It's time to haul out your gloves and pruning tools for this weekend's annual Community Broom Bash.

The Girl Guides and Oak Bay Parks invite residents to help rid Uplands Park of invasive plants threatening the ecosystem.

"Basically, it's weeding," said former Girl Guide leader Margaret Lidkea. "We have to remember the Garry oak ecosystem itself is a cultural ecosystem. It was the garden of the First Nations people. We want families to come out because it's very important for children to get a direct experience outside, looking after and taking responsibility for their wild spaces."

Uplands Park is primarily a Gary oak meadow but is also home to 22 plant species at risk. Since 1993, the Girl Guides have worked with the community to remove a majority of the spreading Scotch broom found in the park. Other invasive species taking over the area are English ivy and Daphne laureola, said Lidkea.

"Both of them have taken over the understory of the Garry oak trees and of the native bushes. That is very hard on the ecosystem and both of those plants are in almost everybody's garden in Oak Bay. I would encourage people in Oak Bay to look in their gardens and remove the Daphne, even though it looks very pretty. It's poisonous and the berries are eaten by birds and rats, and the seeds inside the berries are then distributed all over the community."

The broom bash takes place from 1-4 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. Residents are asked to meet in Uplands Park at Cattle Point and check into the registration table for directions. Refreshments and snacks will also be provided. For more information contact Lidkea at 250-595-8084.

kschoenit@oakbaynews.com