Western Community Garden
The Western Community Garden is a collaborative initiative amongst Western students, staff and faculty. Key collaborators on the garden include Landscape Services and Western Sustainability within Facilities Management as well as Society of Graduate Students (SOGS) and Enviro USC. Please email sustainability@uwo.ca with any questions about the garden.
Located beside Western Greenhouses, behind Middlesex College.
Currently the garden contains 38 raised bed concrete planters of varying sizes which are primarily used to grow food crops. The perimeter of the garden has an additional 21 planters which contain native plants to support biodiversity and pollination of the food crops. The centrepiece of the garden features an in-ground pollinator garden of native plants, tended by faculty and students as part of a field course and project through the Campus as a Living Lab program.
The Community Garden is a unique opportunity for collaboration amongst students, staff and faculty across campus. Plot allotments for the 2022 growing season have been filled by campus groups including SOGS, Enviro USC, Indigenous Student Centre, Hospitality Services, Visual Arts, Western Libraries, and the Health, Safety & Wellbeing Office, as well as individual campus community members. We are full for the 2022 growing season, and each year open plots will be allocated through a random draw. Follow @WesternUSustain to stay updated!
It was with the leadership and motivation of students that the Western Community Garden was initiated.
In Spring 2021, with the help of Landscape Services and the Indigenous Student Centre, the Community Garden came to life. Nadine Castonguay, Enviro USC Garden Executive 2020-21 (BSC'21, Food and Nutrition), led the planting, maintenance and harvesting of the garden in its first year with a vision to expand. "My goal all along was for this to be a community garden where people could grow and source their own food locally. It also brings people together and forms a community, which is really important."
