City of Brantford Council members and representatives from Equal Ground Community Gardens gathered for a groundbreaking ceremony at the Woodman Park Community Centre and Pool on Wednesday, May 8, 2024.
The event marked the official step towards site preparation for Woodman Park’s future playground, community garden and greenhouse.
As part of the project, the new accessible playground will include:
· A We-Go-Swing (an inclusive and accessible wheelchair swing set)
· Rubber safety surfacing
· Paved pathways and bike racks
· Shade structures and seating
· Newly planted trees for shade
· Outdoor learning spaces and games table
In addition, the space will also feature the new Woodman community garden which will include:
· 52 raised garden beds
· Four fruit bush beds
· Six accessible garden beds
· Pollinator gardens
· Fruit trees
· Storage shed
· Paved pathways
· 22 x 29’ community greenhouse
Kevin Davis, Mayor for the City of Brantford, thanked Parks Services, Public Works and engineers for all of their hard work and said that the new park and community garden will be a great addition to the city.
“Too many of our community gardens by nature, have been very temporary and without the proper connections. Now we’re going to have the permanent gardening capital for our community with a wonderful greenhouse and I’m very confident that the gardening community will find that this will be the absolute best community garden, hopefully, in the whole area,” he said. “Not to mention, this will be another accessibility playground on top of the one that we already have at Mohawk Park. There is no doubt that this playground will receive the same reception and the same use in our city. I want to thank park staff, public works, and engineering for the work done in planning this.”
On behalf of herself and her wardmate Richard Carpenter, Ward 5 Councillor Linda Hunt, said that they are looking forward to having such a great addition to their community.
“We are very excited about this and just seeing this facility being open in this neighbourhood is very, very welcome,” she said.
Taylor Edwards, the greenhouse and learning centre coordinator for Equal Ground Community Gardens, said that once the garden is complete, it will be the first fully accessible garden in the community.
“We’re incredibly excited to finally see this project come to fruition in such a great area. This is really a youth hub so to be able to engage with another younger generation is really exciting,” she said. “We [Equal Grounds] support many community gardens in the City and in the County and this will be our first fully accessible site which is an incredibly important and exciting this for us.”
Paulina Gusciora, an Equal Grounds volunteer, said that the addition of the greenhouse will open up a host of new events and activities in the coming years.
“So many of the events that we hosted last year had to get canceled and postponed because of the rain, and I think giving people a calm space where they can go in and use the greenhouse, regardless of what the weather is outside, allows us to create more sustainable events and programs,” she said. “Greenhouses are amazing educational points for youth and really, for people of all ages. I think the fact that Branford is adding a public greenhouse as a resource, really speaks to us investing in the community and all the education that comes with gardening.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
