How to Apply Vermicompost (Worm Castings) To Your Veggie Bed
August 2, 2018
Posted in Blog, Composting, Featured, News, Organic Gardening
Tag: organic gardening
Posted in Blog, Composting, Featured, News, Organic Gardening
Spring Organic Plant Sale
May 2, 2018
The Compost Education Centre (CEC) is hosting our 16th annual all-organic spring plant sale! The event is on Saturday May 12th, 10am-2pm at the CEC demonstration site at 1216 North Park Street. The Spring Organic Plant Sale features local farmers offering a wide variety of organically grown vegetable, flower and herb seedlings to get you off to a successful start this growing season.
What you can look forward to:
• The largest selection of organically grown heirloom tomato varieties all in one place for easy shopping
• Organically grown vegetable starts from arugula to zucchini
• Native plants for your low maintenance garden
• Perennial edibles like berry bushes and other fruiting shrubs
• Medicinal herbs like English lavender, chamomile and yarrow
• Culinary herbs like Genovese basil, dill and chives
• Companion plants like marigolds, sweet cicely and comfrey
• Live music!
2018 VENDORS:
Saanich Organics
Metchosin Farm
Growceries
New Mountain Farm
Mason Street City Farm
Hatchet & Seed
Ravensong
Saanich Native Plants
Organic Gardener’s Pantry
Crooked Fir Farm & Nursery
Posted in Announcement, Blog, Events, Food Security, News, Organic GardeningSpring Soil Prep by Alysha Punnett
April 5, 2018
Read the article here.
Posted in Blog, Featured, Food Security, News, Organic GardeningWinter Growing
December 14, 2017
Winter Growing, written by our Site Manager, Alysha Punnett and published by the NRG online publication.
Posted in Blog, News, Organic GardeningCold Weather Composting
October 5, 2017
Above is a link to the article written by Alysha Punnett, the CEC’s site manager, published by the Fernwood NRG.
Posted in Blog, Composting, News, Organic GardeningManaging Mildew in the Organic Garden by Site Manager Alysha Punnett
August 17, 2017
Posted in Blog, News, Organic Gardening
Cantonese, Mandarin and Punjabi Composting Videos by the City of Vancouver
August 17, 2017
Posted in Blog, News, Organic Gardening
Fall Organic Plant Sale: Saturday August 26 @ 10AM
June 29, 2017
Posted in Announcement, Blog, Events, News, Organic Gardening
Turning in the Cover Crop
April 21, 2017
It’sspringit’sspringit’sspring! FINALLY.
The cover crop of crimson clover and winter field pea that I sowed the veggie beds with last fall has also been enjoying the warmer weather in a big way. Before I knew it, it had put on 6 inches of new growth and it was time to shear, compost and turn in in preparation for planting season.
Generally, you want to get this done a few weeks before planting anything in the bed. This allows the roots of the cover crop to die, releasing their fixed nitrogen back into the soil, which can then be taken up by your transplants. A side benefit is that it turns pest cocoons and larvae up to the surface where they can be gobbled up by birds, other insects or killed off by the weather.
First, I shear the tops off the plants and toss them in my compost pile. There’s a lot of green material there, so I tend to make a big hot compost.
My shovel strategy:
Many use tillers to turn in cover crops, and this is necessary if you’ve used a more robust crop such as winter rye. Because I choose more tender crops, I use a shovel and chop two rows down the bed, then chop perpendicular to the rows to create a kind of grid over the bed. This allows you to lift chunks of the cover crop and flip them completely over. Once this is complete, I gently chop my way through the whole bed to cut the roots up and ensure the cover crop dies off in time for planting.
As you go, keep an eye out for the tell-tale root nodules that show you how hard your nitrogen-fixing cover crop (i.e. legumes such as crimson clover or winter field pea) has been working for you. As the plants die, this nitrogen is returned to the soil.
Want to know more about the benefits of cover cropping? Head over to our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter and leave us a comment that says “Tell me more!”.
Posted in Blog, Composting, Featured, Organic Gardening
May 13th, Spring Organic Plant Sale, 10am-2pm
April 13, 2017
The Compost Education Centre (CEC) is hosting our 15th annual all-organic spring plant sale! The event is on Saturday May 13th, 10am-2pm at the CEC demonstration site at 1216 North Park Street. The Spring Organic Plant Sale features local farmers offering a wide variety of organically grown vegetable, flower and herb seedlings to get you off to a successful start this growing season.
What you can look forward to:
• The largest selection of organically grown heirloom tomato varieties all in one place for easy shopping
• Organically grown vegetable starts from arugula to zucchini
• Native plants for your low maintenance garden
• Perennial edibles like berry bushes and other fruiting shrubs
• Medicinal herbs like English lavender, chamomile and yarrow
• Culinary herbs like Genovese basil, dill and chives
• Companion plants like marigolds, sweet cicely and comfrey
• Live music!
Vendors this year will include Saanich Organics, New Mountain Farm, Mason Street Farm, Metchosin Farm, Fiddlehead Farm, TreeEater Nursery and Ravensong Seeds/Miss Mullein’s Herbals.
The Compost Education Centre is located on unceded and occupied Indigenous territories, specifically the land of the Lekwungen speaking people—the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. These nations are two of many, made up of individuals who have lived within the porous boundaries of what is considered Coast Salish, Nuu-Chah-Nulth and Kwakwa’wakw Territory (Vancouver Island) since time immemorial. At the CEC we seek to respect, honour and continually grow our own understandings of Indigenous rights and history, and to fulfill our responsibilities as settlers, who live and work directly with the land and its complex, vital ecologies and our diverse, evolving communities.
Posted in Announcement, Blog, Events, News, Organic Gardening