First off, welcome! We are happy to have you. Now, if you have not already, take a moment to check out the site locations farther up the page to find the address, regular volunteer hours, and the name of the steward of the site you want to volunteer at.

Once you’ve decided which meet-up you want to attend, we encourage you to join our Discord chat and get notified about specific instructions posted to the garden club’s channel. The stewards make posts for on-going tasks, as well as special tasks that require a certain number of volunteers that week. They’ll also post if there are no tasks that week, and when the next meet-up will be. Feel welcome to introduce yourself to the group!

Once you arrive at one of the meet-ups, you should see some people at the site. You can ask for the garden steward (their names can be found towards the top of this page) and they will be able to give you an overview of the space and what is getting done that day. The meeting could involve a variety of tasks including planting, weeding, watering, or harvesting, depending on when it is during the growing season. You’ll also have the chance to meet and chat with other volunteers as you all work.

No, usually stewards will bring enough tools to complete specific tasks. If anything, a pair of garden gloves are recommended to keep your hands protected/clean (depending on the task) but if you don’t have any, stewards may have extra pairs to lend. If extra tools are needed, stewards will post in Discord to let volunteers know before a meeting.

Garden club meetings are weather dependent and stewards will post to our Discord chat if a meeting is cancelled due to weather.

There is no minimum participation required. Feel welcome to join us during one of the regular volunteer hours, as much or as little as you like. Garden club shifts usually last about two hours but may be shorter if there is less work to do. Sometimes on Saturdays if we have less volunteers we’ll go for a little longer than two hours. It really depends! But the more volunteers we have, the quicker we can get the work done.

Of course! And this does happen. Check out the list of Food Forest tasks and send us an email or get in touch with one of the stewards on Discord to let us know if there’s something in particular you’d like to work on in your own time. We’ll arrange a tour of the space and provide some training. From there, you can attend on your own schedule.

We welcome all beings! Dogs must be tied up or supervised, and children should also be supervised as each of our locations are nearby to roads. We love having kids on-site learning about what we do, so please do not hesitate to bring the whole family along.

At this time, we do not have the ability to install washrooms on-site, but it’s something we are regularly looking into.

You bet!

Raised Bed Gardens and Food Forest: You can park on a neighbouring side street (typically Baltimore). There are also a couple of gravel parking spaces at Churchill Drive and Baltimore Road, right next to the pump house.

People’s Garden: There is parking along the side streets (e.g., Balfour and Ashland), and on Churchill Drive.

Lord Roberts: The garden is located down a backlane. If you need to drive, you can park on Kylemore and walk through the Lord Roberts Community Centre field. This site is easier to access via bike.