Across the street from our nursery, January, 2014 . There is another FOR SALE sign at the top of hill, and one behind me when I took this photo.

The real estate market in Vancouver is truly insane. There cannot be another city, anywhere, with more people ‘cashing out’ and leaving their gardens behind. It is not a good thing, because nearly every transaction results in a massacre of not only the house, but the garden and every tree possible. It is unbelievable. Neil Young sang about ‘The needle and the damage done – every junkie’s like a setting sun’. Here, every FOR SALE sign is like a setting sun. Bye bye garden, bye bye customers. The new house will be sold and ‘landscaped’ , and very often left unoccupied. How? Why? Can you guess?  If you do not live in Vancouver, you probably cannot guess. It all comes to getting cash out of China. It is that simple. What were once ‘Marcus Welby M.D.’/'Donna Reed’ neighbourhoods are now terrifying strips of copper domes, glass blocks, etched glass and Tudor lanterns. Gated, paved, with security cameras and nobody home. Hundreds of millions of dollars have landed here. Trillions of dollars have left China. You would think this is a good thing; marvelous in fact . Maybe, if you are selling lighting fixtures. For the nursery industry, and horticulture in general in my area, it is an obliterating tsunami that pays it way. As an example, a friend of mine listed their modest house on a 66′ lot at an optimistic 1.9 million . In any other city, it would have been 300,000.00, but Vancouver is different. She had eight offers before the listing actually listed, and accepted 2.8 million, all cash , no subjects. There were two offers exactly like this.  Today, the house sits empty, the much-loved garden abandoned . Just like mine.

 Below : The new Vancouver look.  Note the chandelier ?