Sign me up for this workshop
Organic Gardening and Composting
February 23
10:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
$85.00
An organic green thumb in the North
This
workshop will awaken the organic gardener in you while it is freezing outside.
N. W. Ontario has a long winter and a short growing season,
10 weeks to get everything in- and then out of the ground . Let's prepare
now to realize those garden dreams. We will discuss the benefits of gardening
organically and what it involves. You will learn about choosing seeds and
plants, practical tool choices, season-extension methods, and regional
challenges and success stories. Plant some seeds to take home. You will
receive a handbook full of resources and tips from a variety of local organic
gardeners. Learn the basics of soil building, natural fertilizers
and pest control and composting. Problems associated with composting will
also be outlined and solutions will be provided. No yard for a composter?
Don’t despair!
We’ll
help you start your own vermicomposter. For the seriously sustainable types,
we will also give you the dirt on “humanure” and take a look
at the Eco Centre’s
composting toilets. That’s right: how to compost our own nutrient rich “waste” and
why we should embrace it.
Composting makes a lot of sense: it’s good for your garden, it helps cutting
back on your garbage, and it’s easy.
co-ordinators: Karen Copeland and Lucie Lavoie
As a young environmentalist, Karen came to organic gardening
first through the act of composting. She set up and maintained compost
bins at many places of work in an effort to reduce waste, eventually acquiring
the nickname Copey Composter. A transient lifestyle prevented her from
seeing any garden through an entire growing season until she set down
roots in 1998 southwest of Thunder Bay, where the gardens have grown in
size each year, providing food for home and the Country Market. In 2005,
Karen co-founded Cattails Farm, which ran a trial Community Supported
Agriculture (CSA) project, providing produce to eight subscriber/members,
followed by a 16-family CSA in 2006.
Karen dreams of a day when part of every yard is devoted to growing nutritious
fruits and vegetables, much like is done in other countries, helping people
to re-connect with the source of their food, as well as acquiring independence
from a food system which is lacking in nutrition, taste and soul. She
believes growing food locally and organically is one of the most important
investments we can make for future generations and for the planet as a
whole.
Lucie Lavoie considers herself an ‘urban farmer’,
growing most of her own food using intensive organic gardening techniques
on a number of city lots. Intensive gardening is only possible because
of high soil fertility, thanks to the mountain of compost that is worked
into the garden beds each spring.
Lucie has been working with a number of environmental non-profit
organizations over the past twenty years. Her interests include schoolyard
greening, school and community food gardens, naturalization of urban green
spaces, and stream stewardship.
