Speakers Schedule

10:15am

THEATRE

Resilient Food Gardens for a Changing Coastal Climate

Linda Gilkeson, West Coast Gardening

Our local climate is changing as the global climate changes – but what does this mean for our gardens? Learn how to design adaptable fruit and vegetable gardens, choose suitable varieties, ways to help your plants survive ‘weird weather’ (whether cold, hot, wet, dry, windy) and what you need to know to become a resilient gardener with a productive organic garden all year round.

Linda is a regular instructor in the Master Gardener programs in BC and busy year around giving courses and workshops on pest management, organic gardening and year round food production. She has co-authored organic gardening books for Rodale Press and published two books for gardeners in the BC coastal region. Her latest book, Backyard Bounty: The Complete Guide to Year-Round Organic Gardening in the Pacific Northwest was a 2011 BC best seller.

Website: www.lindagilkeson.ca

 
 

10:15am

SIDNEY

The Magic of Mushrooms@Home

Scott Henderson, the Mushroom Man, Vancouver

Have you ever wondered about the role that mushrooms play in your garden? Have you thought about growing your own mushrooms at home, or in your garden? This talk introduces ways you can use beneficial fungi to help some of your vegetable plants grow better, and how you can start growing mushrooms for food or health.

Scott is an avid mushroom hunter and grower. Through his business, the “Mushroom Man”, he helps people grow mushrooms by providing easy-to-use growing kits and supplies so they can enjoy their own tasty gourmet mushrooms.

Email: mushrooms.vancouver@gmail.com

 
 

10:15am

COLWOOD

Roses to Grow – A Thorny Subject?

David Elliott, Rosearian

Some of us can grow these beauties, some of us struggle and give up. This talk will outline rose varieties from species to modern hybrid roses and what selections grow best in our region. Learn about successfully growing roses in mixed beds, and how to select for flower, hips and foliage to make your garden more interesting. Soil requirements, planting location and maintenance will be covered.

David and Crenagh Elliott have been growing roses in Victoria for 30 years – predominantly Heritage – without using artificial fertilizers or insecticides. They travel worldwide attending Rose conferences to learn more and meet fellow rosearians.

Email: theelliotts@shaw.ca

 
 

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11:30am

THEATRE

KEYNOTE
Hot New Plants: Cutting Edge Garden Plants for Cutting Edge Gardens

Gary Lewis, Phoenix Perennials, Vancouver

Phoenix Perennials is among the first nurseries in Canada — and even the world — to offer new cultivars developed by the best international breeders. Gary will give you the inside track on recent new cutting edge garden plants and talk about where plant breeding is heading in the future. If you love new plants, you won’t want to miss this talk!

Gary began botanizing his local fields and forests around the age of four (first in Germany, then in Nova Scotia and Ontario), began collecting house plants at the age of ten and began gardening at the age of fifteen. He holds a UBC Master of Science degree in Plant Ecology, training which, with its focus on the botany and ecology of wild plants, greatly informs his horticulture.

In 2004 on his 28th birthday Gary became the owner of Phoenix Perennials. Since then he has greatly expanded the nursery to include one of the largest and most exciting selections of perennials in Canada. He strives to include cutting edge new perennials, tried and true garden stalwarts, and the rare and unusual in his plant offerings.

Gary is the Canada Region Director for the Perennial Plant Association, the North America-wide industry association that brings gardeners the Perennial Plant of the Year. He is Image Bank coordinator for E-Flora BC, an online atlas of BC native plants. He also serves on the Perennial and Bulb Selection Committee of Great Plant Picks, an educational awards program of the Miller Botanical Garden that works to build a comprehensive palette of outstanding plants for BC and Pacific Northwest gardens.

Website: www.phoenixperennials.com

 
 

11:30am

SIDNEY

Tomatoes: Challenges and Treasures

Tina Baynes, Corner Farm

Take the challenge out of growing tomatoes in our ever-changing climate and learn the tricks of the trade for abundant harvest of this much loved and anticipated edible. Tips on variety selection, growing healthy plants, protective structures, and seed saving will be discussed.

