McMaster Community Garden’s new expansion is underway, adding green space and improving accessibility for students on campus
The Community Garden at McMaster is expanding behind Burke Science Building and is set to open in Spring 2025. The expansion will double the garden's growing capacity and feature a fully accessible garden, including wheelchair-accessible paths, raised garden beds provided by Raised Beds Canada and a variety of accessible gardening tools and seating areas.
The Community Garden, a student-led initiative launched
Throughout the growing season, the garden cultivates a variety of produce, such as carrots, kale, strawberries and golden raspberries. The garden also features a grapevine that spans the entire perimeter and a cherry tree.
Thush Gnanamuttu and Olivia Rowan, the 2024-2025 coordinators for the Community Garden who oversee all decisions and manage the volunteer team, spoke about the design of the upcoming expansion.
“We worked with accessibility groups including Maccess, Facility services and other on-campus accessibility consultants on the work of the design. A lot of the work this summer was making sure it was a collaborative design and a lot of thought was put into the features,” said Rowan.
We worked with accessibility groups including Maccess, Facility services and other on-campus accessibility consultants on the work of the design. A lot of the work this summer was making sure it was a collaborative design and a lot of thought was put into the features.
Olivia Rowan, Co-ordinator
Community Garden
Gnanamuttu and Rowan mentioned that the new garden will feature raised garden beds at varying heights, designed to be more wheelchair-friendly and accessible to all. They also noted the addition of an accessible picnic bench that was donated by the McMaster Class of 1954. “We wanted to bring a bench in here because it would be cool to run educational workshops and just have this as a space that volunteers can enjoy as well,” said Rowan.
Gnanamuttu and Rowan acknowledged the hard work of their volunteers, who assisted in building the garden beds, picnic table and garden shed.
“It's really important to have community-centred green spaces where people can learn about gardening, get a break from the work they’re doing but also do something really meaningful to support their community and we see that with all the volunteers that come in. They really feel like they have a sense of purpose,” said Rowan.
It's really important to have community centered green spaces where people can learn about gardening, get a break from the work they’re doing but also do something really meaningful to support their community and we see that with all the volunteers that come in they really feel like they have a sense of purpose.
Olivia Rowan, Co-ordinator
Community Garden
The coordinators also shared their plans to add a Little Free Library in front of the garden expansion. Their goal is to place books about sustainability and gardening education in a public bookcase, allowing people to exchange books as they pass by.
The coordinators recognized several sponsors who helped design and execute the expansion, including OPIRG McMaster, the McMaster Okanagan Office of Health and Wellbeing, McMaster Facility Services, Raised Garden Beds Canada and Little Free Library.
C/O Unsplash
Starting your journey to becoming the plant friend everybody wants.
It is the beginning of the new school year, you have successfully moved in or have cleaned up your room to get ready for the coming year. A great easy (and cheap!) way to brighten your place is to add a plant.
The plants listed below have been chosen because of how easy it is to find them, their relatively low cost, and ease to care for.
Pothos are some of the most common houseplants for a few good reasons. Found in almost all plant-selling stores and a plant lover’s home, these vines are fairly quick to grow and easy to ignore. Although they may fare better in soil and indirect sunlight, pothos can be grown in either soil or water and can endure a variety of light conditions—making them ideal to grab from a friend, leave in a water bottle and check on every so often.
Despite the intimidating name, spider plants are a very approachable option for people without experience raising plants. Like pothos, spider plants are a popular choice as they are easy to care for and propagate. They can be grown in either soil or water and can handle some of the direst lighting situations. To add, they are cheap and easy to find.
Personally, I have had spider plants growing in both water and soil since high school. They have produced spider plant babies which make easy gifts. I believe one of my teachers began propagating the spider plants I gave her and gifted them to students as graduation gifts!
The term “cacti” can encompass a vast variety of plants. The ones you may commonly find sold at stores, however, are quite hardy. Nevertheless, beginners may find cacti harder to raise as people tend to over-water their plants, effectively drowning them.
Cacti are more particular than the previous plants as they require bright light and heat to thrive but they are known for their ability to survive with occasional (but thorough) waterings. Given these conditions, they make a unique, easy-to-care-for and potentially fashionable friend.
You may have heard of sempervivums by a few of its alter egos, such as “hen and chicks” “houseleeks” or even “liveforevers”. Just the name inspires confidence in even notorious plant-killers.
The reputation of these succulents comes from their ability to produce many smaller offsets that then can become their own plant. In this way, they can live forever. Still, to live at all, they prefer bright light and well-drained soil (similar to the cactus, avoid over-watering). If you choose the sempervivum as your green companion, you may soon find yourself with many sempervivums companions.
