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August - September Maintenance 2017
From Anna Bekerman to community recreation programmer Jaydee Cornwall, July 24, 2017
Jutta and I did a walk-around of the gardens at Dufferin and identified various tasks/plans:
For Parks/Forestry crews:
1. Remove metal fences from behind the big bake oven done
2. Trim grass right up to the flower boxes around the seating area next to the big bake oven done
3. Cut down the burdock and choke cherry suckers spreading west of the big bake oven, and to edge the 'cedar garden' in that area. done, but growing back
4. Look at the dying tree behind the big bake oven, remove/trim
5. Circular garden near the field house: ask Parks to take apart the fencing, mow down nettles and other growth between the trees. Use the split rails to repair other fences in the park such as the Savannah garden (just north of the hockey pad) and the playground. Also remove any invasive species such as elm or tree of heaven.
6. Near the black walnut trees (SW corner of the park): cut down remaining undergrowth around the wild plum
7. Two forestry plantings parallel to Dufferin (SW corner of the park): thin and remove dogwoods to create clear sight-lines
8. Fountain garden: clean up the dead branches around the perimeter
9. Gardens running along the east/west path that hits Dufferin half-way down the park: clean up the undergrowth, keep the small trees and shrubs, ensure there are clear sight-lines
10. Inspect cherry tree in the vegetable garden
For Dufferin gardeners: 1. Clean up the garden around the big bake oven and create edge around it
2. Weed around the ash pit done
3. Weed savannah garden
4. Remove dogwood growing around the white pine just south of the round garden by field house
5. Move morning glory fences from beside the tree nursery
6. Tidy and edge the raspberry patch behind the cob courtyard
posted September 25, 2017
To-do list, gardens and trees
fence should come down, weeds removed
undergrowth should be removed from plum/walnut garden
dogwoods need thinning
dense dogwood shrubs cause "toilet" use
Dog walkers have reported that the inside of the "little forests" that the city installed in 2002 are being used as toilets by homeless people. There is clear evidence of wads of toilet paper inside the space. Thinning the brush would make it less inviting and also would make it safer at night.
dead branches need pruning at marsh garden
marsh garden full of trash
fence needs mending, or remove Savannah garden?
To-do list, sandpit
water stream too thin
A resident near the playground asked for the water to be turned off in case it clogs the laneway sewer with sand and leads to basement flooding. Staff responded by cutting back the water supply, which means the little engineers can no longer make rivers and dams. Staff also tried using a splitter to fan out the water, but that led to water control arguments.
arguments about "splitter control"
four-way splitter, dysfunctional
new lock on water source prevents community access
water stream the way it works best
....playing can resume
no evidence of water build-up at the sewer
The sand dumped beside the laneway storm drain at the end of May has been washed on top of the drain a number of times this summer. Requests to not dump the sand there were ignored, and then a number of requests to remove the sand also brought no action.
While this causes large puddles in the laneway, none of the house drains communicate with the laneway storm sewer drain, so the laneway drain cannot flood basements.
On September 25, Parks supervisor Lennox Morgan apparently told recreation supervisor Keith Storey that the Parks crew will remove the sand and that he will hire a contractor to pump out the sewer as well. So much trouble for everyone, for not listening in the first place!
To-do list, cob courtyard and playground
cob roof needs rebuilding
fence doesn't work to keep kids in
The split-rail fence was installed in 1998 at the request of parents, to keep little kids from running across the park, maybe even onto busy Dufferin Street. The fence needs two new split rails. Also, the parks maintenance crew made a gate so they can bring their vehicles in and out, but the gate has vertical rails and that means it no longer works as a barrier to keep the kids in. It needs some horizontal 2x4's to make a real barrier.
To-do list, basketball court
both meshes are frayed