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Vancouver woman turns overgrown roundabout into lovely garden, TikTok project

"My goal with it is to have the most amazing roundabout in the city."

This spring and summer Katie Berlinguette has fought an ant nest, a sinkhole, and City of Vancouver tape to revive one of Vancouver's roundabouts.

But the result is a lovely little garden in an East Vancouver traffic circle.

Berlinguette started her gardening adventure earlier this year when she decided to look into a community garden; quickly, she found a three to five-year waiting period.

Undeterred, Berlinguette looked at other options and found the Green Streets program. The city says there are 700 locations that are part of the Green Streets program, and only about half of them have been adopted. Most are located at corner bulges, while about 300 are in roundabouts.

Preparing the location

Berlinguette found that an overgrown green space in the middle of the traffic circle at Glen Drive and East 10th Avenue wasn't adopted. That wasn't surprising, given the state it was in, something she noticed daily when she took her dog for walks.

"I emailed the Green Street people but didn't hear back," Berlinguette tells V.I.A. "I kept emailing them every day for a month until they responded."

While she waited for a response from the city, she posted about the roundabout on Instagram; eventually, friends suggested she start a TikTok based just on her project.

From there, she took to the social media platform to chronicle her progress, and at times poke fun at the city government.

Once the city gave her the green light, Berlinguette got to clearing the spot, coming across an ant nest and rat holes along the way.

One day, while she was clearing the roundabout, a neighbour came by with an ominous comment about someone falling into a hole there years earlier.

"There was this lore about what was lurking under the rose bush, and as I cleared it away I noticed there was a hole about a foot across," she said.

But that was actually just the tip of the iceberg.

After knocking the edges away, she found a sinkhole eight feet deep and two to three feet wide. It even extended under the roadway.

She contacted the city right away, and, to her frustration, it was quickly surrounded by yellow caution tape, delaying her gardening ambitions.

"But, obviously, (it was) a good thing that it got fixed."

To anyone considering following Berlinguette's footsteps, her number one tip is patience.

"I know on TikTok I made a lot of fun and poked fun at them, but they're really good people," she said.

Growing plants and the community

Luckily, the city was able to fix the sinkhole, and she could return to her garden at the end of May once the yellow tape was down. Since then, she's been as busy as the bees that are now visiting the garden.

"My goal with it is to have the most amazing roundabout in the city, so I spend a lot of time on it," said Berlinguette.

To that end, she's planting, weeding, and watering three to 10 hours a week.

The little garden is mostly populated with native plants (she just added some potentilla), which are drought-resistant and good for pollinators. At the same time, she's trying to make sure there are blooms of some sort each season.

"There's a water fountain in the centre just to be extra," Berlinguette adds. "I want it to be something [neighbours] talk about, think about, and appreciate."

Over the past few months, she figures she's met most of the neighbourhood, and everyone has had something positive to say.

"Every single person who stops by says nice things," she says. "It's a very 'feel-good' thing. The community does notice the hard work."

Now that the garden is growing, the TikTok account lives on, showing the upkeep, new features, and how the plants are doing.

She encourages others to consider a similar challenge.

"It's good for bees, it's good for the local community, the city doesn't have to maintain it," she says. "It's a full circle feel good."

@roundaboutrevival We’re basically homesteaders living off the land now.. and before you come for me I’ve done worse things with my free time than spend months of energy and dollars to grow my dog a single strawberry. 🫡🍓👩‍🌾 #homestead #strawberry #urbangardening #circlegarden #dog #fyp #goldenretrieverlife ♬ like a reward - michael_o_
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