For those who enjoy Earthcaches, it’s likely you’ve had an opportunity to learn about bioswales, an increasingly common sight in urban areas to help control run off, and manage storm water. There are several fascinating earthcache examples nearby, including Scarborough Campus Bioswale
At this location, East Scarborough Storefront, perched high above Highland Creek running through Morningside Park, there was a plan to construct a bioswale in 2012, but sadly due to some logistical challenges around the landscape and the soil quality, those plans had to be shelved. Never ones to back down from a challenge, the community looked at a separate component of their larger project to build a shade structure, and decided it could do double duty with a bioswale on top, and the concept of the sky-o-swale was born!
The resulting structure is a fabulous mixture of rain catchment, water storage, irrigation system and shade structure,
which functions as follows:
- Rainfall hits the twin catchment swale areas 10-20 feet above the ground
- The catchment swale areas filter the rain water through a plant bed system, allowing the organic material to remove impurities and pollution
- The plant beds are laid out on a heavy duty white canvas, mounted on chain link mesh, designed to reflect heat, reducing water loss from evaporation and improving the shade temperature
- The shape of each catchment swale area is curved in a way that mimics a ground swale, encouraging the filtered water to flow to a low spot for collection in a downspout system
- The collected water is made available for future irrigation of the community gardens, reducing their dependency on municipal water sources
This iconic structure serves as a focal point for the community and has driven much of the subsequent success of the many garden projects, plus provides a backdrop for the multi-purpose sports court built by MLSE.
The East Scarborough Storefront is located at 4040 Lawrence Avenue East, has ample free parking onsite and is open to anyone who wants to drop in to visit (subject to change during Covid). There are many excellent resources available, plus volunteer opportunities. It’s a great spot to visit and explore.
To claim this earthcache, please visit the sky-o-swale and using your own observations, the description above, plus information on the plaques, provide your answers to me through a private message. Please do not include any answers in your log. If you are part of a group, please have one party message me and mention all geocachers in attendance. Photographs are always welcome with your logs.
Questions
- On top of the sky-o-swale there are hundreds of plants laid out on beds. Why do you think they are there?
- The shape of the sky-o-swale is not flat. Describe the shape used and explain why you think it was built this way?
- From below the sky-o-swale the white canvas is clearly visible. Why do you think this colour was chosen?
- Directly below the sky-o-swale there is seating and concrete, but no plants or garden. Why do you think this is?
- The sky-o-swale replaced a famous previous landmark on this spot (a water tower) how does it perform a similar function to a water tower?
- What elevation does your GPS read?