The bamboo often seen in stores in pretty ribbons, pots and shapes make an eye-catching, not to mention easy-to-care-for, part of any room. All they truly require is some water and a pot, with decorations as an optional way to incorporate elements of feng shui, a traditional Chinese practice of creating harmony through arranging objects in particular places in a living space.
When growing lucky bamboos, the water should be changed ideally every week with distilled or filtered water. Considering the materials needed and the starting cost, lucky bamboos are a quick, cheap and easy way to freshen up your room and get whatever luck you can for the upcoming school year.
Despite their hardiness, plants, like most things, require love, time and care. For this list, they may require less of the above but it is important to remember to be patient and to not forget your plant on the windowsill for a few weeks. A few good rules of thumb: water less rather than more; keep plants out of direct sunlight; and give roots room to grow.
Whichever one of these plants you may choose, with care, they will be sure to bring you some cheer for the upcoming school year.
C/O Green Venture
Green Venture’s Backyard Garden program is helping to turn Hamilton into a greener, more sustainable community
During the COVID-19 lockdowns, many turned to gardening, as seen by the tomatoes, lettuce and beans which have become a popular find in people’s backyards. Additionally, with discussions of the climate crisis taking greater precedence in the media, climate anxiety has been on the rise. In recognition of this and to support urban and community gardening in Hamilton, Green Venture, a not-for-profit environmental education and outreach organization, launched the Hamilton Seed Library project last summer.
“As the community continued to cope with the COVID-19 crisis, we were really inspired by the local community, how the resilient movement was taking place and the more need for backyard gardens,” explained Sheila Gutierrez, the garden program coordinator at Green Venture.
“As the community continued to cope with the COVID-19 crisis, we were really inspired by the local community, how the resilient movement was taking place and the more need for backyard gardens.”
Sheila Gutierrez, Green Venture Garden Program Coordinator
The Hamilton Seed Library was a joint project created in partnership with the Little Free Library, a not-for-profit book-exchange organization. It was created in keeping with their goal of maintaining biodiversity in Hamilton and helping the local community to become more self-reliant.
The rules and conditions of the Seed Library operate the same as the Little Free Library’s book-sharing boxes. Open 24/7, the seed library offers free fruit and vegetable seeds for anyone to take. There are no membership fees involved, nor set limits on how many seeds one can take, although users of the library should be mindful this is a shared resource for the benefit of the larger community.
Those who borrow the seeds are encouraged to save any remaining or harvested seeds and return them to the library at the end of the season. Just like any community resource, the seed library relies heavily on honest and fair use to maintain its supply. Other ways to support include monetary donations to Green Venture.
Currently, the seed libraries can be found outside of the Green Venture EcoHouse and six Little Free Library’s box locations across Hamilton. These include the libraries on Cannon Street, Wexford Avenue South, Jackson Street West, London Street, Salem Avenue and Kensington Avenue North. More information about each library can be found on their website.
Although the kinds of available seeds change every season, this fall users can expect to find native pollinator plants, such as black-eyed Susan and blazing star, and other veggies such as spinach and radishes.
More than ever, access to fresh food became important as people attempted to reduce outside trips, including grocery shopping trips. So, it came as no surprise that the introduction of the Hamilton Seed Library was met with so much positivity and praise.
“We know that the community is keen because when we put out the seeds, they are gone quickly. The community’s uptake [has been] very responsive,” Gutierrez said.
Additionally, alongside the Seed Library Green Venture started the Grow a Row program to better support the cultivation of a healthier, greener community in Hamilton. It was launched as part of its Backyard Garden Project, the organization’s COVID-19 resilience project. More broadly, the Backyard Garden Project strives to help Hamiltonians “build a greener, more sustainable and climate friendly future”.
“We were inspired at Green Venture to keep connecting our community and connecting them with more nature. [We are] giving them access to those skills and what they need to continue to learning their skills….So we took that, and then we came up with the Backyard Garden Project to support the urban growing and community gardening, to facilitate the sharing and knowledge of local growing and garden maintenance,” said Gutierrez.
“We were inspired at Green Venture to keep connecting our community and connecting them with more nature. [We are] giving them access to those skills and what they need to continue to learning their skills….So we took that, and then we came up with the Backyard Garden Project to support the urban growing and community gardening, to facilitate the sharing and knowledge of local growing and garden maintenance.”
Sheila Gutierrez, Green Venture Garden Program Coordinator
The Grow a Row program is for home gardeners who have excess land in their backyard to commit a row of produce to share and donate. The harvested produce is then transferred to community fridges and Neighbour to Neighbour Hamilton, an organization aimed to address food insecurity in communities. The centre currently supports 3,500 individuals in Hamilton every month.
