Heather Wright/The Independent

The St. Clair Region Conservation Authority Foundation is selling Greenhill Gardens in Wilkesport.

The foundation declared the 100-acre property surplus and has offered the six-acre garden and the surrounding farmland to the highest bidder after realizing there was no way to fund the upkeep of the property.

The gardens were cultivated by Joy Robson for years. She and her husband, Bill, allowed people to come and walk through it for free. After Joy died in 2016 and her husband, Bill, passed in 2021, the gardens were maintained by a landscaping company paid by the family.

In 2022, the Robson family offered the 100-acre property to the conservation foundation. While many have admired the six-acre cultivated gardens, Ken Phillips, general manager of the foundation, says the 19-acre woodlot was the prize of the property for the conservationists. 

But it proved to be more work than the foundation could afford. In 2024, the foundation started charging admission to the gardens, a favourite spot for wedding and family photos. That drew a lot of criticism from the community.

This spring, overwhelmed by expenses – an estimated $150,000 a year in maintenance, a lack of workers, theft of equipment and homelessness encampments which will require about $250,000 to repair, the foundation board, closed the park.

Phillips told The Independent Thursday the foundation couldn’t find cash to help pay for the upkeep. “We couldn’t get money from anywhere from grants or through donations …that really put the business plan off to the side of what we have hoped to do.”

The farmland, which the family expected the conservation authority foundation would sell to provide income, could not be severed from the garden. Phillips says it had already been severed before, which made the move impossible.

“We looked at a number of options, and we have discussed – we have had extensive discussions with the Robson family about the property and the issues, the challenges, and they understood our position. And so the decision was made to put the property on the market and see if anybody was interested.”

Bids for the now “surplus land” are open until 4 pm Oct. 31. Phillips says there is no minimum bid.

The family, Phillips said “were disappointed, but they understood…they were having issues supporting the property, too. They were hoping that we could find some opportunities that they couldn’t find, and unfortunately, we couldn’t.

“Unfortunately, with the amount of vandalism that’s gone on, with the amount of other activities that’s gone on, and frankly, a very negative push back from the community when we asked to charge admission to the park – yeah – you can’t operate something like that for free.”