As the warm weather approaches, the Hay River Community Garden is looking for people interested in trying their green thumbs.
For several evenings over the past week or so, representatives of the community garden have been selling memberships at NWT Centennial Library, and they will be there again on April 25.
"We want to boost up membership," said Megan Russell, the new president of the Hay River Community Garden.
One of her ideas is to have some workshops, such as on canning in the fall and possibly about the uses of spices.
"That would be interesting because a lot of people grow spices, but not a lot of people know what to do with fresh herbs," she said.
The community garden has 60 outdoor plots for rent at $25 each before April 30, and after that date for $30 each. It also has 60 smaller greenhouse plots for rent at $5 each.
Built in 2010, the community garden has been used by people to grow many things – potatoes, beans, peas, spinach, squash, zucchini, cucumber, peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, turnips and more.
"You can grow almost everything, except for really, really hot weather things," said Russell.
She is hoping for another successful year.
"I hope it's sunny and hot," she said. "And I hope this season starts early."
Pat Burnstad, the former president and now vice-president of the organization, noted a work bee at the community garden will take place in June to start up everything for the growing season.
The Hay River Community Garden also has a couple of other goals for the summer.
One of the goals is to create a designated area for a three-bin composter.
Burnstad noted that composting has been happening all over the place.
"They just sort of dump it because there's really no place to sort it," she said.
Another priority is to raise a garden shed to prevent it from being damaged by water.
Burnstad said the shed is starting to rot from underneath.