Burkeville gardeners showcase blooms to their community

VIKKI HUI vhui@Richmond-News com

Residents of the Burkeville neighbourhood near YVR enjoyed a sunny Saturday afternoon visiting and learning about their neighbours’ gardens.

One of the 10 gardens featured in this year’s Burkeville in Bloom is tended by mother and son duo Berenice and Ashton Pawlik.

“We often garden alone, and so this is a way to include the community in our garden,” Berenice told the Richmond News Berenice, who has been gardening for around 17 years, is in charge of the flowers while Ashton takes care of the vegetables

“There’s something indescribable about gardening. It’s like planting something and it grows and then you get to eat it It’s really amazing,” said Ashton

“I couldn’t recommend it enough”

The shared hobby has allowed Berenice and Ashton to bond outside of household chores, though they do get territorial at times

“I overplant and overcrowd and he’s like, ‘No, no, no, no, I planted tomatoes’ And then he goes and picks them out and thins them out,” said Berenice

The Pawliks have been cultivating polli-

Developer InformationSession

12931, 13031, 13111, 13131 NO 2 ROAD nator-friendly plants to encourage more bees to return to the community, as there weren’t enough bees in Burkeville for their fruit trees. That has now changed.

Jim Pattison Developments Ltd. has submitted a Development Permit application to the City of Richmond for a two-storey commercial self-storage building located at 12931-13131 No 2 Road (see Map 1). The site is designated for industrial use, with a portion of the site along the western edge designated as an Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA). The site is zoned Light Industrial (IL) and commercial storage is a permitted use The proposed building will be located outside the ESA.

“It’s kind of scary sometimes walking around here, just buzzing all over the place,” said Ashton

The two started out as novice gardeners, but decided to take part in a sustainable food gaardening initiative organized by DirtMagicians during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There wasn’t too much to do so (we) just kind of took it and ran with it. And it’s been really fun ever since,” said Ashton

Berenice told the News she ventured into vegetable gardening because she wanted to reduce the family’s carbon footprint. Instead of purchasing two containers of arugula, lettuce greens or salad mix every week, the family has been getting salad ingredients from their own garden.

From refreshingly sweet peas to broccoli, eggplants, peppers and garlic, it’s always harvest time at Ashton’s vegetable patch And the community is here to help if they have a big harvest

“Last year, we had a chair out and we had little ice cream buckets full of these little lettuce heads or whatever we have an overabundance and people just (came) after work and (drove) by and helped themselves,” said Berenice

Not far from the Pawliks’ is artist Karen Parker’s garden Parker, who has been converting her shady garden into a sunny garden after a tree fell down, told the News participating in the event helped motivate her to work on her garden

Parker’s garden is still in its beginning stages, but she already has some rhododendrons and hydrangeas in bloom. Her current challenge, said Parker, is to find a way to place her plants to prevent weeds from growing

“And I’m new to gardening, so every spring it’s like, ‘Oh, what survived?’”

Burkeville has a lot of gardeners

Burkeville in Bloom is organized by residents Lorna Clare and Melanie Coath with the support of the Burkeville Community Association. The signs welcoming visitors to each garden were donated by Bob Schmitz, a neighbour who participated in last year’s event

Clare told the News she started the event with Coath in 2022 as a way to showcase all the gardeners in Burkeville Although the community had garden tours in the past during City of Richmond events, it had been a while since something similar was organized

“And it’s just a way to connect with our neighbours,” she said.

Now in its second year, Clare and Coath made sure to feature a different group of gardens from last year

“We didn’t want it to become where these are the only gardens that are important to see because that’s absolutely not the truth So many people in Burkeville love to garden,” said Clare.

DykeRoad

DykeRoad

We invite interested community members to join us on June 15, 2023, for an in-person Developer Information Session to review the proposal and provide comments.

EVENT DETAILS:

Date: Thursday June 15, 2023

Time: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Location: Gym at Homma Elementary (5100 Brunswick Drive)

This is a drop-in event with no pre-registration or formal presentation. A series of self-guided informational boards will be displayed in the venue with members from the project team in attendance to answer questions that you may have

For more information and to provide comments, please visit the project website at www StorageonNo2Rd.ca, or scan the QR code above

Questions? Contact us at angela@poonigroupcom or 604 731 9053 ext 105