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"Summerlight: Linda's West Coast Giverny"

This Month we Travel North to visit our GB "Lindablond" who lives just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A very talented woman with a flair for writing, a definite love of beauty which shows in her gardens, her taste and her life. A very busy mother and wife. To me her gardens send us back into another time, another place. Does the name "Claude Monet" ring a bell?

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"Gardens have always been a very joyful and important part of my life. Some of my earliest memories involve playing in the garden of my Dutch grandmother. Countless happy hours were spent in grandma's garden, listening to the fat bumblebees humming in the columbines, sampling sweet raspberries that hung like scarlet rubies from their canes, and falling asleep in the cozy secret hideout under the white flowered arms of the spirea bush.

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Good books have introduced me to many more gardens and gardening mentors. My greatest influence is the artist, Claude Monet, with the masterpiece of a garden he made in Giverny, France. Eleven years ago I moved to my current home on a quiet suburban lot situated beside a wilderness creek area. The opportunity to turn this place into my own little Giverny continues to drive me to work very hard, make sacrifices, and overcome many obstacles.

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The largest obstacles to be faced are the same ones we all encounter when building a garden: not enough time and never enough money. To keep costs down I make divisions and propagate plants, share and trade with friends, and buy from the sales of garden clubs. As for the constant lack of time, I just squeeze in as many precious moments in the garden as I can. Another challenge is the heavy clay soil here. Each garden bed must be dug by hand and the existing clay replaced with truckloads of mushroom compost. As the garden beds are dug, the children delight in making the excavated clay into pots and small animal figurines!

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The major goal for my garden is to have something of interest in bloom, leaf, or berry at all times, with different color themes emerging and fading like a floral fireworks show. The show opens with the snowdrops, crocuses, and miniature daffodils in January and finishes up with the last leaves of the Liquidambar and witch hazel trees in November and the red crabapples and holly berries in December. Other flowers get their starring turn on stage: daffodils, tulips, peonies and irises, clematis, and dahlias.

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Living near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, my fabulous zone 8 climate makes year round gardening a reality. Last year I was still outside dividing perennials and planting trees and shrubs in December and January! When I am not working in the garden, I'm outside enjoying the pleasures of West Coast living which are endless: fantastic skiing, biking, hiking, boating, swimming. I live about 2 hours from Whistler/Blackcomb mountain, which will be the host for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

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The garden is also used as a model and a setting for my art. I love to photograph and paint pictures of my plants and flowers in all seasons. I also like to do portraits and self-portraits in the garden. When the weather inevitably turns nasty and it's finally just too cold to play outside, my garden continues to put on a show as screensavers on the computer and pastel paintings on the walls. Another goal for the garden is for it to provide fresh, luscious, organic fruits and vegetables to eat. Lettuce, sugar snap peas, beans, onions, carrots, beets, cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, and blueberries all grow cheerfully alongside the flowers. The garden gives food to nourish the body and flowers to feed the soul.

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My garden continues to grow and expand. Somewhere along the way it acquired a name: Summerlight. Future goals including the conversion of ALL LAWN (I just HATE the sound of lawn mowers and all other power tools!) into raised beds and bark mulch paths, and the full development of the creek area into an enchanting woodland garden full of rhododendrons and azaleas. This project will take at least five more years, but I seriously doubt it will ever truly be "finished". There are always changes and adaptations to be made. A good garden is never "done!" Ironically, the timing of this garden's "completion" will coincide perfectly with the time in which the children will be grown and out on their own...just when I plan to travel extensively and move on from this place. Hopefully, the next person who winds up here will enjoy the garden!"

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What a Wonderful journey this has been with a truly fascinating person. Linda we thank you so much for allowing us to visit your breathtaking Gardens. We look forward to sharing with you the growth and beauty of your gardens as your living canvass continues to blossom.

Produced by Jeanne

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