North Peace Horticultural Society to manage community garden

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The North Peace Horticultural Society will now manage the Fort St. John Community Gardens for the 2023 season.

The decision resulted from the community engagement process held by the City of Fort St. John in April, featuring a town hall session and an online survey.

“Our membership knows the importance of gardening and wanted to ensure the community does not lose the Community Gardens. We are excited to work together with the garden renters this season,” said North Peace Horticultural Society president Michele Jeffers.

The garden’s future was uncertain as it was previously managed by Northern Environmental Action Team, which suddenly closed in October 2022.

The gardens have been available to the public for over a decade at the Church of the Resurrection on 100th Avenue.

“It warms my heart that the Community Gardens will be able to continue for the 2023 gardening season. Hopefully, with support from the community, we will have a community garden for years to come,” stated Mayor Hansen.

The community garden includes raised garden beds that are privately rented, as well as other garden beds and perennial gardens for anyone in the community to harvest from.

Anyone looking to rent a garden plot can email nphortsociety@gmail.com, telling the society how many boxes they would like to rent and their previous box numbers if they had any last year.

The rental fee for a garden box will be $30 for the first box and $15 each for additional boxes. A Horticultural Society membership fee of $10 will also be required unless the renter is already a member.

Gardeners wanting to rent a plot could also show up to the garden clean-up event on June 11th from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and pay the fees.