Manor Park Enviro

05/05/2026

04/29/2026

Celebrate bike riding this spring at the Crichton Community Council’s Annual New Edinburgh Bike Day - rain or shine on Saturday, May 2 from 10 am to 2 pm at New Edinburgh Park. Fun food & drink options, a used bike sale and donations to Vélo Vanier, free minor bike adjustments with Full Cycle and a Kidical Mass Ottawa family-friendly bike ride are some of the highlights. For details, please visit newedinburgh.ca.

To attend the Kidical Mass family bike ride, please gather starting at 9:30am as the ride departs at 10am to kick-off the festivities! Registration is optional, link and info here in the comments

bike_ottawa

04/21/2026

Sharing important info on Blue Squill!!

While the blue carpet of Blue Squill may look pretty, it’s actually pretty… invasive.
These plants spread into natural areas and choke out much needed plants our local butterflies and bumblebees need for food and shelter.

Why squill is a problem — four quick facts:

🥺Escapes & dominates 🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
Dense mats of squill crowd out native spring flowers like trout‑lily and trillium in deciduous forests like maple–beech forests

🥺Rapid Replication: Bulbs, seeds, ants, repeat 🐜🔁
Each bulb splits, which slowly but steadily form colonies. At the same time flowers produce seeds (A mature plant = 1000+ seeds.) Ants carry these seeds metres away. Seedlings flower in just three years, restarting the cycle. (Note: The variety ‘Spring Beauty’ is triploid and sterile.)

🥺 Toxic to pets & people🤢☠️
All parts of the plant contain compounds that can be fatal if eaten.

🥺 The risk score just jumped 🤬
In 2017, Scilla sibirica was initially thought to have low invasive risk. Fast forward to 2025, squill moves from “Low” to “High” Risk due to new field records, climate‑match mapping, and seed‑viability research. Let’s no longer underestimate this plant!

👉🏿What gardeners (& retailers) can do💪💪

✅Press pause before planting. If you see squill bulbs for sale, flag the issue with the retailer—ask them to switch to native spring bulbs 🚩

✅ Contain existing patches:
◦ Dead‑head flowers before they seed.
◦ Dig bulbs when soil is moist; trash them (don’t compost).🪏
◦ Never dump garden waste near natural areas.
◦ Don’t share bulbs or take them to your cottage.

✅ Re‑plant with pollinator‑friendly natives that give a spring pop of colour:

◦ Mertensia virginica — Virginia bluebells
◦ Claytonia caroliniana — spring beauty
◦ Anemone quinquefolia — wood anemone
◦ Erythronium americanum — trout‑lily
◦ Sanguinaria canadensis — bloodroot

“Ecological harm doesn’t vanish when the petals do.”

🛑Stop selling this plant in stores.

Want to do more? Visit :
Canadian Coalition for Invasive Plant Regulation

Facts about Blue Squill taken from a 2025 post by cathykavassalis and viewsfromthethunderbox designed and drew the comic.

04/20/2026

Are you looking to help with a community clean-up effort this weekend, leading up to ?
Join neighbours from Dunbarton Court to help clean-up litter at the entrance to the Macoun Marsh walking path and the surrounding wood edge in advance of the re-opening of the Macoun Marsh next week!!!
They will meet from 10-11am Saturday April 25th in the parking lot behind St. David &St. Martin Church (yellow star). Bring your own gloves if possible!

Manor Park Community Association
Manor Park Community Council
Beechwood, Funeral, Cemetery and Cremation Services

04/03/2026

The Manor Park Community Garden at St. Columba has had a handful of open garden plots become available for this season.
The garden is located behind St. Columba Anglican Church at 24 Sandridge Road.
Regular garden boxes are raised beds that are 8 ft x 4 ft and 2 ft tall, some boxes have larger dimensions and some are accessible.
The membership fee is $45 for a regular raised bed for the entire season.
There are some shared volunteer tasks throughout the season - including helping to fill up the rain barrels and taking turns weeding and watering the shared food bank garden boxes.
If you’re interested in one of the available beds, please email the garden coordinator as soon as possible: [email protected]

03/13/2026

Have your say! This is a great opportunity to improve Beechwood and make it much easier, safer and more pleasant to travel to and thru, especially for those using sustainable modes like walking and biking!

The City of Ottawa has initiated a Functional Design Study for Beechwood Avenue from the Vanier Parkway to Beechwood Cemetery (as shown in map below). The study will explore the following in developing a holistic design for the street: Improvements to sidewalks and

03/10/2026

FYI - Manor Park Community Council if you have lonely mittens!

03/10/2026

Recently an inquiry about the safety of allowing right turns on red (RTOR) was brought forward to the Ottawa Public Works and Infrastructure Committee by Councillor Ariel Troster. Ottawa city staff responded to this by claiming that RTOR is in fact safer for pedestrians. But could this possibly be t...