Home » Martensville Gardens Plans For Future Growth to Accommodate Waiting List

Martensville Gardens Plans For Future Growth to Accommodate Waiting List

by Shanine Sealey

This year is the third season that Martensville Gardens, a community garden area located next to the Martensville Speedway on 9th Street North, has been active. For their first season, they began with ten boxes and added another ten boxes for the second season. This year, the group would like to see even more growth and has submitted a proposal to the City of Martensville for assistance in reaching their goals.


Martensville has another community garden plot located within Kinsmen Park; however, the waiting list for space was quite lengthy, which is where this idea came from. So far, 20 individuals have been taken from that wait list and have received a plot within Martensville Gardens; however, there is still over 40 people on the current wait list, which is something Martensville Gardens would like to see accommodated.


To date, the City of Martensville has supported this project by supplying building materials, topsoil, wood mulch and lumber and according to Jason McCumber, a past president and current member of the Saskatoon Kart Racers Board of Directors, the current proposal is a pretty lofty one.


“The City of Martensville has been fantastic to work with thus far and this current proposal is a big one that will have to go to Council for approval. The goal is to satisfy the entire wait list that we have in place right now. We would like to get 40 more boxes built as soon as possible,” McCumber said.


Thanks to the help of members from the Saskatoon Kart Racing Club and members of the garden, all work at the site when it comes to landscaping, constructing the garden boxes and other required projects has been completed due to volunteer support.

In anticipation for growth during the previous expansion, additional land was cleared to accommodate more boxes. “We are part of the way there, right now it is just the cost of materials we need help with. The volunteer power has thankfully been plentiful to date, so that has not been an issue.”


Although the plan is currently to build 40 more spaces, McCumber stated that there has been conversations about how much larger this community initiative could grow, as there is additional space available on the land, which is leased from the City of Martensville to the Saskatoon Kart Racing Club.


“Going forward, we plan to be more proactive in our planning process. We have learned a lot about the process for these things, so now we just need to trust the process and see where it takes us. This request does come from a sincere demand standpoint. We aren’t building it hoping they will come.They are already in line,” McCumber added.


Growing in size means looking at the bigger picture as well, which in this case, means planning ahead for a more sustainable water source. McCumber noted that the “wish list” item for Martensville Gardens would be to have their own municipal water connection. A quote was received for this job and the request to have this addition was included in the proposal to the City of Martensville as well.


“We want to be able to accommodate everyone and the current system of hauling water from the tank isn’t feasible for everyone such as seniors and those with special needs. We want this to be inclusive for everyone and make it something everyone can enjoy by making it more user-friendly.”


For now, McCumber said they will wait to see where things are headed and continue to look towards expanding this vision into something that even more members of the community can enjoy for years to come.


“Thank you to the City of Martensville and the community for supporting this project and allowing it to become what it has already grown into.”

ABOVE PHOTO CAPTION: Martensville Garden began with a ten-plot area and has plans to continue growing to accommodate the community.

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