SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - France Benoit has found a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from her greenhouse by avoiding a carbon-burning furnace, while getting a head start on other Northern gardeners.

Innovative gardener France Benoit's greenhouse at Madeline Lake employs a white row cover with hoops underneath that work together to create an insulation effect to heat up the soil temperature. - Heather Lange/NNSL photo

"I put metal hoops twelve inches above the soil and hoops two feet above the soil. They are covered by two layers of a sheet called a row cover. It creates this layer of air which provides insulation, and in turn heats up the soil temperature," she said. Benoit's source of information for this innovative heating system is a book by Eliot Coleman entitled, "The Winter Harvest Handbook." It explains step-by-step how to implement this gardening technique.

"In early March, I start seeds in mini-blocks with a special soil mixture of peat moss, compost, rock phosphate and green sand. I then transplant to a bigger block of soil. The idea is to eventually transfer these to the greenhouse.

"Maybe some will die, maybe some won't. I'm learning. The only way to learn is by doing it. I have no expectation I'm going to grow stuff."

Benoit's system allows for the soil to stay thawed if overnight temperatures don't dip below -9 C.

"This was all thawed two weeks ago," Benoit lamented as she pointed to the soil on April 12. "The lowest temperature of the soil in the last twenty-four hours has been -20 C."

Among her vast array of vegetables are; peppers, tomatoes she grows upside down in planters, musk melon (a type of cantaloupe), pumpkins, sunflowers and all types of greens and herbs.

Though this is her first year using this system, last year's growing year was very successful for Benoit. By June 6, she said she had enough greens to feed ten people.

Though she is unsure of the outcome of this new system, she is opting to change her ways to be more environmentally-minded in her approach to gardening.

"It is about reducing my greenhouse gas emissions. I could heat my greenhouse by propane and I have carrots in May," she said. "That is not a sustainable way of doing it."

"To me, it's about pushing the envelope and the timing. Start earlier, end later. It's about doing it in a sustainable way."

Dawn Tremblay, the program coordinator at Ecology North said the group is "super-supportive" of Benoit's work.

Benoit was scheduled to give a presentation on "growing food in small places" at the Northern United Place auditorium from 8 to 9:30 p.m. last night, according to Tremblay.

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