Category: Blog

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!

 

Posted in Announcement, Blog, News

2024 Coast Waste Management Association Conference

November 7, 2024

by Haya Aldoori

In October 2024, I attended a 3-day conference hosted by the Coast Waste Management Association (CWMA). This conference is a prominent waste management industry and networking event held on Vancouver Island with attendees from across British Columbia and other parts of North America. The event happens annually and has been going strong for almost 30 years. It brings together leaders in the waste management community to exchange knowledge, inspire solutions, and build connections. The theme for 2024 was the power of collaboration.

As the newest member of the Compost Education Centre (CEC) team, this was such a great opportunity for me to learn more about the waste management community and the work that happens in this space. There were over 300 delegates across the waste management sector, representing different areas and levels of government, First Nations, non-profits, stewardship agencies, private businesses, and more.

Since I attended all three days, I got to participate in many different sessions, covering a wide variety of topics, and meet many different people.  Some of the highlights for me were:

City of Nelson’s “Pre-Treated Organics Program”

While sharing a meal, I had the opportunity to connect with a staff member from City of Nelson.  In conversation, I learned that they have a fascinating pilot program where they provide their residents with an in-home appliance (FoodCycler) specifically designed for mashing and dehydrating food waste. This is part of their broader food waste reduction and sustainability strategy for their community. The process of “pre-treatment” using the FoodCycler significantly reduces the weight and volume of food waste. The finished product is easier to store and requires fewer collection days than other curbside programs. Additionally, the finished product can be transformed into a valuable soil amendment for people’s gardens and reduces problematic wildlife encounters. Hearing about some of their findings was incredibly enriching as   with the FoodCycler. This technology is one that many folks in our community seem to be really curious about. It is also featured in our Yard-Free Composting workshop!

A Field Trip to SUPPLY

During the conference, delegates were given the opportunity to participate in one of three learning tours. I decided to participate in the tour and hands-on workshop at SUPPLY Victoria Creative Reuse Centre. This art-meets-environmental nonprofit redistributes used art, office, and school supplies to creatives of all ages. They also offer art-based reuse education workshops in the community. On the tour, I learned about their process for diverting art supplies from the landfill and inspiring creative reuse in both youth and adults. I also got use my hands to loom weave for the first time using salvaged threads. This experience was really generative, giving me great ideas for future personal DIY projects (and where to get my supplies) as well as future adult workshops at the CEC.

The Educators and Communicators Roundtable

On day one of the conference, the first session that I participated in was an “Educators and Communicators Roundtable” discussion. Community education and communications in the waste management sector is sometimes considered very niche, however it is also recognized as indispensable to the sector’s work and the goals we are collectively striving to achieve. This session served as an important gathering space where all of us working in this “niche” field could learn from each other, discuss current initiatives, and share challenges and successes. I left this session feeling a strong sense of solidarity, finding comfort in knowing that there are so many other people who are just as passionate as we are about building up community literacy around waste management, diversion, and reduction.

Diversion Success in Rural/Remote Communities

On the second day of the conference, I attended a session titled “Far and Away: Diversion Success in Rural Communities.” The goal of the session was for participants to learn from different organizations who have had a positive impact on waste diversion in places with small populations, as well as remote and rural communities.  Since the CEC’s area of service encompasses the entire Capital Regional District (CRD), including the southern Gulf Islands, I really got a lot out of the part of the session that was led by Gabriola Island Recycling Organization (GIRO). It helped me better understand the waste diversion context and needs of some of the communities we might be serving with our work.

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I’m really grateful that I had the opportunity to participate in the CWMA conference. Over the course of the three days, I got to learn, connect, share, and feel inspired with others. I have left with a renewed and refreshed outlook on the work that I get to do in my community as well as the waste management space as a whole. I look forward to the possibility of participating again in the future and would encourage others in the field to participate as well!

Posted in Blog, Events

Seasonal and Operational Changes Are Here!

May 23, 2024

by Claire Remingotn

When I biked to work at the Compost Education Centre demonstration site at 1216 North Park St this morning, everything smelled so green. It feels like spring is knocking at the door, and we are welcoming the seasonal change. Spring is a busy time of year for us: Elora and Jeffrey are busy delivering spring camps with the City of Victoria, Kayla is starting seedlings for the Spring Plant Sale, I’m churning out grant proposals, and Zoe-Blue is keeping us all grounded.

When we did our strategic planning in the fall and winter last year, we took time to revise our organizational values. One of key values is “adaptability.” We can expect a lot of change in the future, both short-term and long-term, and we will be able to adjust and change course to continue thriving in our community of plants and people.

