May 2022 Newsletter

Greetings Ward 14!

I hope you had a great Easter, and a nice April in general. May is on its way, and I have a couple of items that I would like to share this month. I need to start with a quick correction of something that you might have read in my April column. In it I stated that our “pre-sweeping” of City streets before our full street sweeping campaign saves the City on wastewater treatment. What I meant to say is that is saves money on storm water management, which makes much more sense. Pre-sweeping means less material enters storm drains, and that means less maintenance for the system long term, and less need to send crews out for blockages.

Off-leash areas in Calgary

Calgary has 157 public off-leash areas with a combined area of 1,145 hectares for you and your dog to enjoy. Things are starting to warm up and dry out. It is a great time to get your canine out and about. The City of Calgary has a map that shows the locations of off-leash areas that you can enjoy with your pooch. It can be found at https://maps.calgary.ca/OffLeashDogAreas/.

There are many other informative and useful maps in the City’s Map Gallery too. You can find them at https://maps.calgary.ca/.

Be Yard Smart

Water is very important, and it costs money. It is also very important to be smart about how we use it. Calgary’s drinking water is supplied by the Bow and Elbow watersheds, which face many pressures including a changing climate and growing population. You can help build resilient watersheds by creating a YardSmart yard that will save you money too. You can use the new design guides to plant a beautiful garden bed that, once established, takes little time, effort, and water to maintain.

Designs include:

• Layouts and plant suggestions for all areas of your yard - sunny, shady, wet or a combination of sun and shade.
• A brand-new native wildflower design that creates habitat for pollinators and promotes biodiversity. Included is step-by-step information on planting, watering, and maintenance.

Created in partnership with The Calgary Horticultural Society, these garden beds are designed to thrive in Calgary.

Here are some more YardSmart tips:

• Find trees and shrubs that are hardy enough for our unique climate. For Calgary, choose plants labelled hardiness zone 2 or 3.
• Having a good depth of quality soil ensures your plants can access more water. A layer of at least six to eight inches of soil is recommended. Adding compost is the best way to improve soil depth.
• Capture free rainwater in a rain barrel and use it on your trees, shrubs, and flower beds.

Visit calgary.ca/yardsmart to access our garden bed designs and for a library of gardening tips, tools and resources.

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Feel free to contact me any time. The best way to contact me is by visiting calgary.ca/contactward14 or calling (403) 268-1653.

-Councillor Peter Demong