Toronto Resident Tears Up Driveway to Plant Paradise
Local artist and eco-minded citizen Franke James decided to do the hard thing first and replace her interlocking brick front yard (parking lot) with plants and an eco driveway (paradise). What she didn't expect was a North York demand for concrete, asphalt or interlocking driveways. But, with persistence, she made one of the city's greenest front yards a reality.
Now, one year later, she is enjoying a lot of green space, and has chronicled her tale online.
Franke James and her husband decided that to really make their lives greener, replacing lightbulbs wasn't enough. So they sold their SUV and started plans to remove their interlocking brick driveway, which parked four cars and filled the entire front yard area.
Now she can park one car and has wild flowers and trees and grass out her front door. The stormwater runoff has been reduced by 80%, and in a year with near-record rainfall, that makes a big difference at her house. If a lot more Torontonians put in eco-driveways, the relief for the stressed-out Toronto infrastructure would be invaluable.
But for now, Franke is just happy to go out to her front yard and find a garden oasis in place of what neighbours remember being a parking lot. That notion inspired her, to mark her paradise's first anniversary, with a chronicle of the experience to the theme of Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi." That song, of course, is famous for the line "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot." While doing the opposite, Franke was blogging, and those stories are also online.
Admittedly, there isn't much about this story I don't like. The determination to take the city to task and the dedication to see the project through are inspiring. But I also love the DIY factor, and of course the ecological benefit is well worth it. Until I have a yard of my own, though, I'll have to be content with a container kitchen garden on the roof, where at least my wife and I collect rainwater to feed the plants (we're a bit long on water these days, though).
Photos by Franke James.
Comments (11)
Wow. Great work. It's like a completely different house. What a difference some life can make an what used to be just so typically Torontonian.
Joshua -- Thanks for writing about our paradise unpaved! It has been a great adventure and I'm so glad we didn't believe the city official when he said we couldn't have a green driveway! It's as beautiful as we thought it would be. And in reference to the comment re: resale value -- I don't know if a green driveway adds to the value, but we enjoy it. And we're not selling. You have to build your own green driveway.
. . .a nice lady in the Mayor's office who agreed . . .
---------------
Bravo!--not only to Franke James but also the "nice lady in
the Mayor's office".
I like the artwork that accompanies her story.
There should be more stories like this, soon.
Beautiful job, what an improvement... and hopefully the city will be a little more enlightened in the future.
If these folks are smart they will sell "driveway upgrades" to others - looks like this requires a little bit of know-how. Really - who wouldn't want this??
It's worth noting that the folks at the North York Civic Centre have changed their tune, and Franke has the distinct impression future eco-driveway enthusiasts will have a much easier go of it.
I guess Franke "paved" the way for the rest of us...
I am looking into green alternatives to replace my current ashpalt mess in my front yard. I would be very interested in follow up information on how the driveway survived the winter and what materials were used and the costs involved. Thanks Susan
Hi there Ms. James,
Just listened to your account of 'dinner w/a stranger' on CBC. I was intrigued, & surfed over to your website. I agree that your home looks better w/the 'green driveway' & your decision to give up your vehicle was a good one. But you needed to rent a skidsteer & roll off bin to dig up & cart away the soil & possibly the bricks, unless you re-used them somewhere else (heavy stuff, requiring a heavy duty vehicle & fuel). From an environmental standpoint, was leaving everything 'as is' an option?
Is the runoff a problem primarily because it washes oil, gas, (and roadsalt during the winter) into the lakes, or would it be OK as long as it was uncontaminated?
View More Events
Suggest an Event
Join the blogTO Flickr group
Join the blogTO YouTube Group
RSS