Community gardens are great spaces for neighbours to grow produce and build connections. Teams of volunteers work together to maintain the community gardens and grow vegetables, fruits, and herbs.
Locations
Currently there are six community gardens supported in city parks across Waterloo. For location details, visit the City of Waterloo community programs in parks webpage. There are many other community garden locations outside of City of Waterloo spaces.
If you're interested in connecting with a garden, having a garden plot, or finding out more about locations outside of city spaces, please see the Waterloo Region Community Garden Network.
How to get involved
A team of three to five volunteers run each community garden. Interested volunteers and gardeners should connect with their local garden for details about the specific location. To learn more about volunteering, email gardens@waterloo.ca.
Garden teams are responsible for:
- Caring for their individual plot (where applicable).
- Ensuring care of the garden common areas and park areas surrounding the garden.
- Providing necessary forms and organization of gardens each season.
- Performing garden maintenance including digging, planting, and weeding.
- Ensuring plots are assigned in an equitable manner.
- Maintaining regular communication amongst the garden team.
The time commitment at each garden is flexible and the community garden season runs from May to October.
Start a community vegetable garden
Are you interested in starting a community garden in your local park? Use the community garden toolkit as a step-by-step guide.
If you want to start a community garden in another community space such as a school, place of worship, or private greenspace, check out the Waterloo Region Community Garden Network for ideas.
More community programs in parks
To learn about additional community programs in parks, such as pollinator gardens and community planting, visit the City of Waterloo community programs in parks page.