About the High Street Community Garden

About the garden

The High Street Community Garden was created to teach sustainable food practices and provide fresh fruits and vegetables for people living in the surrounding community in Orillia's south ward. Over the years, many dedicated volunteers have spent countless hours maintaining the garden and sharing its harvests.

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, community members committed to putting more hours into the garden to give back to the community during these hard times. With generous funding from the City of Orillia, six new allotment plots were built in the spring of 2020. 

The 2020 season has been a huge success. We are thankful for the dedicated volunteers that have spent many hot days, cold days, and rainy days working in the garden to produce this year's bountiful harvests.

How it works

The garden is divided into three areas: community gardening areas, allotment plots, and pick-your-own areas.

Community gardening areas are any areas at ground level, about 60% of the garden. These are areas that any community member can come and help plant, weed and harvest in throughout the entire season during dedicated gardening hours. The volunteer group makes decisions together about what should be planted in what areas. If you are interested in harvesting from these areas, we ask that you connect with the volunteers to learn what vegetables are ready to pick when, so that every veggie has the proper time to grow and ripen!

Allotment plots are the twelve (12) plots in wooden raised beds. These plots are privately maintained by a single family for the entire season. These plots are first-come, first-serve at the beginning of the season. We ask that community members do not disturb these areas, unless invited by the allotment plot family.

Pick-your-own areas are the raised cement bed and the raised painted bed at the front of the garden, closest to the path. These beds are shown in the image above. We encourage any passerby to pick anything that looks ripe, at any time! Right now the beds are filled with delicious kale, beans, strawberries and lettuce.

Who gets to eat the harvests?

Everybody!

Anyone walking by can pick what they like from the two pick-your-own beds closest to the path. The volunteers also keep the basket and cooler filled with other harvested goodies throughout the week.

Anyone that helps out during the weekly gardening hours will have opportunities to learn what is ready to pick and when, and can always take some food home at the end of the day!

If there is a large harvest of a single crop, like lettuce, we will also arrange for drop offs to The Sharing Place.

How can I get involved?

Become a volunteer!

In 2022, the gardeners meet every Wednesday from 5-7 pm. Gardeners are also invited to a Facebook group to share updates throughout the week. If you'd like to learn more, come visit us during gardening hours, or Contact Us here!