Out Spokin': Circling the U.S. Chapter 40: The Butchart Gardens

Friday & Saturday, September 20-21, 2019

We took the ferry from San Juan Island to Sydney, British Columbia, then bicycled 10 miles to the Butchart Gardens. My online search had yielded a small private campground just a mile from the garden, called Gardenside Acres Campground, that advertised itself as "tent and breakfast." It sounded much more luxurious than it was. The running water was from a hose; the toilet was a portajohn, and the shower was a tent with a garden hose and spray nozzle rigged up. This was all next to a private home. For $40 we could pitch our tent on a lawn next to a small picnic table. Breakfast was extra. We were clearly paying for the convenient location.

After setting up our tent we walked to the Butchart Gardens and had a couple hours to wander around before they closed for the day.

The sunken garden was the first place we came to and it quite literally took my breath away. I wished I could absorb the beauty of the place without having to share it with dozens of other tourists, all talking and getting in the way with their cameras.

I said to Rob, "I want to just tell everyone to go home." I reminded him of a story about our son Tim, back when he was two-year-old Timmy.

I had taken Timmy to a gymnastics program for toddlers. There was an enormous trampoline where all these little kids were jumping up and down, Timmy included. Did he know that all the random jumping made the trampoline not so bouncy? At one point he yelled, "Everybody off!" And all the other toddlers scurried to the side. Timmy started jumping and had it all to himself.

If only adult life were that easy. I couldn't tell everyone to go home, but we could return around opening time on Saturday morning when tourists are still waking up, drinking their coffee, and planning their day. We went back to the sunken garden first thing and had it mostly to ourselves.

In all, we spent about two hours at the garden on Friday afternoon and another two hours Saturday morning. Following are pictures from both visits.

The sunken garden was built in the exhausted limestone quarry owned by the Butcharts.

On Saturday morning we talked with a middle-aged couple sitting on a bench in the sunken garden. They seemed to know quite a bit about the garden, so I asked, "Do you come here often?"

"Every week."

Then the gentleman told us that he is a musician and performs in a band that plays concerts in the garden. He said that summer is a great time to visit because there are concerts every night and fireworks every Saturday night. I asked about what it is like when decorated for the Christmas holiday and they said that it is really beautiful then, definitely worth coming back for.

These pictures are from the walkway in the sunken garden. In the background is a large rock that was left behind when the quarry closed. It has been covered with plants and a staircase.

Just past the sunken garden was what I thought of as a dancing fountain. It changed every minute or so.

There was an entire garden devoted to dahlias. We talked to a staff member who was putting labels next to the flowers. (Except in the rose garden, nothing is labeled.) She said they were getting ready to dig up the dahlias and they would keep them in a greenhouse through the winter. The only time the garden is really dormant is in January and February, but it stays open with indoor gardens. She said April is the best time to come to see the spring flowers blooming. I told Rob we'll have to come back sometime in December, April, and the summer.

I took a lot of pictures of the dahlias. I didn't know there were so many varieties.

Throughout the garden I was impressed with how many different textures and shades of green could be put together to create so much beauty. Having tried - and failed - to put together a garden myself, I can only imagine the amount of plant knowledge a professional landscape designer needs to have to figure out what plants will grow under certain conditions and what plants will look good together.