The Brambles
Housing Cooperative
Grounds Maintenance Committee
A member-designed patio garden
Common Area East
Individual Gardens
At The Brambles, as at most condo and apartment complexes in Metro Vancouver, individuals are responsible for the care and upkeep of soil and plants in the balconies or patios adjacent to their units.
We encourage creativity at The Brambles!
Many members have designed and planted unique ground-level patio gardens for their units, while others with second or third floor balconies continue to decorate them with attractive versions of living colour through the spring, summer and fall.
The Committee
We are very proud and protective of our trees, shrubs and flowers in our common areas.
Consequently, the dedicated group of volunteer, amateur gardeners composing our Grounds Maintenence Committee devotes a good deal of time to maintaining soil and plant health in our common areas. As well, the committee sometimes moves plants and redesigns beds when light conditions have changed as a result of tree growth, when plants have overgrown their spaces or when plants have died.
The committee works in concert with our contracted garden services company, who are responsible for lawn care, tree and shrub health and replacement, pest-management and tree pruning.
We're Organic
We manage our gardens organically and concentrate on building and maintaining healthy soil. (Healthy soil=healthy plants). In support of our soil, the Grounds Maintenance Committee maintains a 4-bin compost system that recycles members' vegetable and plant waste right back into our common and private gardens.
Veggies and Berries
Some individual members grow veggies and herbs in pots on their balconies, in beds in their patios or in specially designated parts of our common areas.
We also grow varieties of raspberries and strawberries for the use of all.
Members' Veggie Garden Rebuild
In the early spring, 2015, the Grounds Maintenance team redesigned and rebuilt the members' veggie garden area. Raised beds were added, with crushed rock pathways in between. Members signed up for plots and got busy planting in May.