Tucked away on the eastern edge of Joyce-Collingwood station, the garden creates opportunities for people to grow food and interact with their neighbourhood.
The garden, the first to be built on TransLink land, was started by a small group of enthusiastic gardeners with the support of Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH). At the time, community gardens were not that popular, and the first members put in many hours establishing
the garden.
This year we celebrated 15 years of growing and community building with snacks, activities and music performances from CW Music. Our newspaper article in the Renfrew-Collingwood Community News drew much interest from the public. One gentleman, clutching the paper, was an avid community garden follower, traveling along the west coast as far as Oregon to Alaska to learn more about the different garden set ups, administration and efforts.
Adrian Dix, our Member of Legislative Assembly for Vancouver-Kingsway and current Minister of Health stopped by to reminisce about his days as a garden member and to catch up with long-standing members.
The party also offered members of the garden a way to connect with the public and field questions about community gardening, growing and the joys of getting closer to nature.
Activities like flower printing and making grass heads allowed children and the young at heart to create and explore with natural materials. The flower prints, with blooms donated by the local “A Flower’s Touch” were one of the most successful activities, as people used a mallet to pound plant pigments directly onto fabric.
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