Long-time volunteers with LEAF, Al tends to the garden on Tuesdays to water and pick up garbage while Helen tends to the garden during the weekend. Al and Helen were two of the original volunteer stewards of the St. Clair garden. They helped plant the garden in 2010 on what Helen described as the hottest day of the year.
The garden is located at the Pleasant Boulevard subway entrance, which was transformed into a major bus transfer intersection earlier this year where literally hundreds of commuters queue up. In order to accommodate more pedestrian traffic, the TTC bit into the front edge of the garden with a temporary bus shelter.
But the LEAF gardens are built and cared for to withstand urban stresses, and in the case of St. Clair, not only did the garden survive, it blossomed.
The taller shrubs grew to such a height that there was plenty of room at the lower levels of the garden for a variety of new plants. This year the volunteer garden stewards planted yarrow (Achillea millefolium), Virginia mountain mint (Pycnanthemum virginianum) and Canadian anemome (Anemone canadensis) to fill the gaps. The team also planted a number of new ferns under the shady canopy of the native shrubs, which they are confident will return next year.
Sweet oxeye behind the new bus shelter
The mild weather in October meant that many of the species - fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica) and red osier dogwood (Cornus sericea) - were still in full leaf, or in the case of black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) and arrowwood (Viburnum dentatum), just starting to change colour with their red leaves.
As the leaves drop, they are left on the ground to provide organic mulch for the soil and to protect plant roots over the winter. Much of the garden was still full of foliage to provide shelter for the birds, which clean out the highbush cranberries (Viburnum trilobum). (Good thing they are way too sour for humans).
Highbush cranberry
Long-time volunteers with LEAF, Al tends to the garden on Tuesdays to water and pick up garbage while Helen tends to the garden during the weekend. Al and Helen were two of the original volunteer stewards of the St. Clair garden. They helped plant the garden in 2010 on what Helen described as the hottest day of the year.
Helen, Al and Heather under the Grey dogwood tree at the St. Clair Garden
Over the years, the stewards have made a number of improvements to the garden, in addition to planting new perennials. They added a horizontal path of stepping stones to give the garden some depth. Earlier this year, a nearby neighbour who has watched the garden grow donated a ‘wishing stone’ to the garden.
The wishing stone
“What we love about this garden” Helen told me, “Is that people stand right here in the middle, under the shade of the grey dogwood, during very hot days looking for shelter.”
The St. Clair garden is well-loved by the neighbourhood and its stewards. And it remains tall and strong in the winter, providing texture and garden scape to the community as well as shelter and food for wildlife.
Heather Robertson lives near Wychwood Barns with her partner Nick and their dog Cruiser. They are great supporters of the urban environment experience, admiring their neighbour’s wild gardens and fostering the tree in their front yard.
Photographs by Heather Robertson, Brenna Anstett and Erin MacDonald.
LEAF’s Urban Forest Demonstration Gardens are supported Ontario Power Generation’s Biodiversity Program and the Toronto Transit Commission.
