Welcome to a guided tour of three boulevard gardens in Victoria, BC: the “Fair Field”, the “Haultain Annex”, and the “Haultain Common”.
In recent news: The Haultain Common has been rededicated to bees and other pollinators. On the Common, please leave plants and their flowers in place to help feed these hungry and vulnerable creatures.
In contrast: The Field and Annex are open gardens, where anyone can pick. Yes, anyone can pick! Feel free to pick boulevard berries, leaves, flowers and seeds! Please pick only what you know, and only when you know it’s ready. Harvest News can help.
Kindly treat these two open gardens the way you would like other people to treat them, with ideals of “community”, “sustainability” and “sharing” in mind.
If you are craving guidelines that are more specific, please consider these:
- Please pick what you’d like to sample on the spot, or what you’d like to take home for your immediate use and enjoyment. Never waste what you have taken.
- Please avoid taking the last few leaves, flowers or seed clusters from any particular plant. Never take the last of anything. Share, by leaving some for others.
- Pick in a way that minimizes harm. Snip or pinch off what you need. Avoid yanking or ripping in any rough way. Give the plants respect and gratitude.
- Avoid pulling or digging out any plant roots-and-all. Perennials (e.g. berry bushes) must stand proudly in place to produce year after year. Even annuals (e.g. kale; arugula) should be left standing so that they can live to seed another day (and even if they wither away, the rotting roots can feed the soil).
- Exception: Feel free to uproot any grass you see and leave it lying in the garden to rot. In these gardens, grass is a nasty weed when it regrows but a modest mulch where it rests.
- Let’s collaborate on planting decisions so that our efforts can work in harmony. If you have something you’d like to plant, please write to: streetgreens@outlook.com.
Sharing space; sharing knowledge; sharing seed, food and flowers! We can do it!
Street Greens 
Hello. I’m writing a short article for the Quadra Cedar Hill Community Association newsletter about boulevard gardens and would like to include mention of and a link to this page/these three gardens. Are they all still ‘operational’? Thanks!!
Susan
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Hi Susan – Yes, these three gardens are still going strong. One caveat: The Haultain Common is being transformed from a place for people-food to a playground for pollinators. That process is briefly described under the “Haultain Common” tab. I’d be happy if you’d include a link ‘Street Greens’ in your article. Thanks!
Mike Large
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