Category: Blog

Survey for Garden St. Food Forest

February 12, 2025

A group of interested neighbours on Garden Street, with the support of the Compost Education Centre are making efforts to have 2518 Garden Street listed officially as a community garden and obtain an official license of occupation with the city of Victoria. We are conducting a survey to ensure that the community is consulted. 

The vision for the Garden Street Food Forest, which currently is an existing unique garden space that is managed by neighbours, is to improve upon this already well established urban oasis green space, with a magic “secret garden” ambiance as a powerful and alluring quality of the unique space for immediate neighbours and the broader community (of human and non-human beings, think birds and bees) to come together for relaxation, sanctuary, education, food security, and to build social connection and community.

If you have any questions about this project, please reach out to Kayla at the Compost Education Centre at 250-386-9676. Thank you for your input, it’s appreciated. 

Meet Tina!

February 8, 2025

We’re delighted to introduce another one of our board members, Tina Tulloch! As Head of Food Security and a chef at Saanich Neighbourhood Place, Tina is passionate about fostering connections that strengthen both community and the environment. A lifelong advocate for gardening, composting, and sustainable practices, she values the opportunity to join a network of like-minded individuals who share her dedication to environmental stewardship. For Tina, being part of the CEC board is not only a chance to support an organization she admires but also a way to connect more deeply with the community. She looks forward to collaborating with others who care about making a positive impact and inspiring collective action to help the CEC shine into its full potential.

What is your favourite thing about being on the board?

Listening to different perspectives of the people on the board. Loved hearing ideas from individuals and how each person brings valuable insight depending on what their background and specialties are. Some smart cookies!

What are you excited to see more off at the CEC?

I am excited to do my first workshop since I have never done one yet at the CEC! I know it is crazy, but I am usually the one putting on the workshops at SNP so I would love to be on the other end!

What’s something you love doing (besides being on the CEC board?)

I love painting and doing stained glass. I also love tending to my garden. I also really love kayaking and swimming in the ocean.

What book are you reading right now?

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver.  It is an oldie but a great book about how food and farming is not as valued in our economy-based world and the environmental impacts of our grocery-buying choices. I look differently at bananas now!

How can folks get involved with the CEC?

The website is great as well as the newsletters. Subscribe! I’m really intrigued by the “Train-the-Trainer” model we discussed at my first board meeting. With a “Train-the-Trainer” model, folks who attend workshops at the CEC are then able to educate other people on that subject. This is kinda happening already through the CEC’s warm and welcoming educational approach, and it would be great to see it happen more since I would really love to expand the growing of food in our region.

2025 Seeds Now In Stock!

February 6, 2025

We are excited to once again stock seeds from Full Circle Seeds in Sooke. Since 1993, Full Circle Seeds has grown many heritage varieties selected by generations for their excellent flavour and pest resistance. More than 99% of Full Circle Seeds are grown at our farm, ALM Organic Farm in Sooke and are certified by Islands Organic Producers Association. They have been offering open-pollinated, untreated seed grown without herbicides, pesticides or synthetic fertilizers since 1993.

2025 Seeds in stock:

• Annual Arugula
• Sylvetta Arugula
• Fortex pole beans
• Pencil pod golden wax bush beans
• Winterkeeper Beets
• Green Goliath Broccoli
• Dolciva Carrot
• Lacinato Kale
• Siberian Kale
• St. Victors Leek
• All Weather Lettuce
• Arctic King Lettuce
• Hot Weather Lettuce Blend
• Mixed Mustards
• Sugar Snap Pole Peas
• Sugar Ann Bush Peas
• Giant Winter Spinach
• Costa Romenesco Summer Squash
• Marketmore Cucumber
• Seed Potatoes
• Genovese Basil
• Cilantro
• Gardener’s Delight Cherry Tomatoes
• Matina Tomatoes
• Ardwyna Tomatoes
• Phacelia
• Nastursium
• Mixed Sunflowers

Farmer to Farmer 2025

January 31, 2025

On Thursday January 23, Site Manager and Education Director, Kayla had the opportunity to attend the Farmer-to-Farmer conference hosted by the South Island Farmers Institute. A weeklong conference, that consists of field trip days to tour local farming operations and learn on site. This event gave Kayla the chance to attend lectures by farmers, for farmers. As the main steward of the CEC demonstration gardens and seedling grower for our plant sales, Kayla found the company and information provided at different lectures, very supportive. The roundtable lunch time conversations were so helpful for hearing how other farmers steward their soil, grow their seedlings and have a productive farm business.

