Brave new world ... of non-allergenic parks
Peter Prakke lives at the intersection of hypoallergenic plants and honouring vets
Like everything else these days, it seems, the phrase “walk in the park” to signify something that is easy and pleasant to do, might have to be revisited.
And while I’m being a bit facetious, I do appreciate that trying to plan a public park, trying to dedicate it to a particular cause or person (a fallen soldier, for instance) can trigger reactions.
It’s not just that. Yes, there’s the politics, red tape, fundraising, environmental assessments and so on. But there’s also the matter of allergies. Many of the plants, trees and flowers planted in our parks have historically been included without regard for their possible effects on allergy-sufferers, and those with asthma and COPD.
For some, far from being easy and pleasant, a walk in the park can make it hard to breathe.
These two challenges — memorializing fallen soldiers and rethinking horticulture around the needs of the allergy sensitive — are met in the work of one Hamilton man, Peter Prakke.
A few years ago, Peter trademarked the name The Bravery Park, in both Canada and the United States. This act emerged after he was approached for help by Valerie McGrady, whose son Corp. Matthew McCully was killed in Afghanistan in 2007. There was a big push to have an Orangeville park dedicated to memorializing him, and more broadly, other veterans.
That was in 2009. “I met with her (and others on the Orangeville Bravery Park effort) several times over the years,” says Peter, a retired horticulturalist now in his 80s who lives in Ancaster.
It took that long to get everything in place. As we said, parks aren’t always easy. There was fundraising to be done, approvals to be gotten and the first site chosen for the Orangeville park turned out to be contaminated. A new site had to be found. It was all time-consuming.
Finally, the Orangeville Bravery Park began in earnest last year, all approvals and green lights having been cleared in 2017. In the meantime though, Peter thought that the idea of Bravery Parks should be adopted everywhere. And indeed, even as the original Bravery Park initiative was struggling along, a second one started up and was completed before the first, in Prince George, B.C. (Corporal Darren Fitzpatrick Bravery Park; Corp. Fitzpatrick was killed in 2010).
“Now I’m also working on one in the United States,” says Peter.
He feels strongly about the project because, as a boy growing up in Holland, he watched Canadian soldiers liberate his small Dutch town. He got to know some of those soldiers. Some of them didn’t make it.
Peter, a fascinating man with a rich and varied background in farming, gardening, horticulture and seed sales, has a two-pronged interest in parks. He has, for the last decade and a half, been fascinated by the benefits of nonallergenic shrubs, trees, and other plants and flowers.
His passion for the subject began after he read Thomas Leo Ogren’s landmark book AllergyFree Gardening.
“It lists some 3,000-plus items with an allergy rating from one to 10 — trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, seasonal flowering plants.” Peter attended a workshop on it in the United States and was one of the only Canadians (if not the only) there to bring back the word, which he’s been doing ever since.
Several years ago, Peter made submissions to both the Hamilton public and Catholic school boards arguing for allergyfriendly schoolyards and both boards now have policies in place, the first two school boards in the country which can say that.
A nice joining of Peter’s two passions is the maple tree, which can be non-allergenic and is also used as symbol on the Medal of Bravery. Landscape Ontario has endorsed Peter’s Bravery Park project.
Peter came to Canada answering an ad to take over a farm in Quebec. But the farm wasn’t a proper farm, one thing led to another and he ended up excelling at seed sales in Ontario.
Before he came to Canada he worked at the state experimental farm in Kuwait. The man has been around.
Peter has also written The Veterans Gardening Guide.
For more information see veteransgardeningguide.com