About
Hi, I’m Stevie and my gardens are on the East Side of Vancouver, BC, Canada. In this eclectic and artistic area the residents pride themselves on creative and elaborate gardens. The diversity of cultures and tastes make it an inspiring place to live, and the mild weather doesn’t hurt our spirits or our plants. It is also a notably environmentally conscious area, making getting organic, local food fairly easy and affordable. Over time I have started 3 very “East Van” gardens:
My Perennial Garden is in the front yard of my home. I offered to host over 400 perennials for Emerging Hope, an organization that helps people from the Downtown Eastside gain dignity and purpose through employment in landscaping, nursery work and holiday wreath-making. I dug up a substantial part of my front lawn a few years ago to act as free growing space for the nursery part of the business. I got the ultimate benefits of amazing landscaping, a crash course in perennials and working with some very lovely people.
My Backyard Living Room / Vegetable Potager is a wonderful large patio surrounded by garden beds. The beds used to hold ornamentals, perennials, trees and shrubs, but slowly they have been moved to make room for decorative edibles like Fairy Tale eggplants and Green Zebra tomatoes. Each year is a blank slate and a new set of experiments. It’s where I live all summer long.
My Community Garden Plot is at Strathcona and Cottonwood Community Gardens which is among the largest and oldest community gardens in Canada. It’s simply the best place in the city to learn about vegetable gardening and it’s beautiful to walk through.
Certainly gardening isn’t isolated here on this blog. Many artistic ventures are related to therapy for me. Gardening is the catalyst in many ways, as it inspires cooking, painting, photography, and writing. I started cooking to feed my body the healthy foods needed to recover and prevent further problems. Photography is a way to catalog beauty that is fleeting, in a way that allows me to let go of each flower or memory that brings me so much joy. Painting is where the raw emotions pour onto a canvas in a way that I can’t describe or predict. And writing Garden Therapy helps me connect with others.
I believe that anyone can feel immediate benefits from spending a short while outdoors, digging in the earth and connecting with all that gardening brings. Hopefully my projects will inspire some garden therapy of your own.
Contact me directly at stevie@GardenTherapy.ca
November 05 2009 10:09 am
Bren on 31 Jan 2010 at 8:38 pm #
I just added you to my Garden Bloggers who inspire page under Photography. YOUR WORK IS AMAZING… it truly inspires me to share my creative world as well.
Thanks for being a part of my Garden Network on Facebook!
Roslyn Leyden on 12 Apr 2010 at 1:01 pm #
@Garden_Therapy Hi Stevie, I am so inspired by your blog! I am looking forward to reading your tweets :-D
Gwendolyn on 28 Jun 2010 at 7:06 am #
I just added you to my Garden Bloggers who inspire page under Photography. YOUR WORK IS AMAZING… it truly inspires me to share my creative world as well.
+1
Michelle's Green Thumb on 17 Jul 2010 at 9:28 am #
Looking forward to some deep therapy!!