By Julia Harmsworth

Since 2017, the Toronto Chapter of Landscape Ontario has funded various community greening projects within the city through its annual bursary program. This year, 10 community projects were awarded up to $1,500 each in order to support small-scale projects in the neighbourhoods our members live and work in.

Landscape Ontario magazine reached out to organizers of some of the projects about their achievements, spanning from native plant gardens, green schoolyards and sustainability initiatives.

Making native plant education multilingual

Cardy Lai, horticultural technician and organizer of West Toronto Native Blooms, is on a mission to grow knowledge about native plants and pollinators — specifically among non-English speaking people.

“I notice a lot of the education — at least in Toronto — around native plants and their benefits is largely available in English, so there’s a lot of the population who doesn’t have access to this education and this type of gardening,” Lai said. “So by approaching a Korean church that’s already a community, [it’s] a very efficient way to tap into a large, different audience.”

Thanks to these efforts, Toronto Bethel Community Church in Toronto is now home to a pollinator garden. The bursary funded weather-proof multilingual signage, plants and fence-building materials to support the space.

A Korean horticulturist is also giving lectures at the garden after sermons on Sundays in Korean, to complement hands-on workshops.  

Local laneway goes green

Bilton Laneway, a neighbourhood greening project in Toronto’s Forest Hill Village, also earned funding. Suzanne Long, whose apartment overlooks the laneway, began transforming the littered space into a green oasis several years ago.

Now, it’s a safe place to walk, socialize and relax outdoors — a necessity the locals previously lacked. “People gather there. Little kids come out to play with their parents after dinner. I know a number of older couples who walk the laneway just to see what’s in bloom,” Long said. “It’s just a little place for people to be.”

Volunteers maintain the laneway’s five ever-changing planting areas. Despite tough growing conditions — lots of shade and asphalt — it’s a friendly home for pollinators. Long is experimenting with native perennials in concrete planters that require minimal water.

The bursary helped purchase metal edging and plant material to properly edge and contain these areas. Long expressed her eternal gratitude to LO for its support.

“It’s a small group of us,” she said. “The grants we got from Landscape Ontario with their trust that we would do what we said we were going to do — those made all the difference.”

Students come together through gardening

Funding also helped support a garden at York University’s Bethune College. The garden lives in the college’s central courtyard and is home to a variety of native plants, including raspberries and currants — newly purchased with the bursary money.

Organizer Claire Del Zotto was inspired to start the project by a summer research placement in a pollinator lab at York. “It really opened my eyes to how much community you can build with even a tiny garden,” she said.

Now, the college’s volunteer sustainability team maintains the garden and runs information sessions to teach students about sustainable gardening practices. In an event this summer, students will work together to make signs for the garden to inform passers-by about the plants.

“It gives [students] a way to engage with each other, while also learning a meaningful hobby — like, staying off social media, getting some fresh air, getting some exercise. Students seem to really love it,” Del Zoto said. “It’s been really inspiring to see people coming together.”

Campus green spaces brings curriculum alive

James Robinson Public School, a K-8 school in Markham, Ont., secured funding to upgrade and maintain its universally accessible schoolyard. The space promotes outdoor play and learning with seating, green space and a “loose parts play zone,” which promotes cooperation and problem-solving skills.

“It brings the curriculum alive,” said organizer Jeanette McLellan. “In grade three, you talk about structures. Now you can go outside and in your play actually build structures, and bring those learning points to life.”

Eighty per cent of kids at the school are bussed in from high-density living areas with little access to greenery, so school is their main opportunity for outdoor play. “I can’t express the importance — emotionally, physically, intellectually — for kids to play outside,” McLellan said.

The bursary purchased log seating, cedar mulch, sand and other materials. Neighbouring dog walkers and bikers who use the area’s paved walking trail are also enjoying the upgrades.

Monarch Park Collegiate Institute, a grade nine to 12 school in east Toronto, also secured funding to upgrade its green space. Seeds, soil, compost and native plants were purchased to transform grass into a pollinator and food garden. Organizer Heidi Pospisil said students took an active role in starting the garden and growing the food.

“We had this gaggle of teenagers who wanted to get their hands dirty,” she said. “And it’s important, especially in a city context, where we’re so disconnected from where our food comes from. I think it’s good for all of us to re-learn that basic knowledge.” 

Fresh produce for high-density dwellers

Thorncliffe Park Urban Farmers, a group based in Thorncliffe Park, Toronto, earned funding to support its two communal vegetable gardens. The gardens are located on low-income residential apartment properties where residents may lack access to fresh produce.

“The original intention was to address the food inequality and insecurity in the neighbourhood,” said volunteer Najeeb Siddiqui. He said the gardens have become focal points in the area, attracting people from all over the community.

The group is also working to clear invasive plants from the gardens’ surrounding areas and replace them with native plants and wildflowers. Welcoming pollinators promises to make the vegetable harvest — shared by the buildings’ residents at no cost to them — even more bountiful.

The bursary helped purchase native woodland plants, metal raised beds and triple mix. The raised beds were a necessary addition to make the garden more accessible.

“One of our youth volunteers is in a wheelchair, and she comes every Saturday and Sunday. For her, having a raised bed is a blessing, because that is totally within her reach to grow, to water, to work on those beds. It’s exactly what we were missing before,” Siddiqui said.

Hort society welcomes neighbours to the garden

Roselands Horticultural Society, a local organization dedicated to horticulture, secured funding for its latest garden installation project at North Runnymede United Church in York, Ont. The garden is home to a variety of native plants which the bursary helped purchase.

“I live in the area, and that corner screamed ‘It needs a garden!’” said Dawna Wright, society board member. “When I saw the bursary application come up, I was like, ‘That’s it!’”

The church is located in a residential area on a bus route, so it’s a place for locals as well as church-goers. Wright is planning a “Welcome to the Garden” party to inform neighbours about the importance of native plants, pollinators and biodiversity.

“I’m a big proponent of pollinator gardens, and I wanted to beautify the neighbourhood, and I want to educate people that insects are important, and we can make a win/win situation out of it. It looks beautiful, but it’s really for the insects,” Wright said.

Community-led efforts green urban spaces

Indigenous collective Kih’ti-gewin works to restore urban lands based on Indigenous ways of knowing. The bursary funded the purchase of native plants and garden supplies to support the group’s garden in North York, which grows traditional medicine plants.

Another organization, Regenesis, stewards green space through empowering students and youth to make the community more sustainable. The group earned funding to purchase plant materials for a garden day on the University of Toronto’s St. George Campus, when students will plant seedlings.

Also, Toronto Nature Stewards received bursary funding to purchase native plants for its 42 sites across Toronto. In events the group organizes, volunteers remove invasive plants, plant native ones and clear litter.

The organization empowers communities to restore their local natural ecosystems. There’s an awareness element to its activities; coordinator Luke Kwong said when people see volunteers working in the sites, they learn more about invasive species and native plants.

Applications for the 2025 Toronto Chapter Bursary Program will open in early 2025. For details and to see past recipients, visit horttrades.com/toronto-chapter-bursary-program.

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