Jo Pamplin wasn’t sure what to expect of her garden when she returned to Yellowknife this week. 

A friend, who stayed behind during the three-week evacuation order as an essential worker, watered it occasionally — but Pamplin didn’t have high hopes. 

But coming home, she found “lilies blooming in the front yard and the biggest zucchini I have ever grown, personally.” 

“Apparently the trick is to ignore everything for three weeks,” she laughed. 

Pamplin also has a bumper crop of tomatoes, and is thrilled that her fig trees survived. But not everything in her backyard is thriving. 

“Some of my flowers are somewhat grizzled and dry and not happy looking,” she said. 

For those who didn’t have someone to look after your garden — you aren’t alone. One CBC North reporter’s tomato plants looked pretty grim on Wednesday, though wilted beets appeared to be bouncing back after getting a drink. 

Lone Sorensen, the gardener behind the Northern Roots Market Garden, had to hope for the best when leaving the city last month. 

“The saddest thing for me was to leave my garden, and now that it might die and that I might lose my business as a market gardener,” said Sorensen.

But a few days after leaving the city, Sorensen said a “beautiful soul” reached out and offered to help by watering and harvesting the garden throughout the evacuation order. They also harvested some of its crops, said Sorensen, which went on to feed essential workers in the city. 

Sorensen checked on her garden for the first time Thursday morning. 

“I knew that it was, minimally, that it was watered and that ripe tomatoes had been picked and stuff like that. But I was still very surprised to see how many flowers are still out, how the beets had grown, the kohlrabi — I’ll show it to you, they’re bigger than soccer balls.

“Lots of things have just continued growing. My garden never ceases to amaze me.”

What’s less beautiful, perhaps, is what’s been growing inside people’s homes while they were away. 

“I’m still dealing with those little fruit flies,” said Andrew Moore, who boated back from Trophy Lodge, a fishing destination that he owns on the East Arm of Great Slave Lake, on Tuesday. “My compost bin was left on the counter. That was a real treat, opened up, it was just like little flies everywhere.”

Moore said his fridge wasn’t too bad, and thankfully the dishes had been done before leaving home. 

Pamplin also found some surprises inside her house.

“There were some science experiments happening in the fridge,” said Pamplin. “I obviously had not vacuumed for awhile before we left, so the place was full of fur balls.”