It’s a wedge-shaped stretch of land, half a kilometre long, tucked between the arts and crafts architecture of Townsite homes and the bustling traffic of Highway 101. It started out in the 1930s as a Powell River Company transplant layover plot for shrubs and small trees. By the 1960s it was overrun with blackberry brambles and lost. Twenty years ago Townsite Heritage Society decided to resurrect and transform the area and 18 years ago Dr. Andy Davis thought he’d spend some time puttering around in it.
It’s the Triangle Gardens, one of Powell River’s most famous gardens and now Davis is raising money to get a little more water to this piece of living history.
Davis, affectionately known as Dr. Dirt, is one of the garden’s caretakers who has spent a good part of his retirement tending to its needs. “It’s a high maintenance garden and it’s good for someone like me to putt around in.”
Recovering and maintaining the gardens can be quite challenging, said Davis. “Things grow slowly. They drag out. There’s nothing to eat and the watering has been one of the biggest jobs. About three years ago we lost a lot of shrubs and plants to a hot summer. I had a knee replaced and couldn’t do much for a while. After that it was horticombat for about two years to get it back. At the moment it’s the best it’s been in the 18 years I’ve been involved with it.”
Five taps, installed in the 1930s, currently deliver water to the northern end of the garden, but the southern end is dry. The southern end’s only source of water comes from the neighbours’ good will. Neighbours let Davis run hoses that stretch from their backyards to the garden. It’s a slow process and requires a lot of strength to pull the heavy hoses around.
Davis wants to install an irrigation system that will make the garden better and easier to take care of. He’s proposing to have a water pipe run across the length of the ridge top of the garden and then another pipe run along the length of the bottom edge.
Of course, when it comes to building a system and connecting it up with the existing system, nothing is simple or cheap. Davis said that while he’s not sure what the total cost of the system would be, a good initial goal of $35,000 would get the project started.
An avid hiker and cyclist, Davis and his wife Susan Hainstock are planning a hiking and cycling trip to France and Spain to raise funds for the irrigation system.
The couple will first hike through the Pyrenees, the mountains that form a geographic border between France and Spain, along the historic Camino de Santiago pilgrim’s trail. Once in Spain, they will then get on their bicycles and ride almost 1,000 kilometres to the Atlantic coast along the Camino de Finisterre.
Davis is asking Powell River residents to help out with financing the irrigation system through either sponsoring him with a nickel or dime for every kilometre of his trip or a lump sum donation to the society.
Interested readers who would like to sponsor Davis and Hainstock or make a donation can contact Peter Sansburn at the society’s offices, 604.483.3901, or by e-mail at
