Hi, I’m Jane. I am a permaculture designer and gardener, as well as a community developer.
I’ve been active in the urban and regional food systems world since 1994. In 2007, I founded Garden Jane to provide services around growing healthy food and gardens for all. Through Garden Jane I work with people across North America who want to grow food gardens, food sovereignty and equity within their communities, not-for profits, businesses or spheres of influence.
Daniel Hoffmann and I co-founded Hoffmann Hayes (HH) in 2015, after working together since 2012. We offer design consultation for urban agriculture, gardens, and healthy food & community development programs to the businesses, agencies, and people who are planning, building, and developing communities in the Greater Toronto Area. We implement projects too and help a diverse range of people learn how to grow food, work together and implement sustainable healthy food & garden programs. HH has engaged on 36 projects in the Greater Toronto Area that include master planned communities, urban food hubs and commercial foodscapes that give back to communities. Last year we consulted with Toronto Community Housing on designing a mini rooftop farm in Regent Park that is being built, joining a cluster of gardens and projects in Regent Park that are connected into the larger fabric of growers, eaters and community members.
I am curious and engaged in how we can connect and build the capacity of people to work together. My sense is that we need to grow the scope and depth of urban agriculture in the GTA (among other things) so that the community has more capacity to solve other significant social and ecological problems. To this end I co-design and co-animate healthy food programs and sites with long term community, economic and ecological sustainability in mind. Paying clients include municipalities, public and private institutions, non-profits, socially responsible businesses, community groups and individuals. I offer probono and reduced rate community service to individuals, schools and groups where I can (here’s some of what I contributed to recently).
Communities needs and gifts, ground truths, edges and diversity of all kinds, and social permaculture have long influenced my approaches and choices. I’ve helped establish the Erin Mills Community Food Hub and an informal group of mentors helping new farmers “get to market” too. I’m active with the Peel Food Action Council as well. Years back I helped create the City of Toronto Children’s Garden Program and High Park Children’s Garden, with the aim of seeing a garden within reach of every child. I also worked with FoodShare, the City of Toronto’s Community Garden program and Evergreen, helping set the stage for the growth of community gardening, school gardens and urban agriculture in Toronto and across Canada. I’m still active with schools and day care networks, often as a programmer, coach/consultant or co-designer for a season or more to get groups and projects going. I love to help revitalize projects too!
I’ve been a consultant to University of Toronto Scarborough helping to add a permaculture lens to their campus master plan (300 acres) and to their campus farm. I have been active on the board of the Permaculture Institute of North America (PINA), where we’ve been looking at how to scale capacity and solutions to climate change, social inequity and oppression. Education is important to me, and so is designing programs that connect to well designed spaces, buildings and invisible systems (e.g. budget-related processes and how people choose to share). I’ve been a mentor with the Women’s Permaculture Design Course, which offers modestly priced and free programs to tens of thousands of people.
At the regional level, I helped launch a Regenerative Bioregional Community of Practice & Landscape Survey and to produce a Permaculture in Ontario map. With PINA the mapping is evolving and we’ve worked to complete a North American resource to help permaculture communities map themselves (coming soon!).
I have a B.A. in Anthropology and Environmental Studies (U of T), a Masters in Environmental Studies (York U) and certificates in Permaculture Design and Teaching Permaculture. There’s a bit more about my journey into permaculture, in this podcast.
I wouldn’t be complete without saying that I enjoy an active family life with my daughter Chloe, stepson River, my partner Jeremy and his kids, Eli and Sophie and other family members in Toronto. Thank you for reading about me! I am interested in you too and welcome connection on how to bring life to ideas that serve you, other people, as well as the planet, and that bring about fair share/ future care.
P.S. The Bean Keepers is one of my favourite side projects. It was developed to share seeds, seed knowledge and to inspire all ages of people to seed save wherever they are, starting with daycares and schools. I’ve been dreaming big on this one – imagining kids stewarding all 4000+ varieties of beans that grow in Canada! There’s a story, a song, lesson plans and, of course many cool stories about bean varieties to share.
I also love Seed Balls and have a Seed Ball Revolution project, along with seed ball kits that help pay youth to implement it.
Learn More…