Community Resources

Gardening & Composting Supplies | Kitchen Scrap Collection & Recycling Information | Rainwater Harvesting | Soil Testing | Community Partners & Food Related Organizations | Friendly Businesses | Interesting Info, Gardening Education, ect.

Gardening & Composting Supplies

Where to buy soil

Look for soil containing Sea Soil or Earthbank fish compost to ensure the soil has enough nutrients. If the soil you purchase does not have this, you will need to supplement nutrients (i.e. with compost or manures) to grow annual vegetables sucessfully.

Small Quantities (in plastic bags):

  • Grocery stores (during spring and summer)
  • Any nursery or garden centre (e.g. GardenWorksDig This, etc)

Large Quantities (truck loads):

Where to get local seeds

Where to buy quality wood chips

Sooke Soil and Landscape these folks have a variety of products including hardwood chips available and can deliver

Where to buy worms

We maintain a list of worm breeders in town – please call (250-386-9676) or email (office@compost.bc.ca) to get their names and phone numbers.

Where to buy compost bins

Where to get manure

  • If you travel down West Saanich Rd you will find lots of farms that have bags of manure for sale at the ends of their driveways
  • Rumour has it that you can take a bucket to the horse drawn carriage tour operators in James Bay towards the end of their working day and collect horse manure
  • UsedVictoria always has lots of listings for all varieties of manure

Where to get hardware cloth

To learn more about using hardware cloth in compost bin designs and rodent prevention visit our Fact Sheet Page 

Pallets for building a three-bin composting system

  • You can find pallets in front of a business at the corner of Topaz Ave. and Quesnel St.
  • The Pallet Bible is a great guide to finding, inspecting and dismantling pallets for all your building needs

Click here to learn how to make a Three Bin Pallet Composter System

Kitchen Scrap Collection And Recycling Information

Information on the CRD Regional Kitchen Scraps Strategy

Tools, FAQs and updates on the CRD website

Kitchen Scrap Collection Info by Municipality

Yard/Kitchen Scrap Collection Services

  • Community Composting: for yard waste pick up only
  • Residential and commercial kitchen scrap pick-up service
  • Find out more about the CEC’s Neighbourhood Composting Program here.

Information on Recycling

  • My Recyclopedia:  A-Z database about what can be recycled in the CRD and where to go to do so

Rainwater Harvesting

Soil Testing

  • MB Labs:  soil testing for fertility and contamination
  • Healing City Soils: a project of the Compost Education Centre – free soil contaminant testing

Community Partners and Food-Related Organizations

  • Growing Together A group of people and organizations from across Coast Salish Territories coming together to support communities in growing their own food. This website is full of useful gardening and composting information and videos.
  • Fernwood Neighbourhood Resource Group
  • Fernwood Community Association These folks run the allotment gardens that the Compost Education Centre shares space with. Contact them to get on the garden waitlist.
  • Capital Regional District  Core funding for the Compost Education Centre is generously provided by the CRD
  • City of Victoria Check out their growing in the city programs which includes information on Community Gardens, Farm Stands, and Boulevard Gardening Guidelines.
  • LifeCycles Project:  Cultivating community health from the ground up by connecting people, the food they eat and the land it comes from
  • CRFAIR these folks promote healthy and secure food systems, they also put on the annual conference: “The Good Food Summit”
  • The Good Food Network A group of community organizations that are all working toward healthy accessible food in the Capital Regional District
  • Indigenous Food Systems Initative Indigenous-led food security organization; this organization offers grants

Friendly Businesses

Interesting Info, Gardening Education, ect.

Community Resources

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