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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Northlands Community Garden Society has big plans for the run-down baseball diamond that has been an eyesore at the end of Catalina Drive for years. The society wants to turn it into a community garden.

Carrie Young would like to see the abandoned baseball diamond, which she says has been an eyesore in Northland for years, turned into a community garden. - Kevin Allerston/NNSL photo

"Basically it just collects garbage and it's not maintained at all and I don't really like looking at it," said Carrie Young, who sits on the board of directors for the society.

Young said the idea came to her in October while walking by the park, which she said is only used as a dumping ground for snow in the winter.

"One day I was just walking back from the pool I thought 'Hey! Wait a minute! This could be a really nice space,'" said Young.

If everything goes as planned, the group wants to have shovels in the ground by June, with the project completed within two years.

The 16,500 square foot area would be fenced in with approximately 70 raised beds, an area set aside for composting, a tool shed, a community oven, a greenhouse, a play area for children and a gazebo. The roof of the greenhouse would be used to collect rain for watering plots. The society's proposal estimates the total value of the project to be $100,199.

"Not only will it have garden plots, but it will have a recreation area for people to just hang out," said Young. "I think that Northland being in the dire straights that it is with the infrastructure, this would be a really nice kind of good news project that people can come together on."

She said the project has the blessing of YK Condo 8, Ecology North.

"I think it's a brilliant idea. We wrote a letter of support for them recently," said Shannon Ripley, an environmental scientist with Ecology North. "I think it's excellent to see members of a particular community getting together to plant a garden."

Ecology North members have their own plans for supporting community gardens, called Local Food Learning and Leadership Project, from which the Northland garden is separate.

"It's really rewarding to see the whole process. To take seeds, put them in the ground, and then have that produce that you create for yourself," said Ripley.

The Northlands society is now looking at possible ways to fund the project.

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