If at first you don’t succeed, as they say, try again.
That’s exactly what the Canmore Community Garden Society has done over the past year to find a plot of earth.
Recently, the group received final confirmation the Canmore Hospital will provide them with a piece of land for a community garden and access to water to help it grow.
“We do have a letter of agreement with that group to utilize property on the hospital site,” said Hospital Manager Barb Shellian recently. “We also have agreement related to use of water on that site for the community garden during specified hours.
“We are participating in the initiative because we think it is a worthwhile idea and want to support the community.”
Chrystel Vultier with the garden society said the news is very exciting and work has already begun on designing the community space.
“The hospital is very generously donating that land and water to us,” Vultier said. “We want to maximize our resources and make it the most efficient design possible.”
In addition to hospital support, she said the society has canvassed the neighbouring area and has seen positive feedback including a letter of support from the Teepee Town task force and the Town of Canmore.
“The first yield of this garden is community and that is what we are seeing,” Vultier said.
While the hospital has offered water, how that will work is yet to be determined as the access to the resource is from a spigot at the north end of the building.
Vultier said there are several options being explored including using principles of permaculture in the garden’s design by harvesting water on site.
Earlier this month the group held a workshop with Verge Permaculture to begin designing the garden’s layout.
Permaculture is a philosophy of working with nature instead of against it according to Rob Avis with the Calgary-based company.
Avis said permaculture is much more holistic in focus than a traditional scientific standpoint and looks at connections between elements as opposed to elements themselves.
“Permaculture is a very people centred design system,” he said. “We need to provide new mechanism for people to meet their needs without engaging in systems that do not meet their ethics.”
Avis said the idea of sustainability is one of the status quo, or in other words, keeping things the same.
He said instead, we should move into regenerative design and philosophy to make things better, not just staying the same.
In gardening terms he said that means a garden that provides net positive calories or more output with as little input or work as possible.
The design workshop also kicked off the group’s fundraising campaign to build the garden. Vultier said the group, in addition to financial contributions, needs donations of volunteer time, equipment and materials.
The focus for the upcoming growing season will be on getting the community garden up and running instead of backyard gardening, which was a focus of the group over the past year.
Vultier said backyards have been put on the back burner because of concerns about wildlife. She said the group will establish wildlife guidelines for gardening in the mountain community.
For more information or to become involved visit www.canmorecommunitygardening.org