Danée Marie Lambourne, founder of Eden Projects Ltd.
VICTORIA – For two decades, Eden Projects Ltd. has been transforming outdoor spaces across Vancouver Island with expert, full-service landscape design services. Known for assembling some of the Island’s top tradespeople, the build teams follow a process-driven, budget-conscious approach to create elegant and functional outdoor environments for every valued client.
At the heart of their design process is a focus on clear deliverables and a deep understanding of each client’s goals and vision. Eden Projects specializes in turning outdoor spaces into meaningful, lasting experiences that inspire and embolden.
“These days, our focus is helping people understand that Eden’s real agency rests in being a construction firm that builds from design up,” says company founder, Danée Marie Lambourne. “When it comes to properties on the Island, we see Indigenous Heritage Conservation tickets, geotechnical considerations, complex topography and environmental sensitivities. We want the community to know we have accumulated the knowledge, experience, confidence and trade relations to execute on any obstacle or opportunity in front of us.”
For those that know her, Lambourne is an incredibly passionate outdoor enthusiast who boasts numerous titles including founder, creative director, Certified Horticultural Technician and Therapeutic Horticulturist. A quick conversation with her clearly depicts just how enthusiastic and engrossed she is by her work, and how deeply she cares about the artistry and functionality of outdoor living spaces.
Eden’s custom approach blends lifestyle aspirations with the scale and gifts of each landscape, creating outdoor spaces that feel like home, and Lambourne truly guides each project with an intuitive touch.
Eden Projects team combines construction and design to produce stunning outdoor spaces
“Through our renovation work, I’ve learned to value our network and lean into local trades and innovative engineers in the industry as well as our suppliers and craftsman, to develop innovative ideas to turn obstacles into opportunities,” says Lambourne.
“When Eden was in its infancy, design was a means to the end. While I studied design, I started quite literally from the Ground up, not at the desk. We are a design-to-build firm. This model shifted when we recognized the value of the blueprint and the integrity of good design, so we opened our Studio division.”
“Then when COVID hit, there was an equalization amongst the community, we’d always promoted the maximization of outdoor living spaces that fluidly transfer from house to outdoors. The pandemic aligned everyone with this train of thought, because they can no longer travel. People recognized the value of investing in their own properties as spending money at home was essentially their only option.”
It was during this transition that Lambourne was able to grow the business and develop a team and a collaborative of trades to meet the demand. The team was taking on more ambitious designs that were a more complex construction commitment while also bidding out more builds throughout the year.
The time during COVID also challenged the business to step up and learn how to navigate difficult scenarios with more business savvy. When faced with labour shortages, shipping delays and price inflations, Lambourne and her team learned to pivot when they came against a challenge.
She also mentions gaining further knowledge on complex geotechnical concepts that, at the beginning of her career, she would have leaned on others to organize. These days, the team are better versed in landscape labours such as ocean front cliffs, tree protection zones, climate and environmental protected zones, Heritage sites and much more.
These experiences combined have helped Eden evolve into a premier agency on the Island that is ready to take on nearly any project.
“On top of running Eden, I’m a mother and a wife; I raised my kids and step kids over the last 20 years as I built the company. I work hard to balance my business responsibilities with the role I play in my family – but I love the art of project execution, I absolutely love it,” says Lambourne. “I love working with clients and trades, I’m much more comfortable on the construction site, with my boots on the ground, than I am anywhere else.”
