Community Garden

Community Gardens provide shared space for residents to grow their own vegetables, thereby enhancing both physical and emotional well-being. Members can enjoy their summer with healthy activity and fresh produce, while building stronger ties amongst their families, gardening neighbours, and the community. 

Gardening encourages healthy food choices, provides many health benefits, and creates opportunities for quality family time.

Benefits of growing a Community Garden:

• * Grow and eat your own fresh produce
• * Save money on your grocery bill
• * Increase physical activity
• * Meet other people in your community

There are two garden locations to choose from:

Osborne Park Garden
Osborne Park Garden is located in repurposed tennis courts in North East Crescent Heights. This garden location has 20 6.5' x 3.5' raised metal beds, a perimeter fence, lighting, asphalt court surface, and a small parking lot. There is a deck box for shared gardening equipment. There is no irrigation system but taps and hoses on site for watering.

Sheldon Miller Friendship Garden
This fenced garden is located on Dunmore Road behind Community Health Services. There is an irrigation system installed as well as a shed to keep gardening equipment. There are two garden plot sizes - full plots of 15'x20' or half plot sizes.
SMF Garden Plot Map

Plots are available on a first-come basis and there is a registration cost for plot rental each year. Call 403-502-8249 to check on garden plot availability or to add your name to the wait list.
Full Plot at Sheldon Miller Friendship Garden - Dunmore Rd. SE - $40
Half Plot at Sheldon Miller Friendship Garden - Dunmore Rd. SE - $20
Raised Bed at Osborne Park - Crescent Heights NE - $20

Agencies & organizations are welcome to register for a plot for a group of gardeners to share.

Community Garden Membership Guidelines

2025 Community Garden Membership Application Form

Other Community Garden Programs in our Community:

The Root Cellar Food & Wellness Hub has a community-use garden space.

A food forest is a gardening technique or land management system, which mimics a woodland ecosystem by substituting edible trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals. Fruit and nut trees make up the upper level, while berry shrubs, edible perennials and annuals make up the lower levels. - Beacon Food Forest

We have a public-use Food Forest located in the corner of the Sheldon Miller Friendship Garden located at 2948 Dunmore Road SE. Guidelines and information about the Food Forest space are posted on the fence and on signs around the space. See in action the interdependence of soil and plant systems. Our Food Forest contains: Apples, Plums, Pears, Evan’s Cherries, Romance Cherries, Pin Cherries, Nanking Cherries, Saskatoons, Honeyberries, Aronia Berries, Goji Berries, Beaked Hazelnuts, White Currants, Highbush Cranberries, Gooseberry, Blackcurrants, Josta Berries, Rhubarb, Asparagus, Chives, Lupines, Hostas, Red Currants, Grape Vines, and Mushrooms.

CFCA has partnered with Medicine Hat Public Library to host a permanent seed exchange in a vintage card catalogue on the main floor of the public library. You can donate seeds by leaving them in labelled packets in the container on top of the catalogue. Please label your donations with the type and variety of seed, as well as any other important information such as when the seed was gathered, days to harvest, sun requirements, planting depth and spacing, etc. Please only take as many seeds as you will use in a single growing season.

Since 2022 we have been offering a seasonal Growing Gardeners Education Program, a free weekly drop-in garden club in the community-use garden space behind the Root Cellar Food & Wellness Hub from May to September.

Topics include:

Getting started in the garden: Inspiration, site selection & tools
Plant Basics: Plant parts & charts, annuals/perennials
Seeds & Starts: Seed packages, germination, transplants
Weeds: Common local weeds, identification, eating & removal
Mulch & Irrigation
Soil: What it's made of, how to improve it, organic matter and more
Feeding Plants: Building Healthy Soils, when and how to fertilize, pros and cons of manure & compost
Harvesting: When and how to harvest, best practices for storing and preserving produce
Preserving the Harvest: Harvest best practices, timing, techniques for preservation
Seed Saving: Types of seeds and timing collection, techniques for collecting, preparing and storing seeds, tools & tips
Bugs: Who is eating that plant?, bugs to love and protect, the circle of (bug) life, controlling pest populations
Succession Planting: Out with the old (plants), in with the new (plants), understanding days to maturity, ideas for extending the growing season
Propagation: Benefits of propagation, cutting, layering & grafting, herbaceous vs. woody cuttings, useful propagation tools
Planting Fall Garlic: softneck vs. hardneck garlic, bed prep, winter protection, harvest & storage
Preparing the Garden for Winter: Cleaning up beds, amending soils, protecting perennials, pruning, overwintering indoors

During the growing season we try to offer opportunities for gardeners to participate in workshops or tours to learn about existing and new gardening practices.

Previous workshops have included:
* Composting
* Permaculture (regenerative and self-maintained gardening systems modeled from natural ecosystems)
* Vermiculture (composting with worms)
...As well as tours of the community gardens and unique private gardens in our community.

We also host a "Seed Swap" in the Spring where you can swap saved seeds with other gardeners.

Are you an experienced gardener who would be interested in leading a workshop on a specific topic or mentoring a new gardener? If so, please contact the Garden Program Coordinator at cfcagarden@gmail.com

Upcoming events & workshops will be posted on our website homepage as well as on our Facebook page.

There are a variety of resources available to the community and Prairie gardener.

Alberta Health Services has developed a Community Garden Manual.

Alberta Environment has an informative resource on Vermicomposting/Vermiculture.

Oregon State University Extension Service has a brochure on Collecting and Storing Seeds.

How to Help Bees and Other Pollinators  - information from the Calgary Beekeepers

Available from the Medicine Hat Public Library:

• "No Guff Vegetable Gardening" - Donna Balzer
• "Gardening on the Prairies" - Roger Vick
• "Square Foot Gardening" - Mel Bartholomew
• "Lois Hole's Northern Vegetable Gardening" - Lois Hole
• "Straw Bale Gardens Complete" - Joel Karsten
• "The Intelligent Gardener: Growing Nutrient-dense Food" - Steve Solomon
• "Weedless Gardening" - Lee Reich