Moose Jaw often gets special mentions from visitors for our parks, gardens, and heritage, but how would we do in a provincial competition?

This past August, we did just that as Communities in Bloom went around Saskatchewan and graded towns based on their parks, community areas and recreational facilities. The evaluation also involves landscapes, floral displays and urban forestry.

City of Moose Jaw Parks Gardener, Sarah Regent, had showed the judges around town looking at various parks, community project, and recreation centers.

"We did, of course, Crescent Park, and it happened to be a Wednesday so we did the farmers market there as well," Regent detailed. "We did all the anti-graffiti murals, we saw the new orchid down in Wakamow Valley, we did the community gardens, we did the Labyrinth of Peace, of course we did the rest of Wakamow Valley, we did quite a few of the heritage buildings and some murals."

Communities in Bloom has been around for 20 years, and it wasn't until 5 years ago that Moose Jaw had joined the competition. This year, Moose Jaw had competed at the provincial level.

"The goal at the national level and at the local level is to really promote civic pride," Regent said. "So, we do that in a number of ways, one of them is green spaces, rec opportunities, volunteer groups, urban forestry, heritage conservation, all that wonderful stuff is encompassed in Communities in Bloom."

In our city's evaluation, judges said that 'Moose Jaw has proven to show outstanding qualities in heritage, urban forestry and landscape attributes.' Also, a special mention was given about our urban parks and sport and recreation facilities.

In total, we scored 773.5 out of 1000, and place second in our provincial competition. If you want to see how we fared against other cities, click here.

If you're interested in Community in Bloom or our parks, the city is always looking for volunteers. You can find more information about volunteering and our gardens and community gardens on the City of Moose Jaw Parks and Recreation Facebook page. 

Full scorecard from Communities in Bloom.