Strathcona and Cottonwood Community Gardens

Location

601 Keefer St

Vancouver, BC

Canada

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Site area
2.83 ha (28,329 m2)
Certifications & Awards
  • 2005: Heritage Award (for the Heritage apple Espalier), City of Vancouver
  • 2005: Volunteer of the Year Award, City of Vancouver Parks Board
  • 1998: Sustainability Design Award, Architecture Institute of BC
  • 1997: Youth Housing Award, Government of Canada
  • 1989: ETeams Award, Province of British Columbia
Project Team
  • Eco-Pavilion Architect: Sharif Senbel

Summary

Since 1987, Strathcona Community Gardens has been cultivating 2.83 hectares of urban land to provide food for local residents and to educate the public. As a purely volunteer-driven community-based initiative, the intention of the garden is to promote sustainability and urban agriculture while providing local residents with the means to grow fresh food and create habitat for wildlife. Due to overwhelming demand, the site was expanded in 1991 to include the Cottonwood gardens. These gardens transformed a former city dump site into a vibrant landscape that provides individual garden plots as well as on-site education resources. The Strathcona and Cottonwood gardens have received local recognition and awards as well as international acclaim.

A main feature of the Strathcona gardens is the Eco-Pavilion, a beacon of sustainable architecture. This structure was built through a job-training program mainly by young women and serves as a multi-purpose facility. It is the first public building in Vancouver to have been granted a permit for its state of the art environmental systems. The main green features of this structure are: 1) the use of non-clear cut wood; 2) the use of solar power for all electrical lighting and electrical needs; 3) a greywater system that reduces the building's water consumption, allows for garden watering during times of drought, and captures nutrients for plant growth that would otherwise be lost; and 4) a composting toilet that reduces the bulk of waste by 90%, uses little energy, and provides fertilizer for the surrounding gardens

Other features of the gardens include a community orchard with more than 300 fruit trees, an herb garden, school group and handicapped-access planting beds, a youth garden, and beekeeping facilities. In addition the gardens are currently renovating a wetland habitat to serve a reservoir in the dry season. A large-scale composting centre located in the gardens processed over 230 tonnes of waste between 2004 and 2006 and produced an impressive 43.4 tonnes of compost for the gardens. The gardens turn a formerly abandoned area into a space that produces over 2,000 lbs of fruit and produce for the community annually.

Summary of Stathcona Compost Centre Statistics (Aug 2004 - Mar 2006):

  • Food waste composted: 231 tonnes
  • Compost produced: 43.4 tonnes
  • Number of avoided waste management trips to landfill: 66
  • Reduction in CO2 equivalents: 258.2 tonnes (same as taking 64 cars off the road for one year)
  • Estimated annual garden productivity:1,200 lbs (544 kg) of fruit; 980 lbs (444 kg) of produce
  • 100 volunteers per year
  • Group has been active since 1987

Tours: Available upon request. Contact the Strathcona Community Gardeners Society at 604-215-1914.

 

This post was imported from the 'Greater Vancouver Green Guide', it's part of the 'Green Guide Portal' to the Green Building Brain.