JUNE 2013
HOME AND GARDEN TOUR 2013
JUNE 15 & 16
The 20th Denman Island Home & Garden Tour is fast approaching – a beautiful opportunity to fall in love with our island yet again. Here’s a sneak preview of what’s on the Tour.
1. Community School Children’s Garden – 1100 NW Road:
This garden nurtures growth of all kinds – not just botanical. The school garden has been providing an outdoor, hands-in-the-earth learning experience and also fresh ingredients for weekly “feasty fridays” at the school. This initiative exemplifies the school’s “learn where you live, love where you learn” vision.
2. Ruby Slipper Ranch (Shayne Barker and Tracy Horovatin) – 1428 Lacon:
An active permaculture farm with a straw-bale farmhouse, hand-built with local wood and no drywall or plastic. The natural plaster walls are decorated with Tracy’s hand-sculpted, collaged mosaics, using bits of tile, mirror, shells and even her mother’s antique tea set! Shayne, a European-trained woodworker, contributes gorgeous cabinetry throughout.
3. Dragonfly Knoll (Marc Randall and John Tallerino) – 4920B Lacon:
This property offers an immersion in the intimate relationship between art and nature. Approach along an enchanted woodland walk decorated with beautiful shrines. This leads to a lovely garden full of native plants, and a charming hobbit-like house, full of art, antiques, and whimsical details. And don’t miss the intricately painted art studio.
4. Maresia (Selinda and Mike White) – 6225 Lacon:
Maresia means the ‘scent of the ocean’ in Portuguese. This garden was created and tended for many years by Jo Hepburn, a Master Gardener from Van Dusen Gardens in Vancouver. The new owner has respectfully added to Jo’s beloved flower garden. Multiple ponds, a mature orchard and art throughout add to the magic.
5. Jayne Ann O’Reilly – 5240 Country:
As you pass through the old wooden gate, you will find yourself in one of Denman’s secret gardens. This is an intimate garden brimming over with established perennials – peonies, crocosmia, irises and much much more. Somewhat off the beaten track, nestled beside tranquil Morrison Marsh, the garden has been quietly nurtured by caring hands for many years.
6. Leslie Dunsmore – 4791 East Rd:
Dunsmore’s talent is apparent everywhere – from the owner-crafted home and interior woodwork to the remarkable original paintings, sculptures, and stained glass windows in the house, art studio, garden and woodshed. The terraced garden features lush flower and veggie beds with a sweeping view of Lambert Channel.
7. Kathy and Michael Rapati – 8520 Owl Crescent:
Built with super-insulating pre-fab panels covered in concrete, this owner-built house makes an impression, thanks to its unique leaf shape, its flowing curves, and the incredible detail of the interior craftsmanship. All of the timbers in the house were salvaged and the wooden arch-ribs were made in the cellar.
8. Glen and Linda Pollitt — 1796 Dalziel:
This garden melds gently into the beach and features a large variety of plants carefully chosen to thrive in the shoreline environment. Rocks and driftwood are used throughout, helping set off the garden’s many secret spaces and transitional areas.
9. David and Joan Scruton – 6951 Denman Rd:
Step through the breezeway into the inner courtyard of this beautiful owner-designed home to discover a happy, working farm. The 180’ curved pergola with grapes, clematis, and roses encircles an active outdoor aviary filled with cockatiels. Farm animals, a wonderful refurbished heritage barn and a fully-tooled furniture workshop add to the experience.
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Taylor’s Checkerspot (TC) update.
A community-wide working group called the Taylor’s Checkerspot Community Working Group (TCCWG) was formed in February 2013. The TCCWG works with the Invertebrates at Risk – Recovery Implementation Group (RIG) as part of the Garry Oak Recovery Team and the Ministry of Environment. In simple terms RIG is a group of scientists and technicians involved with species conservation in our region. The DCA is an integral part of the TCCWG.
About thirty Islanders expressed an interest in the species recovery work for the TC. It includes studying and exchanging natural history information, monitoring the distribution of the extant population of TC, contributing to the process to establish a Butterfly Reserve in the north BC Park and committing efforts to enhance the habitat to sustain TCs on Denman Island.
The TCCWG met again on May 9th and May 22nd to establish protocols for data collection and to report on sightings. A number of volunteers signed up to do searches in the BC park, on DCA properties and on private lands. A survey is currently under way to tabulate the sightings of post diapause larvae and adults. It will provide information as to the locations and numbers of sightings and the time frame for larvae to be active followed by the period of no sightings until adults eclose (emerge from their pupae), mate and lay eggs (oviposit). While we may not have comparable data for the previous years since fewer people were then monitoring TCs we should get some sense of population dynamics. For the following years we will have this year’s statistics to work with. During the last part of May and early June the adult females deposit their eggs and then die. We hope many larvae will hatch and populate the Island as before.
The DCA Scientific Speaker Program on May 23rd featured Mary Jo Andersen, Lead Keeper of the butterfly propagation unit at the Oregon Zoo. Her presentation demonstrated her extensive knowledge of how to breed butterflies in human care and her passion to save wild creatures in peril.
Mary Jo’s presentation concluded the DCA Scientific Speaker Program for the fall to spring series 2012/2013. We thank the many supporters who attended, looking at wildlife matters beyond our island and discussing the challenge to coexist with other living beings. You have responded generously to the admission by donation, leaving a surplus for more conservation efforts by the DCA. Thank you sincerely.
Garden Tour …continued from Page 1
10. Sandy and Des Kennedy – 1670 Pickles Rd:
A grassy clearing ringed with tall conifers invites you into an enchanting hollow brimming with colour and intrigue. Extensive flower and shrub gardens feature hand-crafted arbours, stone pathways, terraces, a cascade, a pond, clipped evergreens and stone structures amid sentinels of eremurus and delphiniums, heritage roses, clematis, and ornamental grasses.
