​In September of 2020, a local resident and gardener, Myrna Peters, stepped forward to present the idea of establishing a community garden and Millhurst Community League accepted Myrna as the Sakaw Gardens Director. After a call for further volunteers, the first meeting of the Sakaw Gardens Committee took place on October 26, 2020 with Sustainable Gardens and CoE Neighbourhood Resource Coordinator Jay Row.  Shortly thereafter, we began the process of developing site plans and obtaining City of Edmonton permission to develop the garden.

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With a full board of 12 community members we proceeded with the proposed location behind the Sakaw rink shack. This decision was based on our 2015 needs assessment that first asked if the community wanted the rinks maintained and then what else they would like to see at the Sakaw site.  Based on the survey a decision was made to maintain the ice rink and since it was not possible to use the leased land for an ice rink and a garden, it was decided to put in a basketball court on the south and east side of our skate shack.  The full sized basket ball court was developed under the  direction of community member and site project manager Joel Bauer.

 

For three years Millhurst Community League installed and maintained a snow banked rink along with staffing the rink shack.  Unfortunately, after three years of low attendance and gradually cutting back the times the shack was open, the decision was made in 2019 to only have one rink location in the Millhurst community, which is beside Meyokumin School.

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In our 2015 survey the #1 item that was wanted if the rinks were not maintained was a community garden which brings us to the development of Sakaw Gardens. 

Phase 1 of the garden build began in the spring of 2021 after going through the City of Edmonton Community Led Construction process.  The first priority was clearing the site and establishing garden plots as quickly as possible, so that gardeners could take advantage of a full season of gardening. Within 8 days of breaking ground on May 28th, gardeners were planting their first seeds. Throughout the summer, mulch was laid between the beds, the food bank plots were planted, and construction of the public use orchard area was completed. Total volunteer hours from inception to completion of phase 1 is estimated at 2500.

The first week of March 2021 brought exciting news that we received an Accessibility Grant of $10,000 and a Canadian Community Revitalization Fund of $110,000 which will allow us to move forward with Phase 2 & 3.

 

Phase 2 of Sakaw Gardens started in the spring of 2022 with Tim Graham, building the Rain Collection roof with water storage and an overflow “dry pond” to mitigate water use at the garden.  

 

Rabbit predation of our produce was a significant problem in 2021 so we were all very excited to see the 4’ fence with two unlocked gates so that the garden is accessible to the public. A seating area was set up under the rain roof for the gardeners and other community members enjoying the garden. In the orchard area we placed 2 benches that are used regularly by people walking the neighbourhood.

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Next was Pat’s Path and Pat's Planters: Pat Whaley was a community volunteer who was involved in many of Millhurst Community League’s events and projects. Because she was in a wheelchair during the last years of her life, she would have been unable to access Sakaw Gardens. As a tribute to her volunteerism and spirit, we built an accessible path and wheelchair accessible planter boxes. 

 

The 3rd phase took a little longer to get approved by the City of Edmonton and by the time we got our building permit the concrete for the shelter was installed early November.  The 20' x 16' shelter was installed in the spring of 2023 and the tables installed June 2023. 

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