Saturday 22 August 2009

Saturday Photo: Little Italy Garden is the Smallest Yet

How to squeeze a fountain, bird cages, ferns, azalea, and luxuriant tropical plants into a very small space? With great love and care, obviously.

This garden in what otherwise would be lost space between two buildings astonishes me every time I pass. There is small water feature where a maiden pours a stream into a basin, plus wind chimes, figs and bougainvillea. The whole thing is protected by a grill work, but it gives pleasure to everyone in the neighborhood.

Because it's located on the "east" side of the street (really the north east, given the way Montreal's street grid runs) it gets some direct sunshine in the afternoon, although street trees do cut down a bit on the light. Nevertheless, the gardener seems to have found the right balance of plants for the conditions. Where there's a will there's a way...

8 comments:

lagatta à montréal said...

Si, mi piace molto quel giardinettino!

(Note the TWO diminutives in "giardinettino" - a tiny "giardinetto", itself a small garden).

Googling, I even find "piccolo giardinettino", which almost sounds like overkill, or underkill...

Think those people also have a weird year-round installation on trees and telephone poles.

Anonymous said...

That looks amazing! It puts my garden to shame at the moment, although I am trying! I have just bought a pond water feature and am struggling to even put it together. i never thought about doing something to include birds as that is my other passion, i'm hoping the pond will attract wildlife and birds. This garden is inspiring as even though the space is small the impact on the local wildlife will really make a difference.

Northern Beauty Seeker said...

I love this little pocket garden.

These spaces are all the more charming for their diminuitive size and contrast to the urban building materials around them.

gardener said...

Beautiful garden. Just think how much more alive and literally cooler a city would be if all residual space was given this kind of attention and thought. Great pics Mary.

Mary Soderstrom said...

I'm not sure if it's house or one nearby that has the marvelous little kitchy installatin around a street tree, Maria. I'll check, and post and picture.

And it really is nice to see such cre go into making the city a little greener, isn't it?

lagatta à montréal said...

Mary, I was so happy, cycling past the "Petite Italie" fire station on St-Dominique just west of the market (saved by a petition and mobilisation of the firefighters and neighbourhood groups) to see several planters on the side of the fire station, full of a variety of herbs (basil, chives, others I couldn't identify from across one of the wider streets in the neighbourhood).

I was imagining the firefighter assigned to kitchen duty cooking up a splendid meal for his (or perhaps her?) colleagues with fresh herbs planted from pots bought at Jean-Talon Market. Funny how such things make one very happy.

Mary said...

Mary S. - please send me your mailing address to lupa.mary@gmail.com. I have a book to mail to you "What Would Jane Say?" - a Chicago retrospective. I lost your email address and home address.

Mary Lupa, Chicago
lupa.mary@gmail.com
312-805-9018

Mary Soderstrom said...

Mary L: so good to hear from you!

I'll contact you tout de suite.

Mary