Project Description: (version française ci-dessous)

Some of this text is extracted from an article by Cassandra Umbrico

In 2008, Hellmann’s® Urban Gardens program worked with Evergreen and local community partners to provide garden plots in seven gardens for contest winners across Canada. These new gardeners were winners of Hellmann’s It’s Time for Real™ 2008 Urban Gardens Contest, sponsored by Unilever Canada Inc.

In Toronto, this program gave residents the chance to grow and harvest their own produce from 15 garden plots located at Fort York and 12 garden plots at the Emmett Avenue Community Gardens. With the guidance of the local gardening experts from Evergreen, a national not-for-profit organization that makes cities more livable, residents learned gardening tips and designed their own garden plots. “Toronto is a large city of unique communities with limited greenspace for local residents to grow and harvest their own produce,” says Ian Busch, Brand Building Manager, Hellmann’s Canada. “As Canada’s largest and most populated city, Toronto is an important focus for Evergreen in terms of community gardening projects,” says Geoff Cape, executive director, Evergreen.

In 2007, Hellmann’s created urban gardens in parking areas, creating greenspace where there was none before, and demonstrating creative ways that productive landscapes can be inserted into urban settings.

In addition to those programs, Hellmann’s enabled garden design for everyone, with the creation of a comprehensive website for gardeners. The site helps would-be productive gardeners with gardening tips, and expert advise from Evergreen. It also helps with garden design and even tracks a garden’s progress online throughout the growing season. It allows gardeners to design and print a plan of their garden, choose from a large variety of vegetables, and download recipes that use their home-grown produce.