Strathcona Park - Cottonwood Community Gardens

Today I went to my first Work Party at the largest local community garden in Vancouver. Apparently there are actually two - Strathcona and Cottonwood.  Strathcona is located West of Strathcona Park and Cottonwood is at the South-Eastern corner in the park itself.  I'll be spending most of my time in Cottonwood where I have a plot.

The work parties are the last Sunday of every month. Attending these work parties allows you to be placed on a waiting list for the next available open plot. I'm not sure how long I'll have to go to actual get a space but I'll keep going until I do.

I spent the first half hour or so moving potted plants to get them ready for dividing, cleaning up and sale. Then I was on compost duty. I turned a good sized pile of compost and then went on to sift another. I finished up with some horse manure turning. Fortunately it was well decomposed and didn't smell anymore. I also ended up buying some honey, apparently from bees right in the garden area (left over from last year).  I purchased the summer variety which apparently has the most sophisticated taste.  It was the same price as the others.  I would never have splurged on such an item. ;)

I've been relatively sedentary since I got to Vancouver (excluding walks). I'm a little sore now and think I may have over done it. It's worth it though.  I can eat more food.

The pictures at the beginning are from the new area. They had to finish bordering a large number of the new plots with wooden boards. A lot of people aren't visible in this photo (60 to 80 total in the gardens).   I was there from 10am to about 2pm. I would have stayed longer but I have some part time work that I had to have finished for 9pm tonight. It was done just after 8pm so I'm glad I left when I did.

Stevie from Garden Therapy was also there. We didn't end up formally meeting. There were a tonne of people and sometimes it's hard to recognize people from their blog/twitter photos. Especially when they have big sunglasses. :)