Community gardens are places where people connect, share, and engage their social and ecological communities. The purpose of this research was to document and communicate participants’ experiences of community-building through community gardening in Kenora, Ontario, Canada. The primary method used was Photovoice, whereby a group of twelve participants shared photos and stories of their garden communities in a series of workshops. Follow-up interviews were used to get participant feedback on the photovoice process and fill gaps in the data, while participant observation was used to triangulate data. Results suggest a uniquely relational perspective of community gardening, the significance of sharing and learning in the garden, as well as success with and barriers to social capital and ecological citizenship among gardeners. Of particular importance, future garden initiatives in Kenora will likely require a combination of institutional and grass-roots efforts to facilitate intergenerational bonding, connecting across community gardens, building gardens in accessible locations, and addressing colonial and racial barriers to collaboration.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Moquin, R., Diduck, A. P., Sinclair, A. J., Davidson-Hunt, I. J., (2025), "Cultivating community through gardening in Kenora, Ontario", HSSCommons: (DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v3i2.167)

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1. community-based participatory research
2. community gardens
3. ecological citizenship
4. northwestern Ontario
5. Photovoice
6. social capital

Original publication: Moquin, Rob; Diduck, Alan P.; Sinclair, A. John; Davidson-Hunt, Iain J. "Cultivating community through gardening in Kenora, Ontario." Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation, vol. 3, no. 2, 2016, pp. 70-103. DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v3i2.167. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation. Copyright © the author(s). Work published in CFS/RCÉA prior to and including Vol. 8, No. 3 (2021) is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY license. Work published in Vol. 8, No. 4 (2021) and after is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA license. For details, see creativecommons.org/licenses/.