The Outdoor Gardens at The Leaf is Canada's newest horticultural attraction, which is the first and only garden in North America to tell Canadians' cultural stories through the world of plants.
Journey outdoors through the Gardens at The Leaf, where each garden offers a new adventure and exhilarating surprises.
Over the weeks, months and years to come, the gardens will evolve as they mature and change with the seasons.
Discover the new outdoor Gardens at The Leaf - close to 30 acres gardens and greenspace in the southeast corner of Assiniboine Park. There are six areas to explore - Indigenous Peoples Garden, Kitchen Garden, Sensory Garden, Performance Garden, Seasonal Garden, and The Grove. These young gardens will change with the seasons and mature gradually over the weeks, months and years to come. We invite you to watch this beautiful video that tells the story of the Gardens at The Leaf, people who inspired its creation, and our vision for how these gardens will grow to create a place where nature and culture unite.
PLAN YOUR VISIT The Indigenous Peoples Garden The Indigenous Peoples Garden will be a gathering place that recognizes our country’s strong Indigenous heritage. The beliefs and traditions of Indigenous peoples reflect a deep philosophical understanding and respect for nature. Their stories, dances, music, art, clothing, and spiritual rituals reflect the belief that spirits exist among the natural world. Here, in the Indigenous Peoples Garden, the relationships of Indigenous cultures with the environment, both past and present, will be explored.
Through careful planning, led by Indigenous landscape and architectural designers, this will be a place that serves as a crossroads of cultures, a place for sharing knowledge, where people can discover or rediscover the culture of Canada’s first inhabitants, while offering an opportunity for Indigenous peoples to share their traditions, wisdom and connection with the land. The garden’s design was created over the course of several years through a collaborative process involving Indigenous elders, designers, and community leaders. Assiniboine Park is located on Treaty 1 territory within the Province of Manitoba, the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dene, and Dakota Peoples, and the homeland of the Métis Nation.
Kitchen Garden The Kitchen Garden will be home to a variety of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and other edible plants. It will also feature plantings that thematically connect the Kitchen Garden with the adjacent Indigenous Peoples’ Garden, including the three sisters (corn, squash and beans). Here visitors will engage with Indigenous teachings exploring the connection between people and nature.
The Kitchen Garden will also focus on active gardening, with potential for demonstrations, classes, composting, and water conservation. The area will include a variety of themed garden beds with rotating crops, an arbour, an outdoor oven, and a variety of greenhouses for planting and demonstration.
Seasonal Garden The Seasonal Garden will celebrate change expressed through perennial plant selections that will peak at different times throughout the spring, summer, and fall. This space will evolve to accommodate activities in all four seasons, as this area will be a living horticultural painting replete with a garden path, water feature, arbour, and seating. A wide variety of plant life will showcase the beauty of perennial gardens.
Sensory Garden The Sensory Garden will be a feast for the senses as visitors find themselves challenged to engage through sight, smell, touch, taste, and sound. Points of interest include a garden bed dedicated to a rotating variety of colourful, aromatic, and tactile plant species, and hill-like topographical features replete with tall grasses to draw the eye and invite exploration. This unique horticultural feature allows visitors a fully involved garden experience that promotes interaction with nature in an extraordinary way. Performance Garden The Performance Garden will offer opportunities for visitors to enjoy a variety of different art forms while surrounded by nature. The focal point of the Performance Garden is an outdoor stage surrounding by a gently tiered and landscaped seating area.
The Grove The Grove focuses on the majesty of trees. Here, visitors will encounter an abundance of plant life in the spring, a cool retreat in the summer, breathtaking views of fall foliage and refuge from the cold winter along beautiful snow covered woodland paths. The Grove will wrap visitors in a tranquil arboretum setting that reminds us of the simple beauty and calming nature of trees and shrubs.
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