Residents near McLean and Grant, 8th and Sasamat, 16th and Trimble and 20th and Fleming have also planted their boulevards with flowers. One east-side resident plants her boulevard with beans and other vegetables for public picking. The city usually plants low junipers in the traffic circles that act as traffic calmers in some neighbourhoods. Some people have planted sunflowers, for a folksy but dramatic effect. Back lanes are a great place for guerrilla gardening.
Unpaved lanes seem to work best.
Some people have been re-introducing native plants, others have been planting food and flowers. One Kerrisdale woman takes the seed heads from her large pink poppies and sprinkles them up and down the alley, to great effect the following year. Prickly berry bushes planted on the sides of alleys provide food, and make better, less expensive barriers than fences. Although gardening is not really allowed on public property, there are signs the authorities may be in tune with guerilla gardeners. The city's Engineering Department also gave Cedar Cottage residents permission to plant an ornamental garden and a community herb garden on a vacant city-owned lot at 19th Avenue and Fleming.