Downtown Athabasca is going to get a little greener this summer.
On Friday, the Athabasca Native Friendship Centre built a new community garden next to the Petro Can cardlot, where the Imperial Oil gas station used to be.
The idea came about during a brainstorming session.
“A lot of people were asking where the food bank was and Laureen (Houle, the Native Friendship Centre’s director) had mentioned that she wanted to do cooking classes,” said Renee Sabina, the garden's coordinator. “So, this way it kind of just ties everything together. We'd build a garden.”
The initial plan was to have it on the waterfront, but when it took a while to hear back from the town, they started looking at other options.
“We were able to get in touch with Imperial Oil and they agreed to lease us the spot which is actually just across the street from our centre, so it worked out very well,” she said. “When we talked to Imperial Oil they have no plans on selling that land anytime soon. So, that land is just going to stay there, vacant.”
The land is what's known as brownfield – meaning there's some level of contamination. Although walking on it is fine, it's not really an area that can be dug into. As such, the Friendship Centre is taking some extra precautions with the garden.
“We have to use protective gardening designs,” said Sabina. “All the beds are raised, they're lined and we're mulching the walkways and that sort of thing.”
There are 30 beds in which vegetables, flowers or anything else someone wishes to plant can grow. According to Sabina, there's been great community support for the project, with organizations and individuals donating supplies and their time to building the garden.
“It's been really positive, actually. Now that I'm looking at all of the stuff, if we had to build it and pay for it all, I think it would be more than we budgeted. I've never taken a construction project on like this. It's a lot of head scratching and finances and stuff like that.”
She continued, “It's hard, but it’s easier than it should have been considering all the steps (to building a garden). You know, people are being really cooperative and helpful.”
There are currently 10 people signed up to grow things in the garden. Not all of them, she says, have any experience with gardening. She's hoping they will learn by doing and through talking to the other gardeners.
“We had one lady pop in today and she’s like, 'Oh, I just want to meet new people. I haven't met anyone in Athabasca yet.' It kind of really does bring people together. You already have something to talk about, so it's easy to meet people.”
When the garden is grown, the Friendship Centre is planning on holding cooking classes. Sabina is in touch with some chefs she knew during her time in the hospitality industry and they're looking at doing a “community kitchen” - a group of people bringing in what food items they have and making something out of it.
The plan is to continue the project for as long as they can.
“Once we have it built, we don't have any intention of tearing it down next year or anything like that,” said Sabina. “As long as people are interested and the space is available to us, then it'll be an ongoing project.”
