For 17 years, Judith Bayliss has been nurturing her edible garden.
She transformed the blank slate to a showpiece in her neighbourhood and a quiet sanctuary from the bustling city life of Charlottetown, P.E.I.
"When I moved in here, it was a new home with just grass seed, so I got a professional landscaper to plot out the flower beds before I set to work. I am originally from England, so I have been planting ever since I was a kid," said Bayliss, while dragging a fork through a raised vegetable bed and rotating the mixed soil.
Bayliss designed her garden to maximize the small space, with a welcoming front entrance, a well-maintained lawn, footpaths, and driveway, with lots of low-maintenance plants at the front.
A terra-cotta pot filled with purple fountain grass and its draping feather flowers towers over silver-blue shades and relatively short mounds of ornamental grass. Herbs hug shade-loving Hostas and ferns. Simultaneously, perennial flowers, including daylilies, poppies, marigolds, cornflowers, and Iris, add colour by evergreen plants.
Traci Gaudet, of Century 21 Real Estate, acknowledged high curb appeal – where the improvements start from the street line – adds value to a home.
"A beautifully landscaped home has a significant advantage over a home with no landscaping. It can increase your property value by anywhere from seven to ten per cent, depending on how much landscaping and the home's original value," she said.
"Basically, for a home that is $200,000, that can increase the value from $14,000 to $20,000, so landscaping is especially important. And curb appeal affects the potential purchaser's first opinion of the property."
All-season landscaping
Bayliss has created an eye-catching tapestry of texture and colour with displays of continuity for every season while serving a function. The fruits of her labour, vegetables, herbs, and beverages made from grapes are never wasted but shared with family and friends.
"In the spring, I grow bulbs. And I have carrots and beets still growing in the raised beds," said Bayliss, while motioning to the side of her driveway where a variety of wildflowers are planted for pollination as well as feeding the birds, bees, and butterflies.
"I do a mix of plants because I like the 'cottage style.' I have wild violets, phlox, which produces pink flowers in the summer and develops as ground coverage, and I mix them all with a variety of herbs (basil, coriander, parsley, and sage).
"In the back, I grow mainly vegetables and fruit."
Trees line the driveway protecting the bulbs from the summer heat, and in the back yard, there is an irrigation system (adding water and nutrients) to all plants.
A canopy of sunflowers overlooks fragrant smells of mint, strawberries, peppers, chard, Roma tomatoes and smaller varieties. In contrast, a towering (Crimean Concord) grapevine adds ornamental value to a raised deck and produces grapes late into the fall.
"I had 30 pounds of grapes off one vine this summer," said Bayliss, while adding her daughter, Hannah Bell, built the sheds for storage, including all the raised garden beds.
"My daughter and I think identically about gardening. She does all the building and is very handy."
A variety of trees fencing the back yard are useful for blocking out unpleasant views and lowering noise levels while adding colour to the seasons and reducing crime.
"This garden was just a field, but I wanted my privacy, and now the trees deaden all sound, as well as the surrounding buildings."
When it comes to gardening, Bayliss can not think of a more satisfying hobby and stress-reliever.
"It's important that my daughter and I know how and where our food is grown. When we can not produce the food ourselves, we get it from a local couple with a smallholding of their own. I believe COVID-19 has opened more peoples' eyes into supporting local and being self-sufficient."
Bayliss is still harvesting zucchini, carrots, beets from the summer, and preparing for next year's yield.