Welcome
Seedy Saturday 2012: Gardening is Everyone's Business
Eatmore Sprouts & Greens Ltd. is the Sustaining Sponsor of Seedy Saturday
Sow What Now? Seedy Saturday Can Help
Comox Valley February 20, On March 3rd, hundreds of people will gather to find everything they need to get their gardens growing. Seeds, education, expert advice, enthusiastic tips and support from groups, neighbours and strangers will be available to those itching to get soil under their nails – for the first time or the thousandth.
The generous support of local sponsors allowed the organizers to drop the admission price back to $5 and they believe you’ll receive so much inspiration from the day’s events; you’ll be planting by March 4th. A wonderful array of panelists and speakers are scheduled and, along with the dozens of knowledgeable vendors, associations and educators, the Seed Exchange and the social activities guarantee a day well spent.
Robin Tunnicliffe of Feisty Field Organic Farm and co-founder of Saanich Organics is the keynote speaker for 2012. Tunnicliffe has been farming certified organic vegetables near Victoria, BC for the past 12 years. She leases a total of 1.5 acres in two parcels, and makes her living selling vegetables to restaurants, grocery stores, farmers’ markets and through a vegetable home delivery program. Robin holds an MA in Food Policy from the University of Victoria. She serves on several boards of directors, including USC Canada, UBC Farm and The Islands Organic Producers’ Association. She has recently co-authored a book about her work with Saanich Organics called “All the Dirt: Reflections on Organic Farming” and will be describing how she and two other organic farmers set up a local small producer distribution network.
The popular Garden Panel will again answer questions from the audience about everything from building your soil, to propagation, to growing local and exotic varieties of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers and other gardening- related topics. The panel will include Megan Halstead (Halstead Farms), Connie Kuramato (Gardens to Go), Simon Toole (Good Earth Farms) and Jennifer Waller, an avid amateur gardener since she could walk, with a background in ethno-botany.
Other speakers include: Peter Janes, an orchardist and plant propagator from Denman Island. His brief 20 minute presentation will highlight some of the best practices and biggest hurdles in the cultivation of fruit and nut trees. He will also review some of the most successful and least appropriate edible perennials he's observed in our bioregion in hopes of increasing the successes of local growers. Janes will be joined by Jonathon Schut of Budding Landscapes to describe backyard permaculture design.
Transition Town Comox Valley will host a panel of Project Leaders who will present interesting hands-on projects related to food security in the Comox Valley. These are opportunities for folks to get involved with others in exciting projects beyond their back yard. Lake Trail Neighbourhood Connections will help you get children involved in the garden. A full schedule of events is at www.comoxvalleygrowersandseedsavers.ca – look for Seedy Saturday 2012 on the menu. The Comox Valley Growers and Seed Savers exist to conserve and preserve our local plant diversity by encouraging and supporting public participation in growing heritage and non-hybrid food crops and other plants.
I am getting more and more excited as the 2012 event approaches. Saturday March 3rd at the Florence Filberg Centre in Courtenay is shaping up to be a great event which will demonstrate that ‘Gardening (truly) is Everyone’s Business. We have taken all the best from previous years along with the Vendor, Volunteer and Public feedback to ensure a grand experience for all participants.
We have returned the admission price to $5 for non-members of CVGSSS. Many of you said you believed the increased gate price contributed to lower attendance last year and we listened. We have already begun our advertising and promotion campaign and I’m reaching out all over Vancouver Island to attract attendees.
We have re-instituted the Seedy Cafe – with a fresh menu using local ingredients – and reasonable prices. Vendor and volunteer benefits include complimentary snacks/beverages before 10 am and volunteers are entitled to a meal during the day. The Seedy Cafe will be open to the public with lunch being served 11 am to 2 pm.
We have received donations from the community and sponsors to be able to re-introduce door prizes for attendees.
I’m working with a great team to finalize the speaker presentations and workshops and will be post their bio's and schedules as they are all confirmed. We are concentrating on local knowledge to address local conditions and opportunities. We also want to have something for everyone along the gardening/growing continuum – novices, tyros and pros. I’m also working on making this a paperless event – no printed programs. Instead, we’ll have several monitors throughout the site with mapping, schedules, Cafe menus/pricing and Sponsor and Vendor logos/info. We’re gathering very short food security videos from the public domain to screen as well. We’ll have full recycling and composting on site to decrease our footprint as much as possible.
I've had a few challenges learning how to update the web site information - so thanks for your patience. There are still spaces for vendors and exhibitors and we have several volunteer opportunities to practise existing or learn new skills - and have a fabulous time! Please call me if you have any questions or want to participate.
Sue Moen, Coordinator, 250-339-5948
Hello and happy rainy summer gardening to all. It's pretty amazing, all this rain, but aren't we gardeners always optimistic for sun, surely in August at least.
