Bulb Planting - Fall 2009

We all love instant gratification. But sometimes the things we have to wait for are sweeter. Those first flowers pushing out of the ground after the long grey winter are a prime example. We plant them in the fall and just hope that they will be fine over the months until spring. And amazingly some of them do come up, the really early ones even pushing past the last bit of snow on the ground. Our group was lucky enough to have a beautiful sunny fall day to go out and plant hundreds of bulbs.

We started with the Pearl Street garden. The perennials we had planted a few months earlier were doing great. The honeysuckle was actually still blooming! A tiny bit of graffiti had to be cleaned up, but really much less than we expected. One of our group had dug up some periwinkle and various perennials from her yard. We used the periwinkle in the wall across from the garden and planted tons of bulbs in both spots.Our next planting location was Aberdeen and Longwood. I shake my head whenever I see this little confused area of the city. The plots of land that seem to serve no purpose, the buildings that may or may not have businesses in them. Elaborate crosswalks at the intersection, but no sidewalks on the one side. A bus stop for who exactly? All of this graced by the railway yard.

What happens when the bike lane ends?

Apparently we were not the first people to feel a need to improve this area. We found the work of someone else who had decided to try Guerrilla gardening. They had a little fence make out of sticks and a variety of plants still in bloom. We extended the fence, added some of the perennials we had brought and planted bulbs for spring.

More bulbs were planted across the street, along with a young forsythia bush. I think it had one branch so it will take awhile to be that breath taking yellow shrub we see in first thing in the spring. We even planted some bulbs in the grass of the street island, for who ever may be walking along this stretch.

220 Dundurn. Anyone who lives in Kirkendall knows this building, maybe not the address but they know this ugly empty eyesore that I'm pretty sure is the reason I wanted to start improving the neighbourhood regardless of permission.Hundreds of bulbs went into this property. Let's hope it can distract from the rest of the building a tiny bit. Look closely in the garden, those white things in it are all tulip bulbs. It's funny how you can be doing something that I suppose would be considering illegal(trespassing) in broad daylight with tons of people around and no one will say anything. Just an example of the difference between legal and moral. If you're doing a good thing chances are you will be left alone.

We made two curved beds at the front where the sidewalk met the pathway and put some other bulbs on the other side of the door. Naturalizing bulbs were planted in the grass as well.All of this took less than 2 hours and was a great way to spend an autumn day. We improved where we lived, went on a walk, got some exercise, met some great new people - the bulbs in the spring are just an extra bonus I think.

A week or so after hundreds more bulbs were donated by a local garden centre. There were all planted by the bus stop over on Queen Street. They should be an impressive display. I personally can't wait for spring!