INUVIK - It's not just the renovations and the screams of the circular saw that give the Inuvik greenhouse the air of change, new ideas are being planted in every corner, upstairs and down, to try and make this year's growing season efficient, organized and full of life.

Carrie Young shows off some of the thousands of seedlings she will plant at the Inuvik greenhouse. The greenhouse plans to sell homegrown plants from the garden centre for the first time in two years. - Kira Curtis/NNSL photos

"If we're going to come back doing commercial, let's go big and just blow these guys out of the water," said Carrie Young from the newly-floored garden centre of the greenhouse.

A former Inuvik resident, Young flew back from Yellowknife this week to start planting thousands of seeds to produce homegrown plants to sell in the greenhouse's garden centre - the first time in years they will be doing that.

"They haven't been growing their own bedding plants here for at least two years," Young said, "The community area has been operating, and upstairs they were selling bedding plants, but they were getting them from down south."

Trays of a variety of different tomato sprouts are currently growing in a little heated room of the massive greenhouse. For the past two years the greenhouse has been selling bedding plants bought in Whitehorse, Edmonton or Vancouver, but shipping can be hard on the plants and they sometimes carry unwanted insects.

"Because we're not importing we won't have introduced bugs, we'll just have whatever happens here naturally," said Young.

Young worked for years managing the greenhouse before moving to Yellowknife. To get this horticultural machine running smoothly, she is planting and planning in preparation for a new greenhouse manager - one who should be decided on by late this week.

"This year they're going to hire a horticulturist to come up (to Inuvik), hopefully by the end of April," she said.

Young said they want to get back into the bedding-plant and starter-veggie-plant business, so they've co-ordinated a whole crop for the new manager to grow.

"There'll be hanging baskets, there'll be planter boxes, there'll be bedding plants to buy and starter veggie plants."

Young said the prices will be competitive to the rest of the plants available in town.

She said she is hoping the new manager can take on such a big job, but the Inuvik Community Garden Society has already received a number of applications. Young said it is a big, big job during the growing season but the manager will have more time off when the crops have turned to dust.

"They are going to need tons of help with transplanting and all that stuff," then she laughed, "and maybe a place to live, too."

Young said 10 years ago there was a waiting list for plots at the greenhouse, but because there has been a surge of people building their own greenhouses there are now a few plots still available.

Winding through the chaotic maze of construction and planting coinciding in the greenhouse, Young said plants usually go on sale around the first weekend of June when it's OK to plant outside but some of her seedlings may be ready early.

"Generally people start planting their gardens here by May long weekend so we'll try to have some plants ready for them," she said.

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