Herbs growing on a deck (Photo: Evergreen)

Urban agriculture may sound a little strange and daunting but it has become an important part of living in the city. It allows us to be more self-sufficient and puts fresh, healthy food at our fingertips. Not to mention the satisfaction you get from knowing that the vegetables and herbs you’re eating are cut from plants grown and tended by you!

With spring around the corner, now is the perfect time to start preparing for a new season of planting. If you’re eager to take part but not sure where to begin, Evergreen has a range of resources for you.

L: Planting a herb spiral R: Finished spiral (Photos: Evergreen)

From organic pest control methods for your window or balcony garden to starting your own herb spiral to storage and cooking, we’ve got you covered from seed to harvest to table.

Fresh tomatoes (Photo: Evergreen)

Visit our website to download these handy fact sheets and more. And, if you’re in the Toronto area, stay tuned for the re-opening of Evergreen Gardens in April, where you can find tools, plants, seeds and advice to get you through the year. Happy growing!

UTSC Garden Celebration, (Photos: Tooba Shakeel)

University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) Garden saw a successful season of growth! On Sept 29, students and staff at UTSC celebrated the harvest by enjoying a delicious salad made from vegetables grown in the University Community Garden. Participants also enjoyed Gourd Bowling using butternut squash!

UTCS Community Garden, (Photos: Tooba Shakeel)

UTSC Garden was established in the spring of 2010 in partnership with the UTSC Sustainability Office and Evergreen. The aim was to provide students and community members a chance to practice gardening and grow vegetables. During the celebration, participants harvested pepper, zucchini, eggplant, onion, parsley, oregano, lemon grass, basil, rosemary, nasturtium and much more. Not only did everyone enjoy a delicious salad but participants also took plenty of vegetables home. The garden has been put to sleep for winter and we hope to have an even better growing season next year!

Click here for information on UTSC Sustainability Office projects and events.

Jack pine (Photo L: USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database; R: Bill Moses)

It’s been immortalized in Tom Thomson’s famous painting, known for its unique shape and ability to thrive in the poorest of conditions and has been used by the First Nations peoples as food and medicine for centuries. The jack pine is a native species that has become a symbol for Canada—our pioneering nature and our harsh but beautiful landscape.

You may not want to plant Pinus banksiana in your urban backyard at 15–20 m tall, but jack pine, an evergreen growing in all provinces and territories of Canada, is as hardy as they come. Found mainly in plains and shield eco-zones, jack pine is salt and drought tolerant, preferring sandy and acidic soils.

It is also an important player in reforestation after forest fires. The heat of the fire allows the cones to open up, releasing the seeds, so they are some of the first plants to come back from the devastation.

Jack pine is also attractive to birds and squirrels and is a major source for the pulp and paper industry.

Find out more about jack pine and other native trees in our native plant database.

For a recap of the event and to find out what they had to say on issues such as backyard chickens, visit Jennifer’s guest blog post on, Push Food Forward.

Serviceberry (Photographer: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center)

A showy shrub throughout the year, Amelanchier alnifolia, known by many other names is a terrific addition to the urban garden.  Found in Canada from Quebec westward to BC and even in the Northwest Territories, serviceberry (Saskatoon berry) has white flowers in spring, edible berries in June and showy foliage in the fall.  Adaptable to part shade, drought and a variety of soil types and attractive to wildlife what gardener wouldn’t want one?  Find out more about Serviceberry and other native shrubs on our native plant database.

JVS team at St. Paul's Catholic School. (Photo: Anne Dabrowski)

Looking back, I think one of Learning Grounds’ most important accomplishments this summer was a small-scale idea that had a big impact. We were able to tackle one of the largest issues in school ground greening: summer maintenance.

So often we hear from schools who have a beautiful garden, but no one to tend it over the summer months when maintenance is needed. Many times the survival of school gardens falls on the shoulders of one or two dedicated teachers who take it on because there is simply no one else available. And while some schools are able to organize family garden teams over the summer, many schools are left without staff and without options for summer garden maintenance. But this summer, we were lucky enough to be able to create a partnership–the first of its kind in Toronto–that not only ensured three school gardens survived the summer, but also provided much-needed greening opportunities to community members.

