East Vancouver is home to some of the most unique and beautiful gardens in the city. From lawns decorated with broken bits of pottery to polka-dot houses painted just for the hummingbirds, there is a little bit of something for everyone. Join me on a tour of my community: the East Vancouver Gardens!
I’ve lived in Vancouver for three decades now. It’s where I first started gardening, bought my first home, and have raised kiddo. It’s home for me.
Gardening on the West Coast is a dream, considering how mild it is here compared to the rest of Canada. We joke that we have 8 months of rain and two weeks of snow, and the rest of the time, it’s a bit warm.
Springtime in Vancouver is one of my favourite places to be, between the cherry blossoms, magnolias, dogwoods, bulbs, rhododendrons, camellias, and the many other spring-blooming trees and shrubs.
The part of Vancouver I live in is known for its quirky homes and sense of community, so I thought I would take you along and share some of my favourite parts of living in East Vancouver.
My First Vancouver Home
The first home I bought was on the east side of Vancouver, and I’ve been there ever since. When I first moved here, East Vancouver didn’t have the greatest reputation. Sure, some of the yards went unmaintained, but the biggest thing I noticed is that the east side didn’t have the same funding.
Compared to the west side where I lived before buying my home, the parks weren’t as nice, and the population density was much higher since the affordability of houses is better here than in other parts of Vancouver.
At the same time, there are far fewer facilities. Don’t even get me started on how hard it is to get your kid into soccer or swimming! There just aren’t enough services to support all the people.
All that being said, the East Van community has an unparalleled sense of pride and community. In my very first house, where I started my gardening journey, I would meet many people in my front yard garden.
The neighbours would stop by to chat and tell me how much they loved the space. The kids would pick tomatoes, raspberries, and ground cherries and enjoy the flowers while they munched away.
It was a very lovely bonding experience, and this sense of community has never left me as I’ve moved within different parts of East Van.
Vancouver Cherry Blossoms
Those who visit Vancouver in the spring are surprised by the sheer amount of cherry blossoms we have. At the peak, it’s snowing pink petals and you can walk completely under pink clouds of blooms. Yes, it’s as divine as it sounds.
In 1925-1935, thousands of cherry blossoms were gifted to Vancouver from Japan to honour the Japanese Canadians who fought in WWI.
Prior to this, many of Vancouver’s boulevards and parks had large stately trees like elms, maples and chestnuts. As they reached their full maturity, the problems they created became quite apparent, as residents complained about roots invading sewer lines, canopies interfering with utility lines, and heaving sidewalks.
So, people embraced the switch to the smaller, more ornamental trees. By 1990, 36% of the 89,000 city street trees were of the Prunus genus—the flowering plum and cherry trees.
Today, we continue to encourage more diversity and native plantings, but we still continue to plant the cherry and plum trees (and other ornamentals, like the crabapple below) in our high-profile areas so we can enjoy their beauty each spring.
One of the best gems in the community is the Strathcona Community Garden. Completely volunteer-run, the space consists of a 3-acre community and green space. Volunteers turned what was once an abandoned garbage dump in 1986 into a thriving community hub.
Today, it has 110 individual plots, a solar-powered eco-pavilion, a greenhouse, a Buddha pond, an apiary, a mushroom garden, an herb garden, a re-wilding area, and a newly created wetland area. The plant nursery is where I used to volunteer when I first started getting into gardening.
It also has orchards and an espalier collections. The orchards are one of the largest collections of heritage fruit trees in the province. All the fruit goes back to the community.
What I love most about these gardens is the creativity you’ll find in each space. Rather than a rectangular bed, you’ll find people planting in buckets, a herb spiral made of recycled wood, or a wildlife pond made of reclaimed stone. The plant species are just as unique, too!
The Polka-Dot House
Those who live in the area are all well-acquainted with the polka-dot house. Years ago, this house was featured when I went on the East Vancouver Garden Tour. During this special walking tour, you can visit the front and backyards of all these beautiful gardens in the area.
At the polka-dot house, they told us that the house was painted like this to attract the hummingbirds and that the homeowners were big fans of the little flyers. How cool, right?
