Published by City Farmer, Canada's Office of Urban Agriculture
Greetings from Canada's Northwest Territories
Welcome to the Yellowknife Community Garden Collective!
Email Contact: info@ykgardencollective.org
Website: Yellowknife Community Garden Collective
The Yellowknife Community Garden Collective (YCGC) began in 1995 with the following objectives:
- To provide a place to garden for people who do not own or have access to private land suitable for gardening;
- To provide education and hands-on experience in the creation and maintenance of an environmentally sustainable, organic garden in a northern environment;
- To provide fresh, nutritious, organic, relatively inexpensive, locally-grown vegetables, herbs, and flowers; and
- To assist in the food security needs of the whole community by providing food for people in need through donations to local charities.
The collective began with one site of 675 square meters. In 2001 an adjacent site was prepared of the same size. New sites were added in 2008, 2010, and 2012.The sites are divided into plots of about 22 square meters each and each plot owner donates 25% of the harvest to local organisations. A community orchard was also added in 2012.
Gardening in Yellowknife can be challenging but also very rewarding. The gardening season in Yellowknife begins about the first week in June and finishes by the end of September. Gardeners are able to grow many types of vegetables with ease: carrots, beets, leafy greens, peas, broccoli, potatoes, rhubarb, swiss chard, and a variety of herbs such as dill and parsley. Vegetables such as tomatoes, zucchini and peppers can also do well if they have more protection. Soils in the sub-arctic ecozone tend to be acidic and very nutrient poor, so composting plays a key role in improving garden soils. Yellowknife gardeners use both vermicomposting and traditional composting methods.
