July in The Haven Garden

Greetings from The Haven garden.

Well it’s mid July, the wisteria blooms are long gone.

The lawns are drying up and turning a lovely tan colour. We don’t water lawns at The Haven so they go dormant now and will be lovely and green again when the Fall rains come. Letting the lawns go for the summer works well to keep the Canada goose mess from happening, as it is the greens they love on the golf courses.

The California poppies and the Shasta daisies are vibrant now, both weedy plants and very welcome at this dry time of the year. Also the Spanish Broom (not Scotch Broom) are beautiful with bloom and have the most wonderful scent. The much loved Trumpet Vine on the front of the Lodge is in full bloom and the mud-wasps, which I only see when the Trumpet is blooming, are here.

The deer are back now and have had their way with the foliage on the Bear’s Breech and many of my other babies.

I was fortunate to participate in a program a few weeks ago called Creative Connections. It was three days of wonderful workshops, beginning with Eric Bibb, day two with Jock McKeen being very creative in a very creative Jock way. Day 3, an acting workshop with Jane Geesman and Sarah Lucht (leaders of Act Natural). I was terrified going in and ended up having a wonderful time! On the final morning, Gary Dillon and I led a closing ceremony in which I talked a bit about my spiritual connection with the land and the people here at The Haven. Gary performed a beautiful spiritual Hawaiian ceremony to do with planting metaphorical seeds of spirit, energy and creativity. The participants ended up by planting small plants in some beautiful planters which now live along the new ramp at the hot tub deck.

I’m also very happy to have a beautiful new bench in the garden (you can see it in the photo just behind me), created out of Gabriola beach driftwood by local artist Gus Lund, and kindly donated by Sue and Aubrey Muirhead.

Now it is time for me to get at clearing up the arbutus leaves which the incessant winds of the last few days have strewn all over the property. Believe me, broad-leaf evergreen does not mean evergreen, only that last year’s leaves won’t fall until this year’s leaves are mature, and fall they will!

Bye for now

Don Mattson