It was blustery Saturday morning, but the sun was out for volunteers to erect the raised garden beds at Charstate Community Garden.
The work bee marked the third “build day” of putting the community garden together by Greenways Land Trust, which came to an agreement with the city in 2017 to oversee the development and operation of the site at Charstate Park in Campbell River.
RELATED STORY: Charstate Community Garden almost ready for seeds
RELATED STORY: Work begins on community garden at Campbell River park
“We have a great crew of 15 out for a couple hours in the morning,” said Sandra Milligan, president of Greenways Land Trust. “We have some new faces, and we’ve also got the die-hards who live in apartment buildings nearby.”
Volunteers were busy sawing the cedar boards and assembling them into the 40 garden boxes on site.
Milligan says several of these volunteers heard about the project last year and have shown up for every build day.
“They’re super-excited to finally have a really big space to plant,” she said.
The next steps for Greenways at the site include getting the irrigation system in place for the raised garden boxes beds, which will be roughly a foot deep, and adding the soil.
“We’re going to be digging ditches and laying piping,” Milligan said. “We’ll have water available to everybody here.”
Milligan expects the soil to be ready over the next couple of weeks.
“You’ll be ready to plant,” she said. “By May 24th weekend, when everybody wants to get their tomatoes and zucchini in the ground, we’re going to be ready for action.”
There are still some plots available at the community garden, so anyone interested should contact Greenways at 250-287-3785 or emailing info@greenwaystrust.ca.