This year, in just 10 weeks, Green Venture received over 445 pounds of produce donations through the Grow a Row program. The donations will help to ensure more people have access to fresh and healthy food, especially during these challenging times.
Aside from the Hamilton Seed Library and Grow a Row project, Seedy Saturday is another event supporting local gardening. Green Venture’s Seedy Saturday is an annual seed exchange and workshop event. Different gardeners and farmers are invited to host the workshops on seed saving, history of seeds in Hamilton and garden designing each year. In past years, Green Venture has collaborated with Tree and Twig Heirloom Vegetable Farm, McQuesten Urban Farm and Dundurn castle. Although this year’s event has already passed, those who are interested can look forward to the next one coming up in early 2022.
In the meantime, Green Venture still has many more exciting upcoming projects and events. Few examples include Depave Paradise in which volunteers take a piece of land covered in asphalt concrete and replace it with green infrastructure and regular volunteering Tuesday at EcoHouse.
The opportunities to get involved in climate and environment action are endless at Green Venture. From sharing seeds to planting trees, Green Venture offers programs to spread messages of environmental accountability and activism and teach how to live more sustainably.
“Start where you are—there is so much information out there. And it can be overwhelming because climate anxiety is really real, it is our reality. But just take a step back and start where you are and do what you can do. Whether it’s using a reusable mug or volunteering with us at Green Venture, small steps and small action really do end up making a big impact,” said Gutierrez.
While Hamilton is home to more than 700,000 people, nearly 80 per cent of the city is made up of rural and agricultural land. That’s why, in recent years, the city has changed its mind regarding urban farms.
In 2013, a report titled Urban Agriculture Policy, Planning, and Practice was submitted to the Neighbourhood Development Strategy Office by the Urban Agricultural Working Group, representing various departments and neighbourhood action planning teams.
The report was intended to assist policy and decision makers at the city of Hamilton as they investigate how urban agriculture might be better enabled by the City’s programs and regulatory framework, citing various benefits to urban farming and structural recommendations for the city to review.
The city’s Planning and Economic Development Department began removing barriers to urban agriculture in the following year. That year saw new city bylaws that would allow more urban farms and community gardens to grow in our city, including in residential, commercial and institutional areas.
These rules would allow on-site sales of produce grown on urban farms on properties of atleast 0.4 hectare where growing is the primary use. On properties less than 0.4 hectare, produce can be grown but not sold on-site, while in downtown or pedestrian-predominant streets, food growing would be limited to rear yards or rooftop gardens.
Since then, several urban farms have started sprouting around the city. In fact, there are nearly 100 functioning farms in Hamilton’s urban areas.
These urban farms vary in size and need, depending on the farm’s structure or where it is located geographically. Some farms are strategically located in Hamilton’s food deserts, or areas and neighbourhoods that lack access to healthy, nutritious food.
McQuesten Urban Farm was founded in 2015 as part of an initiative to increase food security in the McQuesten area. Not only does the farm address the issue of securing a nutritious and sustainable food source for the community, but also provides volunteer opportunities for citizens of all ages, adds economic value to the community, and fosters strong bonds amongst residents in McQuesten.
Patricia Reid, longtime volunteer and pioneer of McQuesten Urban Farm, hopes to help the neighbours learn new skills surrounding urban agriculture and to share their new-found skills with their family and friends.
“This project is very rewarding at so many levels and a great achievement of the McQuesten neighbours,” said Reid. “Having experienced food insecurity over the years has made me keenly aware of the need to provide alternatives to fast food.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjztMQiHuV7/?taken-by=mcquestenurbanfarm
Backyard projects have also come to life following the city’s new bylaws surrounding urban farms.
Miguel Feston, a McMaster graduate, began farming in a backyard of his friend’s student house when he was in school. He continues to farm at this property, in addition to a larger farm in Carlisle, Ontario, and sells his produce at two local markets.
“In my fourth year [at university], I met somebody who grew in people’s backyards and sold at a local market,” said Feston. “He was really curious about this cool idea of growing vegetables in the city. I wanted to help him and got to learn more about it and I eventually decided I didn’t want to use my math degree. I just wanted to do this.”
Hamilton’s 2016 to 2025 Strategic Plan sees environmental sustainability as one of its top priority projects. The project’s key directions include a focus on natural features that the city has to offer, leadership and awareness initiatives, and considering environmental impacts in decision making processes.
While there is still a long way to go, the growing number of urban farms in the city, in addition to the opportunities that follow seem to be addressing a major aspect of this Strategic Plan.
