Gardening in Hamilton, Ontario

Update March 30th, 2023:

🌿 We’re going on hiatus…

A short message to let you know that the garden club is heading on hiatus for the foreseeable future as we are unable to form a new leadership team. If that should change (never say never) we will post an update.

Some of our volunteers will continue to support our free community seed library this season (watch for some new edible varieties coming soon) and we will be honouring our community volunteer gardening commitments this season at Aberdeen Gardens Retirement Residence, the rain garden at St John The Evangelist Church and at the Carolinian gardens and First Unitarian church, so if you see some of us out there volunteering, give us a wave or come join in, everyone is welcome.

With thanks and best wishes for everyone to have a safe and successful gardening season,

Erinn Turnbull
Kirkendall Garden Club

Congratulations to our winners of the 2022 Great Giant Pumpkin & Sunflower Grow-Off!

☃️🪴 Learn how to winter-sow

You can find our visual tutorial on winter-sowing on this page.
We will be sharing a limited number of packets of native plant seeds this autumn
- Oct 15 – between 10&11am at the KNA pumpkin sale (come by at 11am to see who won our Great Giant Pumpkin & Sunflower Grow-off!)
- after Oct 15th – check the KGC Free Community Seed Library, we’ll add a few packets of seeds every few days while supplies last (seed library info in next section)

The new KGC Free Community Seed Library

August 2022 Our free community seed library located on the back of the Locke Street Community Fridge Building.

Take what you need and leave what you can. Seed sharing information below the photo.

Huge thanks to our neighbours Jacquie Elliot-Books for volunteering to build/donate the library, Jeremy Williams for installing it and to the garden club team who decorated it.

In the same spirit of the fridge, the seed library is ‘take what you need and leave what you can’. The Kirkendall Garden Club will also add new packets of seeds on a regular basis in season.

If you are leaving seeds, please add only ’single-serving’ packets of seeds if you are able.

👉🏾👉🏻👉🏿👉🏼 Tips for sharing seeds* at the KGC Community Seed Library:

Package your seeds in sealed envelopes or baggies, clearly labelled with a non-smudgeable pen/marker (see DIY origami envelope plan in photos)
Indicate the plant’s common name and variety, as well as the botanical name if you know it
Indicate if plant is annual, perennial, biennial for ornamentals
The year the seeds were collected, and seed source (saved or from which seed company)
Approximate number of seeds in the packet

*Note: please share only seeds (no roots/corms/tubers)

Get in touch with us if you have any questions!
Enjoy the seed library!

Contest registration is now closed – good luck to our 2022 contestants – click here for contest details!

Scroll down this page to see last year’s pumpkin contest winners and finalists!

Saturday, March 5th – Come to our Community Seed Exchange!

Thanks to everyone who came out!

Learn how to winter sow

Click here to learn about an easy way to start many seeds outdoors over the winter/spring with minimal effort and no indoor grow-lights required!

The Winners of our First Annual Great Giant Pumpkin Grow-off have been announced!

😊 Congratulations to our winners!!!
Heaviest Pumpkin:
Winner 1st place: Lilac 184.5 lbs grown by Talena & Kaylene
Runners up >
2nd: Fritz4 110.9 lbs grow by Julie B
3rd: Heckin’ Chonk 86.4 lbs grown by Jason A
3rd: Rarity 86.4 lbs grown by Rhoda B
5th: Pierce 80.2 lbs grown by Ramona & Mike

As voted by our contestants…
Winner Most Beautiful Pumpkin – Fritz4 grown by Julie B
Winner Most Mutant Pumpkin – Lilac grown by Talena and Kaylene

Huge thanks to all of our contestants and finalists. Our 2022 contest will be launched in the new year!

All of our 2021 grow-off finalists:

About us & how to join

Our members live in downtown-west Hamilton, in and around the Kirkendall, Durand and Strathcona neighbourhoods. We hold periodic member meetings, take garden walks and tours and volunteer in gardens in the neighbourhood.

Please join our mailing list or become a member!

Monthly meetings are currently on hold (we held outdoor meetings this year during the lovely weather) but we have some upcoming over-winter mini-courses and longer-term mini projects coming up for both members and other local gardeners. Join our mailing list to find out when sign-up opens later in November 2022.

Online we are most active in our community gardener Facebook group which is for both members and local gardeners.

Community Events & Projects

Promoting gardening in the community.
(This section under construction)