RoncyWorks Green Team Profiles

Jackie Taschereau has been volunteering with RoncyWorks since 2011. She maintains the gardens at 233 and 223 Roncesvalles.

Jackie’s Garden at 233 Roncy

Jackie often refers to her involvement with RoncyWorks as gardening in the “Public Realm” and for good reason. There are many lessons she’s learnt from maintaining a sidewalk garden, including how the physical design of the bed impacts how the public interacts with it. “The slightly raised edge of a planter bed is an irresistible challenge to small children, demanding to be walked along to prove balance skills. This is preceded and followed by hopping on and off the bench.”

Jackie’s Garden at 223 Roncy

Another challenge of Jackie’s and her RoncyWorks volunteers is protecting the gardens from doubling as urban landfills. “Probably as much time is spent picking up garbage as is actually spent on gardening”. The litter Jackie and other gardeners deal far too often includes “cigarette butts and packs, coffee cups, food containers and remains, wrappers, soda cans and plastic bottles.”

Despite these setbacks, Jackie has found the benefits of tending to sidewalk gardens enriching in many ways. “I now have far better knowledge of tough plants that will survive in shade or partial shade”. Another “unforeseen benefit” of gardening has been meeting people from all walks and a newfound understanding of the importance of public gardens to communities. “I’ve got to talk to all sorts of people on the street, whom I would never otherwise have had conservations with,” said Jackie. “I find myself looking at public plantings all over the city, noticing what works and where there are problems.”

RoncyWorks Green Team Profiles

In celebration of Garden Days 2018, the Roncesvalles Village BIA is showcasing the dedicated community members who maintain our sidewalk gardens and beautify our vibrant street.

Mary Wiens

Mary Wiens has been a volunteer gardener with RoncyWorks since the community group was established in 2011. Mary helped launch RoncyWorks because “she was excited to continue involvement with other people in the community who had been meeting to discuss some improvements to the public realm along Roncesvalles”. Mary maintains the garden at 305 Roncesvalles in front of The Dizzy Gastro Sports Pub.

During her time on the Roncesvalles Renewed committee, Mary and her fellow residents advocated for improved greenery on the street. Through community engagement and partnerships with local officials, Roncesvalles Renewed secured funding for various beautification initiatives proposed by residents. This included 21 new garden beds and “better planting of street trees, which at that time struggled to survive in small concrete planter boxes that were both an impediment and an eyesore along Roncesvalles.”

Mary’s Garden at 305 Roncy

RoncyWorks sprung from Roncesvalles Renewed in 2011, after committee members and residents expressed interest in maintaining the new gardens. “Using the friendships and relationships we’d forged in that process, it made sense to build on them, by creating teams to tend the new garden beds.”

For Mary, developing friendships with RoncyWorks volunteers and community members has made public gardening especially rewarding. “I’ve met some of the best people in the neighbourhood through this community work, and my encounters with a growing circle of friends any time I go out on Roncy are enormously enriching.” It is this sense of community that also makes each of the gardeners’ beds unique in Mary’s view. “The tough little rose bushes in my bed in front of The Dizzy surprise and delight me every year, as do the plants tended by my fellow gardeners. The planting beds have a charm and personality that you don’t see in professionally maintained beds tended by the city’s parks and rec department.”

Of course, overseeing a public garden is not easy. It requires flexibility and patience. However, learning from one another has allowed Mary and her fellow gardeners to overcome the challenges affecting their gardens. “We share our victories and failures — everything from painting butt tins to a good rainfall, to our battle with dogs and vandals — with each other online. We take the vandalism,the dogs and the cigarette butts more personally. But we also take every good rainfall and every compliment from a passerby more personally as well.”

While celebrating Garden Days 2018, the Roncesvalles Village BIA reflects on the importance of streetside gardens to our community and streetscape. Garden Days is Canada’s national celebration of gardening and its impact on communities across the country. Garden Days begins on Saturday June 16 and concludes on Sunday June 24.

RoncyWorks, the Dundas Roncesvalles Peace Garden, and the Roncesvalles Village BIA will be hosting a garden tour on Sunday June 24th from 1:00 to 3:00 pm starting at the Peace Garden, at the intersection of Dundas and Roncesvalles.

Garden at 233 Roncesvalles Avenue

The planting and maintenance of streetside  gardens is an ongoing collaboration between all three groups to create a colourful and scenic environment, and is supported by the Roncesvalles Village BIA.

Established in 2011, RoncyWorks is a community volunteer group made up of residents that aim to enhance the Roncesvalles Avenue streetscape.

The history of the existing sidewalk gardens on Roncesvalles Avenue dates back to 2009, when the Roncesvalles Village BIA set up the sub-committee named Roncesvalles Renewed to focus on potential enhancements for the street during the anticipated reconstruction. Composed of community members and the BIA’s Beautification Committee Chair, Roncesvalles Renewed consulted local groups, residents’ associations and key stakeholders. The group recommended the construction of garden beds, made design recommendations to City planners, and assisted in the planting of more than 100 diverse, native trees. In 2011,  the City of Toronto constructed 21 garden beds along Roncesvalles. The RVBIA assumed responsibility for their maintenance, and began the collaborations with volunteers to maintain the street’s garden beds, along with help from member businesses.

The Friends of Dundas Roncesvalles Peace Garden is a sister organization formed in 2009 to turn a barren jut of concrete at a busy intersection into a green, commemorative, community gathering place. Multiple community partners pressed forward the remarkable design and interesting features seen today. The Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation joined in to share history identifying the origin of this portion of Dundas Street as an Indigenous path, and local participation in the War of 1812. They worked together with the Peace Garden group on the City’s first cooperative community arts project with a Toronto youth group, which produced a set of 24 engraved pavers known as the Peace Path. It winds around the Garden. These projects are illustrated on a jointly sponsored plaque. At the entrance to the Peace Path is the City’s first utility box painting by an Indigenous artist, created to celebrate the opening of the Peace Garden in 2016. Each year Indigenous plantings, complete with story and celebration, are featured. This year, Chief Stacey Laforme and two local children planted sacred tobacco. Watch it grow, in a large circle on the eastern side of the Peace Garden.

Garden Days is about celebrating how gardening contributes to a cleaner environment and happier community, which is something the RVBIA has prioritized with their streetside gardens. The RVBIA, RoncyWorks and the Friends of DRPG volunteers have prioritized the planting of more pollinator, and sustainable perennial plants that can weather Toronto winters and regrow in the spring. Annual plants, typically colourful flowers, complement the perennials to create lush gardens bordering the street and sidewalk. We encourage you to take a walk down Roncesvalles to see or sit by the gardens, watch for a butterfly, and enjoy the close-to-nature ambiance of the street.

We will be producing a series of blog posts to celebrate our gardens and the extraordinary gardeners who volunteer their time to design and maintain them.