It All Began in a Garden

An Early Start

Landscape Designer, Charles André is a man of many talents.

His love for landscaping began as a young boy by working in the family garden and cutting lawns. By his mid teens Charles was working for Michael Gye one of the most respected arborists on Vancouver Island, learning to prune, top and fall trees with Jeremy Gye. A significant turning point in his landscape career was when he had the opportunity to work with Gerhard Rehm. Gerhard was a prestigious German landscape designer based in Victoria whose creativity, originality and artistic style always exceeded the expectations of his clients.

Landscape Design

Charles continued landscaping while completing the theatre program at the University of Victoria. He studied acting and movement eventually relocated to Vancouver to work in film. As an accomplished stunt performer, stunt coordinator and actor, film work became full time and eventually Charles bought property on Mayne Island. The lot was completely undeveloped providing a blank canvas for Charles to clear the land, mill the lumber, build a home, several outbuildings and of course, design and landscape all the gardens and features on the property. This provided invaluable experience with a bobcat loader and mini excavators to an expert level requiring both an artistic eye and precision skill with the equipment.

The Cob House

While on Mayne Island, he hosted a workshop to build his own cob house which is an earthen building constructed using only sand, clay and straw. He produced a short documentary about the process. The Cob House Documentary can be viewed on the Projects page of his Fast Trax Film Corporation website.

It All Began in a Garden landscape design began on Mayne Island where Charles completed many landscape projects as well as patios, decks, garden boxes and structures, sheds, fencing, gates and specialty projects like the cob house and custom pizza oven. Now based in Duncan It All Began in a Garden continues to provide garden design and landscape services on Vancouver Island.

Interested in beautifying your garden? Contact Charles for a consultation.