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Walking by the Reconciliation Pole last fall one of the landscape crew yelled over to me, “Hey Charles, we’re decolonizing the lawn.” They were part of a team prepping the lawn around and to the north of the Reconciliation Pole. According to UBC Landscape Architect, Renee Lussier they weren’t actually ‘decolonizing,’ but meadowizing: turning a patch of unused lawn into something more biologically diverse.
The preparation involved roughing up the lawn surface and removing some of the organic material. Then additional soil was added to give the site a bit more topography than its original flat plane. After which a meadow seed mix was sprayed over the site. The seed mix was custom assembled with a heavy focus on indigenous plants. The site was then fenced to keep people and animals out. The fencing has recently been removed. The budgeted cost was $50,000.
The plants have grown in well, most of which stand about two feet tall. The dandelions have already bloomed and gone to seed. It awaits on other blooms.