Learn how to grow vegetables — even if you don’t have a garden — at the Growing Vegetables in Containers workshop at the Compost Education Centre, Saturday, April 13.
Growing vegetables, flowers and fruit in containers adds nourishment and local vegetables to your meals, while receiving all the mental-health benefits of gardening.
The workshop will be led by Kayla Siefried, the steward of the Compost Education Centre demonstration gardens. She will reveal what varieties of fruit, vegetables and flowers are best grown in containers, recommend the best types of containers to use, choose the right soil and how to replenish nutrients.
Compost Education Centre offers workshops on composting, organic gardening and sustainable living topics throughout the year.
Dress appropriately for all types of weather, as the workshop may be outside or in the facility’s straw bale building.
Pre-registration is required. Tickets are $30 for non-members, free for members. There are a limited number of free Pay What You Can tickets available for people who self-identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Colour or who are facing significant financial barriers.
The event runs 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 13 at the Compost Education Centre, 1216 North Park St.
For more information, or to register, go to compost.bc.ca/programs/2024-public-workshops. You can also register by calling the office at 250 386 9676 or via email: [email protected].
Walking History tour covers ‘grocery wars’ of early Victoria
Learn about the colourful lives of small independent grocers and their clients at Grocery Wars, this week’s Old Cemeteries Society’s Walking History tour, at Ross Bay Cemetery, Sunday, April 14.
Take a walk through history in the cemetery with guide Larissa Ciupka, as she reveals the secrets of grocers who competed to put food on the table in Victoria a century or more ago.
Visit the graves of independents who chose to just serve their immediate neighbours and budding entrepreneurs who used their markets as springboards to more ambitious projects.
The tour costs $5 for non-members to join, $2 for members. It starts at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 14. Meet at the cemetery entrance on Fairfield Road, opposite the south end of Stannard Street.
Tours and excursions take place weekly throughout the year.
For more information, go to oldcem.bc.ca/tour.
Parks and urban forest focus of Esquimalt Earth Day event
Esquimalt’s parks and recreation department is hosting Earth Day 2024 to help raise awareness about keeping local parks and urban forests safe and healthy, at Highrock Cairn Park on April 17.
At the event, staff will offer information and activities on invasive species removal, trail building,environment stewardship and more.
The 7.1 hectare park is on the highest point of land in Esquimalt, at 71 metres in elevation. The park gets its name because of a cairn installed on the summit to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of the incorporation of the Township of Esquimalt.
Natural features include glaciated knolls, native plants such as blue camas and stands of Garry oaks, arbutus and Douglas fir.
The event is free to join. It runs 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April. 17 at Highrock Cairn Park. For more information, go to esquimalt.ca/community-events/events-listing/calendar/earth-day-celebration-2024.
As well, Victoria Butterfly Gardens is hosting an Earth Day Scavenger Hunt, now until April 30.
This fun adventure takes place in a vibrant jungle with thousands of tropical butterflies, poison dart frogs, tortoises, large iguanas, flamingos, tropical ducks and tropical birds.
The scavenger hunt is included with admission. Adults (18-64) $19.50, students and seniors $15.50, children (5-12) $9 and free for infants. The event runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily until April 30 at Victoria Butterfly Gardens, 1461 Benvenuto Ave., Brentwood Bay. For details, go to butterflygardens.com.