11. Susan-Marie and Yoshi Yoshihara – 3906 Wren Rd:
A serene clearing in a mature, second-growth forest provides a gorgeous setting for an elegant, comfortable home incorporating Japanese design elements with West Coast design. The well-established flower garden features perennials, a pond and artfully laid stonework.
12. Oyster Beach Farm (Liz and John Johnston) – 2621 Northwest Road:
This working blueberry farm is a living piece of history (with an amazing view of ocean and mountains). Don’t miss the 100-year-old barn shipped here from Scotland, one of the very first metal barns in the world. Sheltered behind the picturesque virginia-creeper-covered house you will find a substantial veggie garden.
Denman Home & Garden Tour, June 15 – 16, 9:30 – 5:00 pm.
Tickets $18 (kids free) on-sale at www.denmanconservancy.org/, 250-335-2148, Abraxas Books, Denman General Store, Denman Craft Shop, Hornby Gas Bar. Enjoy a home-cooked lunch featuring locally-grown ingredients (from garden #1, above) at the Community Hall, a fundraiser for the Denman Community School. $5 in cash (exact change only) will get you into individual properties.
Cyclists on the Tour can enter their name for a FREE DRAW
– prizes include a $100 gift certificate from Mountain Equipment Coop, Denman Island Chocolate + a DI Chocolate T-shirt, earrings from Rose Pedal Jewelry and organic tea and coffee. Just come by the porch of the Community Hall on Tour day to enter.
If you ordered Tickets on-line and would like to avoid the rush at the hall porch on the Tour mornings you can pick up your tickets at the General Store during store hours until – Friday June 14th. Just ask at the front counter where they will have your tickets put aside under the name of the person who ordered them. If you do not pick them up early, they will then be available on the hall porch from 9-2 on both Tour days.
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GARRY OAK GARDEN PROJECT
Eleven mini-Garry oak gardens have leafed out on the island and others are starting! These wonderful creative green spaces not only restore elements of a rare ecosystem once cultivated by BC’s First Nations, but are also fun. In addition, the gorgeous spring meadow flowers enliven the heart. Botanist-naturalists James and Kirsten Miskelly recently assisted Denman’s GO gardeners with the identification of native Garry oak grasses to add to these mini-gardens. Garry oak gardens are a worthwhile, mini-lawn replacement project to complement any garden. Photos of these gardens can be found on the Conservancy’s web site!
REPORT FROM THE AGM
Denman Conservancy Association AGM was held on 25 March 2013.
The following Directors were elected for 2013 – 2014
- Jenny Balke —————— Co-Chair
- Doug Bell
- Annie Corddry
- Jennifer Ellenton
- DD Fuchs
- Jackie Hipwell
- John Millen ——————- Co-Chair
- Ron Shepherd —————- Treasurer
- Patti Willis
- Susan-Marie Yoshihara —– Secretary
All directors are residents of Denman Island
A Special Resolution was passed to establish a restricted fund account for land acquisition.Garry Oak Garden Project
In 2009 Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) gave the DCA permission to accumulate $400,000 during the period September 1, 2006 to August 31, 2016 “for the purpose of acquisition and conservation (of) lands on Denman Island”.
To accommodate these needs the DCA Board recommended the establishment of a restricted fund for land acquisitions account. Funds totalling $125,000 would be reclassified from current assets to restricted fund for land acquisitions
Cemetery
DCA has agreed with Denman Island Memorial Society on the terms of the Management Plan for the Natural Burial cemetery. Preparation of the site is expected to begin this summer.
Contributors to this Newsletter: Jenny Balke, Laura Busheikin, Jennifer Ellenton, Peter Karsten, John Millen, Autumn White.
THE NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTION FOR THE COMMUNITY SCHOOL
The DCA is sponsoring the creation of a collection of biofacts for the students to get hands-on exposure to the biological world around us. We are so lucky to live close to nature. It provides us with biological study material that can be prepared for study and permanent reference. No animals need to be killed. Shells, bones, shed feathers or antlers, exoskeletons, ancient petrified creatures, minerals and preserved plants (herbaria) are all specimens which have died of natural or accidental causes providing a wealth of natural history materials.
Collecting and preparing this study material connects the student with real nature in many ways:
- complements the “electronic knowledge base” with physical realities;
- leads students to the holistic study of nature;
- develops a sense of the wealth of biodiversity of our home place,
- raises awareness of natural habitats and human influences;
- preserves animal artefacts that may become unavailable in the future due to extinction or regional extirpation,
- builds skill sets such as writing, drawing, photography an even social skills of co-operation.
To that end directors of the DCA met with the principal and staff of the Community School in early spring to map out a plan. A part of the School’s Library is set aside to house the collection. The students have already grasped the idea with a SPARK program by creating a study board of “Beach Life” in early May. Local biologists participated to accomplish this.
The DCA invited Brian Keating a naturalist, world explorer to inspire the concept of nature discovery with his talk on “Going Wild”. 120 people attend the presentation in the Front Hall of the Community Hall on May 17th. It was a “soft” fundraiser with attendance by donations. The audience contributed over 700 dollars. We paid Brian for the cost of the stop-over on the way to Haida Gwaii for another speaking engagement to leave us with surplus funds to get the project underway.
We thank Islanders for their generous support and hope to have your support to advance the collection. If you have any “biofacts”, perhaps paleontological items, minerals, mounted insects, a dead seal in front of your property, an intact “road kill” call Peter at 250 335 1640. The project is backed by the Ministry of Environment with permits for possession of native wildlife biofacts. Thank you for your support. Watch for updates on how this project evolves.
