What is a Community Garden?
A community garden is a shared green space maintained by community members to grow food, flowers, and other plants. They also provide opportunities for people to meet their neighbours, share knowledge, and build social connectedness.
Richmond Community Gardens
In partnership with the City of Richmond, Urban Bounty looks after 16 garden sites across Richmond with over 760 members of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. The food grown in each plot belongs to the registered gardeners, and cannot be used or sold for any commercial purposes.
Urban Bounty’s primary work is to:
- Oversee plot rentals
- Process yearly renewals
- Maintain the waitlist for the gardens
- Act as a liaison between gardeners and the City
- Conduct reviews of all garden sites 3 times a year. Reviews ensure rules are followed by all gardeners in order to maintain the gardens as vibrant, safe, community spaces.
- Ensure that all Community Gardeners use organic growing methods that reduce impacts on the local ecosystem.
- Run workshops
- Organize mulch deliveries and compost fundraisers
- Collect feedback from gardeners to carry out future projects and programs
- Maintain shared tools that are stored in locked tool sheds at each site
- I.e wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes, spading forks, and some hand tools
The Richmond Community Garden plot fees pay for a portion of the costs of running the program such as: purchasing liability insurance on behalf of all gardeners using the public gardens, maintaining common supplies such as tools and equipment, and administrative costs. As a charity, we continually seek additional funds to enhance the program for special projects, such as adding new plots or subsidizing plots for our community groups.
Interested in Becoming a Community Gardener?
Select the garden site closest to you and then add your name to our waitlist HERE
Shared Plot Program
Shared Plots are stewarded collaboratively by several volunteer gardeners rather than individuals. This 2025 pilot program is part of our mission to provide access to the benefits of gardening to more people! They are marked by the sign on the left.
The following Urban Bounty gardens have Shared Plots: Alexandra, Brighouse, Cook, Garratt, Garden City Lands, General Currie, Greentree, Hamilton, Railway-Moncton, and Railway-Hollymount
To get involved, read more about volunteering as a Shared Plot Steward here.
Community Organizations in the Garden
We reserve and subsidize space at all of our garden sites for community associations, including nonprofits, co-ops, and schools, to garden in for free.
24 associations garden with Urban Bounty, include the Richmond Addiction Services Society, the East Richmond Community Association, the Somali Women’s Empowerment Society, and many more! We’re very grateful for their contributions to the garden and to the wider community.
If you’re part of a community organization interested in a full-year commitment to a garden space, please fill out this form!
Check Out Our Gardening Resources
Click here to see all our gardening resources from tips and tutorials to vegetable guides and more! https://www.urbanbounty.ca/how-to/gardening/
New to gardening? Read our introduction to gardening guide https://www.urbanbounty.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Introduction-to-Gardening-1.pdf
Cover Crop Programs
Cover crops are beneficial plants that restore soil in between garden plantings! To support our gardeners and our earth, Urban Bounty has created two new cover crops programs: the Cover Crops Relief Program and the Spring and Fall Cover Crop Challenge. These programs will introduce new gardening practices to improve soil health, reduce the establishment of weeds and increase productivity.
ADAPTING COMMUNITY GARDENS TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Click here to download our step by step guide on how to implement water conservation and soil health practices in your community garden plot or home garden.
