Building Gardens
- Are an engaging amenity – with recreational and learning opportunities for all ages
- Build healthy communities – helping people connect to nature, and to access healthy local food
- Are growing the urban agricultural infrastructure of our cities
Growing building gardens
Gardeners & garden committees
Building residents from across the Greater Toronto Area are learning how to grow food with us and each other. We’re here to help with advice, seeds, plants, and community support. Gardeners with our program have access to a password-protected Garden Portal. (Gardened with us before? To access the Portal from previous years, email jane@hoffmannhayes.com.)
We help garden committees to organize and run garden programs that everyone loves.
Developers, builders, design teams
Since 2012, Hoffmann Hayes has been working with developers, builders, and property managers to bring community gardens to new buildings and building residents. We offer input on the garden design (during design and build stage) and then coach residents to grow food and run a community garden program.
For more info on how to design and develop a building garden at a building, please contact us, call 416-534-4656 or email jane@hoffmannhayes.com.
What residents say:
“I love living here because I can grow a garden. I really enjoy my fellow gardeners too. We trade seeds, share vegetables, and even have potlucks with food we grew! Daniel and Jane are helping us learn how to grow and get organized so we can run the garden ourselves.”
“I wasn’t sure about moving to a condo, but when I heard I could have a vegetable garden, I was sold.”
“The garden was the main feature for me in getting this condo. In my view, all these big buildings need as many gardens / green plants as possible around, inside, on top of them…everywhere.”
“I don’t even have a garden here, but I love watching it grow from my balcony. I’m thinking of getting more involved.”
“We’ll be at the garden launch! We want to start a fun organic vegetable garden and also learn from you!”
What developers and building design teams say:
“We didn’t quite know that we were going to be growing a community before we built the buildings, but we see now that we are. It is really quite amazing.”
“We weren’t investing in this program for a quick return on investment, but we’re delighted that the garden program is an important amenity for people. People who are downsizing have told us they were reluctant because they would miss their gardens, and also because they weren’t sure about not being in a neighbourhood. The garden program helps them feel comfortable and even inspired to make the change.”