Shawnigan Lake, BC

The working gardeners paradise

The homeowners of this lovely newly built residential home in Shawnigan Lake contacted us looking for a fresh look to the outdoors. After sitting down and discussing what they were looking for, i quickly realized they were both working gardeners and we came up with the following concept.

Our first project was to deal with almost 2 ft grade drop in the south-east corner of the back yard, along with a city concrete drainage swale running along the back of the property. We decided to install a 4×6 Pressure treated retaining wall, to bring the grade back up in that corner and give the homeowners an almost level use-able backyard.

Once this was accomplished we had a better visual of what space we had to work with. The first thing this family wanted, was a lawn surrounded by beds for planting and plenty of space for growing vegetables etc. They also wanted a nice sitting area by the raised deck, for entertaining friends and family. To hide the concrete foundation right next to the patio, we decided to build a raised planter, which they could add more veggies.

With the patio and planter installed, we then went onto shaping the lawn, allowing for plantings as well as a screen of trees along the top of the wall to add privacy to their new space. with all the grading and shaping complete, it was now easy to see the shapes of things to come.

Before we could plant anything, we decided it was a good time to get the fence installed, to close everything in. It also gave the dog abit more freedom once it was complete.

Now we were almost at the end, only turf, plants and trees to go in and the yard was complete. We were barely finished and the homeowners were already out, shovel in hand, adding veggie plants and sunflowers to their newly-created outdoor living space.

Project Scope:

Over 60 linear ft of 4″x6″ pressure-treated retaining wall to raised backyard into a use-able area.
Raised planter against the house for additional vegetables.
Installing drainage system to effectively deal with downspouts around the home
Patio and small landing step for seating and access from back upper deck.
Lawn to flow smoothly from front to back, to make mowing easier.
Planting beds to soften the lawn with space left for the homeowner to do their own planting at their leisure.
Trees to be planted along back property (above the wall) to add screening from empty lot and road.
100+ft of 6 ft fence to be installed on North side of property, for additional privacy.

Obstacles to overcome:

Checking and working to city by-laws in reference to drainage channel along the fence, so as to allow grade change and tree screening along back of the residence.
Finding water shutoff, after general contractor had buried it in the front yard.
All 6″x6″ fence post holes (14) had to be dug by hand due to being ‘in-line’ with underground utilities. Shawnigan Lake is a very hard-packed rocky area!