"Morse Street Playground sits within a major fly-way of over 320 species of birds who live, breed or migrate from the Lake Ontario shoreline (spec. Leslie Spit) up through the Don Valley.
310 of those specie are native (Ralph Toninger, Restoration Ecologist,
Toronto and Region Conservation Authority). Native birds need to eat the
native food they've co-evolved with: the seeds, berries, and native bugs supported by native plants. These facts are the most
compelling reason for a native plant naturalization in our park."
In early spring 2007, prior to proposing any action, the gardening group met and collectively wrote the following 3 documents for guidance:
1. Bio-Regional Inventory of Morse Street Playground (spring 2007)
Morse Street Playground is located within the Deciduous Forest Region of Southern Ontario (aka "The Carolinian Life Zone”) in the Lower Don Valley River Watershed.
This landscape was historically water edge / wetland habitat (bog or marsh on various accounts), but, like many parts of Toronto’s Lake Ontario shoreline, it was filled with garbage, excavation and / or rubble in-filling. Geologists call this layer of fill “Geological Layer IV”. Archives show the .27 hectares (.67 acres, or, in other words, 2/3’rds of an acre) of park land, located at 76 Morse Street Toronto Ontario, existing as an open field among what are still the current streets, alleys, and many of the houses, since at least as early 1896. The city of Toronto did not keep historic records of in-fill contents at this time, (in fact they only started to in the latter 1900’s). The contents of the parks soil are thus unknown. However, at south end of Morse St., when the dead of the Gardiner expressway was removed in 2001, the soil there was found to contain various contaminants incl. mercury, lead, benzene at levels dangerous even to passive human use (e.g. biking and walking trails), and thus were capped and replanted over. Also, in the late 1980’s, properties in the neighbourhood including those along the park were found to contain various contaminants at levels harmful enough to human health to require their removal and replacement by the city in the early 1990's, however, this removal was only at a shallow surface level.
The landscape of the park is a flat plain slightly elevated from the road and alleyway which drain into the Lower Don watershed and Lake Ontario via old combined sewers (raw sewage + storm water run-off overflow). The park’s soil absorbs water well, and run-off drains efficiently, thus flooding and vernal ponds do not occur. However the park and area sits within the Don River’s historic “100 year flood” plain. Much of the park is covered in turfgrass on a layer of slightly-compacted -> compacted dry->moist clay soil. The turfgrass on site has not been treated with pesticides or petroleum based fertilizers since at least 2005, possibly earlier.
The park cannot be realistically “restored” to its historic natural ecosystem (people have homes here: mud flats and other wetlands are not even remotely feasible.) To gain insight into the natural character of the park’s current landscape however, imagine a scenario of no further human interference, e.g. if a “do nothing” or “no mow” policies were enacted on an area of the park, with no subsequently intentional plantings. The landscape would soon become a post-human-disturbance dry to moist, clay based meadow. Or, more rigorously, what the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources’(OMNR) Ecological Land Classification (ELC) system calls a “Cultural Meadow – Mineral Cultural Meadow Ecosite, Dry-Moist Old Field Meadow Type” / CUM1-1. In our area, if left to regenerate on its own, this type of meadow would quickly be dominated by invasive exotic plant species such as Dog-strangling Vine, tree of heaven, Canadian thistle, wild burdock, sweet white clover, pigweed, common plantain, Queen Anne’s lace. Milkweeds, asters, goldenrod and poplars are native flora species which would also likely regenerate on their own. This young meadow plant assemblage is a common sight along the nearby Lake Ontario shoreline, including Leslie Spit. These species are almost certainly viable within in the park soil’s existing seed bank. The same species’ seeds are also continually windblown to the park from alleys, the Port Lands brownfields, a railway yards, and nearby neglected residential and commercial properties. Manual removal methods combined with immediate planting of desired species seeds or plants and then surrounding area with bark mulch wil be used as a control in all gardens beds in or in front the park. The site’s micro-climate is a Zone 5->6a. There is no wind protection on the south edge. Recent summers have challenged flora and fauna with long hot, dry spells (21 consecutive days without precipitation in 2006), leaving even native drought tolerant species such cup plant wilted for supplemental watering. Toronto’s average frost-free date is May 10th.