The mostly new CVGSS Directors are getting settled in their new roles. Welcome to Luisa, Marilyn, Ralph, Catherine, and newly appointed as Treasurer, John Blyth. Catherine and I will be the main contacts as we phase out our hard working administrator, Susan Armstrong. Financial constraints are forcing this change, and the new Directors are stepping up to take on some key tasks. Many thanks to Susan for her work over the last 3 years.
We are also hoping to have a booth at the Fall Exhibition, last weekend of Aug, and a Garden Tour in Sept. Both of these events were initiated by volunteers who wanted to help them happen. What events could you help organize?
Susan Holvenstot CVGSS Chair, 250-334-2375
The talk was centred around the "soil food web" with everything feeding on its neighbours.
Nematodes
A handful of healthy soil contains around ten thousand nematodes. They feed mostly on bacteria but some also feed on plants in which case they are regarded as pests. They are microscopic organisms comprised of only one thousand cells, are capable of learning and are used for genetic and medical studies. The particular nematode "Caenorhabditis elegans" has been particularly employed as a model organism in scientific investigations.
Bacteria and Archaebacteria
A handful of soil contains around one trillion bacteria and archaebacteria. They are capable of sporulating when conditions are unfavourable to wait for better conditions and can remain dormant in the soil for a long time. Rhizobia, Frankia, and company make food out of air by reducing N2 and manufacturing proteins. They are the only organisms on earth capable of doing this. These bacteria latch onto plant roots forming nodules and feed off plants but return proteins made from atmospheric nitrogen so relation with plants is symbiotic. They appear pinkish due to hemoglobin which indicates a common lineage with us going back hundreds of millions of years.
The agrobacteria are the original genetic engineers. They come close to plant roots and inject a piece of their bacterial DNA into the plant cell which then co-opts the plants biochemical machinery and makes sugars on order from the bacteria dna. This is straight parasytism and can be a severe problem.
Thierry briefly mentions yeast and some other organisms but gets more excited about
Fungi
The fungi are extremely important in the soil food web with a handful of healthy soil containing around 25 km of mycelium. The mycorrhiza are singled out as especially important because they penetrate inside roots of plants and every cell of roots is colonized. It's a symbiotic relationship because the fungus draws water and minerals from the soil to feed the plant. Nearly all plants have a mycorrhizal relationship and the network of mycorrizal mycelium connects every plant to every other.
Earthworms
Earthworms are a prime indicator of soil health. The more life in the soil the more earth worms because they feed on organic matter both dead and alive. Thierry points out that they are an indicator of soil health rather than primary cause.
Some other macroscopic soil creatures, wireworm, ants, ... , are briefly mentioned
Thierry briefly flashes a slide illustrating trophic levels in the soil. This indicates five different trophic levels and the interactions between them and indicates the complexity of the soil ecosystem.
Mineralization
Thierry talks about how the natural solar system involves plant material falling as mulch and being recycled by the soil food web. If we're harvesting then we remove plant material so we need to add something. For instance Thierry uses seaweed, leafmulch, grass clippings, garden waste, animal manure, food compost, ... . This is fine for gardens but for larger scale agriculture there is unlikely to be enough of such material available. Traditional approach uses a fallow period every 3 years in which crops are grown, not for harvesting, but for the sole purpose of enriching the soil. Thierry favours comfrey and nettles because they pull up minerals from deep down.
Composting
Thierry doesn't go into composting deeply other than to mention the traditional method of three compost boxes used in a sequential fashion with turning of compost every so often. He also tantalizes us with a picture of some beautifully crafted wooden compost boxes. He highly recommends the book "Teeming with Microbes" by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis with a foreword by Elaine Ingham author of "The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web". Thierry does single out compost tea for mention. Compost tea is a live solution of micro-organisms derived from active compost. Put some compost in a bucket, add something sweet like molasses and water and after 36-48 hours with aeration get rich compost tea which can be sprayed foliarly or on the soil.
Thierry likes rock dust, especially glacial rock dust and volcanic rock dust, as a good source of minerals for the soil.
Getting near the end of the talk,Thierry touches on quite a few topics briefly. Commenting on the local product Sky Rocket sold by the regional district he points out that is composted sewage sludge and is only tested for acceptable levels of a few heavy metals. Although we live in an area without much heavy industrial pollution,Thierry still doesn't use Sky Rocket.
He remarks that chemical fertilizer after WW1 and especially after WW2 was a reinvention of chemical explosives by munitions companies looking for new outlets for their products.
