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Book an Adult Workshop

Gain new skills and knowledge with the Compost Education Centre! Learn more about our classes. Looking to register for one of our public workshops? Click here.

We are happy to come to your organization and share knowledge about the topics listed below. Online options are also possible, and workshops can be delivered to your group on Wednesdays through Saturdays. Daytime offerings are preferred, but evenings are also possible.

Custom workshops are also available. Please be in touch using the form below to share what you are looking for. Composting Basics, Worm Composting, and Soil Life workshops can be shortened for a one hour-long “lunch and learn” format.

Workshops

Growing Indoor Microgreens and Sprouts

$265 · 1.5 hrs
Do you wish you had a mini garden all winter long to harvest from right in your kitchen? You can! Come learn the ins and outs of microgreen growing and sprouting in your home so that you can have nutrient dense greens all year round, rain or shine, cold or hot.

We’ll cover:
- helpful equipment
- difference between microgreens & sprouts
- how to grow these tender greens (seed selection, timing, care)
- nutrition benefits
- troubleshooting
Since the equipment and skills are similar, we’ll also spend some time learning the specifics of how to grow healthy vegetable seedlings for your garden.

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Seedling Starting

Contact for price quote · 1-2 hrs
Learn simple techniques for analysing your soil quality through this hands-on workshop

We’ll measure the physical and biological quality of soil using the following practical tools you can also use at home:
- Soil texture test
- Soil aggregation test (slake test)
- Water infiltration rate
- Earthworm count
- Rizosheath assessment
- Nodulation of legumes
Knowing these details can help inform next steps for stewarding your soil, and provide important baseline information for your gardening journey.

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Practical Tools for Measuring Soil Health

Contact for price quote · 1-2 hrs
Learn simple techniques for analysing your soil quality through this hands-on workshop

We’ll measure the physical and biological quality of soil using the following practical tools you can also use at home:
- Soil texture test
- Soil aggregation test (slake test)
- Water infiltration rate
- Earthworm count
- Rizosheath assessment
- Nodulation of legumes
Knowing these details can help inform next steps for stewarding your soil, and provide important baseline information for your gardening journey.

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Putting the Garden to Bed

Contact for price quote · 1-2 hrs
Fall is the time to put the garden to rest. Whether you have overwintering crops in the vegetable gardens, perennials that need pruning back and tucking in, autumn is the time to ensure the soil is protected from winter winds and rains.

In this workshop we’ll cover the following:
- the best techniques for building soil all winter long
- preferred mulches to protect soils
- vegetable crops that overwinter well
- which crops need which type of insulation and winter care
- making compost in cooler temperatures
- wintertime garden maintenance
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Cultivating Healthy Soil in the Garden

Contact for price quote · 2 hrs
In this workshop we’ll explore the basis of all life on earth: Healthy Soil! We’ll explore what soil is made of and the vast importance of soil microbes. We’ll answer these questions and many more:
- What is soil made of and why does soil chemistry matter for growing healthy gardens?
- What is the function of beneficial soil microbes?
- What are some gardening methods that can help my garden thrive with beneficial soil microbes and healthy soil chemistry?
- How can I compost like an expert, mulch like a superstar and build soil organic matter every day of the year?
- Check out on site composting operations in the demonstration gardens: Earth machines, hot compost, tumblers, sheet mulches and worm bins! Together we will build a compost pile.
Come learn why soil is so important for plant growth and how to build incredible soil.

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Container Gardening

Contact for price quote · 1-2 hrs

Growing veggies, flowers and fruits is not only for the garden – growing in containers can be an incredibly rewarding and abundant way to add nourishment and local veg to your meals. In this workshop, learn about what types of containers are the best to use, how to replenish nutrients and choose the right soil, and what varieties of fruit, veg and flowers are best grown in containers.

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Sustainable Site Tour

$175 · 1-1.25 hrs

We offer guided tours during which participants will gain an in-depth understanding of the many ecological gardening techniques and processes at work on the Compost Education Centre’s site. Topics covered include attracting pollinators, permaculture guilds and food forests, organic vegetable growing, soil stewardship and rainwater harvesting.

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Planning Your Year-Round Veggie Garden

Contact for price quote · 2 hrs

Here in Victoria good planning makes it possible to harvest produce from our gardens during every month of the year. Knowing when to sow seeds is important. But it’s just as crucial to know when and how to transition one crop to another. This presentation will show you how to plan to grow year-round, care for your soil, protect your crops in winter, and we’ll even touch on pests and diseases!

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Grow Your Own Food 101

Contact for price quote · 1-2 hrs

Want to grow your own groceries but not sure where to even start? This tip and info rich workshop is designed for beginners who want to get their hands dirty and start producing fresh produce in their backyards or in containers. We’ll cover soil health, basic gardening techniques like watering, weeding and mulching and so much more.

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Soil Life: Really Important Tiny Lives

$200 · 1-2 hrs

The soil under our feet is teeming with a web of microscopic life, whose complex interactions support all other terrestrial life. Healthy soils feature an intact and diverse microbial food web, which sustain nutrient cycles and maintain soil structure. We’ll finish by discussing the most effective ways to steward this living medium, and come away with aan inspired understanding of the intricate ways life in the soil, supports all life on earth.

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Worm Composting

$200 · 1-2 hrs

Everything you need to know about starting up and maintaining a worm bin compost system, also known as vermicomposting. Perfect for small space composting and apartment living, or in addition to other composting systems you already have started at your home. Vermicompost is every gardener’s dream as a finished soil amendment, and serves as a fast, easy food waste diversion tool. 

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Advanced Composting

$200 · 1-2 hrs

Advanced Composting aims to broaden the scope of participants’ knowledge of composting methods. Topics covered will include dynamic accumulators and hot composting, compost tea, in-situ composting methods and humanure.