50 Years of Garden History on Haida Gwaii By Benita Sanders

As I began writing this book I thought more and more about the early history of this land before it was developed-how it would have looked before the deer were introduced, as a forest of big trees and on the foreshore crabapples, saskatoons, berry bushes and perhaps kinnikinnick carpeting the rocks.
In 1910, "Windy" Young was the entrepreneur who sold lots on the townsite and named it Queen Charlotte City after his wife Charlotte. He had a hotel where we now live and a newspaper office down the street. When I bought the property there was an old house which had been moved here after the war.
"Windy" Young's son owned the next door property which we eventually purchased.

This is the fifty-year history 1973-2025 of my efforts to create some interesting landscapes and a garden environment on land that consisted of loose rock fill and bedrock. This is a brief moment in the history of this beach front property but I like to think that some of the changes I made will be long lasting. I describe some effective plant groupings with a smattering of helpful advice. I had great pleasure in successfully growing unusual plants and adapting them to look at home in their foreign environment. But my main objective was to make the property an interesting addition to the beach front. I have included some descriptions of some favourite plants, shrubs and trees; perhaps this information may be useful to other gardeners.

Benita Sanders