Saturday Morning Tree Planting in the Park
On the first Saturday of every month (year-round), bring the kids to plant a tree in the park on the southeast side of the George Locke Library. It’s amazing how many children remember the first tree they planted as the years go by. It’s a unique chance to let kids participate in the stewardship of our urban forest.

Our goal this year is to plant 120 saplings by December. If you’re interested, we will meet at 9 am at 24 Dinnick Avenue, then head over to the park for an hour or two of making a positive difference in one of the prettiest parks in the neighborhood.

This effort is being sponsored by the Park and Tree Committee of the Lawrence Park Ratepayers Association and by the City of Toronto Parks, Forestry & Recreation Department. Children must be 6 years and older, accompanied by at least one adult. For information visit www.lpra.ca

Through the Garden Gate: Riverdale
This year marks Toronto’s 21st annual self-guided walking tour of neighborhood gardens. They are featuring the best of Riverdale with highlights of over 25 private gardens.

The gardens of Riverdale are as diverse as the residents. You'll see everything from tranquil, flowering Japanese-type gardens to lush and colourful English cottage-style gardens - and everything in between. Many of the gardens are small, so full advantage is taken of every bit of space.

If you're looking for motivation, inspiration and a great day with (or without) the family, order your tickets soon, as this event has sold out in previous years.

This year’s dates are Saturday, June 14 and Sunday, June 15, 2008 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information call 416-397-1341 or visit www.torontobotanicalgarden. ca/events/ttgg.htm

Birds on the Toronto Islands

During the spring migration (mid March to early June), the Toronto Islands and the Leslie Street Spit are among the first landfall sites for birds who’ve just completed their exhausting lake crossing. They find rest, refuge and food in Toronto Islands’ woodlands, meadows, dunes and lagoons. They’ll spend a few days R&R here before continuing on their journey to the north.

May and early June are a great time to head over to the Islands for a little bird watching. Some of the best spots are the Hanlan’s Point dunes, Gibraltar Point, Snake Island, and the Ward’s Island ESA. If you are very sharp-eyed, and have a good bird guide (a favorite is the National Geographic Guide) you’ll see warblers, wrens, flycatchers, sparrows and vireos.

This year also marks the thirtyyear anniversary of the bird banding project that is carried out every spring by the Toronto Bird Observatory. For more information about how you can support the work of the TBO, go to their website at www3.sympatico.ca/ tboweb/default.htm

Arbor Day 2008
Arbor Day is about raising awareness around the magnificent trees in Lawrence Park, the need to both maintain them and, as they continue to age, to replace them. Lawrence Park Garden Care has been a corporate sponsor with this annual event for the past three years. We’ve given out hundreds of seedlings over the last two years, and this year we provided 50 Acer saccharum seedling kits to families interested in starting their own Sugar Maple.

If you would like to volunteer and become involved with efforts to preserve and maintain the tree canopy in Lawrence Park, you can contact the Arbor Day Committee through their website at www.lpra.ca

Blythwood School
No school fundraiser would be complete without a Bouncy Castle, so Lawrence Park Garden Care made sure Blythwood School didn’t go without last year. Suffice to say, much hilarity ensued.

Teddy Bear Picnic
We are happy to participate this year in the Hospital for Sick Children’s annual Teddy Bear Picnic this year. For their silent auction LPGC provided a gift certificate for a seasonal urn display. We hope that our contribution will make a difference like it has with so many other charities with whom LPGC has been involved. LPGC believes in participating in issues of global concern, while playing an active role in our local community organizations and their humanitarian and ecological events.

CN Tower Climb
On April 17th five members of the LPGC team climbed 1776 steps each in the annual CN Tower climb to raise money for the World Wildlife Fund.

This year’s climb was focused on fighting climate change, and Craig Hutchinson, Raina Mullen, Edward Yap, Larissa Stipetic and Amy Ferguson started their challenge by leaving their cars behind and taking public transit downtown to the tower.

