2025 marked the pilot of the Trees for Life Chapter Challenge: a $10,000 grant designed to inspire LO Chapters to create projects dedicated to heroes within their communities. Following the success of the inaugural year, the program continues and encourages Chapters to plant a forest to carry out Trees for Life’s mission to plant trees where Canadians live, work, and play.

The Dorothy Ley Hospice garden is a place where families come to grieve, to remember, to sit quietly beside someone they love, and also where hospice volunteers take a quiet break among the flowers. The hospice wanted the garden to serve all those needs and also be a place that honours memory, supports healing and carries a deep respect for nature.

Toronto Chapter volunteers approached the restoration with that same spirit, supported by the Trees for Life’s Chapter Challenge grant, which inspired them to transform the existing landscape and dedicate it to heroes.

Toronto Chapter created thoughtful, ecologically grounded plans that prioritized native plants and water-wise choices, along with a palette to provide interest and nourishment for pollinators across all four seasons. The Toronto Chapter matched the grant with in-kind contributions that included coordinated plant ordering, logistics, and on-site labour.

This project was made possible as a result of a partnership between the Dorothy Ley Hospice, volunteers from Landscape Ontario’s Toronto Chapter and funding from Trees for Life through the Landscape Ontario (LO) Chapter Challenge, as well as Green Cities Foundation made this restoration project possible.