Inside Vancouver

Got Plants? Vancouver’s Biggest Plant Sale Comes to VanDusen Garden, April 29

by Remy Scalza in Green City on April 25, 2012

Photo credit: VanDusen Botanical Garden Official Photostream | Flickr

It’s hard to believe people get this crazy about a plant sale, but apparently this is true.

One day every spring, before dawn, the line starts forming outside of Vancouver’s VanDusen Botanical Garden. People camp out with lawn chairs, carrying blankets to keep them warm. Some bring picnic baskets to enjoy an alfresco breakfast, sipping orange juice and nibbling muffins. Many have their own wheelbarrows.

As the sun rises and the hours go by, the line swells.

Thousands will join the queue over the course of the morning, snaking in an enormous line outside the garden. Then, when 10 a.m. rolls around and the gates are officially thrown open, chaos breaks out. Imagine Walmart on Black Friday. Within 15 minutes, more than 1,000 people race inside, elbowing for position and jockeying to get to the head of the pack.

And for what?

Plants. Herbs and vegetables. Roses. Grasses. Vines. Trees. Shrubs. Perennials. Natives. More than 40,000 plants in total wait inside – part of the biggest, baddest plant sale in Metro Vancouver.

Sound like your idea of fun? The VanDusen Plant Sale returns this Sunday, April 29, starting at 10 a.m. sharp and running to 4 p.m. Continue reading:
Got Plants? Vancouver’s Biggest Plant Sale Comes to VanDusen Garden, April 29

Get ready for the Commercial Drive Earth Day Parade: April 22

by Taraneh in Green City on April 19, 2012

Earth Day Parade. Photo credit: Youth for Climate Justice Now

Still wondering how to celebrate Earth Day, Sunday, April 22? I’ve received an onslaught of marketing emails this week urging me to “do Mother Nature a solid.” While all of these involve buying a product, there are plenty of ways to work for a greener, more sustainable future without spending at all.

The second annual Earth Day Parade is a free, family-friendly event April 22, from 11am to 3pm, that goes along Commercial Drive before ending in a blow-out festival at Grandview Park.

Organized by Youth for Climate Justice Now, the parade + festival is designed to bring together elementary and secondary students and their adult allies. Last year’s event brought 2,000 Vancouverites together to work to stop climate change.

The Commercial Drive Earth Day Parade promises to be “the most fun you ever had saving the planet.” Find out more about the festival lineup – including guest speakers, activities, music – after the jump. Continue reading:
Get ready for the Commercial Drive Earth Day Parade: April 22

Earth Day Race and Scavenger Hunt: Green City Race, April 21

by Remy Scalza in Green City on April 16, 2012

Photo credit: Evergreen BC

There are lots of ways to celebrate Earth Day (April 22) this month: You can take part in a community clean-up, turn your lights out to conserve electricity or even go the classic route and plant a tree.

But there’s only one way to honour Mother Earth and race madly around Vancouver for charity and prizes.

Saturday, April 21, marks the inaugural running of the Green City Race. Think of it as a green-themed variation on The Amazing Race, with Vancouver as the backdrop. Teams of two or three face off in a city-wide, eco-scavenger hunt – using only public transportation and old-fashioned foot power. And it’s all for a good cause.

Here’s how it works:

Continue reading:
Earth Day Race and Scavenger Hunt: Green City Race, April 21

Day-hike of a lifetime? Spring trekking on Mount Seymour in Vancouver

by Remy Scalza in Green City on April 13, 2012

Photo credit: Remy Scalza | Flickr

It’s no secret that Vancouver is well endowed in the nature department (How many cities boast a 1,000-acre park downtown?). But what sometimes goes unnoticed is how truly rugged the landscape gets almost immediately after you cross the Lions Gate Bridge.

Take Mount Seymour Provincial Park. Rising to 1,449 metres, Mount Seymour is an easy 40-minute drive from downtown in North Vancouver. Known for its skiing, the mountain is also crisscrossed with some spectacular hiking trails that bring you up into dizzying alpine terrain. In a matter of minutes, you can go from the parking lot to a high-altitude wonderland of sheer cliffs and panoramic mountain views.

I found out for myself recently, on a sunny afternoon when temperatures at the ski area parking lot were a balmy 10 degrees Celsius. But while spring was in the air, snow – metres of it – was still in the ground. I struck out on the trail to First Peak, which starts in the far corner of the parking lot, adjacent the chair lift.

Continue reading:
Day-hike of a lifetime? Spring trekking on Mount Seymour in Vancouver

Inside ECO Fashion Week Season 04, April 10-12

by Taraneh in Green City on April 12, 2012

EFW Season 04 Media Wall. Photo credit: ECO Fashion Week

It’s refreshing to attend ECO Fashion Week. While other cosmopolitan cities have established fashion week as a lofty citadel for design royalty and hangers on, Vancouver’s EFW has worked hard to connect shoppers and designers who support sustainable fashion.

It makes sense: that’s who we are. Vancouver is heavily invested in becoming the greenest city in the world by 2020. The billion dollar fashion industry is due for wardrobe makeover. 90 million items of clothing per year end up in landfills, speeding up global warming…not to mention the wasteful clothing production methods used by most industry players.

ECO Fashion Week Season 04, April 10-12, is a showcase of world-class, sustainable designs and strong citizen participation. At the opening press conference April 10, the chic, honey-blonde EFW founder Myriam Laroche said, “The goal of ECO Fashion Week is to bring tools to the industry and to educate the consumer. We want to challenge the status quo.” Of course she was wearing a Value Village Little Black Dress and vintage Stuart Weitzman pumps.

Read on to get an inside peek at the EFW 04 shows, the designers and the Vancouverites who came out to Robson Square to support green fashion. Continue reading:
Inside ECO Fashion Week Season 04, April 10-12

Got Plants? Vancouver’s Biggest Plant Sale Comes to VanDusen Garden, April 29

Get ready for the Commercial Drive Earth Day Parade: April 22

Earth Day Race and Scavenger Hunt: Green City Race, April 21

Day-hike of a lifetime? Spring trekking on Mount Seymour in Vancouver

Inside ECO Fashion Week Season 04, April 10-12

watasun

Vancouver photo essays