In addition to the house itself, they had lots of feeders throughout the garden and plenty of pollinator-friendly plants.
Sadly, this house was very recently torn down. Alas, would you believe me if I told you there was ANOTHER polka-dot house in the lower mainland? The polka-dot 2.0 house lives on.
The East Van Home Style
The polka-dot house fits right in. Most homes you see in East Vancouver are very colourful. Those who have visited Vancouver know just how rainy and grey it can be in the colder months, and the coloured homes were a way to brighten up the neighbourhood amongst the grey skies.
Here’s an example of a typical house in the neighbourhood.
It’s a smaller, modest bungalow house with plenty of creative features. As you can see, it has no front yard. Instead, it’s full of perennials and broad evergreens, and there’s even a big fountain hidden behind some of these shrubs.
Of course, you also see the flowering plants we love. This house has a flowering Japanese dogwood, which fits right in amongst the cherry and plum blossoms.
On the street where I currently live, there’s a Barney purple house that is a cartoon grape colour and yet another bright teal house, which kiddo affectionately called the Oompa Loompa house.
You’ll find plenty of colour and beautiful landscaping amongst the homes in East Van.
Welcoming Entrances
When I went to Central Mexico, I was struck by how all the houses had barbed wire, huge walls, electric fences, and everything possible to keep people out. And that’s very common there.
But in East Vancouver, your front yard is a very welcoming space. They encourage people to be outside in their front yard and wave and chat with their neighbours. They’ve become mini gathering places.
They’re also a place to display artwork for the community. Lots of people make their front entryways uniquely theirs, ranging from modern with lots of plantings to recycled garden art.
Another thing about the neighbourhood is how vocal we are. You’ll find political messages and lots of recognition for social justice in front yards where everyone can see it and take note.
By no means are these gardens perfect. You won’t find landscaping rules of threes and five here. There’s a little bit of everything. People will plant palm trees just because they love them, while others incorporate really decorative shrubs. It’s very quirky!
Artistry in the Garden
When you get a chance to peek into the backyards of some of these homes, you see a lot more creativity. In one home I saw, they turned a 15-foot tall bird cage from a home store into a tree house for their daughters. It’s absolutely charming.
You won’t find big fences or perfect lawns. Instead, you’ll find gardens meant to invite people in. They show off the personality of the gardener, who, if you’re lucky enough, will be out puttering away in the plants while you pass by, ready to say hello.
Lawn Alternatives
A very notable aspect of East Van is the lack of lawns. In a lot of neighbourhoods, you’ll find regulations about maintaining lawns and keeping them to a specified length. It must be green. It must be watered. It must be cared for.
Yet, in our neighbourhood, it’s much more about lawn alternatives. You’ll find a lot of paving stones and a lot of groundcovers.
My wildflower lawn is a lawn alternative, and it’s created quite a bit of buzz in the neighbourhood. I’ve had neighbours stop by and tell me how they’ve been watching the people who live in the house for years struggle with the lawn on my property.
But now, I have this beautiful yard full of wildflowers that everybody stops to enjoy.
If you go for a fifteen-minute walk through East Van, I guarantee you’ll come across some kind of community-sharing project.
From tool-lending sheds to seed libraries and flower stands to the classic tiny book libraries, there are many ways neighbours are sharing with one another in the community.
When I was writing The Regenerative Garden, I dedicated a whole chapter to building community, and my own neighbourhood was a great inspiration. It has had a significant impact on me, and community has become a core part of my gardening values. It’s something we talk a lot about here on Garden Therapy.
The East Vancouver Garden Tour
I already mentioned my love for the East Vancouver Garden Tour, but I wanted to give it one more shoutout. It’s one of my favourite things to do in June, as you can see not only the front of these beautiful homes but also the gardeners welcome you into the back, and you can see just how they’ve created and lived in the space.
My previous home, found in the pages of The Regenerative Garden, was the host of many different garden tours. I hope that as I build my new garden, it can inspire many more gardeners to come. It’s certainly rising in the ranks of the interesting and quirky gardens in the neighbourhood!
