Improve the environment in my city

I have always loved biking, since I was a kid and it meant freedom, to explore my neighbourhood, to find new hiding places, to try and see if I could make that jump off the curb, usually with a resulting skinned knee. As I got older I graduated to faster and more expensive bikes, road bikes, mountain bikes.

As promised, we did this today and it took two of us just over an hour to finish the job.

You see pictures taken as they grow here or here.

We made the seed balls! Now it is time to plant them....

Announcing a new event for The Vancouver Guerilla Gardening Meetup Group!

What: April Fool's Day seed ball planting - 7th & Hemlock
When: Sunday, April 1, 11:00 AM
Event fee: CAD1.00 per person
Where: Click this link to find out more!

Event Description: Sunday, April 1, 2007 - 11:00AM - Noon

Sharing Backyards in Greater Vancouver

City Farmer has made this map/list of those who are both looking for space to garden, and those offering garden space. If you don’t see a suitable partner, add yourself to the list and wait for a call. Keep checking back to see if a match turns up.  Well done!

"Seed Balls are one half inch diameter models of the living world. They can contain all the seeds for a complete habitat, for a wild or domestic garden. In a holographic way, each ball can contain the whole plant potential of the entire ecosystem. They require a fraction of the cost of planting or drilling and are hundreds of times faster. They can be made by anyone anywhere in the world where there is clay, soil, seed and water. Seed balls work on all scales, small to large, and can be air dropped over broad areas! Hundreds of kinds of mixed seeds, soil humus and dry powdered red brown clay, form the solid components of seed balls. When mixed with water and rolled into balls, they become little Adobe Gardens."

Update: Blog entry about this event here

The first get together of a new guerrilla gardening group. Come discuss strategies for attack and brainstorm ideas. Bring with you ideas to share such as: your motivations for getting involved, creative ways to provoke interest, nurseries which sell cheap native seeds, locations to target, plant lists for exposed and sunny sites with poor soils…and anything else you can imagine that relates to the cause. The meeting takes place at 1:00pm. For further info email orenATearthtonedDOTnet. To sign up for the event, or to learn more about the group, visit: http://commgardens.meetup.com/56/?gj=sj5. A small meeting fee of $1 per person covers the first month of this meetup’s online posting. An additional cost of $5 will go towards having the event catered with healthy snacks.

This has been developing on Craigslist for about a week and has also been covered on CTV News.

I never knew that wrapping paper isn't recycleable. I assumed you put it in with the rest of your mixed paper and away it goes.

Tessa at Condofire.com found this out the other day and she found some suggestions on alternatives to using traditional wrapping paper. Among these the most obvious is to use other types of paper, like newspaper, or use reusable fabrics instead of paper. I think these ideas are great, does anyone else have any others?

Parks crews are harvesting a great deal of wood from Stanley Park, from the trees that have been blown down in the last wind storm. They are going to be selling this wood to fund the replacement of the trees. Vancouver blogger Darren Barefoot has a better idea though; he suggests selling it to local artisans.

Here’s my alternative idea: give the wood (or some of it, at least) to local artists and artisans. They make sculpture, furniture, knick knacks and so forth, sell their wares and share the profits with the park. There are two attractive points for the buyer: they know they’re supporting the rehabilitation of the park, and there’d be a certain cachet in owning something made out of Stanley Park wood. There’s only a limited amount of it, after all. I probably wouldn’t just donate to this cause, but I’d probably buy a cool picture frame on its behalf.

Stanley Park was ravaged in the wind storm that we experienced last week; the park lost more than 1000 trees, some of them hundreds of years old.

Local radio station CKNW has launched a campaign to rebuild Stanley Park. Donations of $50 or more are tax deducible. You can replace an entire tree for $2000.

More Information

Cooperative Auto Network / Solar Power Roadshow - December 9th

Help celebrate Cooperative Auto Network's newest branch location at Oarkridge Centre, on December 9, 2006 from 1pm-4pm, at the mall's auditorium. The public is invited to this free event. Please drop in to inquire about the advantages of car sharing, at the C.A.N. booth. Everyone is welcome.

A commuter who states on his blog that he is "willing to bike/public transit from Toronto to Oshawa (130km round trip- 45km by bike and 85 by Go Train) to get to work, in order to save afew polar bears". Has prepared a petition which he will present to the House of Commons to promote cycling as a solution to Canada's climate-change problems.

More information is on my blog HERE.

And while I post about greening our city, the city is busy cutting down the beautiful big trees on along Granville Street. These trees have to be at least 30 - 50 years old and they have done a wonderful job greening the city, but now they are being chopped down and chopped up.

Yes I know it is for the RAV line, blah blah. And I support the RAV line because I support improvements to public transport. But nonetheless I still think it is sad.

The Vancouver Public Space Network, an organization whose mandate it is to "preserve and celebrate public space as an essential part of a vibrant, inclusive city" is advocating a program of guerrilla greening. 

I lived for a few years in Ottawa and I remember how much of a success Sparks Street is in that city. For those who don't know Sparks Street it is a pedestrian only street about two blocks from the Parliament Buildings and running for about 10 blocks. In the summer it is packed with people and a very enjoyable place to hang out. I think we should have more streets like this in downtown Vancouver. I don't think that businesses on these streets would suffer, it's a pain to drive downtown anyway, so why not just leave your car at home?