Do you coordinate a community garden? This page is for you!
Making a website for your Community Garden
Want to start a website for your community garden? Click here to review some of the best options to start a free website!
For an example of one that is free and easy to use if you’re not great with computers: check out www.weebly.com/ca
CFIA Organic Production Systems – Permitted Substances List
Resources Made by Community Gardens
*Please send any resources your community garden has developed and that you would like to share with the Network!
- Brewer Park Community Garden
- Woodpark Common Ground Community Garden
- Check out this community garden’s Annual Report from 2021 for inspiring ideas on ways you can enhance your garden communication, cohesion and overall success!
Gardening Workshop Series – Create one for your gardeners at your garden!
Community Gardens are encouraged to host workshops for gardeners and the community at the community gardens!
Find out what skills, expertise, knowledge, and experience exists among the community gardeners in the community.
Alternatively, contact Camille Koon, the CGN Engagement Coordinator at: growingcommunity@justfood.ca. We can provide trained facilitators to host workshops for you and your community, covering a wide range of topics.
Here are some topics your gardeners may be equipped to facilitate, or Just Food may be able to provide:
Seed Saving
Seed Saving is a crucial practice to ensure that our food supply is not reliant on a small selection of crop varieties that are vulnerable to disease, pests, and changes in climate due to increasing occurrences of extreme weather events. The practice of seed saving and seed sharing, seen as a hobby to some, actually promotes essential genetic diversity of crops and overall food security. We offer workshops that provide an overview of seed saving & information on how to access seeds through the Ottawa Seed Library. You can “borrow,” seeds from the Ottawa Seed Library & return them at the end of the season for others to benefit from. This practice will allow a greater diversity of seeds to exist within the library, ensuring that more people can participate in future years using seeds that you helped to continue. Contact Camille at growingcommunity@justfood.ca for more information.
Food Preservation
Food Preservation is a useful skill to save and prolong the harvest while saving money. At this workshop you will learn the basics of food preservation, with a primary focus on Hot Water Bath Canning, that will allow participants to enjoy nature’s bounty throughout the winter months. Specific workshop topics include Pickling, Jam Making, Tomato Preservation & Salsa Making.
We would like to thank Bernardin, who has partnered with Just Food over the years by donating canning toolkits and recipe books to this community initiative.
Beginner Organic Vegetable Gardening
Interested in gardening but don’t know where to start? Whether you have never gardened before or are confident in your abilities and would like to brush up on some basics, you are sure to learn something at this workshop. This workshop focuses on growing common variety vegetables in the Ottawa region – without the use of pesticides or herbicides.
Natural Pest Control
This workshop will help the organic gardener manage pests that tend to take up so much of our summer – and our crops! Some of this workshop focuses on remedial l pest removal but it is primarily focussed on preventative measures we can take to prevent pests all together in the early days of the growing season, by virtue of how we plant, water and tend to the soi health of our gardens. Learn how to encourage more beneficial insects and pollinators to your garden & plant in ways that will prevent the onset of pests and diseases, too
Square Foot Gardening
Square Foot Gardening is an innovative technique used to increase production in small-scale systems where gardening in rows is not efficient enough. Mel Bartholomew’s Innovative Square Foot Gardening technique is presented by Certified Square Foot Gardening Instructor Carolyn Klickermann.
Herbal Tips and Tricks
This workshop highlights the benefits of specific medicinal plants, such as Calendula, culinary herbs, and many more. Participants of this workshop will learn about the myriad uses of these plants as well as how to grow them and look after them.
Working with Nature in the Garden
Permaculture Principles & Design with Bonita Ford is typically offered only once per season. What can nature teach us about gardening? Learn about permaculture principles and various ways we can apply them in our gardens, as well as permaculture design examples in the garden and in an edible forest garden.
Edible Perennials
Break free from convention and find out about the world of edible perennials. Some have been forgotten despite the fact that they are hiding in plain sight in many people’s ornamental gardens!
Container Gardening
Those of us with green thumbs & limited gardening space are all too common. This workshop will instruct participants on how to create a productive garden using containers in limited spaces. The applications are useful for those with small backyards, balconies, rooftops gardens and everything in between.
The I ♥ to Garden Program Manual
The I ♥ to Garden Program Manual provides you with:
- Background information on gardening with children
- 10 hands-on gardening and healthy-eating activities
- 13 healthy recipes, featuring fresh produce that can be grown in Ottawa
- A resource section full of additional information on gardening and healthy cooking with children and youth
Please click on the link to open it as a PDF in your browser. You can then download it!
City of Ottawa Community Garden Action Plans
Community Garden Update (2015)
ACS2015-COS-CSS-0016
Community Garden Action Plan Evaluation (2009)
ACS2009-COS-RCS-0005
Community Gardening Program Action Plan (2004)
ACS2004-CPS-CSF-0016
