We were looking through house rental and apartment ads before we left for Whitehorse and we saw this...
“Country residential suite available on the Annie Lake Road. Top floor of log house, 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, wood heat, 950 sq ft, washer/dryer, pet friendly, deck, garden, greenhouse, great views, on school bus route, very cozy and charming. ”
And I saw nice, nice, nice, GARDEN, GREENHOUSE and pretty much missed the stuff about bus routes and views.
I had resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't have a garden again until we bought a house. Before I left our old house I'd said a tearful good-bye to my vegetable garden, my St. John's wort, my cherry tree, my calendula and echinacea, my raspberry and blackberry bushes, my parsley, sage, rosemary, (and I really want to say thyme here but I didn't have any) and basil. I resisted the urge to uproot every plant and bring them with us.
If I wasn't a writer, a photographer, or an aspiring flight attendant, I think I would be a botanist or a herbalist. I make herbal creams, salves, soaps and herbal treatments. I love to harvest my own vegetables. So I guess I kind of had my heart set on this place since before we saw it. Once we got to Whitehorse and viewed the expensive, run-down trailer, the basement apartment and the pet-friendly house with painted plywood floors, this log home really shone and we signed the papers as soon as possible.
Now, not only do I get a garden, but a greenhouse. Woot woot. Okay, so we're in zone 0, maybe zone 1, the conditions are challenging, but still. I've started composting and reading The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener by Niki Jabbour, which Rich got me for Christmas in a spurt of foresight. I've checked out some local articles online about the challenges of gardening in the Yukon.
According to an article in the Yukon News, people who have had gardens in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan have trouble making it work in the Yukon. It took me a few years to get a successful garden going in Southern Ontario, so this should be interesting.