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About

Lakeside Community Garden is located in Kingston’s west end. We provide growing space for individuals, families and community groups using organic gardening practices with no chemical fertilizers or pesticides.

Lakeside Community Garden hosts a large donation garden, a butterfly garden, a seed saving garden, and many other projects proposed and carried out by the members, all playing an important role in building food sovereignty in Kingston.

Mission

Our mission is to provide Kingston residents with a gardening space to share, learn, and grow.  Our hope is that involvement in the garden will promote community building, education, nature conservation, and awareness of healthy and sustainable local food systems.

History

We were granted the use of 1 acre of fallow farmland on Collin’s Bay Institution Prison Farm property in August of 2012 through an agreement with the City of Kingston. Our first year, we amended the heavy clay soil by planting a buckwheat cover crop (adding nitrogen and organic matter to the soil).

The Garden opened to the public in 2013 offering 50 allotment plots to the Kingston community.  By 2024, the Garden had expanded to two acres, hosting 80 10×10’ allotment plots, as well as becoming home to multiple partners and special projects.

In 2025 Lakeside took on stewardship of the former two-acre Loving Spoonful Training Farm located to the north of the existing space. This included various assets: a greenhouse, two hoop houses, a shed, market stall and a shipping container with solar power. 

We are currently exploring how we, as a community garden, might continue to grow and cultivate thriving relationships among people, seeds, food, soil, water and all kin who live on this land. We ask what can we do to increase the amount of nutritious, affordable and culturally relevant food we grow in Kingston.

Funding

Lakeside Community Garden general operation costs (compost, tools, etc) are funded through membership fees.  

We are also grateful to:

  • City of Kingston Community Gardens Grant which contributes toward garden improvements including: accessibility improvements, seating and shade, water improvements and plants for the food forest
  • Gardening Kingston for supporting the start up costs of the Butterfly Garden, the Children’s Garden and the Little Seed and Garden Library
  • Reddendale Pharmacy for facilitating and funding the Medicinal Garden
  • KASSI (Kingston Area Seed System Initiative) for sharing seeds and seed saving knowledge
  • Little Forests Kingston for facilitating and funding the Little Forest
  • 1000 Islands Master Gardeners for facilitating workshops

Operations

Board of Directors

A volunteer Board of Directors (elected annually at an Annual General Meeting) runs Lakeside Community Garden.

  • Joyce Hostyn, Coordinator
  • Constance Cuthbert, Secretary & Membership Coordinator
  • Tom Martinek, Site Manager
  • Ivana Corsi, Treasurer
  • Amber Potter, Partner Manager
  • Cathy Christie, KASSI
  • Anna Sadura Healey, Member at Large

Plot members are responsible for Garden upkeep, with each member contributing a minimum of 5 hours of volunteer service to the Garden each year.

A very special thanks to the many members (past and present) and volunteers that have made Lakeside a tremendous success.