Join guerrilla gardeners of Roosevelt Ave. & local politicians at their Lily Pad

A group of neighbours living on Roosevelt Ave. is thrilled that Catherine McKenna, the M.P. for Ottawa Centre and the Minister of the Environment (all rolled into the same person) and Jeff Leiper, municipal councillor for Kitchissippi Ward, will visit their new creation, the Roosevelt Lily Pad between 11:30 a.m. and noon on Saturday June 2. as part of 100in1Day across the city.

The site for the Lily Pad is the southeast corner of Roosevelt Ave and Byron Ave. If you live in Westboro and want a chance to talk to the Minister, to your city councillor and to other residents about the reasons for a Lily Pad on this nondescript corner, ride your bike, take a bus or walk to the area. (No parking nearby so please leave your vehicle at home.)

Neighbours on Roosevelt came up with the idea of gathering rubble from nearby infill developments to create a tiny bit of greenspace on a street ravaged by infill development. The loss of mature trees at the corner of Byron and Roosevelt alone is severe. as shown in this comparison between 2011 and 2018.

Here's how the Roosevelt Ave. guerrilla gardeners describe their Lily Pad.

"[After...] infill development stripped out all the greenery and left the corner with crumbling roads and sidewalks, and construction debris everywhere...in response, Roosevelt residents gathered up the rubble on the southeast corner of the intersection and started a bed of day lilies."

What do you think about guerrilla gardening of this kind? Leave a comment below.