Front Gardens Update

The Garden Club of Toronto (GCT) has been meeting with Met's Park Ministries and we have agreed upon the design for the welcoming beds on either side of the stairs on the main doorway.  
 
As you may have heard, we put those beds to rest last fall under a blanket of worm castings, mulch and leaves from the land around the church. In the spring we will clean up the beds, weed them again, and then prepare for the planting in May.  
 
We thought you might want to see the proposed design. In the design they considered height, and timing of blossoms. They were conscious that this is often the back drop for wedding or celebratory pictures, and they were aware that we are an affirming congregation. To that end, the June garden is designed to be a bloom of multiple colours of the rainbow. Something they have called the Pride Garden bloom.  

The Garden Club of Toronto (GCT) is happy to be partnering with Metropolitan United to newly design the front gardens of your beautiful church. It’s such a grand, architecturally splendid building, filled with history and, quite literally, great spirit. We’re looking forward to bringing you the many gifts of our GCT members to enhance the beauty already present on the church property.

A bit about us: We were founded in 1946, which means we’ll be celebrating our 75th anniversary next year! It’s been 75 years of providing knowledge and inspiring a love of gardening while aiding in the protection of native plants, birds, trees and soil and encouraging civic planting.

You may have heard of some of our biggest accomplishments. They include founding the Civic Garden Centre in 1958, now known as Toronto Botanical Garden. We also co-founded, with Landscape Ontario, Canada Blooms, the horticulture and design show that includes the now world-renowned Toronto Flower Show. 

GCT has a number of wonderful partnerships: We have environmental initiatives at Pollinator Garden at Jane-Finch, the Gardens of The Highway of Heroes Living Tribute and the Wildflower Woods at Humber Arboretum and soon at two new and huge projects, The Meadoway and High Park Nature Centre. In addition, we do both teaching and edible gardens at Allan Gardens and Toronto Botanical Garden. We have landscaping projects which are both complete and ongoing at June Callwood Park, Toronto Botanical’s Entrance Garden, the Gardens at Casa Loma and Spadina House. We have so enjoyed creating community and edible gardens at Mosaic Garden in St. James Town, the Canadian Helen Keller Centre, the Rooftop Garden at Rotary and for Cheshire Homes. And, now, it’s your turn to create something beautiful with us!

Over the next while you’ll find out more about your gardens, which will be all native, which means plants that would naturally grow in this area. They’ll be perennial (grow back year after year), non-invasive and pollinator friendly! Once you learn about the benefit of native gardens in upcoming posts, we hope you’ll be inspired to volunteer with us in creating something special and beautiful for your church community, the environment and for the people of  Toronto to discover.