Staff
With a successful second growing season well underway, the Fort Frances Community Garden committee is making several requests to town council, including putting up fences to keep out deer.
In a letter to council from committee member Krista Nielson, she noted “one of the frustrations that gardeners are dealing with is deer eating the growing crops.”
She said the committee would like to erect two fences on the Lillie Avenue property—one around each garden area.
These would be six-foot fences of galvanized wire secured to metal stakes. They each would have four gates to allow gardeners easy access to the plots.
The fences would allow room for water reservoirs to be placed next to the garden while still being enclosed by the fencing.
“We would like the Town of Fort Frances to consider allowing these fences to be permanent for the duration of the land use agreement,” wrote Nielson.
“Our committee would ensure that the fences are clearly marked and visible during the winter months,” she pledged.
“Allowing the fences to remain in place will prevent snowmobilers from driving through the garden plots in the winter, and would also eliminate many hours of labour that would be involved with taking the fence down and reconstructing it in the future,” she added.
Meanwhile, with the current land use agreement between the community garden group and the town expiring next year, the committee also would like to see the application process to extend it put into motion as soon as possible.
As well, the committee is requesting the town fill its water reservoirs once a week.
There are six water reservoirs for gardeners to use to water their plots.
Council referred the committee’s requests to the Planning and Development executive committee for its recommendation, with input from Operations and Facilities executive committee.
