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Transforming what was once a “forlorn space,” gardeners are proving how shovels, seeds and soil can bring a community together.
Author of the article:
Bre McAdam • Saskatoon StarPhoenix
Published Sep 10, 2025 • Last updated 46 minutes ago • 7 minute read
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Maxine Panchuk, a teacher at Buena Vista School’s nature-based learning program, incorporates the boulevard pollinator garden into her classroom learning. Photo by Michelle Berg /Saskatoon StarPhoenixArticle content
“I think we are getting less mildew on some of our vine plants.”
“Looks like the worms went at some of our Saskatoons.”
“The corn crop this year is going to be really good.”
Observations and exclamations waft through the air during a mid-July tour of a community garden in Saskatoon’s Buena Vista neighbourhood, from those with a vested interest in its well-being.
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Gardener Joan MacDougall points to the goldenrod spilling out between conical-shaped purple hyssop flowers — nature’s perfect colour contrast for pollinators — on one side of a wood-chipped pathway. On the other, plants vine up the fence line that separates the garden from the Buena Vista elementary school property.
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The low hum of bees reverberates from the ground as butterflies weave between flowers. At the other end is the vegetable patch: Squash, tomatoes, beans and potatoes surround stumps from a nearby spruce tree where kids will soon work on class projects.
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A little library is nestled in the Buena Vista boulevard garden, offering neighbours a chance to exchange books while enjoying the green space. Photo by Michelle Berg /Saskatoon StarPhoenix
There’s artwork, bird houses, and little libraries filled with books. Soon, there will be water dishes for dogs and bike racks.
Because just like the nature within it, the space is dynamic, and evolving. In 2022, community members transformed a boulevard on McPherson Avenue into a pollinator garden blooming with native plant species.
It gives you a sense of understanding that there is more in the world than just you — there’s a bigger picture. It connects a lot to land-based learning, (and) learning about community.
Maxine Panchuk
“It was a pretty forlorn space when we started. It was just grass and open and not a welcoming spot at all to be, so it feels really good to have made a space that people want to come and enjoy,” said Amy Nixon, an avid community gardener whose kids have grown up around the garden.
And on Sunday, the section between Fifth and Sixth Street will be closed for a “planting party” from 2 to 4 p.m. as four trees get added to the green space.
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“It’s kind of a special event. We’ve been wanting to do trees for a while and now we’re finally in a position where the garden’s ready for it and the money’s there,” MacDougall said.
The Buena Vista Garden Collective received a $2,000 grant from Green Communities Canada, through their Living Cities Canada fund.
Some of the money went toward six Saskatoon berry bushes and three highbush cranberry shrubs in the spring. On Sunday, the community will plant three crabapple trees and an ash tree that will eventually provide a 10-foot canopy.
“We’re trying to plant them to provide some shade to the sitting areas and just more vertical structure, which is great for diversity in birds and bugs,” Nixon said.
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Community gardener Joan MacDougall gives a tour of the Buena Vista boulevard garden, comprised entirely of native plant species. Photo by Michelle Berg /Saskatoon StarPhoenix
Jenn McCallum with Green Communities Canada said the garden’s focus on shade trees caught the organization’s attention.
“Adding shade trees will help maintain the neighbourhood’s tree canopy as other trees get older. The local tree canopy is also century elms that are at risk of disease — adding new trees is essential.”
McCallum said the Buena Vista boulevard garden met all the necessary criteria of making green infrastructure abundant and equitable while incorporating meaningful partnerships in the community.
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Humble beginnings
“Is anybody interested in gardening?”
A simple ad in the community newsletter caught Nixon’s eye back in 2022. She’d moved to Saskatoon four years earlier with her family, and was looking for a meaningful connection to her community.
“We didn’t know what it was going to be,” said Nixon, who has a background in ecology and described growing up with “one foot in a garden.”
The city had just released its boulevard garden guidelines, and the long, rectangular boulevard behind the school had so much potential.
It was a pretty forlorn space when we started. It was just grass and open and not a welcoming spot at all to be, so it feels really good to have made a space that people want to come and enjoy
Amy Nixon
“Their initial project replaced a boulevard of turf grass (which) can be really useful for picnics and soccer games, but a boulevard is perhaps not the place for those activities,” McCallum said.
“Turf grass also does not deliver many benefits for local animals and insects, but it does take a lot of water and other resources to maintain. They transformed that turf grass by creating a drought-tolerant prairie habitat featuring a wide variety of local species.”
