“The stage was beautifully set, but there was no show going on.”
That’s how landscape designer Rob DeGros described the scene at the back of this North Saanich home, before the new Alberta owners decided to add some “entertainment” in the form of flowers and water.
The couple loved the elegant patio that stretched across the length of the house, partially covered by a roof supported by attractive stone pillars and wooden columns.
While the setting was perfect for enjoying the outdoors in all seasons, the “performance” was uninteresting because the patio looked onto a narrow strip of lawn bordered by a stone wall and a tall, dark hedge.
The previous owners had created this barrier to block views of an adjacent house, but DeGros and the current owners didn’t like the cramped, closed-in effect and envisioned something much more interesting and dramatic — namely, a water garden.
Andy and Shona Potts bought their attractive 5,000-square-foot, almost-new rancher three years ago. Built in the middle of a one-acre property, the home is airy and welcoming, with soaring ceilings and a spacious open plan opening onto the garden.
Today, after two summers of intensive design work by DeGros, the garden reflects an equally roomy and exhilarating atmosphere. It is being featured on the For the Love of Africa Watergarden Tour on July 14.
Andy and his wife grew up in Scotland and were childhood sweethearts — they are now transitioning out of their Lethbridge business and into a sweet retirement.
Having had a smaller house and property in Alberta, and busy careers as owners of a custom metal fabrication and equipment installation company, they are relishing the idea of gardening here.
Andy loves his ride-on mower. “I can do the lawn in 45. That’s heaven for me.”
They appreciate their home’s location, five minutes from the airport, Sidney, the ferry and the beach, and Shona likes the growing season.
“It is much longer than in Lethbridge where the weather goes quickly from very nice to snow. We get -35 C with wind chill on top of that, whereas here, it’s more like Scotland. Since living here, I’ve noticed how quickly things grow and advance.”
Gardening has become a focus and they say DeGros is a big part of that enjoyment.
“He was instrumental, because when we moved to the Island we knew nobody and this property was just a big square, green lawn with a house in the middle,” said Andy.
They found him in the Yellow Pages and gave him a brief outline of what they wanted — lots of colour, flowers and beds — and he designed a new landscape for them.
“Rob designed the whole thing, laid out the flowers and rocks…”
They did the perimeter first, two years ago, and the waterscape last year, featuring a large, broad pond and three waterfalls right off the back patio.
DeGros’s first goal was to create privacy around the perimeter and remove several dead fir trees.
He then broke up a huge expanse of lawn on one side by creating a peninsula that juts out into the lawn. “This creates perspective and mystery, something to draw the eye behind. And it helps to make a garden look established, by bringing bigger trees in.”
He used golden locust tree, Japanese maple Bloodgood, San Jose saucer magnolia, royal purple and golden spirit smoke bushes, eastern forest pansy, Katsura trees, hydrangeas and lots of interesting sun-loving rhodos ranging from small to large.
Bark mulch keeps down the weeds, and he uses slow-release granular fertilizer that’s temperature activated.
Creating the waterscape was a major project and began with removal of all the hedge trees and most of the wall, leaving only a remnant at the left.
The pond measures about two-by-nine metres, but is set in a space almost three times that large. “It is important when designing a pond, to carry the effect into the landscaping,” said the designer. “Otherwise, you end up with what looks like a necklace of rock round the pool.”
Stonemason Jim Dias re-used much of the wall’s stone to create a tall outdoor fireplace that DeGros designed, with inspiration from similar ones in France.
All the hedge trees were temporarily stored in a holding area at the side of the house during the three-month construction phase, along with piles of soil and boulders.
Instead of just replanting the original hedge much farther back, once the pond was done, DeGros created a slim band of softly swaying eastern maple close to the property line, with the hedge in front.
“It’s like waves of tall grass behind the hedge now, creating movement and interest … prettier than just a hedge. We now have a beautiful, natural empathy.”
He originally designed two waterfalls, but it looked too symmetrical so he added a little, secondary one on the right, and truckloads of large rocks from Mid-Island Aggregate on the Malahat.
“We spent a lot of time thinking about rock placement” and amid the rock, he planted acer palmatum “Contorta” and Bloodgood Japanese maples, as well as non-spreading bamboo, canna lilies, Japanese forest grasses, geranium Rosanne and yellow coreopsis.
What Shona likes most about the garden is its year-round colour.
“I just love being outside, going around the yard, looking at the colour. And when it gets too hot at the back, we sit at the front in the shade. Rob even put a couple of sitting stones right at the top of the garden, so we can enjoy looking down. It’s quite a vision.
“We are so grateful for Rob’s input.”
DeGros is very particular when it comes to pools, and offers some tips for water features:
• Always continue the rock into the landscape or else it will look like a little necklace around a pond. He also likes to incorporate tumbled slate pavers, from a quarry in Port Renfrew.
• Use “mountain stones” here and there, significant pieces turned on their ends, to add scale and height
• Place a few “island” rocks inside the pond, or protruding from the edge, to mimic a natural, random shoreline.
• Think deeply about water level. If the edge isn’t high enough, you might have leakage, especially if there is splashing from a waterfall or fountain.o
