LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
There may still be snow on the ground but the gardening season is officially underway now that the Fort Simpson Community Garden Society held its annual general meeting.

The 2015 community garden was planted next to the golf course in Fort Simpson. A similar number of patches are available this year. - photo courtesy of Teresa Chilkowich

The meeting kicked off April 20 with an address from chairperson Teresa Chilkowich and election of the society's board members.

Chilkowich is returning as chair, while Malo Antoine will be vice-chair. Emilie Mongrain is the treasurer and secretary.

Sheila Gunderson, Alison Brown and Kristen Campbell will all return as board members, also welcoming new member Nelma DeOliveira and youth member Mel Betsaka into the mix.

After switching locations in 2015, the garden society reported steady membership with 26 garden patches, each patch fitting two garden boxes, along with some communal growing patches.

This year, the garden has room for at least 30 patches.

DeOliveira said she gardened with the society last year and decided she wanted to be more active in the community this year. Helping out with the society is one way of doing that.

Last year, she grew collard greens, lettuce and Swiss chard.

"This year, I think I will try my hand at tomatoes," she said.

As for being a board member, DeOliveira said she is looking forward to taking a more active role within the society, given the amount of tasks the society has to clear before the community garden gets underway.

"It's good that we can do it as a group," she said.

The garden society has a number of hurdles to overcome before planting begins. Chief among those is securing its lease agreement with the Village of Fort Simpson.

This will be the second season the garden runs next to Seven Spruce Golf Course. Prior to that, gardeners planted their patches on the flats.

Chilkowich said once the society's lease agreement is in place, they will look at erecting a gazebo and install picnic tables as well as a community garden sign, created by Fort Simpson artist Wilfred Joey Klein.

The gazebo and picnic tables will need a development permit, which cannot be obtained until the lease agreement is signed.

Another priority of this season will be completing what Chilkowich refers to as "soil amendments."

"We had a soil test done before we made our plan to move to (the current location)," Chilkowich explained.

That test, which was completed in 2014, detected amounts of nitrogen in the soil and other unfriendly elements the society hopes to correct.

Chilkowich said the society will organize worker bees over the course of the summer, the first of which will be devoted to applying soil amendments to individual patches.

The society will also be tackling weeds this year with plans to lay down landscaping cloth as a barrier around the edges of the garden.

"We need to secure the perimeter from invasive plants," Chilkowich said.

The cloth will be covered with cardboard, mulch and leaves.

Chilkowich said as community members do their spring cleaning of their yards, they can contact the society, which will be happy to take their leaves and grass.

Additionally, the society wants to plant shrubs, fruit trees and berry bushes around the garden, or put up a fence, creating a "natural barrier" to keep out animals.

One issue with gardening is the work it can take to go to the community garden and till and plant a patch.

Chilkowich said one idea that came forth from the society's membership was finding ways to support elders and people with mobility challenges to do their gardening from home.

That, she said, may be explored further as the season progresses.