Canada: Montreal program letting residents plant sidewalk gardens provides numerous benefits
So far in 2023, there are 411 participants caring for 613 squares, according to Marie-Joëlle Fluet, the borough official who co-ordinates the program.
By Thomas MacDonald
The Canadian Press
July 29, 2023
Excerpt:
“It’s a nice way to participate in my neighbourhood,” Geneviève Laplante, who adopted a square in front of her apartment building, said in a recent interview. “I get out of my car and I see my little plot of land and it’s just fun checking out my flowers.”
Though encouraging community involvement in urban greening efforts is the main goal of tree square adoption, Fluet touted “all sorts of benefits” in a recent interview, “whether it’s social, recreation … the environment, public health, cleanliness” or creating “social links.”
Laplante, for example, recounted how she turned gardening in her tree square into a community activity by involving her neighbour’s children.
Around the corner, another resident, Geneviève Leblanc, said she adopted three squares near her apartment in hopes of mitigating the heat that rises from the street and reducing what she described as the foul smell of nearby rainwater drains.
Fluet further noted that the gardens discourage littering, promote biodiversity and protect the health of the trees they surround, potentially extending their lives.
