December 2013

Wishing you a warm and merry holiday!

 Friends of Roseneath Park wishes all of our friends and neighbours a safe and warm holiday as the city recovers from a major ice storm.  Roseneath Park has a few fallen branches, but is in relatively good shape.  The sick ash trees on both sides of the main path were removed in the fall which, no doubt, spared us worse damage in this storm.  Thank you to Parks and Forestry for this preventative work and for the emergency recovery work they now have across the city.

Before the ice, there were a couple of great sledding days!  The slope is perfect for little ones.

What’s ahead for 2014?

We are excited to start on our mosaic project this spring with Arts for Children and Youth.  Have you seen the work AFCY does?  It’s amazing!  http://www.afcy.ca/gallery  We are grateful to the Weston Foundation which is generously funding this community building, eco-art education initiative with a $20,000 grant.

As a group, we still have lots of work ahead of us raising funds for the playground and community garden.  We continue to look for funding sources from grants and we need your help both to find applicable grants and to write grant applications.  Contact me at roseneath@hotmail.ca if you are up to the task!

The Friends of Roseneath Park’s Community Eco-Action project is also listed on the Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation Website and you can donate directly to the project here: https://torontoparksandtrees.org/roseneath-park  Donations over $10 will receive a tax receipt.  

Thank you all for a year of much progress in the park.  I can’t wait to see it come to life in 2014!

Grants!

We are excited to announce that Friends of Roseneath has been selected to proceed to the second round for both the Live Green Toronto and the Weston Family Parks Challenge Grants!  We have a lot to do before the upcoming deadlines, but if we are successful, we will have the funds for some of the items on our wish list: building a naturalized and shaded sandbox, planting trees, preventing erosion on the west hill and adding to our garden!  Please plan on attending our meeting on October 17th to learn more.  (If it rains, we'll go to Brunchworks, TBA.)

September 2013

4 ash trees have been killed by the ash borer

Thanks to the Parks Dept. for our lovely new fall planter

Blank slate

Our meeting last Thursday was very positive.  If you missed it, here's the gist: 

The Arts for Children and Youth initiative will be a beautiful addition to the park.  The project will include a mosaic mural to be installed on the retaining wall lining the path to the parking lot.  (An example of an AFCY project can be seen at the Jack Layton Ferry Docks.  http://www.afcy.ca/gallery/  ) This will be a community driven project so AFCY need us to come up with concepts and ideas for the imagery.  If you have a great idea, pass it along!  (I think since this pathway is so integral to the pedestrian and bicycle culture of our community, it would be great to honour that in the mural.  Think about it, if you push a buggy of groceries home from No Frills, bike north or south through Roseneath Park, or have been walking your kids to school since they were in a stroller through the park, you know this pathway intimately!)

The landscape architect, Eric Hess, presented his ideas.  Again, here, the plans are not set in stone and your feedback is very important.  The plans included a shaded and naturalized sand area.  This would be created by adding a wooden border and shade to our current sand area. 
For the west side, a sculpture that would double as a climber was suggested.  Keeping the west side of the park as a "passive area" was discussed.  Originally, the east side was designated as a playground and the west side for park users who wanted a quiet place to enjoy the park.  Some points that came up were...

Do we want the west to remain a quieter, "passive" area?
Is Roseneath Park a suitable site for a large sculpture?  We are a community park with mostly repeat users.  Will we get bored of a sculpture?  Will it be worth the expense?  Will it create a hiding area and graffiti canvas, two things we have worked hard to eliminate?
Should the new open, grassy area on the west side be kept as is?
Again, the question of a splash pad came up.  Splash pads cost around a quarter of a million dollars.  They require city staff to supervise.  The size of the park does not make it a good splash pad site.  So the splash pad idea was put aside, again.
Do you have any suggestions for the west side of the park?
I suggested a small poetry garden/ labrinth with all natural elements that could be enjoyed as a sculpture/seating area/kaleidoscope garden http://www.toronto.ca/nps/revitalization/greenpodiumroof/kaleidoscope.htm. 

To prevent further erosion on the hill,  ground cover vegetation would be put down, such as a creeping low plant that will just take over that shady area. 

We also talked about grants.  We have started the application process for the Weston Parks Challenge and the Live Green Toronto Grant.  These focus on "greening" initiatives.  To cover the cost of playground improvements, we need to research grants specific to this.  If you have any experience in grant writing or know of grants for which we may be a good candidate, please contact me.

Let's have a meeting on Thursday October 17 at 6:30 to do some fall maintenance on our garden and to discuss...
And remember, email me your feedback.  It's important!

September Public Meeting

We've gotten lots of compliments on our flower beds over the summer.  A big thank you to the dedicated volunteers who have maintained it through the summer.  
There's more good stuff to come:

C. Palacio has scheduled a public meeting for Thursday September 26 at 6:30 p.m. at Oakwood Village Library to talk about exciting upcoming initiatives for Roseneath Park.  These include...

• Grants for which we are applying
• Meeting the landscape architect assigned to work on Roseneath Park.  He will bring drawings of ideas discussed at our previous meetings
•  A representative from Arts for Children and Youth will present public art ideas for the space

Mark your calendars.  You don't want to miss this one!  

June Update

Thank you to all the volunteers that helped with digging, planting, and donating plants.

We made use of the compost provided by Cesar Palacio's office.  Friends and neighbours donated all plants and mulch.

Thank you for the snacks!

Thank you to  Michael and Rhonda who have agreed to let us use their water until the city provides a connection in the park. We've also been lucky with rain while our plants get established. 

A Team Effort

We are all set to plant our first flower beds at Roseneath Park!  Group volunteers have been busy since last Thursday preparing the beds and making use of the free compost provided by our Councillor Cesar Palacio.  

 On Tuesday June 4, at 6:30, we'll have a working meeting.  Bring your spades and plants! 

DONATIONS ARE APPRECIATED!

Freddy's No Frills has generously donated a $100 certificate for their garden centre.  Thank you, No Frills!

• Low maintenance perennials are highly appreciated; if you or your neighbours are thinning out your own gardens, consider donating the trimmings to the park.
• We are advised not to plant shrubs or anything too tall or invasive.  This is for visibility, safety and ease of maintenance.
• The soil has not been tested and approved for growing edibles.  We look forward to growing food plants in the future!

Compost Day at Roseneath Park

Just a reminder that compost will be available in the park this afternoon 5-8 p.m.  
Friends of Roseneath will be on hand getting part of our community garden started.