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With the warmer weather and increased park use come a variety of maintenance tasks that Parks staff tackles each spring. Here are some of the services we provide in the swpring that we get the most questions about and what you can expect from us:
Mowing Parks and Sports Fields
Parks and sports fields and boulevard lawns throughout Saanich are mowed on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. We strive to reach all parks as soon as possible in the spring, but with the rapid growth and wet conditions, it takes at least three weeks to complete the first cycle.
Rough and Roadside Mowing
Saanich has over 300km of undeveloped roadsides and 60 undeveloped park locations that are rough mowed 1 - 2 times per year. This program runs from late May through July each year. Scheduling of the routes is adapted to suit geographical efficiency, safety and sighline concerns, type of vegetation, ground conditions and environmental considerations such as wildflowers.
Parking Lot Dust control
A magnesium chloride solution is applied to gravel parking lots in June each year to reduce dust. This solution poses minimal health or environmental concerns anf fixes moisture from the air to the dust particles, reducing the amount that gets airborne.
Soccer Field Renovations
There are 19 grass soccer fields in Saanich supporting over 5,500 registered soccer players in 6 different home clubs. Soccer plays from September to April each year, and our crews have three months to restore the grass to be ready for the following soccer season and to support other community uses. We have an aggressive program to optimize topdressing, overseeding, fertilizer application, irrigation, aeration and a variety of other turf management techniques. Often, this requires the closure of soccer fields while the new grass takes seed, and we appreciate the understanding of the Clubs and the community in respecting these closures, if required.
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