In early June 2014 we used our Gordon House grant to spruce up the traffic diverter near the Lord Roberts Elementary School at Bidwell and Pendrell with long-lasting plants and a brick walkway.
We added azaleas, two red Japanese maples, several poppies and other plants to fill in the pocket garden in the traffic diverter. The plants helped create a fuller and more mature garden – but a bigger change was our own Yellow Brick Road.
Students from the school and other pedestrians have always taken a short cut through the garden rather than walk around it, and they’ve done this for years, so we decided that if you can’t beat ’em, you might as well join ’em.
We purchased two dozen bricks, painted them yellow with special outdoor concrete paint, and laid our own Yellow Brick Road through the pocket garden, which has earned very positive reviews from our neighbours. People have even taken pictures of it.
A lady sitting on the curb next to the pocket garden one evening said: “I live in an apartment and this is like having my own backyard.”