Day 64 Flying Saucers...

The Flying Saucer Squash is finally growing...it is soooo cute!

...also the pumpkins are getting bigger and bigger every minute! Oh and the plums in the back yard are almost ready...there are hundreds of them...so keep your eye out for baskets of them in the garden to take. Also I have decided to pot up some of the volunteer perennials that have come up - so if you would like some perennial herbs or flowers come by next week - I will just leave them down by the garden.


















The Boulevarden was busy yesterday, with people stopping by to tour through....or slowing down and checking it out from their cars...my brother (visiting from Edmonton) called it the Boulevarden parade. Tim and Sandra stopped by for a quick visit last night, it was nice to see them. Sandra is the woman who phoned the Herald to tell them about the garden.

Day 62 A Gifts on the Doorstep...CBC...and...Let's Get Planning!

I received a phone call from Nadia Campbell...I missed her when she stopped by this morning. She had dropped of some apples and a jar of 'crunchy' apple sauce (as pictured above). She has a crab apple tree and has been making apple pies, apple sauce and what she calls crunchy apple sauce (Which is pictured in the jar above and below...to make it 'crunchy' she leaves the apples a bit less cooked therefore they have more crunch...wonderful).

She said she like the Boulevarden and wanted to share some of her yard bounty with us...so lovely.




















I just talked to Lisa, the producer of CBC's Wildrose Forum (1010 am or 100.1 fm), and I will be on speaking about the Boulevarden on Monday, August 13 at 12:45. Holly is the host...and they told me they are going to 'sex up the overtness of guerrilla gardening...build it up'...so be prepared. They are really interested in this project and guerrilla gardening in general. http://www.cbc.ca/wildroseforum/index.html

Many of you have emailed expressing your interest in future guerrilla gardening projects...if you would like to be involved send me your email address and we will set a meeting in September or October (as one of the first projects suggested was a bulb 'outing'...)

The below article was in the Torontoist, June 2006...pretty funny...but take notes...it's a good idea...

Don't Just Sit There, Green Something.

Alright you crazy kids, who went and beautified the useless bench? Guerilla Gardeners? Xoro and friends? C'mon, fess up. Do you think Toronto's street furniture is here for our enjoyment? Have you no concern for the investment of advertising dollars? Do you think we can all afford to just stop and smell the roses? Don't you know that if you make the corner a pleasant focal point, people might loiter there? We can't have people lingering with their coffees and their dogs or *sneeze* sleeping under the stars. That's enough. Move along.

Day 59 Alternative Routes: A Cross Country Exploration of Community

I found this blog today...and it really interested me, and thought it might you as well. The women pictured above, Shayna and Dominique, have set out on a cross-country tour of Canada looking for community.

Below I cut and pasted part of the blurb describing their trip, but to learn more and follow along on their exploration trip go to: http://briarpatchmagazine.com/news/?p=467

"What’s the plan?

Bartering our skills and labour for accommodation, food, and transportation, we will make our way from coast to coast, community by community, starting in Halifax, Nova Scotia. On the way, we will record our experience—in photographs, audio, and print—in order to share with others the stories of the people we meet along the way. In addition to learning what we can from the eccentric communities and people along the way, we’ll also be thinking a great deal about the journey itself, and how the social connections we make along the way influence what we see and the route we take. We’ll be blogging about our experiences at www.briarpatchmagazine.com—and we hope you’ll follow along!

Defining community

In preparing for this journey, we draw inspiration from social scientist John McKnight, a leading thinker on issues of community. McKnight says that community is an idea; it exists only in the mind. Thus, there are as many different definitions of community as there are people on this earth. One of our goals through this journey is to locate some of those definitions and hold them up to the light. How do people across Canada define community, and why is it important to them? What larger (global or national) forces encourage or inhibit the formation of communities?

We’re also interested in learning how the people and communities we meet are addressing global issues such as climate change and sustainability. And, more ideologically, where does the idea of community fit within our current world order? Can community be a place of effective resistance to the forces of capitalism and imperialism in which we all, unwittingly, play a part?

