At TNS Leaside Park,2024 was another busy and productive year.

The year began with a park Clean-Up event in collaboration with The Neighbourhood Organization.

During the year, we held 20 stewardship events, with an average of 5 people at each event, for a total of 226 volunteer hours. We removed 23 bags of garbage and 57 bags of invasive species from the site.

We were fortunate that the City permitted us to extend our site to a level triangular area to the east of our original site. This beautiful forest area contained some invasive winged euonymus shrubs, all of which we have now removed. A small patch of invasive Lilly of the Valley was eradicated. Some areas of Dog-strangling vine were cut or pulled before they could produce seeds. These areas will need ongoing work.

We were also allowed to plant native species. We did three plantings. First, we added plants such as trillium and intermediate wood ferns to various locations across both park sections. Then, in two stages, we planted a native plant garden near the playground. We added plants such as evening primrose, white snakeroot, butterfly milkweed, and wild bergamot.

Thornncliffe Park Urban kindly allowed us access to their water pipe so we could keep our seedlings watered.

We arranged a tree tour with local tree expert Stephen Smith. This attracted a large audience, and we all learned a great deal. Stephen was impressed by the wide range of native trees, including ironwood, hickory, beech, and northern red oak, that are growing in Leaside Park.

We hope to get permission to add a further section to the park in 2025, extending it east into a mature sugar maple forest. We will also be able to do some more planting, including new plants grown from seeds we collected in Leaside Park this fall.

We will continue to remove invasive species, especially dog-strangling vines and creeping bellflowers. If we get permission to extend the site, we will remove Norway maples and non-native avens from that area.

The City has granted TNS the right to remove additional native invasive species, above and beyond the 16 we are already allowed to remove.

We have achieved a great deal by removing invasive species such as European buckthorn, allowing room for the native species that support local birds, bees and butterflies, and replacing invasive burdock with native plants like woodland sunflower.

So far, we have identified over fifty different native species of native plants growing at TNS Leaside Park. We aim to increase the number in our plant inventory by identifying more of the plants growing on the site and by planting additional species to increase biodiversity further.

We will continue this work in 2025. Given the environmental damage caused by essential infrastructure works in the neighbourhood and the anticipated increase in the local population due to new housing construction, it is essential that we do all we can to preserve the natural beauty of Leaside Park. We hope that you will join us.

Best wishes

John Oyston
Catharine Mackenzie

What will we be doing in 2025?

The stewardship season will probably restart in April.

As always, this will depend on the weather and on which invasive species need to be controlled most urgently. 

In spring, we will begin by removing garbage and garlic mustard. We will also extend our native plant gardens.

In the summer, we will attack creeping bellflower and urban avens

We have pruned most of the buckthorn, but there is still a bit left, which needs removing.

We must persist with removing dog-strangling vines, particularly in preventing them from releasing seeds.

In the fall, we will collect seeds to grow over winter.

If we could recruit more volunteers, we could extend our site further to the east.

For more information

TNS Leaside Park Facebook Page.

TNS website: https://torontonaturestewards.org/

TNS Leaside Park Instagram Page: https://www.instagram.com/tnsleasidepark/

What grows at Leaside Park? Find out on our iNaturalist Project page at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/tns-leaside-park. Feel free to add your own observations using the iNaturalist smartphone app!

E-mail: JohnPOyston@gmail.com