Kayla attended an interesting talk called “Floods, Fires, Storms and Heat: Can we manage risks in a changing climate?” where an expert instructor talked through the importance of managing risk, disaster possibility, and dramatic climate conditions in gardens, farms and landscapes. Later, Kayla confirmed some of what she held to be true in her soil microbiology knowledge by attending a talk called “The Essential Role of Microorganisms”. At lunch she learned a ton from other farmers with seedling operations (germination chambers, hoop houses, vermiculate, fans, times, oh my!). In the afternoon, more talk about soil stewardship came from a farmer with a large acreage. They conduct academic research on cover crops and best management practices for small scale farms on the coast. It was fascinating to hear so much about the benefits of cover cropping. Kayla wrapped up the educational portion of the day with a talk about emotional and mental resilience for farmers and growers – how to avoid burn out and bounce back from busy seasons. Not only did she learn tips and tricks for staying healthy through busy times, but she also enjoyed partnering up with other growers to hear how they take care of themselves during the busiest parts of their year. The day wrapped up with a jovial farmer trivia game! While the team Kayla was a part of did great, they didn’t win, but the laughs and challenge were very enjoyable.

Meet Cassidy!

January 2, 2025

We’re excited to welcome Cassidy Daskalchuk, one of the newest members of the Compost Education Centre’s board of directors! With a deep passion for soil health and a career rooted in sustainability and farming, Cassidy brings invaluable expertise and a hands-on perspective to the team. Her commitment to regenerative agriculture and fostering sustainable food systems aligns seamlessly with the CEC’s mission. We caught up with Cassidy to hear about her journey, her love for the land, and her hopes for inspiring more people to connect with the soil beneath their feet.

How would you introduce yourself at a dinner party?

Shyly and with a lot of sweet treats.

What made you interested in joining the board?

The CEC and all its members have built an integral community space that I wanted to contribute to and be a part of. I’m eager to learn & share with others in a space that is meaningful to so many!

What are you most excited to see more of at the CEC?

Sharing essential knowledge that spreads from person to person like mycelium!!

Any gardening tips for our CEC community?

Not a tip, but a fact that I love is that the smell of rain is the scent of a chemical released by soil-dwelling bacteria.

Go to camping meal?

A pot of beans ~ preferably cannellini with some really fresh bread. 

What are you currently reading?

From the Ground Up: The Women Revolutionizing Regenerative Agriculture!!

Giving Tuesday

December 4, 2024

At this time of year, we get a lot of signals from nature to slow down. Days are shorter, temperatures are cooler, and plant growth has slowed. I put my garden plot to “bed” by adding leaf mulch. We’re lucky to live someplace where you can do winter gardening (and Kayla directed me towards some gorgeous parsley, broccoli, and cauliflower at our August Plant Sale that I popped into my plot), but I’m also feeling grateful to have one less thing to do over the next few months.

I had a great time gardening this spring and summer, but I also didn’t quite give my garden the attention it deserved. I added the gardening without taking something away, and as the summer got busy with activities, maintaining my plot became another item on my to-do list. I wanted to be productive, and I wanted the space to be successful. But I didn’t carve out the time necessary to be present and to get to know what my small patch of green needed from me to thrive. I grew a surprising number of tomatoes and made numerous batches of pesto, but I can only thank the plants for thriving under my benign neglect. As often is the case, I could have done more by doing less.

I’m trying to hold on to that lesson – do more by doing less – even though I’m getting a lot of signals to pick things up. There’s Halloween candy to eat, Black Friday goods to purchase, and holiday shopping to do. ‘Tis the season of over consumption! What can you and I do in this moment to reconnect to the signals from nature?

