Toronto's Dundas Square turned green for a day in August as about 20,000 square feet of big roll Kentucky bluegrass sod was laid for the second annual BMO Urban Picnic (customer appreciation day).
The sod was supplied and installed by Zander Sod Co. Limited of Kettleby, Ont.
“We came in and sodded it to make it resemble a park,” said Alexander Dickie, turf services manager for Zander.
The event took place at the square from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and featured food vendors, water features and a ferris wheel on site.
Two tractor trailers arrived at the site at 5 a.m. and began installation of the sod. Work was completed by 8 a.m. to allow for television coverage of event by City-TV’s Breakfast Television show.
The Zander crew was interviewed by on-air personality Frank Ferragine, better known to television audiences as Frankie Flowers.
At about 7:30 p.m., the Zander crew returned to the site to uninstall the sod, completing the job by just after 10 o’clock.
“It was interesting to see it being done and the fact that it survived the whole day, having thousands of people on it.”
Dickie said the project’s only snag was not knowing where to park two tractor trailers at the corner of Yonge and Dundas streets. With police assistance, however, the trucks were left on Yonge so that they could be loaded and unloaded.
“They (BMO) want to host this every year,” Dickie said, adding the sod will be donated afterward to a charitable cause. Following August’s event, the sod was donated to the Cedar Glen YMCA near Bolton where it was reinstalled by Zander.
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