One of the changes we were anticipating in the fall of last year and has now arrived. We are working to transition management of the Earthbound Garden (2507 Garden St) and Chambers St Allotment Garden (1855 Chambers St) from the Fernwood Community Association (FCA) to the Compost Education Centre. This is a big change for both the FCA and for us! The FCA is transitioning to operating as an arts-based community organization called the Neighbourhood Arts Society and Collective (NASC), and we are working with the FCA and the City of Victoria to 1) transfer the Earthbound Garden license of occupation to us and 2) create a new license of occupation for the Chambers St Allotment Garden.

We were interested in working with the FCA on this transition because we have the capacity, expertise, and passion to steward these much-loved community gardens. We were also motivated by long-term land security. Historically, the FCA subleased to the CEC the land where our demonstration site and office are located; we are now interested in pursuing a primary leaseholder arrangement with the City of Victoria for this land.

We will be working on the transition over the course of the next few months, and we are expecting to have everything officially transitioned in July. We are grateful to have so far received a lot of positive feedback from allotment gardeners and our community – please reach out if you have anything to share!

Posted in Announcement, Blog

Updates from an Amateur Gardener: Garden Plot Plan

May 14, 2024

by Claire Remington

Because I won’t have the plot until the end of the March at the earliest, it’s my plan to focus on summer crops to start. I’m trying to choose vegetables based on what I like to eat (duh), how easy they are to grow, and what people have suggested. So far I have: tomatoes, basil, and sweet peas. Ooh and I definitely want to grow some happy flowers for some happy pollinators.

The garden plots at Oswald Park are not big, which I think will be great for a novice gardener like me. I don’t really know what I’m doing and I tend to fill my summers with activities. The thought of having a relatively small space in which to mess up in sounds just about right. I took a look at the “square foot garden plan guide,” which shows how many plantings to do per square foot. This is what the current plot map looks like:

Most of the plants above can be direct sown, but the tomatoes need to be started early. I had a few seeds left over from a failed balcony container gardening experiment a few summers ago, and I bought a seed packet from the CEC, too.

I’m planning on traveling for a two week span over the summer so I’m also thinking ahead to watering needs. At the Victoria Seedy Sunday, I met the folks from Mayne Island Clay Works. They make these beautiful “ollas,” which are designed to buried in the ground and filled with water that is then slowly released to surrounding plants. We have one in the CEC retail space right now, and I’m kinda obsessed. I sent them an email, and they’ll bring one down to Victoria the next time they’re here doing deliveries. I’ve got this wild idea that I can dilute the Bokashi liquid in the olla for my fertilizer and irrigation needs. Stay tuned.

Next Steps

And we’re rolling, people! I’ll be keeping an eye on my tomato starts, drinking coffee for the Bokashi bran, making the Bokashi bran, and planning my planting dates for my other vegetables. Check back in a few weeks to hear how I’m doing!

Posted in Blog

Updates from an Amateur Gardener: Thinking About Soil Quality and Compost

April 19, 2024

by Claire Remington

I haven’t officially taken possession of my plot, but I’ve wandered over to take a look a few times. The soil doesn’t look as happy and healthy as the soil at the CEC demonstration site (although the CEC’s soil is about 32 years in the making), and it doesn’t smell as “earthy” or “mushroom-like” as Kayla recommends for a vegetable garden. It feels and looks a bit sandy, which has me thinking I should try to add some compost and/or organic matter.

A few months ago, someone dropped off a Bokashi at the CEC because they weren’t interested in using it anymore. The Bokashi system is a 5-gallon bucket that facilitates anaerobic fermentation of organic matter that produces a nutrient-rich liquid that you can use as plant fertilizer as well as a fermented residual that needs to be further composted. At the time, Zoe-Blue encouraged me to take the Bokashi home for some experiments. I hesitated for a few reasons. The first is that while I have many houseplants, I don’t have so many that I need a constant supply of liquid fertilizer. The second is that I wasn’t quite sure what to do with the residual besides put it in our apartment’s organics green bin. The third is that the Bokashi system uses a “bran,” or a mix of essential microbes on a cereal base. While you can buy bokashi bran online from Bokashi Living, I felt daunted by the shipping costs. So I had left the Bokashi sitting (lonely) on our balcony for the past few months.

With the availability of a garden plot, I’ve felt re-energized to use the Bokashi. I stumbled upon this recipe for Bokashi bran using used coffee grounds. I had everything I needed on the recipe list to make the Bokashi bran except the “Effective Microorganisms,” (EM) and I was able to order those locally from the Organic Gardener’s Pantry. The Pantry’s owner, Christina, dropped the EM off for me at the CEC office this week. I’m excited to keep drinking coffee and get this Bokashi going. (I also realized when ordering the EM that Christina also sells Bokashi bran…so I’ve got a backup plan if this DIY approach doesn’t work out.)

