11 -11:30 am; 12:30 - 1 p.m; 2 - 2:30 pm (3 sessions, in the Soroptimists Lounge) : limited to 15 people/session
"Seed Saving 101"
Nick Guthrie
One of the early members of CVGSS, Nick Guthrie is strongly interested in year-round raised bed/cloche gardening , making housing for mason bees, and encouraging others to do likewise. He especially encourages others to do vegetable gardening and to save seeds for trading on Seedy Saturday. His wife Anna carries much of the load in running their garden
and keeping him and seed envelopes organized. Nick will be demonstrating the basics of Seed Saving at three sessions during Seedy Saturday.
11 -11:45 am: in the Craft Room: limited to 30 people
"Mason Bees"
Larry Church
Larry Church started organic farming in 1983, and in 1999 became interested in Mason Bees and their benefits. He started cultivating Mason Bees to improve fruit production, made his own bee houses and learned all he could about them. Part of the workshop will include a DVD of activity in the bee house, taken over a 6 month period.
12:30 pm - 1:15 pm: in the Rotary Hall
Expert Gardening Panel Q&A
Teresa Colby , Leslie Cox, Patty Rose
panel of local experts answering your food gardening questions:
on backyard gardening, winter vegetables, composting, fruit tree pruning, & more
Teresa Colby is a director with CVGSS with 30+ years of west coast gardening experience, and is passionate about vegetables, eating and growing them! Her 15-year-old small Comox garden is cultivated intensively. Teresa grows vegetables year-round, striving to improve her winter selection.
Leslie Cox writes a popular gardening column in a local newspaper as the 'Duchess of Dirt' . She is editor of the newsletter of the Comox Valley Horticultural Society. Leslie teaches gardening workshops, including a series called 'Food for Life'.
Patty Rose has been in the Valley for 20 years, and is an avid gardener and orchard keeper, Master Grafter and Master Composter. She grafts and prunes fruit trees for production. Since 2006 she has been the Regional District's Contract Compost Educator and also teaches Pesticide Awareness. Patty runs the Compost Centre on Headquarters and volunteers at the Anderton Therapeutic Gardens.
1:30 pm - 2:15pm: in the Rotary Hall
"Biointensive Gardening"
Ellen Rainwalker
Ellen Rainwalker began gardening and saving seeds back in the early 1970s when she lived in a large intentional community. She says “We were so poor that if we didn’t grow it ourselves we didn’t eat it, and we couldn’t afford to buy seeds each year so we learned to save our own.” She later went back to school for a degree in Environmental Studies, which included a year-long program in Ecological Agriculture. Then for a number of years she operated a market garden, selling gourmet salad mix to restaurants on Vancouver Island and teaching apprentices. She now lives on six acres in Coombs where she experiments with plant breeding and seed production, and grows her own food year-round.
Ellen believes that our current industrial food system is harmful both to the planet and to our health. She encourages local food production and community self-reliance by giving workshops and talks on Permaculture, seed saving, small-scale market gardening, and The One-Mile Diet.
Ellen’s presentation on Biointensive Gardening, which she describes as a method that encourages and enhances natural processes, will explain how easy it is to grow an amazing amount of high-quality, organic food in a small amount of space. She’ll also have a display on small-scale market gardening. She says “It’s time to bring food production back into our communities!”
