The Friends of Riverview Park Green Spaces welcomed neighbours and volunteers to the Grand Opening of the Riverview Park Pollinator Garden on June 24, 2023. Our Councillor, Marty Carr, was on hand to say a few words and open the (tiny!) gate. Thanks to Ottawa Wildflower Seed Library for their generous donations of seeds. Daniel Buckles, who has been instrumental in the development of the pollinator garden, rain garden, food forest and other environmental improvements in Champlain Park, Ottawa, came to participate and donated a favourite book to help guide similar improvements in Riverview Park. Thank you for your support Daniel!
This pollinator garden would not have materialized without the hours and hours of work to get the permits, the materials, the garden design and the planting. The principal actors include Anna Nitoslawska, Ron Ridley, and Lynne Patenaude.
If you want to volunteer your time to help with this and other green space projects in Riverview Park, please contact FoRPGSOttawa@gmail.com.
Who will save this tree?
This majestic maple on Hospital Link Road is struggling valiantly to survive the smothering and poisoning effects of the Buckthorn that has surrounded it completely. We are hoping that through our Councillor, the City of Ottawa will remove the invasive Buckthorn or permit access to volunteers to remove the Buckthorn and save this tree. The little sapling in the foreground was planted as one of many along the Hospital Link corridor. If the Buckthorn is not controlled, it too will not survive.
Birth of a Pollinator Garden
Fall 2022 we finally received permission from the City of Ottawa to access the meadow area immediately east of the path beside the sliding hill along the Hospital Link road. Our access allows us to remove invasive species and plant native plants. In October, a group of volunteers gathered to prepare and plant a pollinator garden on the site. On October 23rd, we worked in teams, a morning and an afternoon team, to do the plantings as directed by Lynne Patenaude who did the behind the scenes work of obtaining or growing the plants, many from seed and laying out where the plants would go.
Other pollinator patches are in the planning stages and the removal of buckthorn and other invasive species is on-going.
If you would like to volunteer, please email FoRPGSOttawa@gmail.com to let us know if you are interested. Follow us on Facebook
Winter Scene
This tree at Knox and Acton is being slowly killed by Common Buckthorn through its ability to out-compete for nutrients and by chemicals released by the Buckthorn that negatively affect the soil, preventing other plants from growing near it. For more information on Buckthorn, check out the Ontario Invasive Plant Council website.