For the organic method he notes that the type of soil is not important since it's the food web that feeds the plant but it is important for chemical agriculture. The chemical method involves testing your soil and amending with various chemical to correct any deficiencies. However chemical fertilizer poisons the soil food web with the application of chemicals producing an unnatural load of soluble salts into the soil which is destructive to the soil micro-organisms. Although they temporarily feed the plant there is huge collateral damage from the use of chemicals such as ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, urea, super phosphate, potassuum chloride, ... . He mentions the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico as one example of numerous ocean dead zones around the world resulting from excess chemical nutrients being flushed into rivers and oceans.
Thierry points out that the soil food web is the largest reservoir of carbon on planet and it is being destroyed by chemical
agriculture.
Biodiversity is the basis of food security and pest control. With large biodiversity no one species can become epidemic while lack of biodiversity needs to be medicated with pesticides, like medicating overcrowded livestock in industrial production.
Open pollinated varieties reproduce true whereas hybrids do not. One cannot save seeds and get the same plants. Need to buy your seeds every year. GMOs extend this commercial model in that now farmers have to buy seeds and, typically, the pesticides/herbicides that go with the GMO every year. In Canada as of now there are only four GMO crops grown: corn, canola, soy bean, sugar beet. However elsewhere there are many other GMOs being grown, e.g. cotton, potato, wheat, grape vine, papaya.
Thierry used to do genetic engineering and promote it but he had a life changing experience in 1998 in Scotland when a Scottish scientist did experiments on mice with a GMO Thierry was working with. The research showed bad effects and when the scientist went public with the results he was promptly fired. (Reviewer's note: this sounds like scientist Arpad Pusztai formerly of the Rowett Research Institute in Scotland and mentioned in my review of Marie-Monique Robin's film "The World According to Monsanto". See ?q=node/28.) Since then there have been many peer reviewed studies showing mice and rats fed GMOs showing bad results. Jeremy Rifkin calls releasing GMOs into the environment genetic pollution and there is no recall.
In the comparison of Solar versus Oil based agriculture Thierry points out that, due to peak oil, the price of oil will go up and impact the entire chemical production system since the chemical products are generally manufactured from petroleum. While solar is resilient the chemical system will have to, putting it charitably, evolve.
Thierry ends by pointing out that some jurisdictions are already starting to pay farmers for carbon credits because good organic practice sequesters carbon in the soil. He finally points out that Cuba used chemical agriculture as a client state of the Soviet Union but when that entity collapsed Cuba lost its supply of chemical and petroleum. In a few years Cuba successfully completely changed from chemical to organic.
Carol McIntyre introduced us to Winter Gardening of Vegetables. It seems strange to learn about such a topic in winter, but room for the growth of winter veggies must be coordinated with one’s summer garden use. Carol has already offered workshops and multi-session classes at her home in which she covers seed choices, soil health, crop rotations, mulches and other matters which ensure a full larder of leafy and root veggies right through until spring.
Patty Rose gave a demonstration workshop on fruit tree pruning at her home orchard. Patty’s working life has largely been at Traas Nursery being concerned with growth of root stock and with grafting. In recent years Patty has built up and run the Compost Education Center opposite G P Vanier School where apart from compost techniques she taught about gardening and hosted other experts’ workshops on special topics such as pest management.
As winter turns to spring CVGSS will have workshops on “back care for gardeners”, special sessions of small fruit growing, irrigation for home gardens, seed saving and others.
We have a busy spring season ahead of us!
Here is our seed saving handout. Seed Saving 101. If you would like to be a Demo Garden Volunteer please see the contact page.
Special thanks to our Demo Garden Donors
Slegg Lumber
We sincerely thank Al Stevens and Kelly Klassen for their generous donation of the cedar lumber for our three new raised beds.
Home Depot
Thank you Eric M. and Mark L. for your donation of plumbing material and garden hose. The plumbing supplies will be used to construct a cover for our new winter gardening raised bed and the garden hose for regular watering.
Corix Water Products
Thank you Graham McMullen for your expertise in the micro irrigation applications and most recently your discounted price on our required supplies. You will see your material in use throughout our Demonstration Garden, within the greenhouse as well as all the raised beds.
Central Builders Supply
Thank you Rick Fisher for selling us plumbing supplies at cost.
Last but not least
Thank you to Stan Kirkland for contacting the aforementioned. Thanks to you, we now have three new Demo Garden Beds and many people had a chance to learn about their set up.
- Board meetings are open to all members. We welcome any member to attend and contribute ideas and suggestions. Our Annual General Meeting is usually held in early June; an invitation is sent to all members.
- Meet our Board Members
Other CVGSS Events and Activities include
- Thank you to everyone who added their names to the volunteer sign up, you can still volunteer by sending in the form below, or contacting Vivien or Anne.
- Volunteer, and be a part of Seedy Saturday, the Spring Plant Sale, staff the CVGSS booth at fun events and much more.
- Watch this space for more information on Volunteer Commitee Activities.
Meet new friends, share knowledge and make a difference!
