Milky Way Garden

The Neighbourhood Land Trust’s first parcel of community-owned land!

A Vital Community Asset

Milky Way Garden is a cherished space for newcomers, offering social connection and a place to grow culturally appropriate food.

Community Owned Land

Until 2016, Milky Way was privately owned. For over a decade prior, it had been operated as a semi-formal newcomer community garden, primarily by Tibetan community members participating in an adult ESL program. This initiative was facilitated by teacher Tish Carnat at the Parkdale Public Library and supported by the local charity Greenest City (GC). Sonam Yangzom provided leadership for the gardeners.

In 2016, the former private owners, John Greyson and Stephen Andrews, generously agreed to sell the property to The Neighbourhood Land Trust (NLT), allowing the community to take ownership. NLT and Greenest City successfully raised over $115,000 to fund the acquisition and environmental assessments. This included $25,500 from 188 community members and business owners, a $60,000 contribution from the Echo Foundation, and $25,000 from the Metcalf Foundation.On June 15, 2017, NLT officially acquired Milky Way Garden with the intent to preserve it as a shared urban agriculture space for Parkdale and provide a long-term lease to Greenest City to operate programming on the site.

As the first community-owned property of the land trust, this transfer from private to community ownership represents a unique opportunity for residents to shape both the use, design and programming of this invaluable space.

Community Visioning & Design Process

While profit-driven development often prioritizes the planning concept of “highest and best use”, the Land Trust determined to implement a planning process that would prioritize the needs and interests of the milky-way gardeners and other equity-deserving community members. In 2017, with support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Land Trust and GC hosted six community consultations, bringing together over 200 diverse community members to co-design the garden’s use, design and future programming.

Through the process, community members envisioned transforming the Milky Way Garden into a thriving Urban Agriculture Space & Social Enterprise—a hub for environmental education, expanded urban agriculture, and a growing newcomer community garden. The program objectives of the garden will be:

• Connecting community through Healthy Food
• Connecting community through Creating Opportunities for Learning
• Connecting community through Skills Development

View images from the consultation process here.

The Redevelopment of Milky Way Garden

Over the past 4 years, with the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Greenest City has implemented major site improvements to transform the vacant site into a permanent and accessible urban agriculture space. 

Completed site Improvements include: 

• Full site grading 
• Construction of new exterior fencing
• Construction of new accessible raised planting areas for growing food
• Accessible pathways
• Construction of a large pergola for community gatherings

Future Improvements include: 

• a container farm for year-round growing

For their generous support on this project