Celebrate Earth Day with Mount Pleasant’s Boulevard Gardens Walking Tour

When we think about gardens, we usually think about lush plants and flowers that homeowners tend to right outside their front doors. Landscape architect Saba Farmand, is trying to change all that with his tours that showcase oft-forgotten pieces of land that people have been nurturing right under our noses.

Rather than plain ol’ grass growing between the sidewalk and the road, there are what Saba dubs “boulevard gardens”—spaces where residents beautify their community by planting flowers and shrubs which not only are pretty to look at (especially when spring hits) but are more environmentally friendly than grass as they require less watering and provide more habitat for native species of birds and insects.

Since 2021 he has been organizing tours of these plots of land, aiming to show how beautiful these small-but-mighty spaces are while also bringing together members of the community through philanthropic outreach (all the donations he receives go to the MPNH).

Farmand explains that Boulevard Gardens are a framework used for lessons on environmental education, nature awareness and urban literacy. Throughout his walking tour, Farmand talks about different educational aspects of urban architecture by stopping at seven different locations, and with each location comes a new discussion and learning topic.

During the walk, people can expect to learn more about the importance of boulevard gardens and why we should care about them, boulevard gardens’ positive impacts on our health and well-being, the importance of them for a sustainable future alongside interesting facts about the neighbourhood and local stories (like the Two Sisters’ House, which stands out to Farmand because when he shared the garden on his Instagram, two sisters started interacting with each other on the comments section because of the similarity of the house to their childhood house and were filled with nostalgia- they later joined one of his tours!).

 

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While the gardens are the initial pull, it’s the community aspect that’s the real hook for Farmand. “That’s one of the things that I think is really special about my tour, it’s really one of the few examples of an event, not only in Vancouver, but in the entire world, where you get so many different people, different ages, different demographics, different interests, all joining together for one tour,” he says.

But the tour doesn’t only bring people from all ages together, it also brings local businesses together to further contribute to the community. “Every tour attendee receives a raffle ticket, and at the final stop, there’s a prize draw. Past donors have included The Federal Store, Anh and Chi, Flourist, DL Chicken, The Shameful Tiki Room, Windfall Cider, and artist Priscilla Yu, who generously donated prints.” he says.

Boulevard Garden Tours

Saturday April 12th, 11:30am- 12:30pm and Wednesday April 16th, 5:30pm to 6:30pm.

You can register to the walking tours by filling out this form.