In Edmonton, Alberta, a once-struggling orchard has become a vibrant, welcoming space where native plants, pollinators, children, and community members are thriving together.
Established in 2009 as both a community gathering place and a fruit rescue initiative, the McCauley Community Orchard experienced a decline during the COVID-19 lockdowns. In 2024, Foresters Financial partnered with Sustainable Food Edmonton and 5th World to rejuvenate the orchard, introducing regenerative planting techniques to develop a more diverse and resilient food forest. Two years later, the results of the partnership are taking root in ways both practical and unexpected.
“Overall it’s going really well,” says Mia Coco, Orchard Coordinator, Sustainable Food Edmonton. “The plants themselves are flourishing.”
While managing the site has presented challenges, adapting the original design has helped the project find its footing. Specifically, plantings such as quack grass proved difficult to control without sufficient volunteer support, so the team concentrated the surviving native plants into four sections of the orchard’s mandala-shaped layout.
A Surprising New Guest
One of the project’s most exciting successes has been the arrival of leafcutter bees, which Coco says appeared at the orchard for the first time. These pollinators have also created opportunities for hands-on environmental education, allowing children to observe the distinctive circular cuts they make in leaves.
The native plantings have sparked other memorable encounters, too. During a botanical printing activity with children from a neighbouring daycare, one child became captivated by a goldenrod plant.
“They were just mesmerized by it,” Coco recalls. “And they were like, ‘That’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.’”
Together, they made a botanical print of the flower for the child to take home. For Coco, this small moment captured the project’s deeper value: Making it possible for people, particularly children, to develop meaningful relationships with the natural world.
The orchard has also become a place for exploring connections between ecology, culture, and community. On the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the team used native and invasive plants as a starting point for conversations about reconciliation. The plants offered a tangible, accessible way to approach a complex subject.
A Community Space in Full Bloom
Beyond the ecological changes, the orchard is becoming an increasingly important gathering place for the surrounding neighbourhood.
During the latest season, more than 2,000 people visited the site, which hosted over 60 programs and events throughout the summer. Activities included botanical dyeing, seed saving, and basket weaving using willow planted in the orchard.
The impact is extending beyond the garden beds. Coco describes how fireweed seeds have been shared with other local projects, allowing the plants to establish themselves in new places. Meanwhile, community members have begun approaching Sustainable Food Edmonton to ask about hosting their own events in the space, including peace walks.
Regular volunteers have played an important role in this momentum. This year, around 10 people became consistent stewards, including one hobby orchardist who began volunteering on Wednesday evenings and returning independently to lend a hand.
As Coco puts it, the orchard is becoming “a little oasis for folks.”
That growing sense of ownership is central to the project’s future. Rather than continually expanding the plantings, the current priority is to care for what is already there, strengthen community engagement, and make the space more welcoming and accessible.
Growing Roots for the Future
Looking ahead, Coco hopes to build on this foundation with more educational signage and information about the plants growing throughout the orchard. These additions could help visitors explore the space independently, especially when a knowledgeable volunteer isn’t available to guide them.
The partnership with 5th World has helped the orchard evolve. Coco reflects warmly on the team’s support:
“[5th World] has been so kind and generous to the space, and to the community, and to me personally,” says Coco. “So it’s just been such a pleasure.”
Perhaps nothing captures the orchard’s spirit better than one particularly resilient bergamot plant. After an unusually wet Edmonton summer, most of the orchard’s bergamot struggled, but one plant persisted. Week after week, volunteers and children watched it grow, cheering it on.
“There’s this one incredible bergamot that really holds the heart of the whole community,” Coco says.
It’s a small but telling reminder that caring for a place can bring people together in unexpected ways.
As the McCauley Community Orchard continues to evolve, its story is still unfolding, one season at a time. With continued care and collaboration, it offers a simple lesson: When we nurture the natural world, we give our communities room to flourish, too.
