This planting is located in the back yard of a stunning North Saanich new build home that features recycled materials from the former existing home. The site boasts a beautiful Garry Oak tree that is one of the main features of this bacl yard. The client had a clear vision and inspiration for a naturalized meadow planting featuring floral interest mixed throughout airy grasses and juxtaposed with structural shaped shrubs. We collaborated on the project with Amy Sanderson of Stellata Plants to create a plant list that would suit the desired aesthetic and soil conditions. Once a plant list was selected, bulk orders of the plants were placed in late winter for a spring planting. Stellata Plants also provided many of the plants for the project.

The existing site had native soil with some construction rubble mixed in in some places and some grasses and weeds throughout the area. For a planting intended to be drought tolerant and mimicking a naturalized space, a soil with a lower organic matter content is ideal. To smother the existing vegetation, a thick layer of fill type soil (lower organic matter content compared to a garden soil) was brought in by slinger and added on top of the existing soil. An amazing team came together to plant the thousands of plants in just one day.

In early fall 2023 the garden was a bit over 2 years old. We stopped by for a check in at the garden and were pleased to find the garden looking beautiful and full. The client has done an outstanding job of caring for it and is happy with the overall aesthetic. Seeing birds and bees throughout the planting was very gratifying