July 31, 2014
Here at the Compost Education Centre, we always enjoy watching beautiful starts leave the sale to find their new homes in gardens around town. We’ll be hosting our second plant sale of the year on Saturday August 16th from 10am-1pm. This is a great opportunity to pick up some great veggie starts such as broccoli, kale and chard varieties for healthy winter eating!
July 31, 2014
We are excited to offer a 2-for-1 special on our August workshops! For the month of August, all Compost Club members who take a workshop can bring a friend along for free. When registering online, simply purchase your workshop ticket as you usually do, then choose the option to bring along a friend at no cost. Looking forward to seeing you and your pals at these fantastic events!
You can choose from two awesome August workshops for the promotion:
Natural Beekeeping
1:00pm-4:00pm
August 9th
Are you curious about how to get started with natural backyard beekeeping? Join Tara Beninger, local beekeeper extraordinaire, to learn all about effective and natural beekeeping. Topics will include advantages of different hive designs, how to build an effective hive for our specific climate, natural approaches to bee health, bee-friendly hive management, and more! To register, click here.
Aquaponics
1:00pm-4:00pm
August 23rd
Aquaponics is an efficient, sustainable system that produces both fish and hydroponic vegetables! We will examine the development of aquaponics, techniques, new innovations and home-scale projects for the sustainable urban gardener. A range of potential crops and fish will be discussed, and we will also cover different materials and where to source them. The main focus will be on freshwater home systems, with the Compost Centre’s demonstration garden providing a practical example. We will also take a tour of the large-scale aquaponics system at Mason Street City Farm just a few blocks away from the Compost Education Centre! To register, click here.
Posted in Adult Education, Announcement, Blog, Events, NewsLeave a Comment on August is ‘bring a friend for free’ month!
July 30, 2014
We are SO excited to announce the arrival of Ravenhill Herb Farm’s line of herbal healing products: Miss Mullein’s Herbals. We will be carrying a selection of their locally made, all-organic, herbal-infused honeys, tinctures and salves. Perfect gifts, treats for the self and additions to the medicine cabinet!
Salves
Tinctures
Herbal Infused Honeys
* All images from Miss Mullein’s Herbals website
Posted in Announcement, Blog, Featured, News, RetailLeave a Comment on Miss Mullein’s Herbals are here!July 26, 2014
July 10, 2014
June 25, 2014
In exciting composting news, we are offering the green cone food digesters for a special sale price of $130 (down from $165) until September 30th October 31st! So many folks are excited about the opportunity to get a bargain digester that we decided to extend the sale.
Curious about the green cone food digester? Here’s the scoop! The Green Cone digester accepts all food scraps, including items that typically cannot go into a backyard compost bin :
The digester must be dug 2 feet into well draining soil in a sunny area of the garden.
Simply add all your food scraps and it will ‘digest’ them – turning your waste into a nutrient rich leachate that is absorbed by the surrounding soil.
It can also be used to compost pet waste (must be placed at least 10 feet away from a food garden or fruit producing tree in this case).
No skill or effort required, simply fill and forget:
For more information on the green cone food digester, check out our Fact Sheet!
Posted in Announcement, Blog, News, RetailLeave a Comment on Green cone sale extended until Oct 31st
June 21, 2014
This past week the Compost Ed Centre took a little day trip to Mayne Island to teach the folks there all about some advanced composting methods. We gathered in the old Ag Hall and had a wondrous two hours of composting queries, information exchange, homemade lemon cake and strong cups of tea! Vicki of the Mayne Island Recycling Society showed me the Mayne Island community garden, and I thought we could all take a page or two from their book. Scroll on down to learn more (click on the pictures to enlarge)!
A huge thanks to Mayne Island for hosting and inspiring us, we look forward to more trips around the southern Gulf Islands, spreading the compost word!
Posted in Announcement, Blog, Civic Engagement, Composting, Featured, Organic GardeningLeave a Comment on Compost Ed goes to Mayne IslandJune 7, 2014
May 28, 2014
Without pollinators, humans and wildlife wouldn’t have much to eat! Bees, butterflies, wasps and even bats, ants, birds and beetles pollinate over 90% of the planet’s flowering plants and over 75% of human food crops.
Join us on Saturday June 14th from 10am-2pm for a day of education about creating habitat for pollinators, and what to plant in your garden to attract these valuable animals and insects.
We will also be hosting two free workshops:
Mason Bees from 10:00am-11:00am
Natural Beekeeping from 1:00pm-2:00pm
No registration is necessary, just come by and enjoy learning from local experts!
Posted in Adult Education, Announcement, Blog, News, Organic Gardening, PollinatorsLeave a Comment on Pollination Education Day on June 14th!May 16, 2014
We are excited to announce that the Grow A Row program has started up once again!
Grow a Row is a community of gardeners, businesses, groups and individuals gathering together to help those in need.
The concept is simple:
Grow an extra row of food in your garden and bring it to one of the drop off locations around town where it will be distributed to food lunch programs, community kitchens, food banks and Our Place Society.
Support food justice and security in your own backyard!
Starting Saturday May 17th, the Compost Education Centre will be accepting donations of excess garden produce from 10:00am-4:00pm. All produce collected at our Centre at 1216 North Park St will be promptly delivered to Our Place and added to the nourishing meals they provide to people in need in our community. Our Place serves over 1,200 meals a day, 5 days a week and your extra tomatoes, zucchini, kale or other veggies will help make them even more nutritious and tasty.
If you’d like to donate produce from your garden but live in a different part of town, please check out our list of drop-off locations to find the closest one to you:
Burnside Gorge
Burnside Gorge Community Association, 471 Cecelia Road
Mondays & Wednesdays: 7:30-9am & 5-8:30pm
Produce donated to Burnside Gorge Community Association.
—
Sooke
Sunriver Community Gardens
(at the notice chalkboard)
Wednesday: before 4:00pm
Produce donated to Sooke Food Bank.
—
Victoria West
Vic West Community Centre, 521 Craigflower Road
Monday: 9:00am-4:00pm
Produce donated to S.A.F.F.E. Monday Night group dinners/ Burnside Gorge Community Association .
—