Paulik Gardens

August 2009

The City of Richmond has made it official with a sign showing The Richmond Garden Club has 'adopted' the Paulik Gardens.

The City of Richmond honoured those volunteers from the Richmond Garden Club and other volunteers who so willingly give so many hours to maintaining the Paulik Gardens. We all enjoyed a great BBQ and lots of laughs on August 5th. Thank you to the City for the recognition.

March 2009

This will be our first ‘full’ season as gardeners in the Paulik Garden. Last year at this time the garden didn't have a full time caretaker, and was looking rather neglected. But now we are 100+ volunteers strong, and ready to tidy her up and make her into what she used to be, and has the potential to become.

We planted lots of bulbs last fall, tucked in some pansies, and there are plenty of signs of life. We are amazed at what survived the winter, and a few walks through in the rainy season showed us that often areas that are desert dry in the summer are swampy wet in the winter. It is no wonder that some of the rhododendrons look as sickly as they do. They are not always planted in the most opportune locations.

We have learned lots through pruning seminars, and just hands on being there. Seeing where the water flows and sits, where the sun reaches and doesn't, answers lots of questions as to what thrives and doesn't.

We had one early ‘clean up’ day last month, and although the weather wasn't overly tempting, a few hardy souls turned out to start our spring tidy up.

The gunneras have been uncovered, and many of the dead leaves and mess from a heavy winter need to be raked up. At this point it is just housekeeping in the garden.

We are ready and eager for the sun to warm the soil and for spring to be here in force. Our first full season: and we're ready!

June 2008

The Start of Something Good

Last month the Richmond Garden Club approached the city with the idea of adopting a traffic circle (or round-a-about), or some such piece of city area to beautify. We had thought it was time to do something civic minded, and this appealed to most of us. What the city came back to us with was a bit bigger than a traffic circle.

They approached us with the idea of the Richmond Garden Club taking over the maintenance of the Paulik Gardens. Located on Heather Street, just north of Blundell, the gardens had been purchased by the city of Richmond from the Paulik family, with Ed Paulik continuing on as the caretaker and gardener. Ed was well known in the area, and tended the approx. 3.8 acre garden 7 days a week, according to those who frequented the gardens. He created an oasis of calm in the middle of a rapidly developing high density area, which is now close to 100% condos. In a rather eclectic manner he designed islands of flowers, shrubs and trees throughout the garden, which is well frequented by the locals.

Ed passed away last year, and the garden had been weeded twice by the City of Richmond, taking 4 people an average of 17 days. When we visited the garden with Richmond Park’s Dept. in early June, it was hard to tell it had been weeded at all, and they informed us there was no budget to reweed it. In short order, most of the beds would have to be bulldozed to make way for just grass, which was less time consuming to maintain.

Our cool damp spring had created horsetails 2 and 3 feet tall and morning glory that would support Tarzan swinging through the jungle. Our first meeting was for some of us the first time we had visited the garden, and it tempted us. This was an incredible undertaking –but it would take us 100’s of hours to just reclaim the garden, let alone maintain it. Nervous looks were exchanged by all of us.

There were only 5 or 6 of us there that day. There was no time to wait – the weeds were on the verge of taking over every bed, and a few of us pulled the largest ones as we walked back to our cars. Emails were fired back and forth, and a visit from the city planner was had. We were hooked on the idea, and started phoning other garden club members, and coming at set times. Could we get 20 of us to volunteer 2 hours a week? Would that be enough?

We achieved that number far easier than we thought, and then aimed for 30. That came quickly, as others felt our enthusiasm for saving a heritage site in our midst. A few turned us down outright, and we understood – all of us have our own gardens, and some of us are struggling with those.

Our last blitz was on June 30th at 6 PM, and 15 enthused gardeners cleaned out 2 more beds. We laughed, pulled weeds in amounts none of us ever imagined, and had a great time. Walkers in the park stopped to encourage us, and 3 came with offers to join in! Extra gloves were provided to some who came along, and we made new friends. We have reached outside of the garden club for volunteers, and are pleased to invite friends, family and residents to join a hand. We are over ½ way through this incredible endeavour, and although tired, dirty and sore – we are so excited as each bed takes a tidy, well loved look.

At present moment we stand at 42 volunteers, and are aiming for 50. This is a more realistic number for a garden this size, and we are hoping that you would join us and made our dream of reclaiming Paulik garden a reality. Please consider 2 hours a week in the fresh air with friendly gardeners!

If you would like to join us please contact Jill Wright at 604-649-7428.