Natural assets:
Faunal:
o birds: Morse Street Playground sits within a major fly-way for over 320 species of birds who live, breed or migrate from the Lake Ontario shoreline (spec. Leslie Spit) up through the Don Valley. 310 of those specie are native (Ralph Toninger, Restoration Ecologist, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority). Native birds need to eat the native food they've co-evolved with: native plant seeds, berries, and the native bugs supported by native plants. These facts are the most compelling reason for a native plant naturalization in our park.
o squirrels
o raccoons
o domestic and feral cats
o skunks
o domestic dogs
o opposum
o groundhog Marmota monax
o pollinating bats and insects, including various species of bees, and butterflies, such as blue sulphur, red admiral, checkerspot, eastern tiger swallowtail, mourning cloak and large migrating populations of species-at-risk Monarch butterflies
Floral:
o trees
o turfgrass field
o invasive and exotics weeds
o 3 cultivated garden beds, tended by area resident, include exotic ornamental and native plants
o
Cultural assets:
Morse Street Playground including our community garden is public space.
The park, in the former borough of East York, is in Toronto City Council’s Ward 30, currently represented by Paula Fletcher. Representing the provincial and federal “Toronto-Danforth” electoral district are NDP MPP Peter Tabuns and NDP federal party leader Jack Layton. The few blocks around the park are an intensively urbanized mixed-use (residential/commercial/industrial) pocket of downtown-east Toronto. The neighbourhood is currently known by several names including the Film (or Studio) District, Leslieville, South Riverdale and South of Eastern. Since 2004, the real estate values of the area (E01) have seen some of the highest growth in Toronto. Many of the houses are semi-detached Victorians, not high density, populated by renters, owners, and a few absent landlords. Higher density housing without yards and very little green space occurs along Pape north of Eastern. Major bike paths as well as the TTC (Queen St. 501 streetcar) are very accessible. Morse Street is lined with 100+ yr old native silver maples, while Logan Avenue shows off a brilliant spring burst of purple flowering cherry trees. Most of the houses have front porches that overlook sidewalks often used by local residents, including dog-walkers, and also pedestrians, cyclists and shoppers. Gardening is popular and many of the postage stamp sized front and back yards are a diverse patchwork of designs. The residents consist of people who have lived here since the 1950’s, or even 3 generations of family, as well as a large newer wave of residents since approximately 2000, many of whom have renovated existing homes or purchased recently built townhouses where there were smaller older homes and vacant lots. The retail community along Queen is popular and recently, progressive community-minded independently owned businesses have opened at the north end of Morse Street at Queen Street, including independent coffee shops, clothing stores, vegetarian restaurants and a car sharing site. Many of the above factors contribute to a vital presence of people and consequently the area immediately surrounding the park is a popular, healthy, functioning, very “livable” community, with a sense of security / eyes on the street, and “knowing who your neighbours are.”
City of Toronto Parks East maintain the parks’ playground equipment, drinking fountain, lifeguard attended wading pool, sandbox, brick bathroom / change room / storage shed, benches, picnic table, tether ball post, garbage container, recycling container, volleyball posts and field. Most of the park is a large turfgrass mixed-use playing field which is a regularly mowed by the city. This area of the park is used for dogs-off-leash, barefoot water-fights, catch, frisbee, birthday parties, fireworks, picnics, soccer. Less frequent use includes volleyball, impromptu skate boarding ramps, basketball and snow forts. Park users are mostly local young families, children, dogs and dog-walkers. At night, street lamps plus lamps in the park keep the area reasonably lit. Incidents of crime (e.g. vandalism, crack use, dealing and prostitution) are extremely infrequent, however, the area remains vulnerably flanked by such activity on Carlaw Avenue to the east, a few homes on Logan, as well as both Eastern Avenue and Queen Street East to the north. Backyard fences that were recently built between Carlaw and Morse streets have resulted in decreased pedestrian traffic between the park and Carlaw Avenue. Dogs were officially not allowed in the park until some point in the past 2 years. Since then the presence of dog walkers in the park has increased, and dog walkers effectively provide eyes-and-ears in the neighbourhood during most times of day, throughout the year.
