RESUSCITATING THE YARD GARDENS

Sep 08, 2024 Consumer Concerns, News

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Kaieteur News – In the 19th and for most of the 20th centuries, Georgetown was proudly known as “the Garden City of the West Indies”.  The gardens referred to the flowering trees and palms planted along the main streets of the town and the flower and kitchen gardens cultivated by householders in almost all yards. Georgetown was once criss-crossed by canals which helped to drain the town, prevent flooding and also serve as a reservoir for the Fire Brigade during fires.  Along these canals in the main streets were planted flowering trees such as flamboyants, golden showers, cannon balls and even cabbage and century palms and these also served as fire-breaks. The lotus lilies in the Camp Street canal have been immortalized in the water colours by the architect and painter, sharples.

From the 1950’s, these canals began to be filled up since the City Engineer felt that the use of drainage pumps were a more efficient way of draining the City.  The filled-up canals became walkways and such walkways still remain in streets such as Main Street, Camp Street and East Street with some of the trees still managing to survive along them.  A few of the canals still remain including the Lamaha Street, Church Street, High Street and Vlissingen Road with only few of the trees surviving.  The tree-lined streets of the “garden city” cannot be revived for a number of reasons but the yard gardens can.

Before the loss of the culture of yard gardens and plant pots, every yard had to have a coconut tree, a mango tree, bananas and a root of sugarcane.  They also planted trees from a large variety which included genips, breadfruit, tamarind, plumrose, sapodillas, maamie, jamoon, star-apples, and dungs as well as smaller fruit trees such as papaws, avocado pears, soursops, psydiums, gooseberries, guavas, cherries, custard apples, sugar apples, limes and souraries, both the sweet and sour varieties. In the backyards, there were the kitchen gardens where ochroes, tomatoes, mustard and other types of bhaji, sweet and hot peppers, radishes. Saijan (merenga), boulanger (eggplant), squash, carilla (bitter melon), bora, sorrel and even pumpkin or watermelon or sweet potato vines were allowed to run along the ground.

A number of spice plants which were used to flavour cooking such as fine leaf and broad leaf thyme (basil) and ginger and sometimes turmeric were in cultivation.  On the fences sumetoo vines were allowed to flourish.

In the front of the yards, flower plants were always present and these would usually be Caribbean roses, oleanders, queen-of-flowers, jasmine, buttercups, hibiscuses and crotons and bougainvilleas of various colours.  Bachelor’s button would be the usual ground flower.  On the High Street side of the City Hall where the formal entrance is, a flower garden reminiscent of these older gardens is still maintained.

Today, buildings have overtaken the land space in most of the yards of downtown Georgetown, leaving comparatively small patches of land as compared with the more easterly wards of the City where the yards can accommodate gardens.

Nowadays, grafted fruit trees are very common and such trees fruit when the tree is very short.  As such more trees could be accommodated in the limited land space in downtown Georgetown.  In the more spacious yards, the old-style gardens could easily be resuscitated.

The usual flowers as mentioned above could be grown, in particular roses which seem to have disappeared, even in the Botanic and Promenade Gardens.  Fruit trees could be grown more freely about the yard since many would be short grafted and occupying less space.  The kitchen garden in the backyard should be more carefully planned and cultivated to produce fresh and healthy food for the family and plant pots and boxes should be used to grow the small medicinal plants such as lemon grass, ginger, turmeric, toolsie, neem and mint among others.

Much research has since been done in herbs and medicinal plants thus providing a bigger repertoire. In reviving the gardens of the past, some ripe fruit should always be allowed to remain on the trees so that birds could again be attracted to return to Georgetown. In old Georgetown, colourful and beautiful birds greeted each new day with birdsong and citizens woke up in the mornings amid these beautiful sounds.

There are two things that could be done to improve the renascent gardens: the cultivation of grape vines and placing garden chairs in the gardens.  One or two Madeiran families cultivated grape vines, both dark and clear grapes, but this culture disappeared with the decline of the old-style gardens and the emigration of Portuguese families in the 1950’s.  Grapevines and the hanging bunches of grapes could aesthetically improve the garden and provide families with a valuable fruit.  In many Caribbean countries where grapevines flourish, the exposed bunches are very often covered in bags to protect them from birds.

In all the wards of the city and in the immediate surrounding villages, the bright street and house lights have made it impossible to see the starry skies and the moonlight for though one could see the moon in the sky, one could not see the moonlight.  A few garden seats in the back garden could allow one to enjoy the moonlight, see the numerous stars in the dark night skies and the daily treats of the colourful sunsets.

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• cherries, custard apples, gooseberries, guavas, limes, souraries, sugar apples

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