Once the project got city approval, people started digging. A community member with landscaping knowledge drew up a map of where things could go. Stacks of newspaper and cardboard were donated on top of free wood chips and discounted topsoil and shrubs. Almost all of the plants were started from seed.
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MacDougall said they’ve used 16 cubic yards of topsoil, 17 loads of wood chips and six layers of newspapers. They also have a composting unit.
Some community members were initially skeptical. Nixon admits that in the early stages of the garden’s construction, it looked like “a pile of mulch.”
“We had a sign that said ‘Gardening takes patience; thanks for yours’.”
The garden is run by community members — with some support from the community association — but it’s not your typical allotment-style garden.
In Buena Vista, the entire garden belongs to the community. People are encouraged to pick berries and vegetables — or some weeds, if they’re so inclined. You don’t have to live in the neighbourhood to reap the bounty, either.
“We just want people to come and garden,” Nixon said.
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Community gardeners Amy Nixon (left), Joan MacDougall and Buena Vista teacher Maxine Panchuk love observing how the public interacts with the garden. Photo by Michelle Berg /Saskatoon StarPhoenix
The group of volunteers is fluid — some have been there from the start, while others come and go. People can give as much or as little time as they want. Nixon said they didn’t want to “administer people’s use of the garden.”
They decided to focus on native plant species that would attract pollinators. Grasses, berry bushes, milkweed, sunflowers, wild roses and blue flax don’t require as much water as other plant species. Nixon said the group initially didn’t know how much water would be available, or how much community interest there would be.
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“From a more existential perspective, our native ecosystems are really in peril, especially our grasslands. All of these species are native to the Saskatchewan prairie and parkland areas, and the pollinators that rely on those plants are also having a hard time as a result,” Nixon said.
“So anything we can do to provide more opportunity for those species, but also provide awareness to people about what they are, that they exist, and the benefits. This provides a bit of that opportunity, and develops that appreciation and connection to the plants that are from this place.”
Nature’s classroom
Maxine Panchuk teaches kindergarten at Buena Vista school, which offers an outdoor, nature-based learning program from pre-kindergarten to Grade 8.
She said watching her students interact with the garden — whether it’s during class time or on the weekends with their families — has been a true joy.
Kids write in the garden, have snacks, and sketch some of the things they see. They use magnifying glasses and binoculars to spot bugs and identify berries. Last fall, they harvested a zucchini and learned how to cook it. Sometimes they read books from the little library, or sit silently during mindful meditation time.
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In many ways, the garden is their classroom.
“They really do whatever their heart desires out here,” Panchuk said. “It’s exciting to see them take ownership and to just feel like this space is their space, and to be so curious.”
She said immersing kids in nature teaches mindfulness, patience, responsibility and regulation. It can also provide them a sense of self, and purpose.
“It gives you a sense of understanding that there is more in the world than just you — there’s a bigger picture. It connects a lot to land-based learning, (and) learning about community.”
It’s also valuable time spent away from devices. Panchuk said her students never ask to go inside when they are in the garden.
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Logs cut from a neighbourhood spruce tree are used as seats for a learning area at the Buena Vista boulevard garden. Photo by Michelle Berg /Saskatoon StarPhoenix
Panchuk grew up on a farm with native plants, but lost touch with nature after moving to the city. She said she was able to reconnect after buying a house and planting her own garden.
“This space has really encouraged and educated and inspired me to learn more. So this summer I’ve identified 300 native species on all my little trips that I’ve been on.”
MacDougall, a retired nurse, said gardening has exposed her to “a whole bunch of people who are a lot younger than me, which is kind of nice.” She’s a fixture in the garden, often running errands during the day while others are working, and chatting with students through the garden fence.
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Panchuk, Nixon and MacDougall laugh about how the neighbourhood kids have taken to shouting “Hi Joan!” when they walk by her house. The garden allows kids to connect with other kids, but also with adults.
The women said they love learning about how the public interacts with the garden. MacDougall recalls a family taking photos with their newborn in one of the sunflower patches, and a little boy who planted two dogwood sticks and checks on them every year.
There’s families that stop in for “story time” and people who make jam from the rhubarb. The boulevard garden is bursting with wholesome possibility.
“It is a true success story of being able to have so much biodiversity happening, and to be so welcoming of people,” Panchuk said.
Nixon added: “Everyone can bring whatever they want to do here, and they can fit in.”
People can also follow the garden from afar on instagram @buena_vista_garden_collective or on Facebook.
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A bee clings to the tip of an anise hyssop flower in the Buena Vista boulevard garden. Photo by Michelle Berg /Saskatoon StarPhoenix
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