MELFORT — Melfort Communities in Bloom received $35,000 from Federated Co-operatives Limited to create a community garden in Melfort.
“We have talked about doing a community garden for a number of years,” said Peggy George, secretary and treasurer of Melfort Communities in Bloom. “We have asked the city, ‘Is there a place we can put it?’ and so on. It has just never fallen into place.”
The committee then applied for Federated Co-ops’ community spaces program and were awarded with the funds.
“We went to the city and said, ‘We have $35,000. Where can we put this community garden?’ They have found a place and just bent over backwards making this work for us and work with us, so it’s fabulous.”
The city loaned land at Spruce Haven Park to Communities in Bloom for the pilot project. The City of Melfort is supplying the water for the garden and placed mulch.
“Parents can go there with young families, so they can play in the playground or the splash park, or if somebody is skateboarding the parents can play in the garden or just whatever,” George said. “So it’s in a real close proximity.”
For the project, Communities in Bloom has built 30 different planting beds of various sizes to be placed at the garden.
Community members can pay a fee to rent one of the box beds and plant what they want into it, maintaining it for the summer. These can range from vegetables that the community member can harvest, or flowers to look pretty.
The prices are $40, $50 and $60 depending on the size of the box, but due to the lateness in the year, Communities in Bloom has created a half-priced discount for the season.
George said this will be serving as a fundraiser for the organization.
“We have 12 beds out of the 30 are occupied, so it’s coming along lovely.”
“Pumpkin are starting to show up and that will be fun to see those and the people that have been planting have been really excited to see them starting to grow.”
Communities in Bloom plans to install a gazebo, benches and a garbage can. They also have four fruit trees growing, which will be open to community members who are in the area to pick off a cherry or plum for a tasty snack.
“It will definitely evolve over time. It will take us probably two years to make it totally the way we want it to be.”
For this summer, the trees are planted, mulch is down and the plant beds are made.
George said the project was inspired by the connection today people have with nature.
“There is a new interest in the younger generation. They’re keen on what they eat, what they feed their families and they want to be involved with nature. They want the experience of gardening,” she said. “There are people who live in apartments and condos, and they don’t have garden space. There are people that live in houses and their yards are all manicured and landscaped with grass and perennials and things. So they really don’t have a place either to grow fresh vegetables.”
For those who are interested in renting a box can contact George with Melfort Communities in Bloom at 306-752-5165.
She said that since it is a new project, if some don’t get planted this year Communities in Bloom will fill them themselves.
“Communities in Bloom will fill some of the beds with veggies and we’ll harvest them and divvy up possibly with the food bank or other members,” George said. “We haven’t got all that figured out yet, hopefully there will still be more planted by other people.”
This is the third time Melfort has received a community spaces program grant. Last year, the Melfort Kin clubs received $100,000 for a new park, while in 2017, Melfort Rotary received $70,000 for upgrades to their park.
