What on Earth? Stories Rooted in Land and Nature, Nov 4th, 7:30-9:30
August 31, 2016
Join the Victoria Storytellers’ Guild for an evening of stories rooted in land and nature.
You are welcome to come to listen or can also bring a story of your own to share. Stories can be of different lengths up to 10 minutes or so. Shorter stories are welcome, too. They can be folk tales, fairy tales, myths, legends, personal stores (happened to the teller or someone close to them), can have some singing or response from the audience. They must be told “by heart”, that is, not read from text or with the use of notes.
Admission by donation at the door, with all proceeds going to support the Compost Education Centre’s programming. Tea and cookies will be provided
Our annual August Organic Plant Sale is coming up on Saturday Aug 27th, 10am-2pm at the Compost Education Centre, 1216 North Park St!
The sale is a great chance to get local, organic veggie starts for winter growing! Come on out to the little sister of our spring organic plant sale and get your greens for the winter. Kale, broccoli, cabbage, salad greens, culinary herbs, medicinal herbs and much, much more will be available.
You’re invited to the Compost Education Centre AGM on Sat April 23rd!
April 16, 2016
It’s that time of year again where we gather to review the past year, our plans for the new year, enjoy delicious food, and learn something new! Join us for our AGM in our urban oasis in the heart of Fernwood at 1216 North Park Street. The AGM will take place from 1:00-3:00 on Saturday April 23rd.
Our knowledgeable Site Manager Alysha will be leading an interactive site tour through our beautiful demonstration gardens where you can learn firsthand about the many sustainable systems and permaculture techniques we have in place, including our new aquaponics system, rainwater harvesting systems and the many options we have for on-site food waste reduction and diversion.
Everyone is welcome to attend the AGM. Members who have been in good standing with the Compost Education Centre have voting rights at the meeting. Your input is vital – so we hope to see you there!
Saturday, May 7th from 10am-2pm! Amazing, all-organic, all-local veggie, herb and flower starts for your garden sold right outside the Compost Education Centre at 1216 North Park St.!
We are thrilled to be hosting two great rainwater harvesting workshops, as well as a stormwater management specialist from the City of Victoria who will be on-hand to answer questions!
But that’s not all — our wonderful friends at Van Isle Water are offering all workshop attendees a coupon that can be redeemed for 15% off all rainwater harvesting materials!
INTRO TO RAINWATER HARVESTING, 10:00am-12:00pm, $20.Register here.
This introductory workshop is perfect for people who are keen to start learning all about rainwater harvesting. The workshop will define and explain watersheds, lay out the principles of rainwater harvesting, define terms such as greywater and blackwater, and go over the laundry to landscape system of rainwater containment using techniques such as cisterns and earthworks.
RAINWATER HARVESTING INTEGRATED DESIGN, 2:00-4:00pm, $20. Register here.
This workshop will help you get started designing a rainwater harvesting system for your household. We will cover site assessment, water budgeting, design work, and evaluation of different systems. Please bring a plan/overhead view of your site if possible, as we will be doing hands-on work.
Soil Testing Underway For Healing City Soils Project
April 6, 2016
It was a successful first day of soil testing for the Healing City Soils Team! The team will be taking samples from residential yards and boulevards for the next two months around Victoria and Esquimalt and the information collected will be uploaded into an interactive soil health map. Learn more about the project here.
Compost Education Centre Spring Fundraiser on April 6th!
March 16, 2016
Join us for our Spring Fundraiser to give back to the earth while having fun, chatting with friendly folks and bidding on fantastic silent auction items!
Proceeds from the fundraiser will directly fund our school workshops and projects such as the Healing City Soils Project, an initiative offering free soil tests to analyze Victoria’s soils and create a virtual “soil health” map of Victoria. Fundraising allows us to continue these great projects and to educate children and adults about the importance of soil conservation, composting and creating and sustaining local food systems.
Bid on fantastic silent auction items generously donated by:
Bokashi is a Japanese term meaning “fermented organic matter”. Different from composting, which is aerobic, it is an anaerobic process that allows a person to deal with a wide variety of food waste on-site. Bokashi harnesses the power of effective microorganisms (EM) dehydrated onto a cereal base to carry out the fermentation process . It is best used as a partner to a compost pile, because you will need a place to compost the ‘spent’ material once it has finished going through the bokashi process. It is a great alternative to the green cone food digester as it breaks down the same types of materials but doesn’t need sunlight or to be buried down 2 feet in your garden work. You can make your own system or purchase a ready-to-use unit.
In general, tumbler composters are in the form of a barrel mounted on a stand so the unit can be turned or “tumbled” around a central axis. They can be mounted horizontally or vertically, both work well. Turning these units easily incorporates air into the material inside the tumbler, which can speed up the decomposition process. It is possible that you may get a finished product faster than with passive backyard composting due to the increased aeration that tumblers make possible. However, beware of manufacturers that say you will have finished compost in three weeks or less – anything that looks finished in this short amount of time will be unstable and need to sit for at least 6-8 weeks longer to cure.
When we built our new greenhouse wanted the plans for this project to be free and readily accessible. As such, this factsheet includes a budget and materials list for the greenhouse, a list of the lessons I learned, and some photos of the building process.
We are very excited to announce that we have partnered with Royal Roads University and Danielle Stevenson of DIY Fungi to launch a new project called Healing City Soils. Bridging urban agriculture, composting, food literacy, ecological restoration and bioremediation, this initiative brings together the municipalities of Victoria and Esquimalt, local post-secondary institutions, food security organizations and people who are interested in growing food and building the soil beneath their feet.
This project is about getting to know the soil beneath our feet, and building community around healing it. Ensuring the soil is healthy is a first step to any urban agriculture project; from backyard growing to community and boulevard gardening. Urban soils can sometimes contain heavy metals and other contaminants as a result of our industrial past and present. This is not so great for our urban food gardens as the contaminants can get into or onto our veggies and fruits. Soil testing can be expensive, and the results can be confusing or disheartening, which ends up being a barrier to getting more folks growing.
The goal of Healing City Soils is to analyze the health of Victoria’s soils and create a virtual soil map of Victoria highlighting areas where heavy metals need to be addressed before growing food. This map will be paired with factsheets and workshops to empower people with the knowledge and skills to grow food safely or to heal the soil with compost, plants and mushrooms.
