Despite not being able to visit inside the library this summer, we've all certainly enjoyed the outside yard, thanks to hard work of the Green Dreamers. Here's a few snapshots of volunteers from the Green Dreamers putting the garden to bed for the winter. 'Til next year!

Well the autumn leaves are tumbling down and the weather is turning colder both day and night now. Our 15 garden beds, after a summer of glorious sun and intermittent rain fared very well after a slow, dry start in July. Because of COVID, our volunteer group of eleven dedicated gardeners were delayed in starting this spring because of the City’s restrictions on community ornamental gardening. Green Dreamers took our direction from the City’s Adopt-a-Road Program about the start-up date after lockdown.

The volunteers of the Bridge to Bridge community reforestation project will be planting a limited number of trees and doing clean up maintenance this weekend on Saturday, October 3, 2020 at 9 am. We will meet along Canal Woods Terrace at the bottom of Aylmer Avenue.  We have a small number of trees to plant, and maintenance – pruning and cleaning up around the base of the trees – on many of our grown trees.  So please bring shovels, pruning shears, and pruning saws if you have them.  Gardening gloves are also a good idea. Feel free to bring your kids to help out and learn about trees.

Diligent watering and weeding has paid off. And heat and sun has done the rest.

Gardening Restart June 22, 2020

Wouldn’t you know it as soon as I wrote the last update we got the word from the city Adopt-a-Road program manager that we could restart gardening respecting physical distance, wearing gardening gloves of course and having no more than 10 people at the bed at any one time.

Our local gardening group has had an unusually easy beginning this spring season with the Covid outbreak. My spouse Mike and I took over the job of coordinating this group which was so ably done by Winnie Pietrykowski and Brian Ure for the last four years.

A striking plant with many small white flowers and large dark green leaves may catch your eye at the Sunnyside library garden. Lots of people ask the name of this perennial.

Another gardening season is just around the corner. And in anticipation of its fifth gardening year, Green Dreamers will begin this gardening season with two new coordinators.

Ecology Ottawa is looking to host a webinar series called Living City, which would discuss all things local and green, from tree identification, to rain gardens, to urban biodiversity.

According to the experts — and common sense — one of the most important things we can do for the environment is include native plants in our gardens. Planting native species of perennials, shrubs, trees, grasses, and vines will begin to restore the natural ecosystems that we depend on for food, air, and well-being.