HIDDEN OASIS
Richmond club revives jewel
It’s a rare thing for a city council to turn over a prime piece of property in the heart of the municipality to a garden club.
But that’s exactly what Richmond has done with the 2.6-hectare (6.4-acre) Paulik Neighbourhood Park on Heather Street off Blundell — turned most of it over to the Richmond Garden Club and asked them to maintain it, develop it and enhance it as a beautiful garden space.
From the 1930s, the property was made up of a series of homes, one of the biggest chunks owned by the Paulik family, who loved to garden.
For more than 50 years, they built a garden with one generation handing over to another. They planted trees, some of which included redwoods brought from California and other conifers collected as seedlings from the North Shore once the Lions Gate Bridge had opened in 1938.
The Pauliks also planted perennials and shrubs and created stepping stone paths and, in one spot, they cloud-pruned a boxwood.
Today this sculptured boxwood is one of the most impressive features on the site.
It took the city about 30 years to assemble all the separate pieces of property to establish the park. Only recently, it acquired the last two pieces.
But maintaining the beautiful garden within the park posed a special challenge. So it was a happy coincidence when in 2008 the Richmond Garden Club asked the city if it could have a traffic island to turn into a garden as a way to demonstrate the value of water-wise gardening.
“We just wanted to do something for the city, and also do a garden that would showcase smart gardening ideas,” says Jill Wright, who was president of the club at the time.
“Imagine our surprise when the city came back to us and said, ‘We have something better for you. How would you like to take on Paulik Park?”
Wright says at first the garden club was a little daunted by the prospect.
“The site was a jungle. Horsetail was three feet high. Flower beds were overgrown with knotweed and Himalayan balsam.
“Some club members thought we were taking on too much.”
Wright spearheaded the project and suggested it could be done if at least 20 club members made a commitment to work at the park on a weekly basis.
“I think all gardeners secretly in the back of their minds long to have a bigger space,” says Wright. “I mean, wouldn’t you just love to have a five-acre garden? I think deep down it is what all of us dream of having.”
It is eight years since the club began working at the park. Today, it is a beautiful garden with a network of narrow bark mulch paths and trails that bend and twist and curl around dozens of well-kept island beds and borders of various sizes, all lushly planted with shrubs and perennials.
The borders cover 1.5 acres; the rest of the park is made of woodland and a children’s play area.
Purple-leaf flowering plum trees are dotted throughout the site, which also contains dog- wood, birch and beech trees, at least 10 apple trees in addition to a few less common specimens, including three giant sequoia, a winged elm and a staghorn cedar.
Garden members have divided up 36 flower beds that need regular weekly maintenance.
Some members have taken on the job of looking after two or three beds.
One border contains 26 rhododendrons along with some azaleas, witch hazel and chaenomeles. In other areas there are attractive drifts of evening primrose, astilbe, berberis and hellebores. Many of these plants were originally planted by the Paulik family.
Deeper into the garden, there is an open-space circle garden space, designed for picnics and community events like summer solstice celebrations.
The garden also has a frog pond and more than 30 concrete slabs scattered all over the property, each slab inscribed with a poetic thought or personal tribute.
Visitors will also find gunnera, a pillar of golden hops, wisteria, roses, soaring hollyhocks and dense shrub borders dotted with hydrangea, viburnum and superfragrant lilac.
“Once, we had a gardener who hated violets and tried to pull all of them out,” says Wright.
“But another gardener loved them and had a fit when she discovered they were gone.
“The violet controversy caused quite a fuss. But nature had the last word. Within a short time, the violets all came back ... more vigorous and abundant than before.”
The club’s gardeners feel less fond of a large stand of bamboo. It has been marked for removal. And the club has taken a clear stand against such invasive shrubs as buddleia and holly, although less challenging free-seeders, like yellow poppies, hardy geraniums and lady’s mantle are permitted to spread as freely as they please.
“Before the garden club took over, the playground here was constantly vandalized,” says Ted DeCrom, Richmond’s manager of parks operations. “This problem has now completely disappeared. I believe it is because there is a new appreciation by the whole community for the work being done here.”
The experiment of turning over such a large public area to a garden club has been a huge success, says DeCrom. He believes the park is an excellent example of what can be achieved when a municipality decides to work with the community in a creative joint venture.
“We give the garden club as much help as we can in terms of supplying materials such as soil and mulch, and we also contribute plant material.
“Some plants, such as this laceleaf Japanese maple, were rescued from other sites and given a new home here.”
Each week, Wright walks the park to see what looks outstanding. Then, she emails club members, telling them about the garden highlights and urging them to make the time to see for themselves.
“This feels like a home garden but we have to remember it is a public place and we need to make sure paths are kept clear and are always safe to walk.
“But this is a hidden gem; a garden a lot of people still don’t know exists. I hope they will come and see for themselves just how beautiful it is.”
I think all gardeners secretly in the back of their minds long to have a bigger space.