In Between the 30 Raised Beds

In Between the 30 Raised Beds hosts suggestions of the activities brewing across the many Parkdale community gardens. While community gardens are public spaces for shared growing, they are also deeply intimate, especially in food-insecure Parkdale where these growing spaces double as spaces of gathering. Amongst the 30 raised beds of West Lodge Community Garden, gardeners share stories of their day-to-day, exchange recipes with one another, and seed knowledge across generations of growing. In Between the 30 Raised Beds honours the historical necessity of gathering spaces, quickly disappearing in austere Toronto, sparking an archival process to piece together the rhythms of these gardens and what may be sown amongst.

In Between the 30 Raised Beds is composed primarily of documentation of the July 2023 Garden Social at West Lodge Community Garden. Since gathering at the July 2023 Garden Social, gardeners have self-organised summer gatherings and potlucks with one another, with Garden Coordinators continuing to build an archival project that hosts gardener stories across seasons.

Photographs for In Between the 30 Raised Bedsby Fatin Chowdhury (IG: @fatinich)

July 2023 Garden Social DJ 999_ADJ (IG: @999_adj)

Curated by Shalaka Jadhav (IG: @shalaks_j) with support from Relationships, Reciprocity, Exchange Collective at OCAD University (IG: @rre.collective)