Real Life Garden Solutions—Garden Design, Garden Coach
- REAL LIFE GARDEN SOLUTIONS — a design service meeting the needs of a wide variety of homes and families, from contemporary new homes to traditional older homes, patio/balcony design (including creating container gardens), as well as garden coaching for those who just want a little assistance. Specialties include wildlife and rain gardens, natural or modern water features, lawn alternatives.
- REAL LIFE GARDEN SOLUTIONS will design a garden that meets your family needs and desires;
REAL LIFE GARDEN SOLUTIONS inspires a love for gardening and promotes the confidence to create spaces that can grow with you over the years;
REAL LIFE GARDEN SOLUTIONS will always suggest the most sustainable design and practices.
- Janet will see your property, hear your thoughts, help you define your wishes, contribute ideas, demonstrate principles, and develop a concept with you.
- As a coach I take you through the process of developing your own garden.
- As designer, I complete a design drawing and provide a planting plan and construction details, then carry it all through to completion. Real Life Garden Solutions specializes in helping homeowners discover their creative potential to landscape their own garden spaces.
- Real Life Garden Solutions will turn your outdoor space into the engaging, productive, energizing garden you’ve been hoping for.
Our values:
- Consultation: The client needs to be in the driver’s seat. Real Life Garden Solutions is there to find out what the clients want of their outdoor space, and provide direction and solutions to achieving that desire. Janet will view the client property, hear their thoughts, help them define their wishes, contribute ideas, demonstrate principles, develop concept designs, then draw the plan and provide planting list, notes, and supply details.
- Sustainability: Although being environmentally friendly is assumed to be the rule in this “green industry”, it isn’t always clear how to implement green strategies, nor is it necessarily easy. Janet will always assist the client to incorporate the most sustainable practices in design and maintenance of their gardens. Ask me about Rain Gardens and Wildlife Gardens.
- Lifelong learning: Clients come to RLGS for the joy of learning, for confidence to try out new things, for access to a new library of knowledge in the area of gardening and design, and to gain resources to continue this learning, freedom and practice as the garden evolves over time.
- Beauty: Our world is a spectacularly beautiful place, one that no man-made design could match. But as creative beings, made in the image of the great Creator, we can learn from the natural world to replicate some of that beauty in our home environments.
Janet is a graduate of University of Guelph’s Creating Landscapes Certificate program. She is an active qualified member of Vancouver Master Gardeners (Master Gardeners Association of British Columbia), participating in local outreach clinics, and is a member of the Garden Design Group of British Columbia.
Find Out More
If you want to know more about Real Life Garden Solutions or schedule a consultation, call 604 435 3008, email tjbutts@telus.net .
Real Life Garden Solutions 
There are so many different directions you can take your love of gardening or of growing plants. Stay tuned here to discover more of what you need and want to learn.
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Hi Janet. Fantastic site. I just read about soil types and was wondering if there is anything I can do to move away from the sandy soil I seem to have after I have already planted most of my vegetables. Last year, the soil was way too hard so I added a finer soil to mix together but now it is too sandy. This I confirmed after watching your clip. I was going to put some bark mulch between the rows to keep the moisture in but what else can I do?
Thanks………….
Connie
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Hi Connie. I wouldn’t use bark mulch (personal experience) because it will mix in with the soil (good thing) but take years to break down (bad thing). I’d recommend getting packaged composted manure–chicken is the best I’m told, but any of the animal manures is OK. Wait until you’ve got seedlings that you can see, then carefully scratch it–a 1-2″ layer–into the surrounding soil.
In between crops you can sow “green manure”– a cover crop of mixed grains and legumes (the nurseries have it) that you only let grow for a couple months (or over winter) and then dig in when it’s a few inches tall. After another month i’ll have composted enough that you can sow in the area again, say with your winter vegetables. That will do a great job of improving the fertility of the soil as well as increasing the organic matter. That’s what I’m doing whenever I have a bed that’s currently empty.
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