If you have ideas for resources to share or shareable stories of kindness, please send them to: neighbourhoods@waterloo.ca

PS ~ are you following @citywaterloo on Instagram?

The City of Waterloo wants to recognize people who do something great, big or small, in their neighbourhood. Nominations will be accepted year-round and every nominee will receive a thank you package.

How can you get involved?

Debora shares "Our neighbours Janet and Randy have always been the kind of neighbours everyone should have. They are kind, considerate and always willing to help or lend a hand when needed without being asked. They keep an eye on our house if we are away, help with snow removal or helping with odd jobs when asked. Janet often will pop a note to you in times of illness or challenging times. She has even shared her culinary skills with freshly canned fruit. This past year, since our first covid lockdown, Janet has been particularly helpful with making sure we always had someone looking out for us. Janet has on many occasions did grocery runs for us to ensure we had fresh food items and other items we wanted when we didn't feel safe going for them ourselves. She has often picked up delivered parcels for us that have been left on our porch and holds them for safe keeping so they don't disappear and always lets us know if she feels something isn't quite right around our house. Janet is truly someone who deserves to be recognized as a great and trustworthy neighbour who goes above and beyond for us and the neighbourhood."

The Parkland Strategy is a document to guide planning and actions in City of Waterloo parks over the next 10-15 years. The draft strategy is based on feedback collected during the initial public consultation as well as extensive research, analysis and visioning with the community.

There are 77 recommendations that outline action in different areas that impact local parks in the short, medium and long term during this period. Many of these items impact neighbourhood life and wellbeing and are connected to use, amenities, staff resources, events, programs, and funding in parks.

Topics included that could be of interest to your neighbourhood include:

Save the date: Parkland Strategy Conversation with Neighbourhoods, September 21 from 7-9PM.

Donna shares: "The Foxhunt Neighbourhood Group requested a Mini Grant to cover the material costs to build 3 two storey Little Libraries for our Neighbourhood. Marc E. modified a design to create them and they are fabulous! They are a great addition to our neighbourhood!

We have worked with several neighbourhood volunteers and are excited to see the Little Libraries pop up around the 'hood. We have installed one at the Co-Op, another going up on private property at the corner of Redfox and Hunterswood. In September we will have one also in a nearby Park."

Colleen commented: "The experience I had working on the little library was positive and enjoyable. It was incredible meeting new, enthusiastic people in our neighbourhood. A million thanks to everyone for all your help and hard work."

Joyce commented: "I am so grateful to the City of Waterloo for the grant that allowed us here at the Co-op to have our own Little Library. The process from start to finish was seamless thanks to everyone involved in getting the grant, coordinating the process, building the structure, painting it, and installing it. It was a pleasure to get to know some of the people involved."

Jenn's comment: "My daughter Melissa: it's been fun working with different people and helping out!"

On August 12, neighbours in Lincoln Village West enjoyed cool ice cream treats from a food truck and physically distanced reconnections thanks to the help of a mini grant.

Organizer Zain shares "Lots of neighbours, many with children stopped by for an ice cream and a neighbourly hello."

Friends of Waterloo Park, working together with the City of Waterloo and the City of Waterloo Museum, invite you to participate in an in-person or virtual tour of Waterloo Park. The Stories of Waterloo Park tour provides fun and interesting historical stories of different areas and features of the park.

Drop by the Visitor and Heritage Information Centre to grab a printed map of all the tour stops. There are 24 stops along the way; each location is marked by a sign with a QR code that you can scan with your mobile device to get additional information about that location.

The virtual tour is located at waterloo.ca/park-stories and each tour stop is marked with a pin.

Read the media release for more details

The City of Waterloo and neighbourhood partners are working together to replace the playground structure at Old Post Park. The neighbourhood provided feedback on desired play equipment and accessibility needs, and we have posted the results in the project news feed.

The playground design consultant has provided two playground designs based on that feedback. Please visit the Engage Waterloo project page to review the design concepts and complete a short survey to indicate your preferred design. The survey is open until September 8, 2021.

How many of us have periwinkle (Vinca minor) in our gardens? It’s sold at local garden centres as an easy-care ground cover. It’s attractive, with its shiny evergreen leaves and tiny purple flowers, and once it’s been planted you really don’t have to do much to maintain it. It can survive in a wide range of soil conditions and it spreads quickly so you can cover the difficult spots in no time.

The problem is that it is a rather nasty, invasive plant that, once planted, can be difficult to remove - it will grow back from any root material left behind so simply pulling out what you see above ground won’t get rid of it. It creates dense carpets of vegetation that limit the amount of sunlight available to other plant species, it competes with native species for nutrients, and it too often escapes from gardens into surrounding farmland, reducing crop yields, and into woodlands, crowding out natives like Trillium and Trout lilies. Instead of periwinkle, why not try Wild ginger (Asarum canadense) or Creeping thyme or Stonecrop sedum (Sedum spurium).

Learn more about invasive, non-native plant species and what to plant instead.

Photo credit: Heather. Breithaupt Park, July 2020 - perwinkle has completely taken over the forest and eradicated the native species.

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Waterloo Neighbourhoods is published throughout the year to keep residents informed about the good things happening in neighbourhoods across Waterloo. If you have any questions or comments, please call 519-747-8515 or email communications@waterloo.ca. If you’re reading Waterloo Neighbourhoods as a non-subscriber, visit our subscription page to sign up for future editions.

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