The Hintonburg Community Association has partnered with the Hintonburg Economic Development Committee on maintaining a number of parks within Hintonburg.
Here are some 2023 reflections from one of the lead volunteers involved in that project.
Excerpts from a longer report:
The Hintonburg Community Association has been involved with beautifying the parks for many years to build community and establish a presence in our parks.
In 2023, the HCA re-established a committee of volunteers to maintain the gardens in Somerset Square, Parkdale, McCormick Parks and to provide some support to the Hintonburg Marche garden.
This project involved going over to the park to :
- pick up garbage and fallen twigs after storms,
- plant newly donated plants,
- water new plants when possible (many parks have no or little water availability)
- trimming bushes that extend into walking paths,
- weed as required
- dealing with invasion of box elder nymphs,
- reporting issues such as drug needles (only twice), overflowing garbage cans to 311 and park
maintenance staff, - creating an inventory of plants in the park, recording when they bloom and whether they survived,
- creating an inventory of the 40 trees in the park using a Neighbourwood app and maps.ottawa.ca/geoottawa
- returning the contents of a stolen back pack to its grateful owner
- liaising with other park volunteers, users of the park, city staff
I enjoyed working on this project because it gave me an opportunity to meet some of my neighbours. The park is well used by people sitting on benches to chat or do work on their cell phone, children playing on the play structures, people having meals and playing board games, dog walkers, bicycle riders, people walking through to do their errands, people sitting on the grass. It is a pleasant area to enjoy watching the world go by.
I joined the Hintonburg Community Environment Committee because I wanted to find how I could improve the environment. This project gave me a place to do what I love – garden and get rid of garbage on our streets. It made me more aware of what a good community we have.
I was wondering if the HCA Environment Committee might work on getting people to commit to picking up garbage they see on their streets all through the year not just on one day. The City has done a good job of providing lots of garbage bins so it would be easy for dog walkers to pick up trash as they walk their dogs or do their errands.
