The High River Garden Society is the governing body for McLaughlin Meadows and Riverside Community Gardens. These gardens are on public land owned by the Town of High River. There is a Community Garden License Agreement between the Town of High River and the High River Garden Society. Some of the Guidelines and Policies come from this agreement.
The High River Garden Society has the sole discretion to manage the gardens and to accept gardeners. If accepted as a gardener, you must abide by the Guidelines and Policies within this agreement.
The Community Garden Guidelines/Policies indicate how the gardens operate and who to contact with questions. Each garden will have a Garden Management Team who will ensure the Guidelines/Policies are followed.
The Community Gardens are run totally with volunteers. Each gardener is required to look after their own plot and volunteer with the maintenance and upkeep of the pathways, and common areas including the Food Forest. Garden Work Bees are a great way to get to know your neighbouring gardeners, share ideas, and create a garden space that we can all be proud of.
The Garden Management Team/Board of Directors are responsible for interpreting and enforcing the guidelines. Most issues can be resolved informally, but at times a more formal process is needed to deal with some issues, such as weed policy enforcement. The Garden Management Team/Board of Directors will try to call or meet the gardener to discuss problems while they are still small.
If the Garden Management Team/Board of Directors determines that a plot or its owner is in substantial violation of the garden guidelines:
Gardeners are encouraged to discuss the situation with the Garden Management Team/Board of Directors at any time during this process. Special circumstances will be taken into account and other arrangements made at the discretion of the Garden Management Team/Board of Directors. The Board of Directors reviews all final evictions and appeals.
The Food Forest was developed to share among the gardeners, community food banks, and High River community. The Food Forest has fruit trees, strawberries, raspberries (McLaughlin Meadows), climbing beans, grapes (McLaughlin Meadows), a communal vegetable patch (Riverside Gardens only), and a number of perennial and annual flower beds.