follow us on face book

well... I'm sorry I've been so absent on here. To be honest, facebook has taken over! If you want to follow us, we're a fan page called East Strathcona Streetgarden Society. This last 6 mos we've incorporated as a society, set up a board and getting real organized. Needs to happen since there's about 10,000 square feet of garden to tend these days and we only WISH we could expand! Anyways, come find us and you'll be kept better in the loop!

Guerrilla Tactics

I was definitely feeling guerrilla-ish today: We had 9 mid-sized boxwoods donated to us on Sunday and since decent-sized plants tend to go missing (notably a Camelia and a Hydrangea in the past 6 mos.) I decided to wire them to the fence! I felt like I was employing some serious warfare tactics, burrying wire cable under the ground. Usually I think of guerrilla gardening as an offensive technique, but today's was definitely defensive.

The garden path

A few months ago we were discussing the dream of having a path through the CN triangle. Someone mentioned they had just biked by a pile of bricks in a Downtown Eastide back alley. We picked up the bricks and within a few hours we had this great path built! Even came with its own moss!It's done wonders for the garden, it gives it boundaries and a focal point and shape... it even looks nice without plants!
I'm hopeful for this next year, we dug up almost everything in this garden last year and replaced the plants with more drought-tolerant plants. The last few years this garden hasn't looked too hot in the summer months as it's under a large tree and the rain doesn't get through. It does looks great in the spring months, however. Already the Crocuses have bloomed and now the Daffodils and Hyacinths are blooming. The Tulips and Spanish Bluebells are well on their way.

Hopefully with the new path and new plants 2009 will be a good year for this garden!

Hellebores

Otherwise known as the Christmas Rose and the Lenten Rose, these are definitely one of my favourite species!! Here are a few photos from early March in Vancouver:There are so many kinds and they are so gorgeous!! They definitely brighten up those dreary spring months in the garden! I believe they originated in Turkey and were not sold in North America until 7 years ago (or was it 13?) Some people had them previously however if they ordered them from the British Horticultural Society.

sunny day crocus

Here are some photos from the Hastings Community Centre about a week ago...

Crocus mania!

There are crocus everywhere and I'm lovin it! Here are some at the CN triangle, cheering up that corner....The brick path is complimenting them nicely!! And you can see the Spanish Bluebells on their way up... they have a major fiesta every May or so.Here are some hyacinths starting to come up, the ones that we got from Q E garden last year:

Spring is here...

And it's time to get back in the garden again! Here are all of the plants still left to put in the ground that didn't make it in last fall!


Lots of work to do! We're starting to plug away at it... I'll tell you more soon!

Some yard picks

I had a pleasant surprise the other day, I realized that some Colchicum was growing underneath the Asters! I thought that the bulbs had rotted away, they didn't bloom last year.Speaking of Asters, I called Brian Minter's show on 600 AM for the fist time on Saturday! Ha ha! I wanted to know how to make Asters a more compact clump. His advice was to cut it right down to the ground July 1st (the same can be done with mums) and it'll still bloom on time, but in a smaller clump! Good tip, I'll try it next summer!I bought these blueberries in June and they were LADEN with berries at the time. They have never stopped bearing blueberries this whole time, and are still at it, 4 1/2 months later! Not sure if I'll be so lucky next year, but we've sure enjoyed it!

And here is one of my favorite flowers, Elizabeth Bellflower. It also has been blooming non-stop since June. The buds start out twisted and then untwist as they open. The flowers are speckled rose and are almost furry on the inside, they're beautiful!