Our focus is intentional communities, which we are defining, for now, as any group of people coming together with community as their central uniting purpose. We’ll be looking for groups of people who not only make a conscious effort to develop and maintain a personal connection with their neighbours, but for whom this interpersonal connection is a source of strength and renewal for everyone involved. This may include housing co-operatives, eco-villages, First Nations communities, religious communities, nudist or naturalist communities, and wherever else our social connections and chance encounters take us. Our definition is deliberately broad, and will surely be modified and strengthened based on our interactions with people along the road.

Generation alienation

We are members of a generation that is overwhelmingly connected through online networks, but severely lacking in face-to-face personal interactions. We express our emotions in abbreviations like OMFG and LOL, or by clicking the appropriate smiley or frowny face from a list. But even beyond the impact of the Internet, our society in general has become incredibly segmented and compartmentalized.

Canadians, especially young Canadians, are beginning to feel disillusioned by this system, and are seeking alternatives. Michael Valpy, a writer for the Globe and Mail, describes our generation as one that, “because of political illiteracy or political alienation, or both, increasingly finds the traditional institutions of Canadian democracy irrelevant to their concerns and their daily lives” (“A Generation Redefines Civic Society,” June 20, 2003). A quote from a passionate young woman in the same article epitomizes what we have been hearing from many people our age who feel alienated by the institutionalization of society:

“If you don’t have a community, you can’t survive. So as a matter of survival, you have to care for other people. I think that’s where my passion comes from. Because if I don’t change things, my life is going to look too much like my mother’s life. . . . I want to feel inspired all the time, I want to feel creative all the time. I want to feel open and honest. I want to feel caring and cared for. I want to feel challenged. I want to feel I have the strength to take risks. . . . I guess I don’t ever want to feel numb. I think a lot of people are walking around dead.”

Much of what this young woman seeks—to feel creative and significant—can be found in a healthy community, where each member’s respective strengths are recognized and used.
Focusing on the decay of community, however, only feeds it; instead, we want to highlight alternatives, to illuminate the rich variety of alternate possibilities. Our goal with this project is to connect with people who are making efforts to be more than individuals in a system.

We hope you will travel and learn with us. In true Internet-age fashion, we will be sharing our experiences through a blog, which you can access through www.briarpatchmagazine.com. We’d also love to hear from anyone who lives in, or has contacts in, a community we should visit along the way.

Read Shayna and Dominique’s first post from the road, or browse all postings"

To read about Urban Guerrilla Art see http://briarpatchmagazine.com/news/?page_id=3

Day 58 Wonderful Busy Day, Great Neighbors

An article regarding the Boulevarden ran in the Herald today. The article is at the bottom of this post if you are interested in reading it. The coolest part of the article is that many who had read about the Boulevarden came by to see it...and take home some veggies/herbs. It was exciting as it was a steady stream of visitors who shared stories, recipes, gardening tips and encouragement.

Our neighbor Marlene told us last night that while she was over tying up the tomatoes in the Boulevarden (I KNOW!...is that not soooo nice?! she just saw they needed tying up and so came and did it, nice) a mother and her three girls stopped by, walked through the garden, sat on the bench, and she so chatted with them about the garden. I think that is so wonderful. I think I may have mentioned that we have great neighbors!

Yesterday I put out a basket with some veggies and herbs with a sign encouraging people to help themselves. This seemed to encourage neighbors who had walked by many times with a friendly hello, but not stopped by to, well...stop by. I met Jolene and James, a young couple who walk by the garden at least once a day, we have said hi many times, but had not introduced ourselves or chatted...yesterday they stopped to read the sign in the basket. They then asked me what the difference was between the yellow and green Zucchini...I said with an apologetic smile and a shrug, "hmmm....ummm...uh...the colour?...you know I don't know...I don't think I have noticed a different taste...let me know if you notice any differences". Soooooo....I am wondering has anyone else noticed the difference between the zukes? I was thinking after they left that maybe the yellow ones are more tender...? Anyway Jolene, James and I then discussed the herbs...they have never cooked with them, so we picked some, smelt them, talked about different things we have had the herbs in (like sage with chicken, oregano in spaghetti). They were a wonderful young couple and live just down the avenue from us.

We met Stephanie, the director of the Old Man River Watershed Council, she stopped by on her bike. We had a nice chat, she lives just down the avenue and took home a Yellow Tomato and Zuke.