Help came from  JVS Toronto, an organization that provides vocational services for people with developmental disabilities. The group had already worked with Evergreen’s Common Grounds program and was looking for more opportunities to get outside and green the city.  Along with Evergreen greening consultant Karen Dobrucki, we sat down and hashed out a partnership between JVS’s Al Green Resource Centre and the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) to pilot a maintenance program at three Toronto schools.

Top: Karen Dobrucki directs as JVS clients prune trees. Bottom: Watering in two of the three gardens. (Photo: Anne Dabrowski)

From July to the first week of September, a team of JVS clients spent their Fridays  weeding, watering, pruning and providing general TLC to three schools’ gardens and trees.

As the JVS clients got out hoses, rakes, watering cans, pruning shears, gloves and sunscreen, Pam Eusebio, JVS Workforce Specialist/Job Coach, directed them to those areas in need of maintenance.

When asked about the partnership’s success, Pam cites team-building within the group as the biggest benefit of their work in the gardens. Often, JVS clients are socially isolated, so bringing them together to work as a team week after week is greatly beneficial.

“Over the last several weeks we have seen an improvement in various aspects of work and life skills,” she said. “It has had an impact in such a short time.”

The JVS maintenance team and Evergreen Consultant Karen. (Photo: Anne Dabrowski)

Clients on the team even put off vacation time so they didn’t miss a week. Some were sad to see the end of the summer and their garden work. Earlier this fall, they celebrated with a Bbq–complete with herbs harvested from the gardens they worked hard to keep healthy, gifted from very grateful schools.

Some of the Campus Roots club in the field (photo: Campus Roots)

Last summer, a group of environmentally minded students at University of Toronto, Mississauga (UTM) started a new club, Campus Roots.  Seeing the need for a campus club focused on naturalization efforts, they started working in partnership with Evergreen to host tree planting days, invasive species removal and more.  To get students outside and engaged, they also plan fun events like nature walks, workshops and tours.  We recently spoke with one of the student leaders, Angie Sanchez.

Why volunteer? I always tell people it’s a great way to meet people, to network.  I’ve become so much more aware and been able to help others get outside and connected to nature.  I like the way we can initiate a project and then make it reality.

What’s been your most memorable project so far? Last spring, we tackled our biggest project yet, a Butterfly Habitat Enhancement Project.  We planted two species of butterfly-friendly plants, Joe Pye weed and swamp milkweed, in an area that already had other attractive plants like dogwoods.  It’s also pretty cool when in only two hours of invasive-species removal, we can protect dozens of trees.

What have you learned through your volunteering? We’ve been learning so much as we go – I can now identify species as I walk around campus and am pretty good at looking things up when I’m not sure!  Evergreen has also helped teach us a lot and given us many practical ideas.  Being one of the leaders, I’ve learned so much about working with people and about leadership.

On getting people involved: On the one hand, I’ve been surprised by how much people want to help out – after they’ve come to one event, they often want to come back.  They are so amazed at all the natural space on our campus that many don’t notice as they rush between classes. The biggest challenge is getting people motivated to come out for the first time.  

What’s ahead for Campus Roots? This fall, we’re hoping to pick from some of the apple and pear trees around campus .  Over the winter,  we’re going to be planning for even more next year – maybe some fruit-bearing shrubs.

The team at Malvern was one of three winning TakeBAC neighbourhoods. (Photo: Sarah Midanik)

Toronto’s annual TakeBAC program wrapped up on Tuesday after six exciting weeks of hard work.  An unusually hot and humid summer made the program especially challenging this year, but the 200 youth involved were undeterred from their goal to create beautiful, vibrant garden spaces in communities around Toronto.

The outstanding effort was rewarded yesterday with a lunch and awards ceremony at Evergreen Brick Works, attended by Evergreen executive director Geoff Cape and the staff from Toronto Community Housing, and Starbucks, who funded the program through their Youth Action Grant.

