Community Garden expansion intended to open in Spring 2025

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 in 2012 by the Ontario Public Interest Research Group, is located in front of the General Science Building. The garden aims to improve access to healthy and fresh food for the McMaster community. During the school year, all produce grown is donated to food security services, including the Food Collective Centre.

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. 

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. 

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.