2020 Christmas Caroling

Twas the winter solstice, a night wet and dark, when the sound of carols was heard through the Park.

They gathered together at the house with no lawn, where vegetables, fruit and edibles do spawn.

The young and the old came out with such glee, with lights and headlamps, so that they could see.

Down Elmwood, and Grenville, through rain and through slush, they sang with great gusto, lead by Maestro Rush.

Finishing on Westview it was easy to hear, the carollers all filled with good Christmas cheer.

So thank you to those who sang with such might, to wish our neighbours,  “Happy Christmas and to all a good night!”

Ask the city to plant a tree on the street edge of your property

Did you know you can call the city (613 546-0000) and ask to speak to someone in the parks and forestry section about getting a tree planted on the city-owned section of your property? 

A forest technician will come and assess the space, what is already there, and let you know what kind of tree could be planted.  All at no extra cost to you (included in our tax bills of course).

Have you noticed the new appearance of an eastern redbud and maple tree planted on Elmwood (see photo)?  Lori Richards and Andrew MacLachan called the city to take down a dying blue spruce. When they requested two city trees in replacement, they were delighted to get a ‘yes’.

Carolinian trees in the park

How fortunate we are to have some grand specimens of Carolinian trees in our park. And we are planting more (see photo of newly planted tulip tree). The tulip tree is one of two wild magnolia species found in Canada and is eastern North America’s tallest hardwood.

 Carolinian refers to native North American species found typically in North and South Carolina.  A small part of southern Ontario is home to these. Some are quite rare. That’s one reason the Parks and Recreation committee is keen to plant more. https://caroliniancanada.ca/legacy/FactSheets_CCUniqueness.htm

 Can you identify the tree from which these fruits have fallen?

• On behalf of the Parks and Recreation Committee

Replenishing trees

In Grenville Park, we are fortunate to be able to enjoy the beauty and the benefits of many native species of trees, shrubs and smaller plants that call this neighbourhood home. However, many invasive species like honeysuckle, garlic mustard and the dreaded European buckthorn have also successfully established themselves in our green spaces and the natives need our help. Please see the article on our Resources page in which Grenville Park resident, Susie Everding, provides an overview of the buckthorn problem and what you can do about it. Fun fact: all of the photos below were taken in Grenville Park!.

Unfortunately we lost a number of mature trees this year; mostly ash trees infected by the ash borer, and a mighty silver maple which split in the winter storms. 

Happily we have already planted 20 replacements: a Spartan apple, a pear tree, five white pines, three tulip trees, two black cherries, three hi-bush cranberries, two dogwoods, a red oak, an eastern redbud and one autumn blaze maple. All but two were donated by park members. The maple was donated by Woodfellas, the tree care company that the GPCHA has dealt with for several years. The eastern redbud was planted by some lovely neighbours.

 Have you spotted any of these new additions to our park?  See photos. Some may be hard to find now with the leaves fallen but many have small copper tags, some have plastic tags.

Let us know when you find them.  They benefit from our care and attention.

Photos Left to Right:

1.       Eastern Red Bud 2.       Golden Spice Pear Tree 3.       Viburnum Hi-Bush Cranberry

4.       Autumn Blaze Maple & White Pine

Second row:

1. Replacement White Pines 2. Single Pine

We want to hear what’s going on!

On behalf of the communications committee I would like to invite members of the neighbourhood to use this blog space for comment, event notification, event follow-up, announcements, invitations, photos, you get the idea.

As you can see this particular page has not quite reached its potential for providing members of our community with a voice to talk about things going on. We have been freshening up the pages of the site, although currently struggling with a few links which we can hopefully get the bugs out of soon. The hope is for the website to be more interactive than it has been and we can only do that with members’ contributions. Doesn’t need to be super serious or dramatic, the intention is to have some fun. Heaven knows everyone can use more of that these days.

Blogs can be sent to me as one of the administrators and I will post, to be clear our job is not to edit but I might correct a few typos if necessary, that’s it.

Have at it,

David Williams