No Mow May becomes Mow Soon June

The benefit of not mowing during the spring provided us with drifts of white flowers where the ground was wet, as well as new trees throughout the grass. We saw the same white flowers along the path in the arboretum and after searching online, we wondered if they were cuckoo flowers. The tree seedlings we've found so far include what we believe is a crab apple, a birch and several red oaks! Hope this inspires other households to enjoy a meadow for the month of May in 2022!

Julie Driver and Chris Wolfe

Pictures below:

  1. No Mow May

  2. Red Oaks

  3. Red Oak

  4. Birch

  5. Cuckoo Flower

Mapping the Park - starts tomorrow

Hello neighbours,

As noted at the AGM, the Parks and Recreation Committee has been planning a project to map the tree, shrub and plant species in the common green space of the park. This project was approved at the March 30 2021 Board meeting. Now we are excited to launch the project in conjunction with students from the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) of Queen’s University.

Maya Ivimay and Ashley Strauss are the two students from SCB in charge of this project and over the next weeks you may spot them, notebooks or smart phones in hand, examining trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants. They’ll be taking photos and identifying the plant species in the park.

Their first working visit will take place Wednesday May 12 9-12 am in the areas behind the Grenville Crescent circle. They will be wearing masks and some Queen’s apparel and will follow the government recommendations for social distancing. Maya and Ashley will be accompanied by three volunteers (also Queen’s students) who share a bubble: Olivia, Ben and Bree.


Please welcome them if you encounter them. If you have any questions for them, or for the committee, don’t hesitate to ask. We’ll keep you updated from time to time as work progresses.

Pamela Hodgson, for the Parks and Recreation Committee

IT'S EARTH DAY!

A neighbour brought this flyer on No-Mow-May to the Parks and Recreation committee this week wondering if the Park would be interested in it.  While we already have a contract in place for this year, the idea of leaving grass growing a little longer to help bees and other pollinators is an important one.  So we thought we would share with everyone and those who are interested can try it out.

Another neighbour recently asked about what are the best plants to put into a garden to help pollinators.  An excellent resource is the Pollinator Planting Guide developed by the Credit Valley Conservation group.  

Both PDFs are mounted on the Resources page here on our website.  What better time than Earth Day to think about how we can help out pollinators. 

Also attached below is a map of the park indicating where you can pile your brush.  Please follow the guidelines Matt laid out yesterday.  Brush only, no roots or leaves.

Thanks to Andrew MacLachlan for preparing the map.

 

See you around during the clean up.

Pamela Hodgson

for the Parks and Recreation Committee

PARK MAP.jpeg

Not an April Fool’s joke

April 1 2021 the City of Kingston will be announcing and opening registration for their Neighbourhood Tree Planting Program. 1800 trees are available. First come first served. Visit the city’s website April 1 or call 613 546 0000 and book your tree.

If you would like the Parks and Recreation Committee to book a tree for you, and/or to donate your tree to the GPCHA call Pamela Hodgson

Happy New Year everyone from the Parks and Recreation Committee



We are grateful for the co-operation of David Williams of the Communications Committee, in helping us communicate with you. In December we mounted some posts on the GPCHA website which we hope you saw. We have many more resources (website links, pdfs etc.) we can make available.

Today three documents were sent to you via email: 1) a short summary of our planting plan for 2021; 2) a brochure about Buckthorn; 3) an advance notice from the City of Kingston about a Tree planting program for residents. They can also be found on the Resources & Links page of the website.

Could you let us know how you would you prefer communications from us:
1) Regular email reminders of postings to the website
2) Emails with information
3) Information posted to the website without email notification

Please contact Pamela Hodgson with your ideas and comments or leave a comment following this post. We look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes to all for 2021
Pamela