctive garden chairs from which family members now sit and watch pelicans fly back and forth between their nesting and feeding areas.
We stayed awhile on a backwoods Alberta lot, which is our friends’ weekend refuge from Calgary and tried not to laugh when they discovered that the resident beaver had overcome the wire surrounds intended to protect the birch trees by climbing up and chomping the trunks off at a higher than usual level.
Their guest accommodation (formerly the hen house) bore a sign proclaiming: “I dream of a world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned.”
Wouldn’t that be great? ✤