Location: Roncesvalles United Church - NW corner Roncesvalles & Wright Avenue – across from High Park library.

There are 6 garden areas: Three on Roncesvalles Avenue and three on Wright Avenue.

The gardens are well established now so this year there was basically some changes because of site conditions, soil improvement, continued naturalizing spring bulbs and a new native shrub planting.

Bulbs

The spring garden bulbs are naturalizing nicely. The additional winter aconite and snowdrops that were planted helped carry your eye across the two Roncy gardens. The only bulb disappointment was the new Tulipa Persian pearl which were fuchsia on the package but bloomed more red which isn’t the colour palette for the main Roncy garden. A neighbourhood walk inspired planting some blue camassia bulbs in the fall and I’m looking forward to them come spring.

Design

The Roncy right stair garden has always been challenging as it’s competing with the large city “diva” tree. The existing variegated honeysuckle shrub brightens the area on the left side so two Hadspen cream brunnera were added to the right to balance the variegation and also provide a little bonus with its’ blue spring blooms. The Wright/Roncy corner garden with its city tree getting bigger each year meant more shade and some changes were due. The variegated sedum were grouped together. Another Johnson’s blue geranium with its super looooooong bloom time was added for more mass planting/visual impact for this mostly purple garden.

Unexpected Challenges

An unexpected challenge this year was some necessary building repair work at the front of the church where the most established garden is. Scaffolding with its full wood board protection meant the large yellow dogwood didn’t see sunlight for about a month. Fortunately much damage didn’t occur once it finally saw sunshine again and it continued to flourish throughout the rest of the season.

Joy

One big joy and “start the car, start the car” moment occurred when I went to purchase a native serviceberry shrub for the Wright Avenue grassy area. I wanted a native shrub that would provide both spring flowers, beautiful fall foliage and tasty berries – so serviceberry fit the bill. Fiesta gardens had the particular type I wanted at a cheaper price than last year and I was able to use our Hort member discount as well – so win win. I installed a small wooden lattice to protect it against dogs etc. Although we did get a fair share of rain it was monitored closely during dry spells. I read a FB post recently that due to the climate changes shrubs need monitoring not only the first year but the second as well.

Best in show

The winner of the longest blooming award went to the Nepeta in the main Roncy garden. It grew so large and bloomed so profusely into the fall that it was sad to cut it back hard for the winter. Unfortunately gardening for a community is very different than a personal garden so accommodations have to be made otherwise a messy looking garden encourages garbage.

Maintenance

Although the gardens are well established some compost and mulch were added to several areas. There was a huge proliferation of allium babies that had to be dug up so the perennials in the main Roncy garden wouldn’t be overshadowed. Creeping bellflower was also addressed in several gardens and as any gardener knows it will be a constant battle to deal with them for many years to come.

Many thanks for Hort’s support to help continue brightening our little part of the world.

- Anne Karpynczyk