Hal Spradling didn’t like what was happening to the gardens at the Leaside Community Gardens arena.
“It was an eyesore to the neighbourhood,” he says, “and I was offended by the weeds and neglect.”
Spradling is the owner of All Canadian Self-Storage, on Laird across from the arena, which was honoured this year by the Leaside Garden Society for landscaping.
A group of volunteers had previously volunteered to clear up the mess, but ran into union and budget problems at the arena and nothing happened.
But Spradling is a Texan, and tenacious.
He got a go-ahead from a member of the Gardens board, whom he won’t name, and went to work.
When the work is finally done, five-person crews, including Spradling, will have spent 100-man hours cleaning up plantings in the parking lot.
“I was on my hands and knees for half the day,” he says. “I urge people to volunteer in the spring to get the plantings ready for the next sesason.”