(Nick Eyles. University of Toronto. Ontario Rocks, Three billion years of environmental change. 2002 Fitzhenry and Whiteside. Lee, H.T., W.D. Bakowsky et al. Ecological Land Classification for Southern Ontario: First Approximation and Its Application. 1998. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. South Central Sciences Section, Science Development and Transfer Branch. SCSS Field Guide FG-02.
2. Stakeholders to whom we are responsible:
we are accountable to and responsible for advocating the best interests of all park stakeholders, including:
- park’s human users: stewards / gardeners, each other and our children
- park’s immediate neighbours
- park’s larger community of human residents (who may be interested and want to be engaged in their community but are too shy or too busy to participate in community garden meetings)
- park’s local economic community (e.g. if supplies required = buying local)
- end users / consumers of any product (e.g. plants, seeds, veggies) we harvest from park
- city workers
- dogs
- wildlife “if it shouldn’t be coming out of a squirrels ass, it shouldn’t be in the park”
- biodiversity
- the land
- the hydrology of the Lower Don Valley watershed
….present and future.
***
3. Our garden respects, encourages and nourishes…
…creative and responsible use of public space
…the safety and health of stewards and community
…a diversity of ideas
…consensus decision making
…beauty
…education and skills development opportunities for stewards, our children and community
…sense of accomplishment
…re-localization of organic food economies (pending further discussion re: soil testing / as standards & assurances of food safety permit)
…naturalization
…habitat for wildlife and pollinators
…stewardship / being trustworthy temporary caretakers of the land
…inclusiveness, accessibility, soliciting opinions, and welcoming new particpation
…equality, mutual respect, among each other and all stakeholders
…participants choosing their own level of involvement
…friendship
…organic methods and materials
…ethically propagated plants and seeds, e.g. not wild-dug, GM,
patented or cloned (seed propagated instead)
…recording what we plant (especially important re: heirloom vegetables and native plants), what we do, what we observe (e.g. wildlife sightings, photographs) and monitoring progress
…communicating what needs to be accomplished, repaired or acquired sustain garden
…biodiversity
…introducing people to unique foods
…healing / remediating the land
…the health of the Lower Don Valley watershed
…smart watering practices (e.g. grouping plants of similar water needs together; not watering in mid-day when avoidable, watering plants deeply to discourage shallow roots which would only require more water)
…sustainable design, plant selection, land use methods and materials
…realistic maintenance / simplicity
…financial sustainability
…re-localized economies e.g. services &/or materials sourced from local independent merchants
…cruelty-free / compassionate materials
…crime prevention
…creative solutions to prevent or discourage potential vandalism
…using stewards’ and community members’ unique skills or knowledge
…plain language and accessible communication
…all park stakeholders’ best interests --human, wildlife, dogs -- present and future: see: “Inventory of Morse Street Playground’s Stakeholders”
…transparent decision making
…peace (saying what we’re thinking/feeling. listening to each other. in dialogue and conflict, to resolve to work toward understanding each other. also, stepping in / helping to mediate conflicts.)
…working with and listening to the land / site-informed land use: not imposing plants or designs w/o due consideration to the site’s micro-climate, and cultural and physical landscape. see “Bio-regional Inventory of Morse Street Playground”
…a clean park
…pride, joy and celebrating accomplishments
…being kind and useful
...using these goals to guide our activities.
-members of Morse Street Playground Community Garden, April 7, 2007
