BACKYARD REBORN
A Port Coquitlam couple had a tired looking backyard — and then they won The Vancouver Sun’s Expert Gardening contest.
Gardening contest winners transform their space.
For Mike Jijian, stepping outside in the morning, with coffee cup in hand, and walking down the steps to sit beside his swimming pool in his newly renovated backyard makes him feel as if he were on holiday. “It’s like I am in a resort. It’s a complete escape. I love it.” Mike’s wife, Shannon, and their children, Tre, age seven, and Taryn, four, are thrilled with their new- look backyard, too. Shannon loves the privacy and spaciousness of the poolside deck. And the kids especially like the fact that they now have even faster access to the swimming pool. They also enjoy using the new shed as a playhouse. In April, the Jijians, who live in Port Coquitlam, became the winners of The
Vancouver Sun’s grand $ 18,000 Expert Gardening contest. The prize included $ 7,500 in products from Cedar Rim Nursery in Langley, $ 7,500 in landscaping services from Houston Landscapes, of Vancouver, and a garden shed worth about $ 3,000 from Cedarsheds in Langley. Six months ago, the Jijians’s northfacing Port Coquitlam backyard was a blank canvas. There was a chain- link fence with a sad- looking wisteria growing on it across the bottom of the yard and wellworn fences down the sides. In the centre of the yard, there was a large sand pit where the Jijians put up their 18- foot stand- alone swimming pool every summer. Winning the prize gave the family the chance to transform the yard into the garden oasis they had always wanted.
The Jijians ended up spending $ 20,000 of their own money on the project to give them even more quality features, including discreet night lighting and stone paths and sturdy raised timber flower beds. Jeremy Miller of Houston Landscapes, the company that installed all the new features, says he was delighted when he got to know the winners of the contest. “They were the perfect winners because they already had plans to do something with their yard,” he says. “Winning the contest allowed them to do even more than they had planned without blowing their budget. They made the right decision to add the money they were planning to spend and getting a complete makeover.” The Jijians started the ball rolling by first sitting down with garden designer Vera Bebard, and drawing up a wish list. The raised swimming pool was high on their list of priorities. It is the centre of the family’s activities in the summer; the whole family loves using it. Mike likes to take a refreshing dip every night when he returns from work and the children have become excellent swimmers, since they have daily access to it. The pool became the centre of the plan. Bebard sketched out a proposal that created a cedar staircase from the existing deck off the back of the house down to a raised deck around the pool. “Vera came back to us two or three times with a plan and a revision and we fine- tuned it until we ultimately got what we wanted,” says Shannon. In the old yard, access from the upper deck to ground level was very poor. It consumed a lot of space, but did not make access to the lower level easy or attractive. The new arrangement allows the Jijians to descend, pausing at a landing from where they can stand and look over the pool before arriving at the lower poolside deck with comfortable patio furniture. A series of wooden steps then provide easy access to ground level, where a new lawn has been installed, along with large shed and a path of irregular bluestone and river rock. “It feels as if we have three distinct areas now — the upper deck, lower pool deck and the bottom area,” Shannon says. “We like it that we can watch the kids in the pool wherever we are — either from the upper deck or at poolside. The new fencing also makes it completely private.”
We are absolutely thrilled with the way things turned out. — Mike Jijian, homeowner
The new staircase has also opened up the area at the side of the house, where there is an existing concrete slab. This is area is now available as a barbecue patio and storage area. The entire area is enclosed by new lattice- topped cedar fencing. This has been extended down both sides of the property with a gate on one side. “We are absolutely thrilled with the way things turned out,” Mike says. “It is better than we expected. I particularly like the space that has been opened up as a result. I am not a great conceptualizer. Seeing it on paper didn’t mean a lot to me. But seeing it now, finished, it really is an amazing transformation.” Glass panels have also been installed in the railings of the upper deck. With the addition of the new stairs, the glass makes the area more spacious. Plants the Jijians picked for their garden include a few trees, shrubs and lowmaintenance perennials. Raised beds around the sunny pool area have been planted with sedums, day lilies, euphorbias, burning bush ( Euonymus elatus) and a structural Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris) pruned into a pompom form. There is also a large Rose of Sharon ( Hibiscus syriacus) in a ceramic pot on the pool deck. Gleditsia ‘ Sunburst’, a tree with bright yellow foliage, has been placed in a corner at the back of the shed while a purple- leafed columnar Dawyck beech tree has been planted on the other side of the yard to create more privacy for the upper deck. Flower borders on the ground level have been filled with the purple- leaved perennial, Ligularia dentata, a row of boxwood ‘ Sky Pencil’ and an espaliered fall- flowering Camellia sasanqua. Yew hedging has been planted in two strategic spots to add privacy to the pool area, while pachysandra and ornamental grasses, including
Hakonechloa macra ‘ Aureola’, have been used as ground covers. The shed from Cedarsheds, of Langley, is a “boat house” model, measuring 12- by- 8 feet, with seven- foot ceiling and room for storing longer- thannormal items, such as canoes and kayaks. The shed has flower boxes below the windows and a split Dutch door on the side. “The kids like to play store or take- away using this,” says Shannon. “They use the shed as a playhouse in summer and we’ll use it for storage in the winter.” When the project was completed last week, the Jijians celebrated with a party for family and friends. Mike and Shannon found the new garden is not only well designed for family use, but also turns out to be a great party space with room for people on multiple levels — from the lawn area at the bottom, to the poolside deck to the upper patio- deck leading to the kitchen. “I love the overall concept of the yard. It has gone from nothing to a very open space where we can relax and enjoy ourselves. The night lighting also lets us use the garden in the evening. We are very happy with the way this all turned out.”