The Evergreen Brick Works Pavillion filled up on Tuesday for the closing ceremonies. (Photo: Evergreen)

The youth took the opportunity to showcase their work and talk about their favourite parts of TakeBAC.

Out of 26 locations, the TakeBAC judges selected three winning sites to receive additional funding:

Malvern (110 Empringham Dr.)

Coopermills (4020 Dundas St. W)

Lawrence Heights (37 Varna Dr.)

This garden at Swansea Mews won the runner-up award. (Photo: Fathima Kahn)

In reality, all the communities and participants are winners.  Small-scale greening projects give the youth an opportunity to learn skills, be creative, and take on responsibility.  With a bit of care and maintenance, the results of their hard work can be enjoyed by the communities for years to come.  Evergreen and the City of Toronto would like to congratulate all participants in TakeBAC 2010, and we can’t wait to do it again next year!

A lush community garden plot. (Photo: Evergreen)

Over the past three years, the number of community gardens in Vancouver has more than doubled, yet the wait lists show no signs of getting any shorter. Green thumbs rose to the City’s challenge of creating 2,010 gardens by 2010 to serve as a legacy of the recent Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. Despite this huge increase in availability, Andrew Pask of the City’s Social Policy Division, estimates that the wait list for garden plots across the city is “at least in the thousands.”

As a Project Coordinator for the Vancouver City Hall Community Garden, I receive many requests from interested gardeners wanting to be put on the wait list. There is currently a list of close to 60 people hoping to join this garden, but many other gardens have even longer waiting lists. Want a plot at the Davie Village Community Garden? With a list of 150 interested gardeners, you might be waiting until 2022.

It’s easy to understand why these gardens have become so popular, as gardening has been shown to reduce stress, and carries the tangible reward of taking home your very own produce, even if you don’t have a backyard. In Vancouver more so than most areas, affordable land has become scarce, pushing the demand for community gardens even higher. There’s still an abundance of brown fields that could be turned into gardens, that just need the right group planning and initiative to be turned into a garden. (To learn more, download our free resource,  No Plot is Too Small.)

There’s also simple quick start-up solutions if you want to garden and live in a condo, such as woolly pockets or a simple container garden. I’d personally encourage anyone to go try and get some dirt under their fingernails –I’m almost certain you’ll be glad that you did.

Gardeners getting their hands in the dirt. (Photo Credit: Aimee Carson)

At Emmett Ave, there are about 40 plots that are stewarded by individuals and/or community groups. These plots engage more than 150 community members, including friends and family, who take part in weekly garden programming. Community garden members are involved in the process from start to finish—from making compost and planning their plots, to planting and harvesting, and finally, putting their gardens to bed. The result: a bounty of fresh, organic vegetables every week.

Enjoying the fruits of their labour. (Photo Credit: Aimee Carson)

One of the fantastic events that the Emmett Ave gardeners host is the annual potluck, which was extremely successful this year. On the evening of July 14, Emmett Ave Community gardeners, members of the Weston-Mount Dennis community, and Evergreen staff and volunteers came together to share fresh, organic food from the garden. Evergreen staff member Aimee Carson commented, “the potluck was a big success. Upwards of 40 community members from the Weston Mt. Dennis neighbourhood came out to enjoy a beautiful night of gardening and locally grown food.”

TVO also came down and shot footage for their Get Involved! program, which showcases intimate documentary portraits that inspire people to get involved and demonstrate the value of an active, engaged citizenry.

Enjoying delicious food, and TVO catching all the fun! (Photo Credit: Aimee Carson)

The community garden members all live within a two to three kilometer radius of the garden, and many live in the two high rise buildings nearby, with limited access to outdoor space at their own homes. For this diverse group (from age 5 to seniors, and encompassing varying cultures and backgrounds), the Emmett Ave Community Garden is an opportunity to share knowledge about indigenous food cultures and food growing techniques, and to learn from one another. While our mother tongues may differ, communicating through food is a universal language.

Beautiful garden fresh zucchini. (Photo Credit: Aimee Carson)

To learn more and find a community garden in your area, check out the Toronto Community Garden Network.

To learn about Evergreen’s connection to community gardens, see our website.