SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
First-time gardeners may not succeed initially but they just need to keep at and remember a few tips, said Territorial Farmers Association board member France Benoit.
"It is possible to grow food in Yellowknife," she said. "We need to make use of what we have and what we have is not a lot of soil and rocks so we can make things grow upside and use the little spaces."
Some of the easiest plants to grow, she said, are lettuces, radishes, beans, peas, carrots, kale and swiss chard. Also, certain vegetation, such as tomatoes and leeks, should be started inside and be moved outside when it's warm enough.
"If you're going to start seedlings inside you need warmth and a lot of sunshine," she advised. "You need to cover them with sort of a plastic dome. Anything will do but you do need to cover them. That creates a bit of condensation, then that reduces the amount of watering you have to do because it's always nice and warm and moist in there."
Dave Taylor, chair of the Yellowknife Community Garden Collective, added that it's important to pick crops suitable for the zero zone environment because some plants, including peppers, won't work in this area.
Still, he said, whatever residents decide to grow, the garden will need to be worked on a regular basis.
"You need to spend several hours a week, probably a little bit of time everyday or every other day certainly in the spring to get started and get your seeds going and then later on in the year you need to weed and water and harvest," Taylor said.