Amy Ferguson took first place, making it to the top in just 17 minutes and 37 seconds – go Amy! And she has shown good sportsmanship by not mentioning that she beat Craig by almost one-and-a-half minutes … at least no more than once a week.

AMREF
AMREF is the African Medical and Research Foundation Canada. Working on improving access to good health care for the most vulnerable and marginalized people, it is recognized as Africa's premier health development organization.

It was our pleasure to support this great Foundation and we look forward to participating again this year.

Toronto French School
Our seasonal urns gift certificate for the 2007 and now their 2008 TFS’s fundraiser, which helps support the school’s extra curricular programs, teaching assistants, and computer labs.

Trails Youth Initiatives
The Trails Youth Initiative is a not-for-profit charity founded to help disadvantaged kids from Toronto learn about selfconfidence, self-respect and leadership. We’re very pleased to have had the opportunity to support the work they’re doing.

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Craig Hutchinson
When Craig first launched Lawrence Park Garden Care over 20 years ago, it was pretty much a one-man-show. His personal relationship with each client was where Craig learned the importance of great customer service.
Passing this foundation onto the Horticultural Services Reps is how LPGC maintains it’s commitment to the highest quality customer service as it grows.

“Each of our Horticultural Services Reps works with one foreman and his crew to be a liaison with their clients.”
At LPGC, quality and reliability are the top priority. “As Horticultural Services Reps, our job is to maintain excellent relationships with our clients by being great problem solvers and making sure they are getting what they want from our service.”

The Horticultural Services Reps are the first people to call to discuss your current garden needs and your future visions of new landscape developments.

Rita Devgan
Growing up surrounded by people in the environmental movement in the ‘60s, it seemed very natural for Rita to pursue a career in Landscape Architecture. With her degree from University of Toronto, Rita worked in this field for the next 20 years.

What drew her to LPGC was the opportunity to focus on making sure a great landscape design actually fulfills its long-term potential, via environmentally responsible practices and products. That’s what good professional maintenance can do.

“I try to focus on making sure my client’s needs are being met and that our service schedule is working as well as it can for them. Getting help and finding solutions fast is what I’m here for.”

Rita also enjoys the fact that many of her clients want to become more knowledgeable about their gardens. “They’ll ask me questions and I love sharing what I know about plants and gardens with them. At LPGC we’re very environmentally forward, so there’s a lot of new and innovative information about garden care that I can discuss with them.”

Rita even calls her own personal garden her ‘experimental work station’. “I pick plants that I’d like to use in my client’s gardens and see first hand how they want to be treated and what works best for them.”

Brent Donaldson
As the newest member of the LPGC team, Brent is bringing 10 years of horticultural experience to his new job as an HSR. With an education in Horticulture, Forestry and Integrated Pest Management (IPM), he brings a wealth of experience to LPGC.

“I’m here to provide simplicity to our clients. They don’t need to call different people for different services. Just call me and I’ll organize the solutions and services needed. Any of your property concerns: pond, turf, garden, stonework, whatever it is, I’ll make sure it gets done to your satisfaction.”

Brent is looking forward to building his relationships with clients this year. “My prime focus is getting to know them and their gardens and making sure they have what they need to keep their home landscape looking great all through the season.”

Darren Young
Fifteen years ago, Darren started out working on a Maintenance crew with LPGC and later showed his potential as a valued Maintenance Foreman. Today, as a member of the Horticultural Service team, he brings these years of on-the-job knowledge and experience to this role.
“I want my clients to give me as much feedback as possible. I want to know right away if there’s a concern so I can get it dealt with immediately.”

Keeping in touch with every client is Darren’s goal. “I’ll try to make sure I’m in good contact with all the clients on my route, but I hope that they’ll also feel they can call or email me anytime to discuss their wishes.”

“A part of my work that I enjoy is talking to a client on a property inspection, even though they are not expecting me. I want to know how things are going and if there’s anything I can do for them. This is the best way to ensure that we can direct their garden’s growth to look its best.”