Rest

I invite you to slow down! Daydream. Take a nap. Heck, make it possible for someone else to take a nap. Tricia Hersey, the brilliant mind behind the Nap Ministry, has shared that rest has an ecological component: when we rest, the Earth rests. How lovely is that!? So: cozy up, folks.

Donate

Consider donating to the causes you love. We’re so grateful to have been chosen by the volunteers of the Seedy Saturday organizing committee to be the backbone organization of the 2025 event. In parallel to the leaf mulch on my garden plot that’s recharging nutrients for a productive growing season next year, the volunteers are putting in time and energy over the winter to make the spring 2025 event a success.

The folks on the committee are giving their time to organize this event, and I invite the rest of us to do what we can to make the event happen. The committee would appreciate donations as small as $5, which will go to ensuring that this community event can happen in February 2025! Make a tax-deductible charitable donation to Seedy Saturday through our fundraising page.

Low-Impact Gifting

If you are a gift giver, think about items that are low impact e.g. locally sourced, secondhand, fair trade, etc. If you can, give the gift of time.  In a world where there’s so much STUFF, think about giving someone an experience or quality time spent together. If you’re like one of my brilliant colleagues who spends this quiet season knitting, carving, weaving, and shaping clay, think about taking on a craft. As part of our site shift (which you may have seen or even heard), we said goodbye to a gorgeous eucalyptus tree. We were able to chip a lot of the eucalyptus tree, and we’ve spread those chips around the site where they will continue their life as they decompose and build soil. We’re also selling larger milled pieces as a fundraiser for our Child and Youth Education Program. Consider buying some mementos of this tree for your next carpentry project.

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Let me know what you think! Do you have other ideas for how to reconnect to nature at this time of the year? I’d love to hear them.

Love,
Claire

Meet Bowen Macy!

December 4, 2024

Hey Wormies!

We’re thrilled to introduce Bowen Macy, one of the newest members of the Compost Education Centre’s board of directors! With a wealth of experience in sustainability, community engagement, and event organizing, Bowen brings a dynamic and creative perspective to the team. His passion for sustainability and building connections in local communities aligns perfectly with the CEC’s mission. We sat down with Bowen to learn more about his journey, his love for composting, and his vision for the future of the Centre.

How did you first hear about the CEC?

Walking by (and being nosey!) I moved to town about 3 years ago and live just down the road. I saw the CEC while en route to Little June, popped in, and proceeded to ask one million questions! 

What is your favourite thing about the CEC?

I love how they bring people together to both learn practical skills such as making kimchi or canning jam while also learning about environmental justice and building a connection to the land. 

What made you want to join the board?

I love what the CEC does and wanted to help out! I’m excited to support the CEC as they continue providing such important programming. I’m also looking forward to seeing the CEC continue to be a place where folks can gather in a green and welcoming environment. More coffees and tea in the garden!

Oh, and also the board meetings always have really good snacks so that is another reason 🙂

What are you currently reading and listening to?

A friend gave me Red Deal: Indigenous Actions to Save our Earth, which I just started and am on a speed run to finish. Indigenous folks have been such caring stewards of this land for so long it’s really just a no-brainer to be following their lead.

I’ve been listening to a bunch of my mom’s old CDs. She gave me a big binder of them from the early 2000s. There’s everything from Massive Attack to Rage Against the Machine to PJ Harvey to Angélique Kidjo to Grace Jones. I’m planning to start mixing them into my CFUV radio show (insert shameless plug about Third Place Radio on 101.9FM Thursdays at 3pm here!). 

Who’s someone that made a big impact on your life?

Well, that would be my mom. Besides helping shape my taste in music she showed me what it looks like to live with integrity and authenticity. From before I could walk, she would bring me along with her to pick tomatoes from the garden, hike through the forest, or march in a climate protest. Still to this day it completely baffles me how she was able to do so much, but I’m so grateful for her. Love you, Mom!

How can people get involved with the CEC?

So many ways! I think the workshops are a great place to start, and there are quite a few that are free as well. If you’ve got a project around gardening to sustainable living, their hotline (250-386-WORM) is a great resource as well. And then if you really want to get your hands dirty (literally!), there is an amazing group of volunteers that you could join!

