Submitted by Yvonne Sabraw on behalf of the grounds committee
We are all enjoying the extended summer, but preparations for fall and winter are well underway.
You'll notice that the picnic tables and the immovable bench in the common space have been repaired and spruced up. Thanks to those who took on these tasks! We ask members to please take care of these items as they are so useful to our membership and would be very expensive to replace outright.
Thanks also to everyone who came out to weed and then move mulch into the Food Forest and then move mulch under common space trees. Some of the trees along the 7th avenue sidewalk now have more mulch than they need and members are welcome to scoop some of that up for their own use.
Please continue to deep-root water the trees around your unit while the ground is not frozen. It has been a long, dry summer and our trees need that moisture. Let a sprinkler run over the roots (not right up against the tree trunk) for 1-2 hours, once per week.
When the temperature does drop to consistently below zero, please make sure your outdoor tap has been turned off from WITHIN your unit and the tap on the outside left open so that water does not freeze and expand in the pipes. Basement flooding occurs from such frozen pipes! If you have any questions about how to do this, please contact a Grounds member or a Buildings member who can come and help you.
We are going to try a new approach to the management of our Snow Removal contract this winter, and then the lawn care contract next summer. These contracts will now be handled by our Office Coordinator who is in a better position to respond to members' immediate concerns and communicate efficiently with the contractor because he is on site weekdays. If you have information you want to relay Monday-to-Friday about snow removal, such as areas that have been missed, checking when the crew is expected on site, commendations for work well done, etc. please call or email the office (sunnyhill@shaw.ca). On weekends, please continue to address concerns to the SHCgrounds@shaw.ca email address as we check our email daily to be able to respond in a timely manner to members. At the time this is being written, we still do not know which contractor will be hired for snow clearing. We are waiting for the Board to review the bids then finalize and sign that contract. Watch for an update in the November Newsletter.
When you are planning for spring flowers, please be very mindful about using "wildflower" seed packets that don't explicitly name the seeds that are contained within. The City Website on invasive plant species warns about the packets containing seeds for such species as Himalayan Balsam and Creeping Bell Flower which are NOT native and can be bad for the native species we want to encourage.
The Grounds Committee always welcomes new members to our crew. Winter is our period of planning for the busier seasons, so it's a great time to start on Grounds and contribute to the planning process, learn about how things work, and get to know the other Grounds Committee members. Just email us for the next meeting date - we set the dates to work for our committee members!