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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Cash might be short in Northland Trailer Park these days but that won't stop a group of area green thumbs from sprucing up a run-down baseball diamond this summer that has been an eyesore at the end of Catalina Drive for years.

The Northlands Trailer Park Society wants to turn it into a community garden.

"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 and 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 cost of the project to be $100,199.

The community oven idea would have a masonry - or stone oven - built that people could use to bake foods such as bread.

"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 Yellowknife Condominium Corporation No. 8 and 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," said Ripley.

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

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