At the beginning of this year the Roncesvalles Village BIA successfully received a grant from PollinateTO supporting the creation of a pollinator corridor down Roncesvalles Avenue!
In 2025, the Kinship Circle of the Roncesvalles United Church approached the RVBIA with an interest in revitalizing the garden space in front of the 8th Fire Mural by Philip Cote and Jim Bravo. The RVBIA had previously noted this space as a potential candidate for a native pollinator garden, due to its proximity to the mural and central location. With the help of the community involvement through the Kinship Circle, the Roncesvalles Village BIA successfully received a grant from PollinateTO supporting the creation of this garden, and its connection to a greater pollinator corridor down Roncesvalles Avenue!
Planting for the 8th Fire Mural garden bed took place at the beginning of June. While this bed, now under the stewardship of the Kinship Circle, is a new addition, the RVBIA is involving all existing garden beds on Roncesvalles Ave as part of the corridor. With the help of Parkdale Green Thumb, an additional 400 native pollinators will begin to be planted, connecting to our 21 existing beds, and the 4 new beds south of Marion which the BIA is taking over maintenance of this year.
Reminder, these are brand new plants, so we all need to do our parts to stay out of the beds and let them grow. As with all the garden beds, please do not walk or allow your dogs in the beds, even if they look empty – we appreciate the community’s assistance with this.
Feel free to stop by and take a look at the new native pollinators they’ve planted, and keep an eye out for more coming. We are excited to see them grow 🐝
To learn more about our existing garden beds, and our four added garden beds from Marion Ave to Queen St West, read our 2026 Garden Bed update!
