Tuxedo Park · Calgary · A Garden Twelve Years in the Making

A Living
Masterwork

240 27 Avenue NW  ·  Calgary, AB

Explore the garden below

Where ecology
meets art

This is not a garden you inherit and maintain. It is a garden you step into and are changed by. Over twelve years, a professional ecologist, climbing arborist, and devoted grower has layered knowledge, intention, and daily care into every corner of this Tuxedo Park property — creating something that functions simultaneously as a Japanese-inspired sanctuary, a productive edible landscape, a working ecological system, and a genetic repository of the finest plants suited to Calgary's demanding climate. What you see here is the realized outcome. Fully mature. Completely alive. Ready to be lived in.

Japanese Design Philosophy

Stone lantern among creeping thyme and dry creek bed

Rooted in the Sakuteiki

The design of this garden traces its philosophy to the Sakuteiki — the oldest surviving Japanese text on garden making, written in the eleventh century. Not a manual of formulas, but a teaching in sensitivity: to the movement of water, the character of stone, the way a landscape should feel inevitable rather than imposed.

The stone lantern was hand-placed. The dry creek bed follows the natural lay of the land. Creeping thyme softens every hard edge into something that feels grown rather than constructed. A bamboo water fountain speaks in the quiet language of classical Japanese naturescaping.

These choices were informed by a rare encounter: time spent with one of the original designers of the renowned Portland Japanese Garden, following a visit to Lethbridge's Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden. The conversation opened a door that shaped everything that followed.

Bamboo fountain with blue flowering ground cover

The Art of Inevitability

The bamboo fountain, the stone bridge over the dry creek, the flowering cherry trees framing quiet corners — none of these are decoration. They are part of a design language rooted in centuries of refinement, interpreted through the lens of a Calgary garden and a practitioner who understands that the most powerful landscapes are the ones that appear effortless.

A stamped concrete patio creates a generous entertaining space that ties the composition together without competing with it. The hardscaping recedes so the planting can lead.

Living Ground Layer

A Carpet of Creeping Thyme

Between every pathway and stone, creeping thyme spills in generous mounds of violet bloom each summer — fragrant underfoot, beautiful from above, and entirely self-sustaining. It is one of the signatures of this garden: the kind of detail that separates a designed landscape from a merely planted one.

Alongside the thyme, culinary sage, oregano, and a layered succession of edible herbs form a living ground layer that looks beautiful and provides daily harvests steps from the kitchen door. Many of these plants have been thriving here for over a decade — survivors of rigorous selection by someone who knows what grows exceptionally in this climate.

Sweeping carpet of purple creeping thyme in full bloom
Full garden overview in autumn colour

Ecological Systems

"The most resilient landscapes are those where water, soil biology, plants, and wildlife are working together rather than being managed separately."
— The Garden's Creator

Dry Creek & Infiltration

The dry creek bed is not merely aesthetic — it is a functioning stormwater drainage and infiltration system. Water is captured and returned to the soil rather than lost to runoff. Infiltration basins slow water across the entire property.

Rainwater Capture

A dedicated rainwater harvesting and irrigation system stores what falls from the sky and redistributes it through dry spells, reducing dependence on municipal water and keeping the garden thriving through Calgary's variable summers.

Wicking Beds

Layered perennial wicking beds grow seasonal vegetables and herbs with minimal intervention — drawing moisture upward through the soil rather than pouring it on from above. Practical, productive, and almost self-sufficient.

Pollinator Succession

Plantings bloom in deliberate succession from the first warmth of spring through the last days of autumn. A well-established pussy willow tree offers some of the earliest pollen of the year — a lifeline for emerging pollinators when little else is available.

Willow Wattle Fence

Along the south boundary, a living willow wattle fence marks the property edge with breathing, growing architecture. It sways with the grace of bamboo — a fence that looks better with every passing year.

Kitchen Composting

A composting system at the north end of the property closes the loop between table and soil — feeding back into the ground that feeds the garden. The soil is deep, biologically active, and the product of over a decade of intentional building.

The Edible Landscape

Sour cherry tree laden with ripe red cherries

This Garden Feeds You

Fresh herbs. Ripe berries. Fruit from trees you watched bloom that spring. The daily rhythm of stepping outside, surveying what is ready, and bringing it to the table is not a novelty here — it is the baseline. It is what the garden was designed to do.

Haskaps, saskatoons, gooseberries, sour cherries, and strawberries ripen in succession through the warmer months. Mature grapevines produce reliably. An Arctic kiwi vine offers something genuinely unexpected in a Calgary backyard. Perennial onions return each spring.

Every variety here has earned its place. Over years of hands-on experimentation, dozens of candidates were trialed. What remains is the result of rigorous selection — the best-tasting, most vigorous, most resilient plants for this climate, chosen by someone who refused to settle for what was simply available.

From the Garden

Twelve Seasons of Abundance

Dry creek bed in autumn colour
Heirloom tomatoes from the garden
Orange daylilies and garden abundance
Summer squash harvest from the wicking beds

"A love of intensely spicy peppers and condiments that simply did not exist on the commercial market drove the earliest food-growing experiments. That same impulse — the refusal to settle for what was available — expanded into a broader project of finding and keeping the very best edible plants for this climate."

The Grower's Philosophy

What Grows Here

A Curated Genetic Repository

Every plant on this property has been trialed and selected for exceptional flavour, vigour, and resilience in Calgary's climate. These are the survivors and standouts of over a decade of hands-on experimentation.

Haskap (multiple varieties)
Saskatoon berry
Sour cherry trees
Gooseberry
Strawberry beds
Arctic kiwi vine
Mature grapevines (12 yrs)
Ornamental cherry trees
Flowering cherry trees
Pussy willow tree
Culinary sage (10+ yrs)
Creeping thyme (mass)
Perennial onions
Oregano
Heirloom tomatoes
Specialty peppers
Winter squash
Summer squash
Seasonal vegetables
Native pollinator plants
Japanese pine
Willow wattle (living fence)
Daylilies & perennials
Bugleweed (Ajuga)

A finished landscape.
Ready to be loved.

This is not a project. It is a fully mature, living landscape brought to its peak — and continuing to deepen with every passing season.

Property Address

240 27 Ave NW

Tuxedo Park · Calgary, Alberta