Green Space
October 22nd, 2009
WHAT: 5th Annual Human River
WHEN: Sunday, October 25 @ 1pm
WHERE: Meet at 12:30pm at the Pavilion at Christie Pits
Human River is an ongoing
…
September 21st, 2009
WHAT: LEAF’s last tree tour for 2009
WHEN: Wednesday, September 23 @ 6pm
WHERE: St. James Town. Meet at northwest corner of Winchester Street and Rose Avenue (Winchester Public School).
Fall has almost officially arrived. And as the summer comes to a close, so do LEAF’s popular Toronto Tree Tours. LEAF arborist Todd Irvine (also one of Spacing’s founding editors, our former Greenspace columnist, and a regular contributor to the Spacing Toronto blog) has conducted over 80 tours throughout Toronto over the past four years, raising our awareness of the importance the urban forest and turning the media and local politicians on to trees by making issues of mulch, soil compaction and canopy cover sexy (or at least sexier than they sound).
The last tree tour of 2009 is set to take place this Wednesday at 6pm in St. James Town. This will also be Todd’s last tour. Knowing that LEAF’s tree tours are in the capable hands of tour coordinator Claudio Tata, Todd, who also works as a consulting arborist, has decided to move on to explore other yet-to-be determined projects (we hope to get him talking on Spacing Radio soon).
Over 800 people attended a Toronto Tree Tour this year alone. If you weren’t one of them, or even if you were, consider joining the St. James Town tour Wednesday night. The group will meet at the corner of Winchester and Rose, in front of Winchester Public School.
July 28th, 2009
TTC workers were out watering the new green roof on top of Eglinton West subway station yesterday morning. The 9,000 square-foot garden is planted almost entirely of sedums, looking like either a carpet …
July 24th, 2009
Biking along the Eglinton bridge over the Humber, I spotted a tiny little garden on the eastern bank of the river just north of the bridge. The garden is almost entirely concealed and can only be spotted from several spots along the northern sidewalk of the bridge just west of Scarlett. The outline of the garden and its irrigation mounds can just barely be made out on Google Maps.
Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be startlingly well-kept and well-tended, growing a variety of plants protected by an elaborately built fence built out of branches and wire. There was even a small locked gate facing the river, with a thin dirt path leading to large flat stones ideally placed along the bank of the Humber for collecting water.
I spent a bit of time trying to research this garden and found that it was featured in a Jane’s Walk, but that the gardener is an “anonymous newcomer.” The property is technically owned by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, but my bet is that the garden is either entirely off their radar or they are simply turning their heads to allow the gardener(s) to work.
July 15th, 2009
Editor: Spacing is pleased to showcase films from the NFB’s online screening room. The NFB will be occasionally posting films here that explore our public spaces, Canadian or international cities …
May 25th, 2009
Each Monday, we bring you some of the popular posts from our sister blog, Spacing Montreal. We’ll keep an eye open for topics and discussions that are pertinent to current public space issues in …
April 29th, 2009
The cherry blossoms are in bloom at the University of Toronto (s-w corner of Robarts Library, corner of Harbord and Huron). They’re lovely, worth checking out if you have a chance.
The cherry …
April 17th, 2009
Editors Note: Spacing is pleased to be participating in the Toronto Public Library’s One Book program again this year. This month the library hopes the whole city will start reading Loyalty Management, …
March 24th, 2009
At the Toronto Pedestrian Committee meeting yesterday, we learned about the new version of the Toronto Parks and Trails map, which has just been released. The latest version is new and improved after consultations with members of the public who …
November 8th, 2008
With winter’s first few flakes of snow rearing their frigid faces this week, I decided to get out and try to absorb as much of the autumn atmosphere as I could before the crunch of fallen leaves underfoot gives way to the not-so walking-friendly crunch of icy, hard packed snow.
I decided to spend an afternoon in the Humber North Campus Arboretum (which is also featured in this post by our summer intern Matt Hague as part of the Campus Perspectives series) and I was actually surprised with how most of the trees have already lost their leaves here. Most of the woods was quite bare, especially the older and larger ones close to the Humber river. It was quite a change from last weekend as I was driving through Caledon and Dufferin County I was met with a full-force of autumn colours, especially as I passed through escarpment territory (which, sadly, I didn’t take pictures of).
The Arboretum is like a near-tranquil oasis in the suburban desert of Rexdale and, by my observation, is still considerably underused despite the number of field-trippers, mother and children combos, and occasional wedding party stopping by for photo shoots. Considering the Arboretum’s location, there aren’t as many students making use of this space as you would think. During the couple hours I spent walking around the gardens and the woods I only came across a half dozen students.