In the meantime, my friend Amanda let me know where I could get some partially decomposed horse manure. Animal manure from cows, sheep, and horses can be an awesome soil amendment for home gardens. The manure supplies primary nutrients and micronutrients for plant growth, and it’s also a source of organic matter. By increasing the organic matter of the soil, you can increase the soil’s water-holding capacity, improve soil drainage, and promote the growth of beneficial soil microorganisms.

I have a few months until I plant and harvest so I applied about a wheelbarrow’s worth of manure, and I worked it in the soil. My plan is to keep any eye on it over the next few months, keep working it into the soil, and hope that it is more fully decomposed before planting.

After I mixed the manure in with the soil (which was so much fun!), I did get the warning from another friend that horse manure can contain a high amount of grass and weed seeds. This is something I’ll keep an eye on over the next few weeks, and I might do something differently next year!

Posted in Blog

Updates from an Amateur Gardener

April 10, 2024

by Claire Remington

I feel like I’ve won the lottery! A few weeks ago, I got an email from the Oswald Park Community Garden letting me know that there was a garden plot for me. How exciting! 

I live in a third-storey apartment with a very small balcony that doesn’t get a lot of light. I worked from home during the pandemic, and like many people, I got very into my houseplants. I did what I could with the balcony (and I confess I’ve killed a lot of plants). But after working for the Compost Education Centre amidst a beautiful demonstration site (come visit anytime!) for a couple months, I started to hanker for something more. The reasons to grow your own food are extensive. It increases your personal physical and mental health, leads to greater food security, and creates community. I think I also wanted to make the work I do a bit more tangible. As Executive Director, I do a lot of sitting at my computer and in meetings thinking and talking and writing about composting, circular food systems, and community resilience. I love it, but it can feel a bit abstract. I guess I want to make and use some compost with my hands instead of my words. 

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to get my apartment building to okay me starting a boulevard garden, and I received a hard no from the building’s strata council. I put my name on some community garden waitlists, and I daydreamed about starting a guerilla garden somewhere on a piece of neglected land by our apartment. My partner and I talked about housing prices and whether we’d ever want to move out of our cozy apartment to somewhere with a yard. It didn’t feel like my energy was going anywhere. So when the message from Oswald Park Community Garden popped into my email inbox, it felt like a ray of sunshine on a grim late February day. It felt like the promise of spring warmth and long summer days. It felt like I had a place to put my energy. 

I’ve started polling folks for advice, and I have to admit my recent Google search looks something like “first year community garden plot help.” If I had known a few months ago that I was going to have a garden plot, I probably would have registered for Kayla’s “Grow the Best Garden: 5-Part Workshop Series.” Kayla is the CEC’s Site Manager and Community Education Coordinator, and one person who attended her workshops described her as their “invaluable gardening mentor guiding [them] through this journey with unwavering expertise and passion.” I’ve already missed the first two workshops of the series so I’m following the advice of one Redditor to “be patient, be prepare to fail, and be happy to start again.” I’m also asking Kayla for advice on our lunch breaks, and I’m poring over the CEC’s extensive factsheets. 

Stay tuned here for more updates! 

Posted in Blog

Composting is Key to Sustainable Urban Agriculture

February 16, 2024

My partner recently sent me this article, Urban agriculture’s carbon footprint can be worse than that of large farms, and I felt a sense of outrage and surprise. I love urban agriculture!

I was relieved to dig a little deeper into the publication to find that the study did find that urban agriculture has a smaller carbon footprint than conventional agriculture when the following practices are followed:

– Composting

– Rainwater harvesting

– Using construction debris and demolition waste for infrastructure

– Longer-term use of infrastructure and tenancy of a space

The Compost Education Centre helps to steward several urban gardens including at our demonstration site, a boulevard garden network in the Fairfield-Gonzales neighborhood, the Alexander Park Orchard, and SJ Burnside Secondary School’s teaching garden. Our demonstration site features eight different composting systems, rainwater cisterns and barrels, and a solar-powered aquaponics system. Come by anytime for a visit!

We have found that urban gardens serve as powerful outdoor classrooms that inspire local climate mitigation and adaptation activities. For example, our urban gardens empower community members to:

– Produce food locally with the objective of improving food security and mitigate emissions associated with our food system.

– Cultivate native plant and pollinator gardens to support pollinators, which are under threat from climate change.

– Implement rainwater harvesting to reduce climate change vulnerability.

In addition to acquiring technical skills, our community members experience increased connectivity to a peaceful and welcoming space in Victoria. We consider our urban gardens to be a nature-based driver for social cohesion and improved climate change adaptation – and we’re excited that the research backs us up, too.

