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This Gardens subsite developed with the kind assistance of the Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation
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If you love gardening, you can pitch in with the community gardens at Dufferin Grove Park (both food and decorative plants), or get your own city allotment garden plot (from the City not in Dufferin Park) for a small fee.
Community Gardens
All of Dufferin Grove Park's vegetable, native and flower gardens are community gardens. If you'd like to help keep them healthy and happy this summer or if you just want to get your hands dirty then leave a message at the rink house for the Jenny Cook of the park staff. 416-392-0913.
Pat MacKay's Tulips
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Park Gardens
Welcome
Welcome to the park gardens website. If you want to participate in gardening at the park or in the maintenance of this website, or if you have any questions or comments, please contact gardens@dufferinpark.ca.
In spring you can help seed, water, turn soil, then it is weeding time and finally harvest time!
Park Gardens InfoClick on any folder below for details   Meadow Blazing Star Savannah in the CityThis garden is on the north side of the rink fence, in the northwest corner of the park.  Savannahs are open areas in the forest with scattered trees (usually oak or pine) whose discontinous tree canopy allows enough light in to support wildflowers, shrubs and grasses normally found in tallgrass prairies. Unlike meadows - which tend to evolve into forest as a result of the natural succession of species - savannahs are considered to be stable plant communities because of the unique ability each of the plants has to regenerate after forest fires. They are incredibly biodiverse habitats both in terms of the flora within them and the fauna that they support. Unfortunately they are also endangered in Ontario, as both urban and agricultural areas have gradually swallowed them up. |
 Dufferin Grove gardens: a history The first community garden began in Dufferin Grove Park in 1993, one year after the City took out the last Parks-planted flower bed, citing lack of funds. The park looked so sad without any flowers that the first garden was dug by some mothers and little kids near the sandpit. read more >> Dufferin Grove Park Gardens in spring:posted April 23, 2008 Here's a springtime photo gallery. The photos were taken in May 2009. By fall 2010, the little trees pictured in the gallery had quadrupled in size.  pollinator gardensThe Pollinator Gardens project is creating gardens for native birds, bees, and butterflies. We use native plants to provide nectar, pollen, larval food and habitat. Our gardens are beautiful, educational, and help threatened native species. Our blog is our meeting spot. |
Gardening work bulletin board
Gardening Saturday Nov 19, from 11:30 to 1:30
Hello gardeners, We will be meeting for one final session tomorrow to clean out the garden shed, make notes for next season, do the compost (which will continue to be done through the winter) and prune the gardens around the park. For a little excitement, we'll also dig up some jerusalem artichokes.
Final gardening session for 2011 from 11:30 to 1:30 on Saturday, November 19.
Thank you to all of the volunteers who have made this season's gardens and gardening workshops so successful! If we don't see you tomorrow, have a great winter, and we'll see you when the sun's rays start getting stronger, in late February or March, to start seeds and hatch plans for next year!
Gardening work bulletin board 2010
Solitary bee research comes to Dufferin Grove Park
Beginning this year, Dufferin Grove Park will be participating in a research monitoring study carried out by Scott MacIvor, a PhD Student at York University. The four-year project will examine the effects of urban land use and complexity on the diversity and foraging of wild, cavity-nesting solitary bees. The principle objective is to better integrating biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships into all scales of city planning and design initiatives.
Over 200 sites all over Toronto are participating, and these include public and private gardens, parks, green roofs, and semi-naturalized areas. Read more >>
Naturalization Project, Workshop, and Planting Session
Click to enlarge.
Come and join us for a hands-on workshop as we transform a dormant garden on the north side of the hockey rink into a mini-meadow/savannah for birds, pollinators, humans and other animals to enjoy.
Click on poster to enlarge it
Container gardening workshop
Sunday June 5, 11am - 1pm
Did you ever wish you could grow your own food but didn't think you had either the know-how or the space to do it?
Click on poster for more information.
Related Links
Related Websites posted February 24, 2005 The Toronto Foodshare website has several pages about community gardening, such as:
 Green Thumbs Growing Things Website posted March 25, 2004 From Green Thumbs website: Children's gardening and natural science activities are important, especially for children in our neighbourhood [Riverdale] who live in apartments with little access to green space. It's also about celebrating nature's variety and healthy diversity, which includes us humans who've come from all over the world to this downtown Toronto neighbourhood. General Interest Websites
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Gardening StoriesThe Tomatoes of Bureaucracyposted March 25, 2004 [park gardening versus bureaucracy] Ever since 1974, the city has rented out allotment gardens. When we moved back in 1980 we put our name down. There were none left, but they said they'd call us if there's a cancellation. And there was one. We put the kids in the car and drove up to look. There it was, number 22: one plot in a tract of thirty-six, bounded on the east by a four-lane road...Read more >> Garden Stories from our newsletters, 2000-2002[September 2000] Gardens: This year the plentiful rain started the gardens off well, and of course the efforts of Arie Kemp yielded wonderful results, as he grew the most striking flowers from seed all over the park. Arie collects seed from the best stands of flowers that he can discover on his bike rides around the city. Read more >> Newspaper Clippingsposted October 9, 2004 Now Magazine Turning Tomates Into Sauce By Kyla Dixon-Muir. Mentions Dufferin Grove Park Garden, and our own work with bureaucracy. |