This year marks the 25th anniversary of the downtown community garden, the president of the Downtown Urban Gardeners Society told city council at its meeting last Tuesday.

Randy Lamb offered thanks to the city for its support over the years, as well as to the Yukon government and its various programs for their funding support.

The downtown community garden, now in its 25th growing season, has been a success story, he assured council.

Lamb said last year, for instance, the gardeners’ society donated approximately 1,000 pounds of vegetables to the Golden 
 Age Society.

So far this year, it has donated approximately 1,200 pounds of vegetables that are picked every Friday and dropped off at the society’s office downtown, he said.

“The Whitehorse Community Garden has been a long-running fixture located in the heart of downtown,” Lamb told council.

“It has been a success story that has been helping to green not only the heart of Whitehorse but to help other community gardens. It has been a role model.”

He said the garden society goes all the way back to 1997. That’s when members of the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition came together and called a meeting for public residents interested in a community garden.

Fifteen people showed up and the Downtown Urban Gardeners Society was formed as a not-for-profit organization, he said.

Things went very well, beginning with working with the city to identify a piece of land at Seventh Avenue and Ray Street that could be used for a community garden.

Ground was broken, and the first garden was planted in 1998.

“And the rest is history,” he said.

Currently, Lamb noted, the garden has approximately 80 beds, and there are about 100 members in the society.

In addition to the distribution of vegetables, they also offer berries and small fruit.

The garden society in 2016 received spot zoning and a permit for a bee apiary.

“So if you see honey bees around downtown and the old town, they are probably my girls,” said Lamb. “I am the beekeeper as well.”

He said the garden has been a great boon to help with local berry production and everything else.

“I would like to thank everybody who has helped out with the community garden over the years. It has served its purpose well to teach people the art of self-sufficiency and to help beautify the neighbourhood. And it gives back to the community.

“We have approximately 200 feet of raspberries outside our little four-foot fence,” Lamb told council. “Residents in the area know very well and come by every morning to pick.”

Lamb said he wanted to thank council before the garden society reached the end of another 
growing season.

“Frost is right around the corner.”

Mayor Laura Cabott thanked Lamb for an “excellent update. It is always nice to hear some really good, positive news.”

Coun. Kirk Cameron said Lamb’s work has had a positive effect in the downtown area.

He said he lives across from the anti-poverty coalition’s offices, which have additional growing boxes in the backyard that see a lot of traffic, just like the raspberry bushes.

There is a pocket of gardening initiatives at the end of Hanson Street, Cameron noted.

“My suspicion is your enthusiasm and your efforts are paying off, and others in our city are taking advantage, and considering it as well. So thanks for your commitment,” he said.