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Community gardens flourishing in city Two new plots proposed as demand for gardening space grows
Cody Punter
Northern News Services
Published Tuesday, June 4, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Dave Taylor is an avid gardener who makes no secret about his love for community gardens in Yellowknife.
Dave Taylor works at one of the community gardens at Kam Lake. "It's a great excuse to get outside," he says. - Cody Punter/NNSL photo
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"(They) are a good way to grow some food, get some exercise and meet some people, and it contributes to education about our food sources," said Taylor, chair of the Yellowknife Community Garden Association.
They also provide "another piece of green space for people to enjoy, and it's a great excuse to get outside.”
Taylor and his wife first got involved in community gardening when they were asked to help look after the plot of a friend who had gone on vacation. The Taylors, who don't have adequate space to garden at their home, enjoyed growing their own fresh produce so much that they decided to get their own community garden plot the following year.
The community garden association, which currently has 185 members, has come a long way since starting with a single plot on the side of Kam Lake Road in 1995. The association now possesses five sites across the city, including a site at Weledeh Catholic School which opened in 2011, as well as smaller plot at the Mary Murphy Nursing Home.
Unlike the garden proposed to city council by the Yellowknife Commons Co-operative last week, the objective isn't to grow produce to sell but rather for the simple enjoyment of gardening. Of course, it doesn't hurt that there are some tasty vegetables to harvest after the seeds are sown.
The community gardens have become so popular that even with five sites and 185 members the association still has between 10-20 people on waiting lists for plots.
"We don't know what the capacity (in the city) is but there seems to be a demand there," said Taylor, adding "every time we add a garden we've been able to have enough gardeners to fill it."
Gardeners who want to join the community garden association must pay $10 to become a member and another $10 for a 20 to 22-metre square plot of land, which must be shared by at least two people. Members must also donate 25 per cent of their yield to charity as part of their participation in the program.
The interest in community gardens is now so high that the association is currently looking to lease another a piece of land from the city at Moyle Drive Park at Niven Lake. Taylor added that the association has recently been approached by other schools about the possibility of creating more gardens.
The growing popularity of community gardens has even inspired some residents to start their own associations.
The Trail's End Community Association was recently formed when a group of residents who live in a block of condos on Trail's End decided to transform an empty lot at the end of the street into a garden.
One of the members of the association, Isabel Gauthier, said they had originally approached the Yellowknife Community Garden Association to help them develop the plot but in the end they decided to form their own association.
However, when they realized that they had enough expertise to start the garden themselves they decided to for their own association.
"We wanted it to be our project," said Gauthier.
Since starting the association, the group has applied for a lease from the city and secured a $10,000 grant from Wal-mart as well as a $2,000 grant from the city. Even with those kinds of grants, the association is still looking for more funding.
According to Taylor, building a garden from scratch costs around $20,000, half of which goes toward buying soil.
While some may think that's a lot of money, Taylor points out that it is a fairly economical use of the land in comparison to the rest of the city's public spaces, such as the Multiplex or the tennis courts.
"The space that we're using isn't typically usable space," said Taylor, who points out that the garden in Old Town off School Draw Avenue used to be a parking lot, while the Weledeh garden was put in a corner of the property that was formerly covered in gravel.
The association also gives back to the community through its 25 per cent donations policy, and according to their website, members donated a total of 1,164.3 pounds of food to various charitable organizations in 2012.
While Taylor doesn't want to see all the green space in Yellowknife converted to gardens, "using some of the green space for growing food is a positive, worthwhile, productive thing to do."
He also believes that it's important to remind people how much hard work goes into putting food on our plates.
"These days people are pretty disconnected from their food source," he said.
"There's nothing like having a garden to make you appreciate those farmers who are growing the majority of our food for us."
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