InFocus Magazine

I really want to move to Denman Island…” a visitor to my Denman home said to me recently, “…because I really want to garden.”

I nodded knowingly, as if his words made perfect sense.

However, this guy was not from the desert, the frozen North, an urban centre or anywhere else that could be considered inhospitable to gardens. No, he was from Comox, a place that, in theory, has all the same garden resources as Denman Island: a mild coastal climate, lots of rain, reasonable soil and proximity to natural, organic matter for nourishment (seaweed from the ocean, manure from nearby farms).

Denman Island’s reputation as a garden isle extraordinaire doesn’t seem to rest on anything objective, measurable or perhaps even logical. Yet, there is no doubt that this sparsely populated 5-by-19-kilometre strip of forested rock in the Georgia Strait, a 10-minute ferry ride from Buckley Bay, is home to an inordinate amount of exceptional gardens and gardeners.

This is never more evident than during the annual Denman Island Home and Garden Tour, now in its 18th year. The tour brings in up to 1500 visitors annually from all over BC, and sometimes further afield, many returning faithfully year after year, is written up regularly in dozens of publications, and was recently recommended by the Globe and Mail as one of Canada’s top six horticultural events.

As 10 sets of dedicated homeowners and a volunteer cast of close to 200 people gear up for this year’s tour, set to take place May 9 and 10 (the first ever May tour), it seems a good time to inquire into what makes this Gulf Island, and its long-lived tour, stand out in BC’s fertile gardening world.

Writer and broadcaster Des Kennedy, whose home and garden has always been one of the tour’s big draws (this year he and partner Sandy are taking a break), has a few theories on why gardening runs so rampant on Denman.

“It’s a complicated question, involving a number of different facets. For one thing, historically, this has been a ‘growing place’ with long-established orchards, the Japanese market gardens, etc. When we newcomers first showed up in the early 70s, self-sufficiency was high on many agendas, and a lot of people plunged into vegetable growing. For us, and others, the mania for ornamental gardening came a bit later. It was definitely food first!

“I see the local outbreak of ornamental growing as an intrinsic part of the artistic expression that goes on around here,” says Kennedy. “We have a disproportionate per capita number of accomplished gardeners, just as we do of potters, painters, writers, dancers, etc. It comes as no surprise that a community heavily weighted towards artistic endeavour would focus on gardening as the perfect fusion of artistry and nature, being as the place itself is one of natural beauty. Sort of like a mini version of Britain,” adds Kennedy, who hails from the British Isles.

Kennedy, wanting to be fair, points out that, in fact, Denman Island is not alone. “It’s also important to recognize that a lot of nearby communities, and especially a lot of the other islands, are similarly obsessed. The gardens of Cortes, and of some other islands, are at least the equal of those found here. So Denman is far from unique.”

Still, he recognizes that there is a mystique, a sense of special status, to Denman’s garden world.

“I think the annual tour—which was the first in the area, and successful from the get-go—has gone a long way towards establishing Denman’s position as a premier gardening locale,” he says.

Tobey Callaghan, a Home and Garden Tour stalwart whose property is on tour for the fourth time this year, agrees that history plays a role. He notes that Denman has traditionally had more farming than most Gulf Islands.

“There’s something about the combination of the old farmers who’ve been here for ages and the so-called hippies who came in the 70s to get back to the land,” he says. But equally important, he adds (and this is echoed by many other Denman gardeners), is the influence of key individuals in the community—accomplished and passionate gardeners who have shared their skills, knowledge and their plants with others in the community.

Sandy and Des Kennedy, of course, are often cited, partly because their garden, and home, are so absolutely amazing, and partly because of Des’ national renown as a garden writer and broadcaster. But another name that keeps coming up is Jimmy Tait.

And no wonder. Tait founded her garden in 1978 and has been steadily improving it ever since. She estimates that there are more than 1,000 different plants, including more than 5,000 daffodils. At 88 years old, this small-boned, delicate woman with a genteel British accent still does most of her gardening herself.