I had lunch with my friend Terry Dixon last week. She and I both have birthdays this month, so we were celebrating together. I first met Terry when I was at City Farmer and she was the Green Streets coordinator for the City of Vancouver. We became friends when we both attended an American Community Gardening Conference in Toronto one year. The Green Streets program, a City Greenways initiative, had been around since the mid-1990s, but Terry was the first person to take on the position full time in 2000. Under her direction, the program grew into the vibrant and thriving program it is today, with more than 500 street 
gardens in traffic circles and corner “bulges” around the city. The gardens not only beautify neighbourhoods, they also help to calm traffic and reduce our carbon footprint. Some of the gardens are serving other purposes, like the book exchange on the east side and the Mason bee house in Kits, which may not just calm traffic, but actually stop it!
Terry has since retired, but she is now applying her considerable artistic landscaping talents to her own garden design business. Happy Birthday week Terry!