Update on our progress, so far. This is our second year at the site and the progress is amazing. We are beating back invaders to create light and space for our native plants.
In June, we tackled blackberries and ivy as we worked our way south from the Trans Canada Trail towards Edinburgh St. The native plants we planted in the fall of 2024 are thriving and other native plants are making a comeback. The salmonberry and osoberry are fruiting and sending out new shoots.
A couple of times a week, our founder goes down to the site with a portable weedwhacker, to keep the blackberry and morning glory in check. He has observed a quadruple wave of invasive plants. The apex invader is the blackberry, and if left to its own devices, it will take over the entire planet! At the fringe of a blackberry infestation, English ivy gets established and then sends out far-reaching colonizers to take over the forest floor and climb up the trees.
When you remove those and create all of this empty real estate, morning glory will spread at an astonishingly rapid pace to overwhelm the newly created space. So, once you beat back that 3rd wave, buttercups, which have been lurking politely on the sidelines, will spread rapidly, densely and explosively.
So, unless we monitor the area frequently, the invaders will take over again.
If you have a weedwhacker and would like to help, message the site’s email at wonsocietyhq@gmail.com and join us in this noble effort.
Right now, we have plans to plant pollinator friendly plants on the verge between the Trail and our project, so instead of morning glory, blackberry and buttercup, we will have a section of native flowering plants that may include beauties like lupine, goldenrod, fireweed and asters.
The ecosystem is in crisis because the native plants are the foundation of a healthy native environment that starts with the soil, which supports the plants, which in turn provide food and shelter for native insects and other creatures. Those native plants are needed to provide an environment for birds, bees, beetles and butterflies.
The chain has been broken, the web of life – torn. So, we have taken it upon ourselves to try to repair a small part of the damage and it’s working, but we need to be relentless and we need your help.
To do so, we need you to join us, on September 20 at 11:00 a.m. at the north end of Gilmore Avenue where it intersects the Trans Canada Trail, as we go in and dig out the invasives and plant our native flowers. We also need to raise the funds to buy the plants we need, so you could contribute that way as well.
Stay tuned because great things are happening with our main project – the creation of a biodiversity park. We now have engaged a Landscape Architect and an Ecological expert who are collaborating with us in planning the site.
WILDSCAPING OUR NEIGHBOURHOOD SOCIETY 