Changes are afoot at the CEC Demonstration Site

November 14, 2024

If you’ve walked past the Compost Education Centre demonstration site at 1216 North Park Street in the past couple months, you’ve likely noticed tree removal on the north side, temporary fencing at different places and road work on North Park!

For the past 4 years since the Caledonia Housing Development was in its consultation phase, the CEC has known that our site footprint would be impacted.

That all came to reality starting October 1 here at the CEC demonstration site. Because of needs for specific access points into the housing development, Vining is in the process of being widened (between Chambers St and the development), and in exchange for the lost demonstration site space and allotment garden space, the demonstration stie is expanding into North Park St between Chambers St and the development.

The wonderful folks at Hatchet and Seed have been sub-contracted by the construction company to build out new demonstration areas on North Park, rebuild the greenhouse and coldframe, and reconfigure some impacted allotment garden beds. We’ll be replanting some fruit trees on the south side of the site to try to make up for the loss of the two mature apple trees we had along the back fence. The CEC recognizes the impact of removing large trees like the apples and eucalyptus, and so we held a special tree ceremony for those trees in advance of them being removed. Small trees are not a replacement for mature trees in terms of the ecosystem services they provide, so we were very sad to see these mature trees go.

On the positive side, much of the eucalyptus was chipped and we’ve spread those chips around the site, and they will continue their life as they decompose and build soil. Additionally, larger, straight logs from the eucalyptus were milled up beautifully, and we are now selling them as a fundraiser for the CEC! Please consider purchasing a memento from the eucalyptus tree for your next project. Details and inventory of the wood can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/share/15W9fDvQAi/ or here: https://www.usedvictoria.com/miscellaneous-for-sale/40983950

Join our Board!

August 9, 2024

We are looking for individuals with a variety of perspectives, skills, and experience to join our Board of Directors.

Share your passion for composting, ecological conservation, and food justice! 

The Compost Education Centre’s vision is to cultivate resilient communities, which enable the land and all living beings to thrive. Our mission is to reconnect people, young and old, to land-based resilience-building practices related to composting, ecological gardening, and conservation. Our organizational practices sustain the organization, the natural environment, and our communities. We actively work towards right relations, anti-oppression, and environmental justice in solidarity with the Indigenous peoples on whose land we work. Our core values are reciprocity, adaptability, curiosity, joy, and groundedness. 

Benefits of Participating 

• Fantastic opportunity to build experience in organizational growth, not-for-profit, and charity work
• Connect and collaborate with a dedicated team that is passionate about waste reduction, soil conservation, local food production, and the intersections between food, land, and environmental justice
• Training and leadership development opportunities on topics including soil conservation and composting, team building, social enterprise development, event coordination, sustainable living skills, and DEI
• Contribute to the wellbeing of your community, local ecosystems, and the broader environment

Helpful Skills and Experience 

• A love for composting, food and environmental justice, urban agriculture, waste diversion, and soil health! 
• Familiarity with non-profits including prior experience on or working with a Board of Directors 
• Leadership experience 
• Fundraising experience and familiarity with revenue generation in non-profit structures 

Board of Directors FAQs 

What is a Board of Directors? The Board is responsible for setting mission and strategic direction, providing high-level oversight, and serving as ambassadors of the organization. The CEC’s Board is a dynamic team focused on supporting the organization’s mission. 

What would I do as a Board member? You attend board meetings every month and may join a committee to work on additional projects (e.g. Fundraising, DEI initiatives, etc.). You commit to a two-year term consisting of an average of 5-10 hours of work per month. 

Can anyone become a Board Member? Yes! To join the Board, you have to become a member before October 6, communicate your interest by filling out the form below, and attend our AGM on Thursday, November 7, 2024 to get nominated. If the cost of membership is a barrier to you becoming a Board Member and/or there are other barriers you have identified, please reach out to Claire at [email protected] to discuss accommodations. 

