By Brenda Duke
Fullerton Avenue is a one-way street below Barton that supports a varied demographic of different nationalities. Some are life-long home owners, some are newcomers, and some of the homes are rentals or social housing. This mixture can be challenging to bring together.
We have managed to do that and our little neighbourhood has become an engaged and welcoming community.
That was made possible by a group of residents who took on an overgrown and neglected Hydro Right-of-Way that ran long Birch Avenue between Barton and Princess Streets. The goal was to curb the illegal dumping and the increase of negative activity that the area attracted.
The community accomplished that by being present in the space. Illegal dumping and debris was cleared up and the abandoned landscaping was enhanced. Trees were trimmed, weeds were pulled and invasive plants were removed. With all of that open soil, the natural progression was, of course to plant something.
There was no budget and very little money, so they relied on donations and small Community Foundation grants. The City came on board through the Adopt-a-Park program and provided benches and waste receptacles, soil and mulch.
In 2015, the neighbourhood held a “Garden Party”. It was a combination work and planting party. The gardens, only two at the time were filled with hundreds of daffodil and tulip bulbs, people donated plants from their gardens and it was the start! Neighbours met each other and before long the atmosphere on the street became open and welcoming with porch visits and friendly greetings.
That success led to clearing a stand of Dogwood Trees that were overgrown and full of weeds, more bulbs were planted that fall in preparation of the coming spring.
Over the years, celebrations were held and more areas were cleared and planted, a memorial bench was added for a long-time community member courtesy of Councilors Bernie Morelli and Bob Morrow. A garden was designed and planted by Venni Gardens to honour a community member complete with a Little Free Library and a bench.
The gardens were becoming sustainable as hundreds of pollinator plants were added and close to 3000 spring bulbs were ready to make this space a welcoming community place to meet friends, walk their dog or just relax.
That all changed in the spring of 2024. At that time, the organizer were told that the City’s lease agreement with Hydro One did not include gardens, Even though Hydro was aware of and supportive of the gardens, the City needed to negotiate a new lease. Their directive at the time was that the gardens could not be maintained by volunteers and would be taken over by Horticulture.
I attended Council and delegated to implore the City to let this remain a community space where residents and visitors could take pride in what they had helped accomplish. Matthew VanDongen followed up with an article in the Hamilton Spectator Hamilton says hydro corridor rules bans citizen gardeners (thespec.com)
We’re still waiting to learn if the gardens will be allowed by Hydro One but the City has agreed to allow community volunteers maintain the gardens. After over a month of beautiful warm weather and plentiful rain, the weeds have taken over. Thanks to help, we are slowly working our way through each garden. If you’d like to join just let me know at Brenda.duke@hotmail.com
This is a well-loved community space so we are hoping that it will be allowed to continue beautifying our City and Neighbourhood.