Barb also stopped by, she lives on the westside but had learned about the Boulevarden in the paper, and so drove over to have a look. She is in the Red Hat Society and had just come from a meeting so she still had her red hat 'stuff' on. She gave us advice regarding squash...she said that you can trellis up squash...I would never have thought of that...but it would be totally cool and would take up less horizontal space. She also took home some tomatoes, Zucchini and Basil.

Sandra and Shorty stopped by, every night they ride their bicycles around the neighborhood, they usually turn up North on 14th street...but one day last week they missed their turn and ended up on our block and saw the Boulevarden...today when we were out they stopped by to chat with us.

Most of the comments and conversations have been very positive. A few interesting comments that came up during different conversations are:

Do we have permission from the city? This is a common question - we explain that the 'guerrilla' part of the project is just doing it, with out asking - taking 'unused' city property and turning it into a community garden. Although I admit when we came home last night, there was a bunch of spray paint on the grass next door as well as on the sidewalk right in front of the garden...and we did get a little paranoid that maybe the city was going to 'dig it up'...but it was just because our neighbors, Marlene and Richard, are having their boulevard lawn removed by the city for FREE! The city will remove their grass as it has silted in over the years. Marlene and Richard are replacing the old lawn with a bunch of garden as well as new sod...soooo if you want to do a Boulevarden...annnnd you want the city to take the sod off fer free, giv'em a call - maybe your boulevard will qualify!

The other thing that seems to surprise many people is that no one has vandalized the garden (I kept knocking on my head every time someone said that). I am not sure why...although we have never had anything else vandalized at our house/yard. Also I don't know if it makes a difference...but when ever young people walk by we exchange hellos and smiles....and I have told them help themselves to a tomato next time they walk by...I have met some cool kids - we get quite a few kids who come by the Boulevarden as 7 Ave is pretty busy - leads down to Henderson Lake.

People also wondered how we stop people from just coming and taking all of the garden bounty...we don't and they haven't...

Anyway a wonderful day in the garden...it will be a tough one to top...

Local News
Guerrilla gardeners attack city boulevard
By CAROLINE BOSCHMAN
Aug 8, 2007, 23:01

Loralee and Paul Edwards sure gave their neighbours something to talk about this summer.
They decided to do some guerrilla gardening, a term used to describe gardening on someone else’s land without permission.

Guerrilla gardening has been around for a while and the concept seems to be catching on in cities around the world, as a quick Internet search will reveal. Typically, activists take over a piece of land they believe is abandoned, underused or neglected and plant vegetables or flowers or both. Some work under cover of darkness while others more openly engage their community in the process.

The Edwards chose the city-owned boulevard, the strip of grass between the sidewalk and roadway, in front of their home on 7 Avenue South. They had the grass dug out, a truckload of loam brought in and, after plenty of elbow grease, a garden with tomatoes, herbs, zucchini, squashes and sunflowers has arisen out of the dirt. Their cats, Fury and Harley, dive into the catmint. They’ve added a couple of trellises, a deck chair and lettering on rocks serves to identify plants in the garden. People are welcome to help themselves to the bounty.
“The idea was to share it with the community,” Loralee said. “We encourage people to come in and take a tomato. I think it turned out to be even bigger than we thought.”
The idea was born out of a chat she had with three friends about guerrilla gardening.
“I just loved the idea,” she said. “We had moved the deck to the front and noticed how much more we interacted with our neighbours.”

They took things even farther out front with the boulevarden, a name coined by a friend. Although the Edwards supplied most of the plants, neighbours also contributed. A summer solstice party brought more neighbours around for a chat. When the lavender was ready, Loralee made fresh lavender lemonade and offered it free to people walking by.
“It just tasted wonderful but no one would try it,” she laughed.

The Edwards said they have used no chemicals in the garden and, despite the costs involved in time and dollars, they have no regrets.
“It was not a significant cost. I’d have paid twice as much to get rid of the grass,” Paul said. “We both really like it. It’s a hobby, more than a hobby, maybe a passion.”
“It never ever feels like a chore,” Loralee said.
Whether the city approves or not, the Edwards don’t know.
“We didn’t ask. That’s the guerrilla part of it,” she said. “I did research it. There are other cities that encourage boulevard planting and I followed their rules. I tried to be as respectful as I could.”

