Check out what’s coming to Highland Park!
If you have walked or driven by the community hall lately, you may have noticed some construction activity on the south side of the hall where the old playground used to exist. We are excited to announce that Highland Park will be getting a rain garden which will be an effective and aesthetically pleasing way of dealing with the vast amounts of stormwater that has caused flooding to the hall’s basement in the past.
Excavation of the old irrigation lines that have been inoperable since 2009 has been completed. They have been tapped off for now, but may be used in the future for garden boxes if we are able to secure further funding.
The Rain Garden project is fully funded by the Alberta Low Impact Development Partnership. A Rain Garden is a natural and beautiful way to manage stormwater and is usually fed with water from the downspouts. The wide variety of plants that will be planted are all native species (including some fruit-bearing plants and shrubs), and they are adapted to Calgary's climate of drought conditions much of the time followed by major rainstorms followed by Chinook winters. HPCA is planning to augment these plantings with fruit trees planted on the site. We look forward to seeing how this takes shape this summer and grows over the next few years.
We need volunteers to water and weed the garden once it is completed in late July. Please email president@hpca.ca and we will set up a group of volunteers to ensure that the garden gets the best start possible! If you’d like to read more about the benefits of rain gardens and their uses in Calgary, you may read this article.