What are the perks of joining the Board? Volunteering with a charitable non-profit organization provides practical work skills. It’s also a way to meet very cool and like-minded folks from other professions and disciplines. You also get awesome snacks at every board meeting, and we do staff and board dinners once or twice a year. 

Are Board Members paid? Unfortunately, no. The BC Societies Act prohibits us from paying Board Members. These positions are volunteer. 

Fill out the form below to apply. 

Fall Plant Sale Fast Approaching!

July 25, 2024

The Compost Education Centre (CEC) is hosting our annual all-organic Fall plant sale! August 10, 10am-12pm!

The plant sale will take place in our site at 1216 North Park street. Stay for a while and enjoy bike pedal-powered music in the garden. Entry by donation or free for CEC members. Dogs welcome.

The Fall Organic Plant sale features veggie starts that are perfect for your overwintering vegetable garden.

What you can look forward to:

• A selection of annual vegetables suitable for fall and winter growing

• Native plants for your low maintenance garden

• Perennial edibles like berry bushes and other fruiting shrubs

• Medicinal herbs like English lavender, chamomile and yarrow

• Live bicycle powered music!

The Compost Education Centre is located on unceded and occupied Indigenous territories, specifically the land of the Lekwungen speaking people—the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. These nations are two of many, made up of individuals who have lived within the porous boundaries of what is considered Coast Salish, Nuu-Chah-Nulth and Kwakwa’wakw Territory (Vancouver Island) since time immemorial. At the CEC we seek to respect, honour and continually grow our own understandings of Indigenous rights and history, and to fulfill our responsibilities as settlers, who live and work directly with the land and its complex, vital ecologies and our diverse, evolving communities.

Compost Education Centre memberships get you free workshops, discounts at garden centres around town and more great perks! Sign up or learn more on our website.

Accessibility Information

The Compost Education Centre is committed to creating a welcoming and inclusive experience for all our community members.

Getting to the Compost Education Centre

The Compost Education Centre is located at 1216 North Park St. The closest bus stops are:

• Pandora Ave at Chambers St (Stop ID: 100169) (300 meters away) served by Routes 2, 5, 27, and 28;
• Cook St at Balmoral Rd (Stop ID: 100160) (350 meters away) served by Routes 24 and 25;
• Fernwood Rd at Grant St (Stop ID: 100227) (450 meters away) served by Route 22; and
• Bay St at Cedar Hill (Stop ID: 103733) (750 meters away) served by Route 10.

A bus transit planner is available on the BC Transit website (https://www.bctransit.com/victoria/).

The Compost Education Centre is accessible by bicycle, and there is ample bike parking available. Bike routes are visible on the CRD website (https://maps.crd.bc.ca/Html5Viewer/?viewer=BikeMap).

Parking

Parking is very limited. The closest parking options during the week are:

• Two 2-hour parking spots at the corner of North Park St and Chambers St (50 meters away);
• Three 2-hour parking spots at Haegert Park (100 meters away);
• One 1-hour parking spot at the corner of North Park St and Cook St (250 meters away);
• Multiple 1-hour parking spots on Gladstone Ave opposite the Fernwood Community Centre (300 meters away); and
• One 1-hour parking spot at the corner of Caledonia Ave and Cook St (350 meters away).

All other parking within 400 meters of the Compost Education Centre is residential-only. While construction is occurring adjacent to the Compost Education Centre at 1211 Gladstone Ave (projected to be complete in June 2025), parking is even more limited.

On Saturdays, parking is available in the Victoria High School parking lots that are accessible off Grant St and Gladstone Ave. From these parking lots, it is less than a 300 meter walk to the Compost Education Centre.

Site Accessibility

The Compost Education Centre site has paths made of wood chips. Mobility devices with wheels (such as wheelchairs, walkers etc.) are sometimes difficult to use on site. The Strawbale learning classroom is accessed via a wooden ramp, and it has a wide double door and a ramp leading up to it. Once inside the Strawbale, the floor is a level hard surface. There is a single-stall gender-neutral washroom on site. The washroom is not wheelchair accessible. There is a wooden ramp up to the washroom door and a small step over the doorframe into the washroom. The retail space is not wheelchair accessible; there are four steps up into our retail space.