Our History
There is a history of greenhouses in the Banff area. Check out the photos and stories here.
The first greenhouse came out of the Town of Banff 2006 Community Survey. Nancy Lewis and Chad Townsend from the Town of Banff took the lead and after some initial fundraising and research hosted an overflowing open house evening at Town Hall in the Fall of 2009. After that meeting an advisory group of 14 citizens helped Nancy and Chad with some of the details and the community fundraiser night.
In January 2011, as we approached the threshold of having enough funds to build the greenhouse, Town Council decided that the Town should stay involved in getting the greenhouse built but not be committed indefinitely to the day to day maintenance. That was when the Banff Greenhouse Gardening Society was created out of the advisory group.
After two long years of raising funds and awareness, the Rec Grounds Greenhouse was built in just two short weeks in May 2011 to give people a chance to garden in 2011:
| May 18 |
AJB Contracting dug the water line |
| May 19-25 |
AJB completed the 3 ft high foundation based on screw piles |
| May 26 |
BC Greenhouses truck arrived with the parts and Dylan our construction supervisor |
| May 27-29 |
45 volunteers erected the structure, mounted the panels, and moved the boxes in |
| May 31 |
15 volunteers from General Electric moved all the soil and compost into the boxes |
| June 1 |
Bill Calvert hooked up our waterline |
| June 4 |
First gardeners started planting! |
| June 27 |
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony with Mayor Sorenson and MLA Tarchuk |