Each Tuesday, Spacing Montreal will share some posts from our sister blog, Spacing Toronto. We hope it will fuel constructive dialogue on the urban issues faced by both cities.
• The strike is finally over! Toronto Mayor tweets about the good news! Toronto begins scent detox!
• Jake Schabas writes a nice article about a secret garden he found while biking through the Eglinton Flats one day. Anyone know of any of these in Montreal? Are the Mile End Alleys the closest thing we have?
• Tree Planting is not just for remote regions of Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia anymore! The Humber River gets a little urban-tree makeover thanks to Toronto’s Urban Forestry Service and a private reforestation firm. Where would you tree plant in Montreal if you could? I’d personally love to see the southwest corner of rue Peel and rue Saint- Jacques O turned into a beautiful park…
Photo by Ron Squeakyrat
2 comments
Not so many secret gardens here, aside from some well-hidden community garden spaces. I don’t want to totally blow up anyone’s spot, but let’s just say that a Google Earth/Maps sojourn along the CN tracks between Ville Saint-Laurent and Anjou will reveal some areas of interest.
A tour of the back alleys in the plateau and mile end (and probably other parts of city) will reveal countless secret gardens. Also look for places that have converted complete back alleys into landscaped spaces.
Some gardens Oasis’s I like are:
-Place guy fauborg (when the pond is fixed… anyone know if they fixed the pond yet?),
-the riverside voie maritime bike path, not a garden but great nature and spectacular from start to finish,
-mont royal cemetery (the outremont one) which is the hidden jewel of this city: esp. if you enter from upper access (i.e. from parc Mont Royal/Maison Smith parking traffic loop).
Riverside on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (NW side with riverside open area) on Ile Notre Dame,
parc levesque in Lachine is excellent.
none of these are secret, but all are favorites.