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
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.
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.
Olivia Rowan, Co-ordinator
Community Garden
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.
It's really important to have community centered 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.
Olivia Rowan, Co-ordinator
Community Garden
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.
Trends come and go, and often provided little more than a blip of information or insight. But one trend that seems to be ever-growing – and for good reason – is that of environmental friendliness and, for specifically, supporting local food.
Many school communities have adopted practices that implement these new values and beliefs. The new Teaching and Community Garden located directly on the McMaster campus is part of the effort here.
The garden opened up on July 10 to reveal a lively and spacious community open and available to all McMaster students and residents of Hamilton interested in taking part in growing their own local and fresh fruits and vegetables.
“There is definitely a growing trend towards urban agriculture, and it was only a matter of time before the University jumped on something like this,” explained Michael Lee, who is working at the garden on a University Sustainability Internship.
The garden was spearheaded by Julianne Bagg and Emily Taylor, two students in the Integrated Sciences Program (iSci), who have been working towards implementing the project for the last seven months. Putting together a budget, organizing the location, determining the groups and departments that would be involved and designing a strategic plan for the space have been some of the necessary steps Bagg, Taylor and Lee have taken.
Through related efforts, the MSU has been discussing plans of a new green roof for part of MUSC.
“We would love to have a connection between the two projects,” explained Lee. “Seeing as they’re both on campus and both involve local produce, collaboration between the groups would be great”.
The produce being grown has been on sale at Mac Farmstand. The garden managers are looking forward to donating the products in the future to Mac Bread Bin and potentially other community charities and food banks. The garden works in a way that allows community residents to come and take part in the growth of produce that will in turn be given back to the community.
The garden plans on running “Open Garden Sessions” on Tuesdays that will allow students and residents to help cultivate the plants and develop a better understanding of where food comes from.
The garden currently boasts a wide variety of produce, ranging from tomatoes, onions, peppers, three different types of eggplant, chard, beets, beans, lettuces and a series of herbs and spices.
“We even have a pumpkin plant,” said Lee.
With such a wide variety of plant life, the group running the garden is hopeful that it will spark an interest in the community and encourage people to come out and contribute.
The group has also partnered with the Faculty of Science, which includes the Integrated Sciences program, to allow for a space to conduct educational programs for students interested in learning more about the plants that are currently growing there.
The garden is located on the North Side of the General Sciences Building. You can check out their webpage through the Sustainability at McMaster website to view a calendar that includes dates and times of Open Garden Sessions.
