CASCARA

COASTAL · LIONS BAY · 2023

Howe Sound Forest House

A steep, granite-boned site above Howe Sound where the brief was humility: make a garden that ends where the forest begins.

Location
Lions Bay, BC
Size
0.8 acre
Completed
2023
Scope
Slope planting, stone work, fire-smart planting plan
Granite boulders banked down a slope under a conifer, low evergreen planting spilling over the stone above them.

We terraced the slope with granite found on site, planted the margins with salal and shore pine, and let the moss decide the rest. The property line is invisible by design.

Granite slabs laid as steps down a slope, moss growing tight to the edge of every tread.
A moss-covered boulder at the edge of the planting, ferns standing behind it in the grass.
“Guests always ask which parts we built. That's the compliment.” — The owners

Close to the house, planting turns fire-smart: low resinous content, irrigated margins, gravel aprons. Beauty and wildfire pragmatism grown into the same plan.

A pine on the bare rock above the water, its crown flattened by the wind, conifer forest closing in behind.
A conifer slope dropping to the water of the inlet, low cloud caught halfway down the trees.

Planted here

Shore pine · Salal · Kinnikinnick · Deer fern · Red-flowering currant