The Estevan Community Garden became a getaway for 15 families who appreciate working with the land and love the fresh product that always tastes better when you grow it yourself.
Shayna Burrell, who is one of the gardeners and who also does some work to organize the community garden, said the summer went pretty well. Even though the colder spring and beginning of summer resulted in a slow start for the plants, and although the gardeners didn't get much natural rain, they still were able to have a good harvest.
Burrell said watering is not the same with rain, but an efficient watering system allowed them to keep plants alive during drier periods.
"We want to say thank you to the fire department for our first fill and Steam-Est for the rest of the fills," said Burrell.
All the effort that was put in paid off and Burrell's garden turned out great.
"The tomatoes looked really well. They were slow to turn red, but for the most part, everybody did pretty well."
All but one bed was filled, so the rebuilding of four beds that the community garden received funding for earlier was postponed until the next year. Besides, the COVID-19-related regulations would make the project very difficult to accomplish.
"We are hoping that the next spring we can get them built," said Burrell.
There are currently 18 beds in the community garden. One of the beds was used for planting beans that were later sold to the community, raising some funds for upkeep operations and also giving some publicity for the garden.
The garden shed wasn't available to the gardeners this summer due to the pandemic, but Burrell said it wasn't a problem. People could get their items out of it at the beginning of the season and then they would just bring their tools with them every time they came. The volunteers did the working bees throughout the summer keeping distance and following all COVID-19 rules in place.
There were some first-time gardeners, and others have had their beds for a few years. Burrell said that the majority of people are planning on coming back next year.
And with some volunteer hours and support from organizations and the city the community garden so far has proven to be a great and rewarding initiative.
"We wanted to say thank you to the city as well. They came and rototilled around our signs, so we could make a flowerbed in there. And they rototilled over by the stands area, so we could put in some rhubarb. That's looking really good. And they also helped with trimming trees … And we have an old big sand pile that they came and removed for us too. They've done a lot of work for us this year," said Burrell.
