History of The Junction

While sprinkling zoo-poo on a patch of land on my street, I wondered: what makes up this soil?
What growing, trampling, eating, dying, fighting, dispersing, gathering, arranging, rearranging of things makes up this brown stuff underneath our lawns?

This is what I found. Below you will find 11,000 years boiled down into one blog entry:

The Junction (and surrounding area)

11,000 years ago: Ice age recedes, people start to emigrate from the south. Iroquois and Huron groups arrive on the scene.

Deciduous forest stands quietly. It is made up of black walnut, butternut, tulip, magnolia, black gum, oak, oak, oak, more oak, hickories and sassafras.

1600s: Early European settlers arrive. Etienne Brule finds five big lakes. Due to the rich soil and moderate climate, much of the area begins to be cleared for agriculture.

Forests give way to slash-and-burn-styled agriculture. Tobacco, corn, squash and beans supplement a hunter-gatherer diet of fish and venison.

1640s: Many Hurons contract smallpox and measles brought in by the British, die. The Mississaugas move into the area. Henry Hudson sets up shop in a bay. Lots of battles happen. Land is seized, lives are lost. The Brits take land from the French, who had taken it from the Huron.

Subsistence life gives way to trade. Agriculture intensifies. Lots of animal husbandry. Lots of furs and pelts. Lots of bartering. The waterways are good for that.

1787: The area is purchased from the Mississaugas by the British, who four years later name it "Town of York."

1830s: John G. Howard buys land in the area for $1000, converting a portion of it to farm sheep. He later sells his sheep farm to the City of Toronto, but stipulates: "for the free use, benefit and enjoyment of the Citizens of Toronto for ever and to be called and designated at all times thereafter High Park."

1850s: Just north of the park, a horse racetrack is built by the Keele family. (My street, High Park Avenue, was one of the straightaways of the racetrack. Pacific Avenue was the other. Crazed! Little did I know I walk the path of the ghosts of galloping Seabiscuits and Roan Inishes of the days of lore). First Queen's Plate in Canada: my street. No big deal.

1880s: Daniel Clendennan buys up the racetrack, converts it to railroad. It links the Canadian National Rail with the Canadian Pacific Rail.

1884: The village of West Toronto Junction is founded. Industry starts popping up wildly. Foundries, mills, wire factories. Heintzman's Piano Company, Canadian Cycle and Motor Co, Campbell Milling.

Agricultural land gets divided, sub-divided, and sub-divided again. Farms turn into urban properties.

1900s: Clang clang. Hammer hammer. Foundations are laid and the sky is scraped with buildings. People pour in from all over the world on the same waterways that once brought fur out. Urban agriculture is encouraged by Mayor Conboy to 'expand the production battalion' during WWII. 'Dig for victory!' he cried from his onion patch on Bloor Street.

Buildings churches schools hospitals houses galore. Land gets pigeon-holed into little rectangles and European-styled lawn is rolled out like carpet atop the soil. It looks very nice. The victory gardens fade away, along with the threat of war... The perception of fruits and vegetables growing out of the ground becomes inconceivable by young urbanites. I, for one, imagine that apples have always appeared in pyramidal form, shiny and waxed, under the glowing lights of a grocery store, naturally. They grow back there in the room marked 'Employees Only,' right?

2010: The two churches on my street are being converted to condos. Worth mentioning just because it's hilar.

2010: The enterprise City Seed Farm arrives on scene, begins rototilling lawns, converting aesthetic greenspace to productive food gardens! Yee-haw!

2011 and beyond: Every yard in Toronto is edible. Sound like a plan?

Prepping the land

Two CSF gals prepare a backyard by planting a cover crop and mulching it with autumn leaves.