Gardening on his mind: Green thumb returns home to Fort McMurray

While others are anxious about soot, smoke and the blackened devastation of the wildfire, Ed Salmon has asparagus and vine-ripened tomatoes on his mind.

Salmon returned home to Fort McMurrayonWednesday to find his house, a tiny bungalownestled on a downtown side street, untouched by the flames that engulfed the city nearly a month ago.

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"If you haven't lost your home, if you haven't lost your job before the fire, then it's just a big inconvenience. I'm calling this the great inconvenience of 2016," Salmon said with a chuckle."I had to move out of town for a month. And I run my own business, so it's going to be a while to build that back up, but it's not a catastrophe for meit's a pain."

As Salmon returned to his property for the first time withLexusand Bo, his two boisterous, blue-eyed dogs,he quickly returned to his regular habits.

"There has been a lot of cleaning, debating what to do first. But Ijust wanted to get the refrigeratorcleaned out. The rest is just cleaning out the smoke smell, then mowing the lawn, and our asparagus is completely overgrown so we have to cut that out," he sad.

And while Salmon's lawn still bears the marks of a green thumb tidy hedgerows, lush grass and cages waiting for vegetables to sproutthe inside of his house has not fared quite so well.

In his own words"it's a mess."

After the evacuation on May 3, Salmon went toNorquestCollege in Edmonton, where his wife had been taking classes. After spending weeks in cramped campusaccommodations, he'sglad to be backhome.

"At the age of 19, it's really romantic to spend time in the dorm room with your wife, but at the age of 55 it's really, really crowded."

As he looks out over the neighbourhood,Salmon says he's sympathetic to those who have lost everything in the fire.

A surveyor by trade, with years of city planning experience, heknows the financial stress will be immense, and istroubled by the loss ofsome of the city's few historical homes in Waterways.

Fort McMurray will be restored, but Salmon is sure something has forever been incineratedin the fire.

"The city thrived off those old neighbourhoods. They can't be built the same way again."