Edible Vancouver Island Design 2022

Des igning a garden to grow fresh food in your yard year-round WORDS DONNA BALZER PHOTO ANGELA DRAKE

But my dreams centre around food. Growing, picking, donating and cooking food year-round is my passion. Even so, when my husband “surprised” me with the news that he bought a house in the quaint little town of Qualicum Beach, I was less than enthusi astic; I loved my career, my adult kids and my established garden in downtown Calgary and didn’t want those things to change. And then I suddenly realized—my dream of 12 months of food production would be a reality on Vancouver Island. BAS I C LANDSCAPE DES I GN An edible garden is constantly changing, as plants are seeded, transplanted and harvested. And while edibles add interest, co lour and texture, there are times and seasons when the garden can look uninspiring, especially when crops are reaching the end of their life or straw mulch is used to protect plants. The messy look of an ever-changing garden is an unfortunate reality. M any people dream about moving to Vancouver Island. The calming green forests, mesmerizing waves and beau tiful year-round blooms are so relaxing.

husband jumped right in with an enthusiastic “yes.” So we cleared a bigger space, built an even bigger greenhouse and constructed a terrace of beds down to join our original lot. At the junction of the old and new lots, my husband built an arbour for our seedless Red Flame grapes. With the new lot, the harvest has gotten a little crazy and our de sign aesthetic in the back space can be a little chaotic at times. My husband started making regular deliveries to the food bank, as our heat-loving peppers, basil and tomatoes boomed in the sum mer greenhouse. In winter, arugula and spinach fill the unheated greenhouse, but since plants grow so slowly in winter, we have no trouble eating it all. Outdoors, sorrel starts poking up in February and lasts until at least December. Dramatically tall Winterbor kale adds interest and texture for a full year. While potato tops go dormant in fall, the spuds, beets and leeks can be left in the ground until harvest ed for dinner, and when cold weather threatens in December, we cover tender plants like cauliflower with loose straw. Cauliflowers come in exotic forms and colours and are planted in both the greenhouse and outdoors for an extended season. Herbs provide months of colour, visual interest, taste and texture. Silver-leafed, purple-blossomed sage and ground cover thyme thrive in dry soils all over the gar den. We top pizza with self-seeded fresh chives in March, and crisp sage in brown butter to serve with our butternut squash in November. Annual herbs, like cilantro, are started every spring and tucked be tween other vegetables for their soft white, bee-friendly blooms that add a garnish to both the garden and the dinner plate. The general rule of design dictates adding the tallest plants and climbers to the back of the bed, but I built an arbour from simple cattle-panel fencing and plant it with annual beans on the east side of the garden, because from the road, it frames the green house while also supplying hummingbird-friendly flowers and edible beans. PLAY I NG I N THE D I RT One reason the Canadian prairies are called the breadbasket of Canada is because big field crops, like wheat, grow so well in the deep, rich, loamy-clay prairie soils. I discovered very early that Island soil is nothing like prairie soil, and in Qualicum Beach, I quite literally have a beach to work with. The soil is plain white sand with a little layer of composted leaves on top. So forget about finding perfect soil here. Instead, find a fairly sunny spot and amend the soil as needed. Everything grows here if given a bit of care and feeding.

Front yards are highly visible, usually conforming to the norms of aesthetic land scape design. But anything edible in the front yard is fair game for deer to enjoy, making it difficult to achieve a fully func tional edible garden design here. Instead, I plant deer-proof edibles like artichokes, onions, garlic and herbs in the front yard, and keep most of my edible garden behind the fence in the side and backyard. FUNC T I ONAL I S FASH I ONABLE

An edible garden is constantly changing, as plants are seeded, transplanted and harvested.

My home is on a corner lot with an open fence design on the side and backyard. A neighbour recently called through the fence, saying that she loved how functional our garden looks. I wasn’t insulted. I like it that way. Our garden obviously has a clear pur pose. Our first functional change was at the back door. This area used to be a parking stall surrounded by a three-metre-wide laurel hedge. We pulled out the hedge, created a brick patio and in stalled our first little greenhouse. When we built this area, the year-round harvest expanded to tender plants I had never grown before: lemon trees, grapefruits and oranges—which is why we’ve dubbed the area our “cocktail corner.” We walk onto our patio, reach for a lime and pluck a sprig of mint for our cocktails, then relax against the greenhouse and enjoy the shelter. It doesn’t get any better. ROOM TO GROW One day, the empty lot behind us was suddenly listed for sale. I mused about growing an even bigger garden, and my helpful

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