I’ve been lax on updates on the progress on Galiano. It’s been a very productive sproing for us, as we’ve tackled many projects (and spent way too much money) getting a lot done around the cottage. I thought I’d use this post to catch up on a bunch of them.

I’m going to organize this post into the various projects that we’ve been working on. Thankfully Justine has been taking lots of photos of the projects, as I haven’t been taking many as we’ve been working.

This is a bug post - you’ve been warned!

Rainwater Collection System

The small tank near the cottage. Once the tanks a filled, we switch the flow to just have it drain out onto the grass. I need to dig a trench to bury that eventually. Another project…

Last summer we had a prolonged period of drought on the island, and with the amount of watering we have been doing, we actually ran the well dry. Irrigating the gardens and orchard takes a lot of water. As the climate changes, we expect that to become more the norm, and so we decided to have a rainwater collections system installed.

The system is made up of two tanks - a “small” 500 gallon tank that collects water off the roof, with a pump installed in it, attached by a very long hose to a much larger 3,000 gallon tank that sits off in the forest behind the garden. As the rain collects from the roof, it drains into the small tank, then is pumped to the large one.

If we manage to fill the large one, we can remove the hose over the summer. We’re hoping we can then use the rain from the large tank for irrigation, reducing the burden on the well. And if it proves successful, we can add more of the big tanks to increase out water storage.

The large tank in the forest, with Justine for scale. It’s a big tank.

Taking Down Trees

Over the winter we had a tree service come in and take down a bunch of trees. We had a number of dead alders near the sheds that were a bit close for comfort. And we had one really big fir tree near where we were planning on installing the water tank that had almost it’s whole root system pulled out of the ground. It looked like it was likely to come down, so we thought we better take it down instead.

You could see that a lot of the root system had been pulled up and out of the ground.

It was a pretty big tree. We ended up with a lot of logs that I need to turn into firewood.

Fencing the Orchard

In previous posts I added some photos of the work in progress on fencing the orchard. We’re really pleased with how it has turned out! We’ve now got a nice. large area that’s protected from the damn deer, and we can use that not just for the trees, but for some other plants as well. More on that later.

Building the gate for the new entrance to the orchard.

While one was good, we really should have installed a second one on the far side - it’s a pain in the ass walking around it all the time…

Putting up the fence.

The finished project!

We’re quite pleased with how it has turned out.

What a Difference a Year Makes

In early March, we had the one year anniversary of the delivery of our cottage to Galiano! The year seemed to go very quickly. It’s been such a huge difference having the cottage, and this year we have spent a lot of time there, really splitting our time between Vancouver and Galiano. It’s been great.

Celebrating our first year with the cottage.

Before and after - one year apart. Justine found two photos from our security camera, taken exactly one year apart (Sept 15th) that really shows the difference .

Putting the Truck to Good Use - Working on the Gardens

We bought our truck because we always seem to need to be hauling things to and/or from the island. We recently discovered that we could buy compost from the Vancouver dump (and really cheaply!), so we thought we’d try it out and see about brining a truck load over to the cottage.

It was a bit scary to have this huge loaded just drop into the back of our brand new truck!

But it went very quickly and easily.

On the way to the ferry, we stopped at a nursery and picked up a couple of small trees/shrubs to plant into the area of broom that we’ve cleared.

Planted the new trees.

Some Random Stuff…

During one of our storms, the top was blown off our wood stove chimney pipe. I really hate roofs…

We recently bought a new couch for home, with the intent of bringing our old sofa bed from Vancouver to Galiano. This will be a much better set-up for people that want to come visit and stay over.

One of our next projects will be building a proper fire pit on part of the area we’ve cleared of broom. We marked out the general area and were trying it out on one of the last trips. You get great views of Mount Baker (when it’s visible…)

During the “atmospheric river” event, we had quite a bit of flooding on the property. Water seems to collecta round our well head, and resulted in our well getting flooded. Which meant we had to “shock” the well with chlorine to make sure it was safe. We really don’t want that happening again, so we had Galiano Excavating come up and put in a culvert that will allow water to drain from the “high” side where the well is to the other side of the driveway. We had put the request in for the project a while back, and on the last trip it was magically all done!

