By Angela Brown

Battlefords Agricultural Society starting community garden project

Mar 31, 2022 | 10:35 AM

NORTH BATTLEFORD, Sask. – The Battlefords Agricultural Society is beginning the new season with a brand new project.

General Manager Jocelyn Ritchie said the non profit is starting a new community garden.

Plots at 10 ft. x 25 ft. in size can be purchased for $50 each for members or $75 each for non-members for the 2022 year.

The garden will be located on a piece of the organization’s land in North Battleford.

Ritchie said while operations were slower during the pandemic, the agricultural society decided to put its energies into this project to develop its own community garden.

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“We had been thinking about it for a time,” she said. “We had an area on our grounds that used to be our horseshoe pits that haven’t been used for quite a few years… So that’s the area we started with to use.”

With more people staying close to home these days, it seemed like a good idea to offer them an opportunity to try their hand in the field to develop their own fresh vegetables.

“We just felt a lot of people don’t have the space, and would like to have a garden,” Ritchie said. “Since we have all the space out here, we thought it would be a good thing for our community, to offer a place where people can come and have their garden.”

The GM added with the high prices of fresh produce in the stores now, it would be ideal for more people to have a small garden where they can grow their own vegetables, and save some costs at the same time.

“They can come and go as they please, get it planted, and hopefully have a nice crop for the end of the year,” she said.

To get the project ready, organizers set aside some land, added plenty of soil and completed tilling for the space to create the garden.

“Last year we did plant a test spot just to make sure everything would grow,” Ritchie said.

They planted corn, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, squash, and basically a variety of all kinds of produce.

“Everything we planted grew very well, and produced well. So this year we are ready to go,” Ritchie said.

The Battlefords Agricultural Society expects to have everything ready for people to begin planting starting the May long weekend.

People are invited to purchase a plot for the year so they can spend time growing their own garden, whenever they have time available.

“It will be marked out as yours,” Ritchie said. “We do provide water. Your gardening tools, and everything else you will need to bring with you.”

In total about 40 plots will be available for the approaching growing season. Some lighting is being added in the area as well.

“If it works well and we get it filled up, we do plan on expanding and making a bigger one for the upcoming years,” Ritchie said.

People can enquire about obtaining one of the plots in the community garden by contacting the Battlefords Agricultural Society.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow