ACTION ALERT!
The boulevard portion of this site has already been mowed to the ground twice since June 2013 under a new, unconstitutional, bylaw enacted in April 2013. Cobourg citizens are staging ongoing delegations to Council concerning their right to grow in protest of this bylaw, but support is not unanimous.
Send a message to Cobourg Council and attend a Monday evening session (starting at 4 pm) or write to Mayor Gil Brocanier gbrocanier@cobourg.ca , CC Town Clerk Lorraine Brace lbrace@cobourg.ca and the remainder of Council: sfrost@cobourg.ca, todd@cobourg.ca, lsherwin@cobourg.ca, jhenderson@cobourg.ca, frowden@cobourg.ca, mmutton@cobourg.ca
Site No.: 64 Type: Residential Garden Size: 6925 sqft Goal: A learning/teaching garden, to demonstrate how to grow sustainably and optimize opportunities within existing conditions and boundaries. Status: E2
Zone: Carolinian Canada
City/County: Cobourg State/Province/District: Ontario Country: Canada
Description:
A residential lot in the old part of Town (Cobourg), a heritage district, which features a maturing woodlot with native and naturalized plant species living in concert. The site is a garden of gifts and of memories, including plants from friends and family members including grandfather’s culitvated grapes that now prefer the sunnier exposure along the public sidewalk: treats for the birds and passers-by. There is a companion meadow for butterflies on the abutting street boulevard. The gardens have been evolving for more than 20 years now.
This site is a platform for continual dialogue between nature, the plants and creatures, and the humans who live and visit here. Things change, living things adapt. Many plants have been planted, and some have not made it. Some have found their way here and stayed because the site conditions, sometimes created by engineering man, suited them. Occasionally a plant has not been permitted to stay because of its ecologically disruptive habit. The gardens are meant to be shared as they are on display as a lesson in diversity. There is no back yard, this site is a side yard and street boulevard, all in full public view. This has caused concern for some people who prefer conformity,and to many others it brings much joy. These gardens offer protection, shelter, nourishment and refuge…and for the human,also an opportunity for reflection. The gardener does not weed these gardens, they edit. The art of nature abounds here for those who are willing to see.
Top Plants:
native trees including young sugar maple, burr oak, red oak,cucumber magnolia, alternate leaf dogwood, and the ever present saplings of black walnut from the trees next door – they go to a plant sale! naturalized exotics including saucer and elizabeth magnolias, korean white forsythia, fringetree; my grandfather’s grape vines wandering about; naturalized lilac, summer phlox; masses of early spring flowering bulbs; various dry soil meadow plants on boulevard
