Meet Ian and Shawn, the two people behind Eco de l’Ouest.
We started by changing our own yard in Dorval, one bed at a time. Here is who we are and why we now do it for our neighbours.
Eco de l’Ouest is the two of us: Ian Capstick and Shawn Dearn. We live in Dorval, under the flight path to the airport, and we run Secret Agents, a Montreal creative studio and social enterprise. Eco de l’Ouest is a project of the studio, and it grew out of our own yard.
It started with the beds we inherited.
In 2021 we took over the ornamental borders at the front of the house. Most of the plants were not native. In 2022 we planted a mini-forest at the back. Since then we have added two rain gardens, a hügelkultur bed under the maple and a lowland eco-mix lawn, and replaced about half of the back lawn.
In October 2025 we covered most of the front lawn with wood chips, and in May 2026 we planted 380 plants of 41 native species through them. This past summer was that garden’s first. We call the whole property the Flight Path Garden, and it is now our demonstration garden: the place where we test what works before we suggest it to anyone else.
Who does what.
Ian is the horticulturist. He designs the gardens, plans the planting and does the build. Shawn runs plants, planning and operations: ordering, scheduling, and making sure the right plant arrives at the right yard on the right day.
Why we started taking on other yards.
Neighbours kept stopping on the sidewalk to ask what we had planted and how. In 2025 CTV News Montreal came to film the lawn. People wanted the result but did not know where to start, or did not have the weekends to spare.
So we built three ways in. You can learn at a workshop in our garden. You can plant it yourself with us coaching you through a season. Or you can hand us the whole job, from a low-mow lawn to a full garden. We work in English and French across the West Island, and we take six garden conversions a season so each one gets our attention.
The easiest way to meet us is a free garden tour, one Saturday morning a month from May to November.