The Edwards are pleased to report people have also been respectful of the garden, no one has trod on any plants and the garden objects haven’t been touched.
As an artist, Loralee said she considers the garden her summer art project — an activist art installation piece. She’s kept track of progress in the boulevarden in a blog — http://lethbridgegg.blogspot.com.
Loralee hopes spaces like the boulevarden will be included in the city’s greenmap. The Lethbridge Greenmap is a new project to create a green guide for the city. Greenmaps include sites like gardens, pedestrian zones, parks, eco-tourist destinations, wildlife habitats, bike lanes, infrastructure and toxic hotspots.
© Copyright by LethbridgeHerald.com

Also, we will be on CBC's Wild Rose Noon hour show on Monday...cool, eh?

Day 57 Heart Shaped Tomato Pasta

Annie just sent me the above picture (you can tell she is an artist) and below recipe...it sounds yummy.

Thanks Annie!

Hi Loralee,
I have a recipe for ur blog...

Pasta with heart shaped tomato (and seafood)
(serves 2 or 3 with leftovers- to feed more, multiply accordingly)

4-8 cloves of garlic (to taste!)
About 4-8 Tbsp yummy olive oil (c'mon)
Chili powder or chili "snaps", as you like it
Salt
1/4 onion (red), finely sliced
1/2 red or yellow bell pepper, finely chopped (optional)
1- 1 1/2 cups thawed frozen shrimps and/or scallops (we like a combo) or sub*
1 chopped heart-shaped tomato (or other tomato)~~
1/2 cup finely chopped herbs- parsley/basil/chives/oregano/ or whatever!!!
Pasta
(Freshly ground) black pepper

Put on water to boil pasta

Finely chop garlic, place in skillet or sauté pan with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and as much chili powder as YOU like. Sauté gently on low heat til garlic is goldish.

Chop onion, bell pepper. Add to golden garlic and continue to gently sauté.

Chop tomato and herbs.

Add thawed seafood* and tomato to garlic pan... Reduce heat and cover.

Cook pasta. We like whole wheat spaghetti, but you can decide!

As pasta cooks, watch sauce and turn off and cover when seafood is lightly cooked.

When pasta is down, drain in colander, turn into pan with sauce, add herbs, lots of black pepper, and toss gently and thoroughly. Serve with Parmesan (freshly grated or otherwise, and pepper as desired).
Extra fun- lift pasta and sauce bits out with two wooden spoons and swirl it on plate, pour a bit of sauce over and

* we like frozen tiny shrimps and tiny scallops, thawed under water, but you could use chopped lightly thawed white fish like cod or tilapia for another seafood option, or, no fish at all!! Or, about a cup/can of cooked, drained chickpeas or lima beans, for another protein option....

Heart-shaped tomatoes and basil are currently growing in the Boulevarden!

Day 56 Strawberries and Basil

At Annie's suggestion I tried a new flavor combination on my tongue last night. A fresh Strawberry wrapped with a Basil leaf. It is a wonderful combination of flavours that fills your mouth.

You really should try it...and we have both in the garden right now.










I am so surprised that today is only the 56 day of the garden. To think that less than two months ago this space was lawn blows my mind. The space itself has transformed as well as the many of us involved in it. Below are pictures from Day 1, 2 and 3 and then today...day 56.

Day 55 Garden of Love

Today we had a lovely visit from Dana, Annie and Myles. They brought us apples from their tree and flowers from their garden, and I was able to snuggle Myles, sigh.

We were able to give them a Tomato...which was shaped like a heart...how appropriate (we only had one ripe right now, we have been giving quite a few away, which is great) and some Basil.


















We also had a visit from a family who were biking by...they had biked by when we were first planting the garden, so they were surprised at the garden's growth. He reminded me that when they first came by the Boulevarden they had asked us how we would ensure that no one stole the garden bounty, and that I had explained to them that sharing the garden was it's purpose...that this was a community garden. He seemed amused by that...

He (I keep saying 'he' and 'they' because...I feel so bad...I did not get their names...ug) said he had some organic dust for the cabbages that you 'put on just before eating them'. I confessed that I had never planted cabbage before...and did not know what the 'dust' was...he said he would bring it by and let me know about it.

They took some Basil and a yellow Tomato and started to ride away...as he rode away he asked what we thought he could bring from his garden, what we might need...I was not sure, he said he would think about it.

What a great day.