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Plants & Ponds
Our Passions
Our CFO
(Chief of Feline Operations)
"The Pond Pixie"
Spreading the magic of beautifying ponds in the Cowichan Valley one pond at a time....
Michael & Lynn ... Our Business, Our Life
We love living in Canada's ultimate garden paradise: Vancouver Island!
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After years of living in Vancouver, we decided to transplant ourselves to Vancouver Island and put our roots down in the beautiful Cowichan Valley where we could fulfill our dream of growing a landscaping services business and share our passion for plants & ponds while cultivating a close connection to nature with our neighbours in and around the Cowichan Valley.
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We really love what we do and dig that we get to help others really love their gardens and ponds on Canada’s most beautiful island.
Our commitment: To work to create beautiful, healthy gardens & ponds throughout the Cowichan Valley.
Our vision: Make Into the Garden Cowichan Valley’s most loved, most trusted, owner-operated and detail-oriented landscape and pond services company.
We create & maintain a close connection to nature through color, texture and form; we strive to help our customers really love their yards/gardens/ponds.
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We are rooted in:
Integrity Honesty Trust
Pride Excellence Teamwork
Collaboration Efficiency Safety
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Hi, I'm Michael!
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My love of plants and trees began early in life and continues to grow every day. As a young boy, I was fascinated by how my mother’s Dahlias grew from a small tuber to a five-foot shrub with beautiful blooms in only a few months. As a teenager in suburban Montreal, I grew my first radishes, carrots, and lettuce and quickly realized how much I loved growing things.
As a young adult, I spent 17 seasons from early spring through mid-fall working in the silviculture industry planting over one million trees. My tree-planting adventures took me across Canada from Quebec to British Columbia and many places in between.
Scrambling slash, searching for the ideal spot for each seedling, and feeling the exhilaration of working in the awe-inspiring Canadian bush, proved to me I needed to find a way to combine my love of plants, being outdoors, and physical exercise.
One day I discovered the bridge from tree planting to my future: landscaping.
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Soon thereafter, I started working between tree planting seasons in the landscape industry. By 2009, I was working full-time as a landscaper on the Lower Mainland.
I worked for several landscape maintenance companies, working my way from gardener to field supervisor while gaining years of hands-on experience with how various perennials, annuals, shrubs, and trees respond to our Pacific Coast climate.
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In 2012, I enrolled in the Landscape Horticulturist Red Seal Certification Program.
I passed my exam and became a Red Seal Endorsed Landscape Horticulturist in 2016. While completing my apprenticeship and after earning my RSE, I worked with one of the largest and most respected companies in the industry based in North Vancouver.
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During this time, my wife Lynn and I lived in Vancouver’s West End for the better part of a decade. Our small apartment & (even smaller) balcony became our garden filled with several dozen perennials, annuals, and even a Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum)!
Our love for plants and gardening inspired us to become members of Vancouver's VanDusen Botanical Garden. In our spare time you would often find us exploring Stanley Park with its 17 miles of trails and 1,000+ acres of beauty.
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Meanwhile on our tiny balcony...our "plant children" needed more room to play and flourish in Canada's best climate. So Lynn & I decided to explore Vancouver Island for the ideal location.
We started our quest in The Cowichan Valley and set our roots (and those of our plant children) down in Ladysmith- a town known for its proximity to the sea, many hills, delicious cinnamon rolls and Festival of Lights every December.
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Over the next year, we discovered just how much Vancouver Islanders really love their "plant children" and gardening. We love being part of an amazing community of plant lovers. We really love Ladysmith, The Cowichan Valley and Vancouver Island!
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Right location. Right season.
When is the best time to start growing something new?
Spring, of course!
I founded Into the Garden Landscaping Services as owner operator in early spring of 2019. Each day I share my passion for plants & gardening while cultivating a connection to nature through my work while sharing my enthusiasm and knowledge with our Cowichan Valley community to help make our gardens more vibrant and beautiful for all to enjoy.
Into the Garden continues to grow with each season thanks to all of our valued clients and partners.
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I really love living and working in the Cowichan Valley with all the wonder and beauty of nature that surrounds & inspires us.
Quite simply: I am Into the Garden!
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Michael, Red Seal Endorsed Landscape Horticulturist
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Really Love Your Yard!
Really Love Your Pond!
Lynn, "The Pond Pixie"
Hi, I'm Lynn!
I have always had an affinity for water, plants and fish.
Goldfish had my attention from a very young age. So much so that "goldfish" was one of the first words I spoke after mom & dad.
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I grew up in Hawaii and California surrounded by the magic of all of the beautiful flora and fauna. Nature captured my imagination early on and cultivated my interest in what germinated into a lifelong passion: the creation of beautiful, colorful and unique gardens inspired by nature.
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California to Canada by way of the tech sector....
Not only am I a bit of a plant geek, I am also a bit of a tech geek. My career in the tech sector brought me to Canada over 10 years ago. Soon after my arrival, I met Michael in Vancouver during his off-season as a tree planter. Since that day we have shared lots of music, travel, gardening, hiking and great times that continue today.
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My inner plant geek found a way to share my passion for flora and fauna with people from all over the world as a guide at Vancouver's Van Dusen Botanical Gardens for several seasons before we set our roots down here in Ladysmith.
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Once a Pixie, always a Pixie.
From the time I was a young girl, I had a pixie haircut and some would say a pixie personality too; a love of all living creatures (earthworms were one of my favorite creatures) a creative & playful spirit. Goldfish came back into my life when we moved to Vancouver Island- waiting for me in the pond of our new home and needing some loving care. As The Pond Pixie of Into the Garden, I have the pleasure of spreading the magic of beautifying ponds one pond at time in the Cowichan Valley.
I am Into the Pond and Into the Garden!
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We Really Love the "Wet Coast" !
Really Love Your Yard!
Really Love Your Pond!
Our Mission
We are passionate about plants and ponds and are immersed in maintaining and creating beautiful, healthy gardens and ponds throughout the Cowichan Valley.
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Our services are provided using up-to-date, sustainable horticultural and pond care principles.
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We create and maintain a close connection to nature through color, texture, and form and strive to help our customers really love their yards, gardens, and ponds.
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Our relationships with clients, employees, and community partners are founded on integrity, excellence, and trust.
Really Love Your Yard!
Really Love Your Pond!
Acknowledgment:
Into the Garden Inc. respectfully acknowledges that we are on the traditional and unceded territory of the Stz’uminus First Nation whose heritage, knowledge, and stewardship of the flora and fauna on this territory we honour, respect, and are truly grateful.
Cowichan takes its name from “Quw’utsun,” the name given to the valley by its original inhabitants, the Quw’utsun people. It is rooted in the Hul’q’umi’num word “shquw’utsun” which directly translated means “to warm one’s back in the sun,” and is why our valley is, and always has been known as The Warm Land."- Tourism Cowichan