If you drive a car often, definitely you are missing out alot in seeing Vancouver’s wonderful community gardens that are in bloom now.   The City of Vancouver now has over 2,500 registered community gardens.   After a city application and approval process, residents can transform small areas of city land owned by the city and TransLink into food and floral  gardens.

Community gardening has taken off like a rocket.  There is a waiting list for garden plots in some areas. Vancouver exceeded its original target of 2,010 gardens  to coincide with this Olympic year. When city staff  mapped  its inventory of these gardens, they discovered coincidentally some gardens were located near  bike routes and pleasant neighbourhood walks. As a result there is a handy city map for self-guided tours of gardens and nearby bike routes. http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/socialplanning/initiatives/foodpolicy/projects/gardenwalks.htm#tours

A garden plot could be encased within concrete-rimmed traffic circles.  It may be a tiny marginal plot by a sidewalk or along abandoned rail corridors.

So take a walk or bike around:  maybe even within 10 blocks of home, there is a community garden.  Be amazed by the profusion of colour, creativity and work poured into these gardens.