Yellowknife promotes food garden mentorship program
Do you have a yard in Yellowknife? Do you want some help to turn it into food garden?
The City of Yellowknife and Northern Roots Consulting are launching the second year of the Transform Your Yard to a Food Garden Mentorship Program. The program will offer residents vegetable production skills, hands-on food growing and harvesting training, and mentorship support.
Last year, available spots for the program filled up within days of opening. The city said 18 mentees enrolled in the program – some of whom started market gardens while others focused on self-sufficiency.
Dechı̨ta Nàowo, the education and training arm of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, has joined this year’s mentorship program as a partner.
“Given our northern context, special consideration and respect for the land, as well as Yellowknife’s unique growing conditions and climate will be at the forefront of the teachings,” the city stated in a press release.
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Two levels of the program are being offered in 2024.
Level one is aimed toward new participants and will include 14 group sessions as well as individual sessions over roughly 11 months. Topics will include getting started, seed selection, soil and composting, planting and caring for seedlings, and harvesting and preserving crops.
Registration for level one of the program is now open and costs $250. People can register online. Once registration is full people can contact [email protected] to be added to the waitlist.
Level two of the program is targeted at people who participated in the 2023 program. Anyone who is already a market or skilled gardener who did not take last year’s program can also contact Northern Roots to see if they are eligible.
