Strathcona Gardens is an organic community garden run by the Stathcona Community Gardeners Society. Members of the community can acquire a plot by paying a small fee and coming to required “work parties”. The garden uses a rainwater cistern, a new orchard, raised beds and in the ground plantings.
Located in a moderately dense neighborhood in Vancouver, the garden creates a new community space that engages the residents in a common endeavor, that being of course, growing food. Though the garden is divided into separate plots, the collective labor and care required to maintain the garden as a whole has many community-building benefits. The gardens allow the community to develop organic growing techniques, increase biodiversity, provide an venue for education about horticulture, and maintain the garden as a bird sanctuary. David Tracey, author of Guerrilla Gardening, A Manuel-festo, is a member of the garden.