10:00 AM Gone with the Lawn - Pat
Johnston, Consultant
Learn how to reduce or replace your lawn: the benefits, the
methods, and replacement ideas using native plant alternatives.
Patricia Johnston is a Native Plant Gardening Consultant who for
the past eight years has been helping private and public gardeners
incorporate native plants into their landscapes. She has also
facilitated many Native Plant Gardening Workshops for various
community organizations. Pat, along with other gardeners, developed
a native plant demonstration garden in her own yard and works
in various native plant gardens in the Victoria region.
10:00
AM Starting from the Seed: the basics - Philip Young, HCP
What to consider when buying and storing seeds, how to properly
plant them, their care indoors and out, and moving seedlings from
indoors to the garden.
Philip is an enthusiastic amateur gardener of over 30 years, with
a special interest in fruit and vegetables. For many years he’s
worked alongside fellow volunteers tending the fruit and vegetables
at the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific (Glendale Gardens).
He teaches certificate courses on fruit and vegetables in the
community education program and workshop series, as well as the
Master Gardener’s course. www.hcp.bc.ca
11:00 AM Growing Mushrooms at Home
and in the Garden - Justin Napier, Vancouver Island Mushroom Company
Find out just how easily mushrooms can be grown by the home
cultivator. Techniques demonstrated will be the inoculation of
straw, logs and woodchips for growing your favourite mushrooms.
Also learn how to maximize your garden ecology by introducing
delicious fungi.
As an amateur mycologist, Justin is working hard at bringing mushrooms
into the mainstream of ecology, gardening, and cuisine. With an
extensive background in gardening, combined with a passion for
mushroom foraging, Justin began growing his first shiitake mushrooms
eight years ago. Since then, he has grown his favorite varieties
for pleasure and profit, both in the lab and at home.
11:00 AM High Yield Vegetable
Growing - Tina Baynes (Fraser), Haliburton Organic Farm
Raise an abundance of vegetables for your home table or for
selling to consumers. Increase your yields by planning and growing
smart with time-tested methods including the walkabout, seed selection,
building fertility, avoiding pests, crop planning and infrastructure
to extend the season.
Tina is a market gardener, growing certified organic produce on
the Saanich Peninsula for 19 years. She is the farm manager and
a director of the Haliburton
Community Organic Farm, an instructor of community education
courses at Camosun College in organic agriculture, and chairperson
for the Canadian Organic Growers-Vancouver Island Chapter. She
loves the adventure of organic growing, and the beauty and bounty
of the harvest.
11:00 AM Big Gardens in Small
Spaces - John Sheridan, Vancouver Island Rock and Alpine Garden
Society (VIRAGS)
Create high visual impact for both natural and created sites
by growing small plants. Appreciate the beauty and the ease of
growing plants from high elevations/harsh climates and how to
attractively present them in a small garden.
John is a Vancouver Island native who graduated from UVic with
a BSc. He has been a Gardener at Hatley Park for over 30 years.
Currently John serves as VP of VIRAGS,
a local club of plant lovers who visit, study, photograph, draw,
and grow alpine plants, bog dwellers and woodlanders, whether
native or exotic.
12:00 PM Pruning 101 - Ray Gresham,
BC Fruit Testers
All you need to know to successfully prune your trees, with
demonstrations. Why and when to prune; the necessary tools; how
to prune a tip bearing fruit tree; the three Ds for opening up
a tree.
Ray has been an active member for over ten years with the BC
Fruit Testers Association. He is now Secretary of this organization
that focuses on practical information for all aspects of growing
fruit in B.C. In recent years Ray has developed a substantial
clientele for his pruning expertise.
12:00 PM The Seed and Plant Sanctuary
of Canada (or saving seeds as if our lives depended upon it) -
Dan Jason, Salt Spring Seeds
Why does a grassroots organization undertake seed research
and development? Learn about the Sanctuary, its relevance to future
earth changes, and its relationship to food security.
Dan has owned and operated Salt
Spring Seeds for 21 years. In 2002 he started the Seed and
Plant Sanctuary and now has hundreds of members across Canada.
Dan is a prolific writer on organic growing, including "Living
Lightly on the Land", "Greening the Garden", "The Whole Organic
Food Book" and "The Really Whole Food Cookbook". His latest effort
is "The Zero Mile Diet Seed Kit".
1:00 PM Keynote: Seedy Characters
through the Ages - Briony Penn
An illustrated and entertaining look at seed collectors and
promoters of seed diversity through the ages, right here in the
biodiversity hotspot of Canada.
Briony is an innovative teacher devoted to interdisciplinary learning
and community outreach in geography, environmental studies, ecological
restoration and natural history. She is the recipient of many
awards in the fields of broadcasting and writing on the environment,
and she co-founded The Land Conservancy of BC. For over 15 years
Briony has been an adjunct professor lecturing with UVic's School
of Environmental Studies and Restoration of Natural Systems Program.
She lives on Saltspring Island with her family. www.thewildside.ca
2:00 PM Backyard Beekeeping -
John Defayette, B's Honey
Without bees there is no pollination. Without pollination,
there are no seeds. Learn how to set up, maintain your own beehive,
and accrue the benefits to your garden…not to mention the honey!
John is an urban beekeeper in Victoria who began as a hobbyist
with three beehives and slowly expanded by placing hives in locations
beyond his own backyard. He is a naturalist and has written for
different publications. John sells honey and bee products at fairs
and farmers' markets, and as a result of customer requests for
his recipes, he's embarked on writing a book "B's Honey: Using
bee products for a natural lifestyle".
2:00 PM Saving your own Seeds
- Carolyn Herriot, Seeds of Victoria
Participants will learn how to grow, clean and save their own
seeds from a wide variety of different plants, based on Carolyn's
personal seed-saving experience over 20 years. They will be shown
how easy and rewarding it is to be able to collect seeds from
your own plants, and use them to grow your own food and flowers
next year.
Carolyn Herriot is a well known for her inspiring gardening lectures
and as author of the bestselling ‘A Year On The Garden Path, a
52-Week Organic Gardening Guide’. She is a regular garden columnist
for GardenWise and CommonGround magazines. Carolyn owns ‘Seeds
of Victoria’ and currently serves on the Board for Glendale Gardens
& Woodland and as President of the Victoria Horticultural Society.
www.earthfuture.com/gardenpath
Seedy
Saturday - Victoria's 15th
Annual Seed and Garden Show 
The
Community Seed Swap table
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