Project Description: (version française ci-dessous)

In early 2010, in response to the trend of eating locally grown food for health and environmental benefits, The Daniels Corporation started including urban gardening opportunities in all of its low- and high-rise developments across the Greater Toronto Area wherever possible. Currently established in nine new Daniels communities, with more to come across the GTA, these gardens have proven to be as successful in urban condominium environments as in established residential neighbourhoods.

Typically in a condominium, residents maintain their own suites and entrust the care of common amenities to the condominium corporation and property management. With community gardens, residents become stewards of the property outside of their own units, and their work may result in lower maintenance fees. As residents become engaged in the care and upkeep of these common elements, they develop a sense of ownership that often extends to the rest of the building. Common areas are no longer seen as something that someone else looks after, but as something where the community has a role to play. Instead of having a landscape maintenance crew looking after passive planter beds, the garden committee takes on the responsibility of seeing the plots flourish and there are inherent cost savings for the condominium corporation in this approach.

While community gardens can operate sustainably over the long term, they require careful planning and investment at the front end. For a garden to thrive, it is not enough to simply set aside an area for planting – gardens must be designed so that they can be easily managed and to ensure that residents are actively engaged to take on this role. When designing a project, it is important to carefully plan out details such as how residents will access a water supply and where they will dispose of garden waste. It is also critical to engage property management in the gardening program and bring them on board as a supporter of the program from the outset, but ultimately it is desirable to set gardens up in such a way as to minimize the need for supervision by property management, and allow the residents to really take ownership of the program.

Urban agriculture was first introduced in Daniels’ projects in Toronto’s Regent Park development. Daniels partnered with Toronto Community Housing and created the first community gardening plots at One Cole Condominium. Since then they created 20 beds at One Park Place Condominium, Limelight Condominium and the low rise Hazelton Place development, located respectively in Erin Mills, High Park and North York. In Erin Mills, Daniels partnered with the community and the organic farming enterprise, Cutting Veg, to create the Backyard Farm.