Open Garden - Ronda Tuyp

1741 Arbutus Point Road, Bowen Island

This is a very amateur garden plan superimposed onto the Site Plan from our architect, Allan Halcomb of Moss Creek. Ronda worked with Tom Roocroft carving out leveled outcroppings created by boulders and granite stepping stones brought in from Northwest Landscape Supply and Britannia gravel pit. Tom worked his excavation magic alonside contractor Albert Schaly, Al Pedlay, and Matti Evard as the house began to take shape. (2014 to 2017) Removing deeply entrenched thickets of European Blackberry; burning stumps and debris from the old house. The only botanical artifacts retained from the site were a huckleberry bush and a Japanese maple which we moved to the top of the driveway. The rock gardens and meadow spaces developed serendipitously as we worked up the slope from beach to street. Pacific Northwest native trees - black hawthorn, Garry oak, and contorted pines - were planted, and in place of Arbutus menziesii we planted Acer griseum (paperbark maple).

The property was fenced on boundary lines, though not to keep out wildlife. We therefore planned and planted to welcome the deer, especially in the meadow areas. We rarely use our irrigation system except during priods of extreme heat and drought in the summer months. Our builders recommended a groundwater collection system draining into four 1,000-gallon tanks in the basement, making us selfsufficient utilizing Treegators (slow release watering bags) to the young trees throughout the hot dry summers that followed.