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This Gardens subsite developed with the kind assistance of the Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation
For the basics, see
- Website & Privacy Policies
- How To Get Involved
- The Role of the Park
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.
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 park staff. 416-392-0913.
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Tree tour with Gene Threndyle, May 2018
Park trees June - July 2018
We were sent an interesting link about allotment gardening in Britain.
For information about the gardening club, call park staff at 416 392-0913
Welcome to the park gardens website. If you want to participate in gardening at the park, please contact park staff at 416-392-0913.
Dufferin Grove Park has a variety of gardens including native plant beds, native tree groves, a little rooftop garden, and a naturalized savannah garden, as well as vegetable gardens.
The drop-in garden club helps maintain these gardens, and is open to everyone. You can join us to help out as often or seldom as you like. From spring to fall, we meet to seed, plant, compost, weed, harvest, prune, build garden beds, invent trellises, mulch, rake, build paths, and/or anything else that needs doing in the gardens. We welcome garden novices and experts alike -- the garden club is a great place to share what you know and/or pick up new tricks.
If you have another idea about how you'd like to help with the gardens at the park, we are always happy to discuss new possibilities.
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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 historyThe 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. Garden news archiveGarden News 2005 - 2015 read more>>Gardening workbord 2010 - 2014 read more >> |
posted 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 >>
[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 >>