NEWS RELEASE
COLLINGWOOD DOWNTOWN BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT AREA
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Members of the Collingwood Downtown Business Improvement Area’s (BIA) maintenance and beautification advisory committee, along with the BIA general manager, Town of Collingwood greenspace manager, her staff and Natural Blends’ garden consultant, met recently to continue the work initiated by the BIA-commissioned garden master plan.
The planning meeting was to focus on undertaking the design approach and plan for several downtown gardens that will serve as tests of the ability to create four-season interest in the gardens, that will consider sustainability, maintenance and plant succession through the year.
Test gardens will include those that will have the benefit of the newly installed irrigation system as well as those that do not have irrigation and would require a focus on more drought-tolerant plants.
Once designed and planted these test gardens will be used to evaluate the success of this initiative and assist with recommendations to the town and BIA for 2025 budgeting to potentially roll this plan throughout the downtown gardens.
Based on the input of this group, Natural Blends will now develop draft designs for the four irrigated test gardens at the corners of Fourth and Hurontario streets and two non-irrigated test gardens at the corner of Simcoe and St. Paul streets.
Budget for this work was included in the Collingwood BIA’s 2024 budget. The BIA extends its appreciation to the Town of Collingwood’s greenspace manager and staff for their collaboration in this project.
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