Big plans for 2026

A new season set to take root at the Children’s Garden

New managers, spring workshops and a fundraising push aim to keep Old Ottawa East’s special garden blooming

LORI GANDY

It’s Spring finally! And that means The Children’s Garden of Old Ottawa East is revving up for another great season. You know the place – the beautiful garden on the corner of Main and Clegg streets bordered by the vibrantly painted fence posts.

The Children’s Garden is one of the hidden gems of Old Ottawa East. Since its creation in 2008, it has been a remarkable showcase of sustainable gardening practices and a welcome place for children and adults alike to learn about and appreciate the bounty that a garden provides.

Meet the New Managers

This year, the Garden will be co-managed by Brett Weddle and Laura Cooper. They are both educators and co-workers at Earth Path, the nature school in Blackburn Hamlet at the Just Food NCC site. Laura also has previous experience working at a community garden in Toronto (the Bowery Project), and has been a committed volunteer at the Garden since she moved to Ottawa in 2025.

Weddle has extensive experience as farmer/owner of Cadence Ecological Farm, a business that also operated out of the Just Food site, and has attended the Main Farmers’ Market for many years. He is also currently an in-class workshop facilitator with the Canadian Organic Growers’ program, Growing Up Organic. Weddle and Cooper are excited to involve the community, using the Children’s Garden as a living lab for food education.

The previous managers, Cynthia Dwyer and Marianne, along with a core team of volunteers, have done a great job keeping the garden alive and have transformed the space into a beautiful installation blending botany and community.

Planning for the 2026 season and beyond

The Garden gratefully received funding from Sandy Hill Community Health Centre for several years. Sadly, however, this funding is no longer available. “To make up the shortfall,” explains Weddle, “we are aiming to raise $8,000 in donations to the Garden, the rough annual operating cost of the Garden, so that funding for 2027 is secured.”

Direct donations can be e-transferred to ottawachildrensgardeninfo@gmail.com. There is also a donation box in the Garden whenever Weddle and/or Cooper are there.      

Activities coming this Spring and Summer

To earn donations from the community, while meeting the garden’s goal of food education and community engagement, Weddle and Cooper have lots of events planned. First is a collaboration with the Community Activities Group (CAG), involving the donation of their space at Old Town Hall on April 12th to run a seedling starting workshop. In this hands-on workshop, participants will be guided through how to start their own seedlings, using materials they bring, or that will be provided. Full details are available on CAG’s website.

Second, Weddle and Cooper have started loads of seedlings, and they will be attending the Farmers’ Market as well as the Just Food’s SeedLing Saturday event on May 9th, and perhaps more events to find homes for all the seedlings. 

Finally, they are partnering with Growing Up Organic to offer seedlings to a number of schools in the OCSB as part of the Garden Maintenance Program. These seedlings will be a donation from the Children’s Garden to the schools.

Last year, the Children’s Garden enjoyed some highly successful partnerships with CAG’s afterschool program as well as with students of the Element High School, who visited weekly to help with gardening tasks and learn to tend the Garden. As a final class project, the Element students designed, sourced parts, and built a modular cold frame for the garden – something Weddle and Cooper are eager to try out! They are open and eager to host more classes and facilitate garden activities. The garden remains a public space that any group can visit for their own self-guided tours. Weekly garden days, where volunteers can work together on garden tasks, will also take place throughout the summer.      

Come learn about gardening and get inspired

As the snow thaws, community members are no doubt looking forward to getting back into the Garden. Visiting and volunteering at the Children’s Garden is a great way to learn the ins and outs of gardening. The Garden produces loads of vegetables and fruits and community members are welcome to participate in a variety of gardening tasks, including cleaning beds, planting seeds and seedlings, weeding, watering, staking and of course harvesting. All great skills to apply in your own backyard garden. 

Become a Volunteer

Volunteers are needed throughout the season to help with garden tasks, and children are especially welcome to join in and learn. If you would like to become a volunteer, and/or receive the newsletter with information on what’s going on in the Garden, contact the Garden managers at: ottawachildrensgardeninfo@gmail.com.    

For more information, visit the Garden’s social media at: Website: https://www.ottawachildrensgarden.org/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/p/Childrens-Garden-100066935390709/    

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ottawachildrensgarden/    

Lori Gandy’s article was supplemented with material from Brett Weddle and Laura Cooper