Creating the Ainsley Boulevard

In 2024, MAPP had approached one of Karina’s family friends regarding building a boulevard garden on their Right of Way (ROW). The homeowner, Charlene, happily agreed, and together with MAPP they came up with a plan.

They had some requirements which Karina built the planting plan around:

• They wanted the garden to have some space between the plants to allow for ease of weeding.
• They wanted a dedicated space to place their garbage for pick up days.
• They wanted the garden to be clean and legible.
• They wished to have the grass removed rather than covered like the Agincourt Boulevard Garden.

Together with Charlene, Karina created the planting plan while consulting Lorraine Johnson’s A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee. Due to some unforeseen delays, the garden was pushed back to 2025.

In June of 2025, MAPP began working on the garden. Karina and her partner Stephen removed all the grass from the boulevard area. To do this, they used an edging tool to cut the grass into squares and then used a shovel to remove the squares, which took approximately 2 hours to complete.

Once the grass was removed, MAPP was ready to work. Since it was a small garden, only 2 people were needed as the homeowner wanted to help, and Stephen would be volunteering as well. For this task, Andrea and Karina arrived on a Sunday morning with mulch and plants ready to go.

Similarly to the Agincourt Boulevard Garden, MAPP spread the mulch prior to planting as mulching after planting may crush the plants. Karina used the planting plan to place the plants in their assigned spot, then Andrea, Charlene, and Stephen planted and watered. When digging the holes, a bulb planting tool and hori-hori knives were used as the ground was tough from years of soil compaction. The final step was to place a short temporary fence around the garden to try keep pedestrians and dogs off of the garden. Small pieces of kindling were hammered into the ground, and high-vis tape was wrapped around the kindling stakes.

After an hour and a half of work, the garden was complete. MAPP is excited to have added another boulevard garden to the neighbourhood, and looks forward to seeing how the garden fills out over the years.