Claire Remington, Executive Director

Posted in Blog, News

The Dr. Wriggles Annual Update

January 8, 2024

The Compost Education Centre connects with and positively impacts children and youth in our region. A recent study published by the Capital Regional District reports that 56% of grade 7-12 youth in the region don’t feel connected to land and nature. This disconnect is representative of how many children and youth of all ages feel. Elora Adamson, the Child and Youth Education Program Manager, and Jeffrey Ellom, the Child and Youth Education Program Coordinator, address this disconnect by providing accessible and inclusive education.

Over the past year, Elora and Jeffrey have delivered 286 in-person educational workshops featuring soil science, food waste reduction and diversion, resource conservation, and composting to 4552 students and 789 adults. Elora and Jeffrey create and deliver workshop content that’s tied into British Columbia’s provincial science and social studies curriculum on topics including energy transfer, organism life cycles, chemical and physical changes, and sustainable practices. At the same time, Elora and Jeffrey connect students to the natural processes in their own neighborhoods rather than educating about nature in the abstract. To best help students engage with big ideas like climate change, our programs are regionally specific, solution-driven, and hands-on.

One workshop participant shared that “staff and children greatly enjoyed this workshop. They enjoyed the puppets and the storytelling. Many of the children were telling their parents about what they learned when they arrived at a pick up time. Even a week later, some of the children are still talking about how pollinators are helping our gardens.”

Elora and Jeffrey build and maintain relationships with teachers, administrators, and education organizations throughout the CRD. To ensure cost is never a barrier, we offer free or discounted workshops to under-resourced classrooms. We have also had success adapting workshops to a variety of student access needs whether physical, behavioral, social, linguistic, or developmental. We also email teachers after workshops to invite feedback. To maintain accessibility to underserved rural communities, we bring workshops to any location in the CRD at no additional travel cost. Our aim is to reduce as many barriers to engaging and nature-based education as possible.

We are able to provide this low-barrier education with the support of donors and funders. We are grateful to the Rotary Club of Victoria for supporting our 2024 children and youth educational programming.

Claire Remington, Executive Director

Do you love Dr. Wriggles, too? Become a member today to continue supporting our programming in 2024 and beyond!

Posted in Blog, Child & Youth

Collaboration Spotlight: ReWood and the Compost Education Centre

January 6, 2024

By Stuart Culbertson, volunteer lead at ReWood

ReWood is a volunteer-led social enterprise that aims to give old wood a second life by liberating lumber from building sites before it is transferred to the landfill. We have assembled a small but mighty volunteer team with the time, skills, and energy needed to design and custom-build strong and durable wooden infrastructure products for use in community gardens, small urban farms, nurseries, and related social enterprises.

We connected with the Compost Education Centre in November. Within a week of our initial meeting, we were already at work: we delivered over 70-feet of freshly salvaged 2x4s for use in building support stands for the CEC’s in-classroom worm compost bins. We hope to collaborate further on projects of mutual interest where we can contribute to each other’s success.

Two Challenges, One Solution

Through a FED Urban Agriculture-sponsored research project, Community Garden Guide, ReWood’s founders found many challenges confronting the establishment of community gardens. A key challenge was the ability to design, fund and build solid, common infrastructure like garden boxes, compost bins, and fencing. We found that wood costs alone accounted for roughly 25% of the build budget of the new Central Saanich Community Garden (CSCG).

At the same time, we were watching the demolishing of more and more residential properties in our neighbourhoods. Recent data from the Capital Regional District (CRD) estimate that unsorted wood accounts for almost 20% of total landfill-destined waste!

We saw two challenges that could be solved with one solution. Last year, we worked with the CRD and individual contractors to salvage wood from local demolitions including from the Capital Regional Housing Corporation project occurring adjacent to the Compost Education Centre’s site at 1216 North Park St. We diverted wood from the landfill to build garden boxes and compost bins designed by our volunteer team.

Waste Diversion Collaboration

Both ReWood and the CEC are grateful to be supported by the CRD’s Rethink Waste Grant. ReWood aims to divert wood from the landfill through direct projects, and the CEC seeks to divert organics from the landfill through education and research. It was awesome to find an opportunity to support our mutual goals. We’re interested in more future collaboration!

Interested in getting involved? Contact us at rewoodvic@gmail.com if you would like more information about donating salvaged wood or sourcing reclaimed wood for a community garden or urban farm.

 

Posted in Blog

Finalist for Nature Inspiration Awards

September 21, 2023

Healing City Soils is a finalist for the Canadian Museum of nature’s Community Action Nature Inspiration Award!  The award celebrates community groups who show leadership in taking action to protect wildlife and habitats, training volunteers and citizen-scientists, or in developing new educational programs for children and adults. The Healing City Soils program analyzes the CRD’s soil health, researches how native plants can be used to remediate contaminated soils, and provides plain language resources and resources to households interested in growing their food safely. 

 

Learn about the Healing City Soils Program Posted in Announcement, Blog