One highlight of having created the garden has been regular visits from groups interested in learning more about pollinators and ecology.
In this post Ko, who lives and is active in Parkdale, describes two nature walks that she organized and promoted that have included the Pollinator Garden. We’ve been particularly grateful for her enthusiastic ongoing volunteer work in the garden, following our first meeting in 2021.
Parkdale Nature Walk
My name is Ko. I am a Parkdale resident. As I worked as an Occupational Therapist before I moved to Canada, the health condition of community members is always in my mind. Newcomers in Parkdale usually experience higher stress to adjust themselves to the new environment, poverty, and also can lose their own traditional balanced diet, which creates a high risk of the cause of type 2 diabetes. For prevention, light regular exercise is one of the effective methods. It is challenging to pay a gym membership, but walking is easy and inexpensive. I organised “Parkdale Nature Walk” with support from Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and TD Friends of the Environment Foundation to promote walking for residents.
They happened in 2021 on October 23, 10:00 a.m. & 2:00 p.m., and October 24, 10:00 a.m. & 2:00 p.m. We met in front of the Masaryk-Cowan Community Centre and walked toward the lake. During the walk, we learned about the plants and wildlife so that participants could enjoy walking and be motivated to walk regularly. We invited about 20 participants in total. After the walks, we got some feedback from the participants. The most popular spot was the Pollinator Garden at Close Avenue and Springhurst Avenue. An organiser of the garden, Sarah, happened to be there and she kindly explained the plants in the garden. They are common native plants in Toronto, but not so common in gardens and do not get much attention. The participants learned about why it is important to have some of these plants for monarch butterflies as well. I would say it was one of the highlights of our tour. The garden has a name sign for each plant. I think it is very helpful for the participants to learn and to see the change of the plants in different seasons when they visit the garden by themselves again. I appreciate that we have such a learning resource in our community.
Parkdale Walking Group for Seniors
I joined the Parkdale Walking Group for Seniors which is run by Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre. The program includes a 30-minute walk in the Parkdale neighbourhood and 30 minutes of light exercise. After a couple of sessions, the instructor asked us for ideas about a walking route, so I mentioned the Pollinator Garden at Close Avenue and Springhurst. It was still early spring, so not so many plants could be seen there, but we revisited the site a couple of times before the end of the program. When some of the plants grew up in June and July, we could see a butterfly in the garden.
The spot was also a good cue to talk about each member’s memory of the plants and butterflies, their memories of their gardens back home, and different plants and native species. I was a bit surprised how much the garden enriched our walk. Unfortunately, the route was decided spontaneously, so although Sarah kindly offered to come to explain the plants for us, we could not make an appointment with her. I hope we can continue the program and visit the pollinator garden again soon.
