.

Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

INUVIK - The Inuvik Community Garden Society has long known its greenhouse fulfils a vital role in town. Now it's being showcased on a national stage as an example for others to follow.

The converted rink is being showcased among several other innovative community gardening and farming projects at a Toronto exhibit titled "Carrot City: Designing for Urban Agriculture."

Inuvik Community Garden Society board members Janet Boxwell, left, and Lucy Kuptana at the town greenhouse currently showcased in an international urban agriculture exhibit in Toronto. - Andrew Rankin/NNSL photos

With projects ranging from an organic rooftop garden to a community garden that collects rain in two underground cisterns to water itself, the event is designed to illustrate how communities can become more self-sufficient through creative design and efficient use of space.

The exhibit, which started on Feb. 25 and will run until April 30, is being put on by Ryerson University's department of architectural science and Centre for Studies in Food Security.

Mark Gorgolewski, a professor of architectural science at the university and one of the exhibit's curators, said they chose to feature the Inuvik greenhouse for two main reasons: it provides an excellent example of how community gardening can be successfully run in a harsh Northern climate and the building was renovated in such a unique way.

"The reuse of the old building is really interesting because we don't have many projects of that kind, adapted and reused for a new purpose," he said.

"It also has the most extreme climate of any of the projects we showed. We should be thinking more about where our food is coming from and trying to provide it in a local way. Inuvik is an example of a community trying to do that."

Gorgolewski said the project has garnered a lot of interest from both audiences and national press. It has opened people's eyes to what can be achieved through community partnerships.

"Most people assumed that location would be a very challenging one to do something like this and the fact that it has been done has attracted quite a lot of interest," he said. "A lot of press in Toronto is asking about it."

There's an opportunity that the exhibit might also go international and a website to showcase the projects is in the works.

Greenhouse society board members Lucy Kuptana and Janet Boxwell said they're thrilled by the recognition, which they said provides a great example of sustainable urban agriculture even in a place as far north as Inuvik.

"It's amazing, but it makes sense," said Boxwell. "People have worked hard to make it a success.

"You're eating fresh produce and you're not having it shipped up from the south. The vitamins and the nutrients are all there but there are also, from what I've found personally, therapeutic benefits from just messing around in the dirt."

The greenhouse contains 74 ten- by-four foot plots and has 100 members from such community organizations as the food bank, the youth centre, and secondary school.

Bearing honeydew melon, squash, cucumber, peppers, and corn in past years, the greenhouse offers endless possibilities and frequent gardening clinics and is open from the second week of May to the last week in September.

The rental fee per full plot is $100 and $50 per half plot. Each member pays a $25 membership fee per year. Because that doesn't add up to anywhere near the operating cost of the building, members are asked to volunteer 15 hours a season to help out with day-to-day operations of the building.

The group will be looking for new members at it its annual general meeting at Aurora College on May 9 at 1 p.m.

With 24-hour sunlight on the way, plant sales and more gardening clinics around the corner, it's no wonder Kuptana can't wait for the planting season to start.

"I'm just in love with seeing things grow and watching them develop into a vegetable or a beautiful flower," said Kuptana. "It's such a healthy and worthwhile activity and it will be great to get the community involved."