Ad hoc garden group plants bulbs to prevent crime

By Eric Morse –

Prospect St. is a small residential avenue in Cabbagetown, running westward from Parliament just south of Wellesley Avenue, and opposite Amelia, which runs eastward toward the Don.

On the north and south corners of Parliament and Prospect streets stand respectively Pizza Pizza and the Butter Chicken Factory, the latest in a succession of restaurants on the two westward corners. And beside each restaurant, on Prospect Street, stands a garden.

The area is socially and economically mixed, and it does have its issues from time to time.

About eight years ago, Chris Hallett and Margaret Coshan of Prospect St. noticed that on the northern corner there was an abandoned parking lot, with—as Hallett puts it—“a lot of bad things happening.”

“We approached the City, and they were very helpful in establishing a community garden,” says Hallett. “That garden has evolved over the last several years, and every Monday night people come and do some volunteer gardening. Last year there was a second area across the road, which was an abandoned patio from a restaurant which had closed and is now re-opened. We approached the city again, and after some work in getting the permits we went into developing that, and the south garden has now been in place about a month.”

The group’s rationale—Hallett makes it clear that they are not an organized community association, simply a group of civic-minded neighbours—is that communities are safer and better if there are people out in the streets, and the gardens draw people into the streets.

“By activity in the streets, we all get to know each other, and we also can recognize bad things when they’re happening and we can work together to prevent them. So having people in the streets and having places for them to meet and congregate, we see as a good thing, and that’s why we do the gardens. That’s always been our approach and it’s been very, very effective in this area.”

Once they got the second garden going, someone in the neighbourhood suggested that they contact the Canadian Cancer Society’s Fields of Gold fundraising campaign, which spreads fields of daffodils about various parts of the city to make a statement about cancer, and simultaneously to raise funds for the society.

Coshan noted that there is already a very impressive Fields of Gold daffodil array at Allan Gardens.

The campaign looks for large expansive areas where people can plant the bulbs. The bulbs are sold for $5 each, the proceeds go to the Cancer Society, and the bulbs beautify the neighbourhood.

The Prospect St. group do not receive any proceeds, they are simply the planners and planters for the project in their neighbourhood.

“This project’s a little different,” says Hallett, “because it won’t be one big area. We plan to distribute the bulbs down Prospect St., down Rose Ave., back up Winchester St. and onto Parliament St., so there’s a display of bulbs throughout the neighbourhood. What we want to do is have a much broader display. The idea is to get all the neighbours involved in both fundraising and planting., once again bringing people back out into the community.”

The group hopes to plant a total of 1,700 bulbs. By October they need to have raised $3,500 in “bulb money”—as of Aug. 20 they had already raised $600 of that. Contributions in cash and gardening enthusiasm will be gratefully accepted.

To find out more about the Prospect Street Fields of Gold campaign or to make a donation, visit sites.google.com/site/prospectneighbourhoodgroup.