It can be done

The rugged Labrador terrain may not be the ideal spot to grow a garden. But Warrick and Elaine Chubbs of St. Lewis have made it work.

The Chubbs have built a garden, rife with organic vegetables and flowers, which would rival those in England, with a prime growing season running from June to October.

"It is strictly organic, there's no insecticides or pesticides," Elaine said.

Originally from Corner Brook, Elaine said she had to have a garden to come to Labrador.

First came the groundwork, literally.

Because the grassy, rocky earth is hard and shallow behind the Chubbs house, the gardens had to be raised up.

Warrick dug and built drains amongst the rock and hard ground.

He then brought sand and dirt from L'Anse au Loup, Goose Bay and the Pinware River, and along the roads going to Mary's Harbour, Port Hope Simpson and Cartwright.

"All over this part of Labrador," he said.

"The ground was the challenge," Elaine added.

"(The garden would work) as long as we had soil and the nutrients to put into the soil," she said, because not only do you need soil but you need compost...different nutrients, then we started composting and that gave us enrichments for the soil."

Now Warrick is planning to build a greenhouse to further their operation.

The Chubbs began ordering seeds and plants from nurseries and are starting to experiment with fruit trees, grapevines, raspberry trees, blackberry trees, apple trees and cherry trees, to name a few.

The grapevines are an experiment going particularly well.

"Of course a grapevine is a challenging thing to grow in Labrador," Elaine said. "It's an experiment, but an enriching one. The joy of watching a flower, of watching the bud burst, you just can't explain it. It's amazing to see the seed that you planted in that earth burst into this beautiful bloom."

Now Warrick uses 64 tote boxes to grow.

Anticipating the upcoming season, the Chubbs have already started growing tomato plants in the house: Honeybee tomatoes and sunsugar tomatoes.

"I guess people were under this misconception that you can't grow these things in Labrador," Elaine said. "People said to us, 'That's not going to grow up here'. But it has grown here, and now more people are getting into gardening, more refined gardening, they're trying more challenging plants."

Having grown up in Labrador, Warrick admitted he was surprised certain plants would grow in the area.

"I was sort of surprised," he said, "because I wasn't used to flowers. I knew vegetables could grow here because my mother had them years ago.

"There's nothing that won't grow here," Elaine added. "It just needs tender love and care. A lot of people are under the misconception that you just poke this flower or seed in the ground and it's going to grow. But like a human being, we need food and nourishment, and that's what a plant needs."

She added: "When your hands are busy and your minds are busy you don't have time to think about yourself. It's such a rewarding hobby, very soothing. It gives me a closeness to God, because all these beautiful creations are surrounding me."