We ended up with a nice new set of gravel over this part of the driveway.

Spring is in the Air

Over the last couple of trips, it’s been great to see the transition from winter to spring. We’ve got bulbs starting to bloom, the fruit trees have lots of buds on them, and we’ve even got the Rufous Hummingbirds back at the feeders! Now we just need it to warm up a bit.

Male Rufous and Anna’s hummingbirds sharing the feeder. It’s not normally this peaceful.

The cherry trees are about to burst into bloom.

Broom Clearing - Recovering the Land

It’s been a lot of work, but we’re making progress.

Over the course of the winter, our focus has been on trying to clear as much broom as possible while we are still able to burn it as we clear. Up until April 1st, we can burn at any time; between April 1st and the end of June we need a permit; and then after that there’s no burning allowed, so it will be time to stop.

It looks much better after clearing and burning.

Each trip, we’ve tried to cut or cut and burn, pushing the “broom line” down the hill as much as possible.

Justine did a “before and after” comparison between the end of our cutting, and after we had burned. We had cut three massive piles of broom, which all were reduced to that one small pile of ash.

As we work our way down the hill, the broom is getting bigger. This is pretty typical, and the biggest ones need power tools to cut.

We had a lot of broom to burn.

The neighbors stop by to help everyone in a while.

Three piles became two; two became one and eventually it was all gone.

While the broom only took a few hours to burn, the coals left behind burned long into the night, and were still warm the next morning.

As we clear the broom, we’re trying to do what we can to replant so that the broom doesn’t come back as easily. We’re seeding with grass and planting as much natural vegetation as we can.

Justine planted some Hellebores, which provide interesting colour and flowers in the winter.

We’ve transplanted Oregon grape from our neighbors property where they are clearing land to build their cottage.

We planted a couple of rhododendrons with the hope that they’ll grow. BUt they need fencing to keep the deer from them.

We also have been transplanting ferns, and hope that they will survive.

Justine’s Flower Garden

On the trip when we brought over the compost, part of what we used it for was was to add some quality soil/nutrients to a new flower garden that Justine wanted to build. We decide to use some of the big rocks and alder logs to create the boundary. We add a bunch of the compost and got it ready to the point of being ready to be planted.

Expanding the Garden

Our garden boxes were a big success last year, and with the addition of the new fences around the orchard, we decided to expand the garden boxes. We had wood left over and decided to build out two 4’ x 16’ boxes to add a lot of growing space. To reduce the amount of new soil we’d need, I decided to only go one foot high. To aid with the growing abilities, I ended up digging up all the ground under the boxes. We’ll see how it all turns out.

The new boxes in the orchard.

It should add a lot more growing space.

I also built out a small garden for some strawberries. Justine built out the nice rock border for it.

The last step will be a load of topsoil to fill the new garden boxes.

THe new orchard and gardens in their finished state.

Cable Bay Conservation Area

Near our place we have access to Pebble Beach, an area of the island preserved through the Galiano Conservancy. Late last year, the Conservancy in partnership with the Nature Trust of BC were in a position to purchase a 65 acre plot of waterfront land adjacent to the current reserve, taking it from development and preserving it into the future. You can see the details here.

We donated a small amount to the program, and discovered earlier this year that they had been successful in raising enough money to get the government grants to cover the cost of the land acquisition.

As a (minor) donor, we got invited to go on a walk on some of the new trails that they are building on the new property and to attend a “thank you” event at the Conservancy. We attended that last Saturday and had a very nice time. The new trails are amazing, and when they are done should actually provide much quicker access to Cable Bay and Pebble Beach from our place.