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posted March 24, 2009
Welcome to the TCGN Website
All About the Toronto Community Garden Network
The Story Behind The TCGN
Mission Statement:
The Toronto Community Garden Network is working to encourage a healthy community gardening movement in the City of Toronto, supporting and linking community gardeners.
Our goal is to encourage the creation of gardens across the City of Toronto and to make community gardening an integral part of city life.
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Ravenna Barker
The Toronto Community Garden Network -also know as the TCGN -was formed in 1999 as a natural progression of the increasing interest in community gardening. FoodShare had sponsored an annual winter meeting of community garden leaders since 1996. It was at the March 1999 meeting that the idea of formalizing the group into a network arose.
Rhonda Teitel-Payne
Advocacy with all levels of government is seen as an integral activity of the network in order to ensure the accessibility of opportunities for gardening. It was at the suggestion of the TCGN that Toronto's City Council adopted the 1999 Community Garden Action Plan that calls for the creation of a community garden in a park in every ward. Since that time TCGN members have received much welcomed support from Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation. By working together TCGN and Parks, Forestry and Recreation have created a supportive climate for community gardening that is looked to as a model by groups and municipalities across the country and abroad.
The following year, TCGN organized a conference of the American Community Gardening Association, in partnership with Parks, Forestry, and Recreation, and FoodShare Toronto. Not only did gardeners from across Toronto meet and exchange ideas with each other but also with community gardeners, activists and municipal staff from around the world. The conference would not have been possible had it not been for the tireless volunteer efforts of many, many TCGN members who were very eager to show off Toronto's community gardens.
For A Vibrant Green Toronto And A Healthy Garden Movement.
Changing the City one root at a time
What is the Toronto Community Garden Network?
The Toronto Community Garden Network (TCGN) is made up of interested and energetic individuals and organizations from across Toronto who are committed to greening and organic gardening across the City of Toronto and to making community gardening an integral part of city life.
Gardens in Toronto are situated on a range of properties, including parks' properties, buildings' rooftops, senior citizens' residences, school board properties, churches, and more.
Mission Statement:
The Toronto Community Garden Network is working to encourage a healthy Community Gardening movement in the City of Toronto, supporting and linking Community Gardeners.
Our Vision of Diversity
The Toronto Community Garden Network is committed to diversity as a central and fundamental aspect of our work. Diversity is essential to the strength and health of communities. It is also essential to the strength and health of gardens, whether they be community gardens or otherwise.
Diversity is central to the TCGN, as we are a diverse group who are open and welcoming to people of all beliefs, experiences, and backgrounds. The TCGN aims for it’s internal diversity to reflect the diversity of the city of Toronto in order to be able to best support the diversity of community gardeners and gardens across the city.
*Seedy Saturday on a Sunday -
*February 21, 2010
This year we are featuring the
“North American Native Plant Society” (NANPS)
Gardeners will benefit from NANPS' expertise and large varieties of bio-regional native flowers.
As we know, native flowers are an integral part of any vegetable garden. No native flowers, no bees or insects, thus no vegetables or fruits.
*-Full announcements in the events section!
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*read more >>
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To help Community Gardens in the City we have set up our website to include the tools you need:
- Toronto Gardens: This is a list of some of the community gardens in Toronto. If your garden isn't on the list yet, then feel free to contact us to find out how to be connected.
- Events, Workshops And Courses: looking for something green to do? then check this folder for what is happening in the city. Here you will also find a calendar of the events with maps of their locations. Having a community garden event or workshop? contact us to get it posted.
- In the Garden Shed: Tools to help you. Design of a compost bin, Community Garden Hand Book, and links to important gardening information.
- Job Posting: Looking for a environmentally friendly Job? Community oriented work? Or perhaps you want to employ someone, here is where it's at!
Volunteer Opportunities
Weather you want to be a TCGN Volunteer, or your Community Garden needs the help of a volunteer...This is your connection!
Survey Monkey
Answer this Survey about your Community Garden and you could win a free delivery of Compost.
Click here for information on community gardens that are situated on Parks Department property in the City of Toronto.
Join our public email discussion listif you have something to Share, Trade or Donate, or if you really need some garden related item, that you would like posted onto the website please contact mail@tcgn, or you can join the Public Discussion Email List for a quick response. To subscribe to our public discussion email list, enter your email address below: |
TCGN has an e-NewsletterSee a sample of Toronto Community Garden Newsletter. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here.  |
This website is for general information, and for the networking use of community gardeners in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We encourage both a co-operative approach to gardening, and the practices of organic growing methods.
Thanks to CELOS, http://celos.ca/wiki/wiki.php, who currently host and tutor for both this website and many individual community gardens' websites, using PmWiki, (see www.parkcommons.ca for a list of other community gardens' websites).
Content last modified on January 26, 2010, at 06:09 PM EST