This will be Tina’s 21st year growing organic food for farm markets, restaurants and direct from the farm. It has been a long path participating in the growth of our local sustainable growing community: she co-founded and has been long involved in the Moss Street Farm Market, the North Saanich Farm Market, Haliburton Community Farm, and the local chapter of Canadian Organic Growers (COG). Tina has enjoyed teaching organic agriculture for 19 years at Camosun College and to farm apprentices, some of whom now have their own market-gardens. Her Corner Farm sells open pollinated vegetable, herb and flower seeds.

Email: tinajfraser@shaw

 
 

11:30am

COLWOOD

Backyard Chickens – Urban Hens

Marilyn Soames, Saanich Fair Poultry Show

Here is a brief overview of the joys, enrichment and benefits of keeping chickens wherever you are. Learn about the health, housing and maintenance of chickens in an urban setting, plus, how their manure benefits your garden and planters.

Marilyn’s love of chickens began in 2001 and soon after she acquired her own flock of heritage birds. She helps with the education and organization of the poultry exhibition at the annual Saanich Fair, and is a member of the Cowichan Feather Fanciers. Marilyn presents gardening workshops for the People, Plants and Homes department of BC Housing, encouraging residents to grow their own food. Recognizing that much knowledge of chicken husbandry is in danger of being lost, Marilyn enthusiastically shares what she has learned from her elderly mentors.

Email: marilynsoames@yahoo.ca

 
 

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12:45pm

THEATRE

The Edible Revolution? Ingredients for Retooling Regional Food Systems

Jon Steinman, Deconstructing Dinner
Linda Geggie, CR-FAIR

With the population on the planet scheduled to hit nine billion by 2050, how can we hope to feed everyone? While there is hot debate about trade and biotechnology as a way forward, there is a growing movement afoot to re-tool food systems at the regional level. Linda and Jon will take you on a visual journey to explore this approach, and look at both the Kootenays and Capital Region and efforts on the ground to reconstruct food production and distribution chains with the planet and its people in mind. We will recognize Local Food and Agriculture Champions so you can see who is making a difference here in the Capital Region.

Broadcasting from Nelson, BC, Deconstructing Dinner (archived on-line) was a radio show and podcast airing between 2006-2010 on fifty North American radio stations. Jon has been involved in and coordinated many food initiatives including GE Free Kootenays, Community Food Matters, and the Kootenay Grain CSA. He is a Board Director of the Kootenay Country Store Co-operative, Canada’s largest independent consumer food co-op. Jon recently completed a report on food system organizations in Canada and the US and has used this research to help recommend the potential development of a West Kootenay regional food system alliance.

Website: www.deconstructingdinner.ca

Linda has been involved in food systems based work for close to two decades from the local to the global. She is founder and co-creator of many LifeCycles programs: the Fruit Tree Project, Growing Schools and numerous urban garden projects. To help create a more fertile environment for local agriculture on Vancouver Island, Linda became involved with regional organizing and policy work that includes developing a regional food strategy and agriculture plan, and an agriculture economic development plan.

Sponsored by Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable (CR-FAIR)

Website: www.communitycouncil.ca

 
 

12:45pm

SIDNEY

Tales of Plant Hunting in SW China

Kelly Dodson and Sue Milliken, Far Reaches Farm

Live vicariously with stories of a plant hunting trip to SW China in the fall of 2010 botanizing mountainous areas rarely visited by westerners. This is a fast-moving travelogue mixing serious plants, scenery and humour that will appeal to both plant nerds and the plant-challenged. Kelly and Sue will also touch on their seed-sowing techniques.

Kelly and Sue own Far Reaches Farm, a rare plant nursery in Port Townsend, WA that is home to one of the largest collections of unusual plants in the Northwest. They grow many of their plants from seed collected in the wild as well as from their nursery and garden.

Website: http://www.farreachesfarm.com/aboutus/

Photo courtesy of Kate Bryant

 
 

12:45pm

SIDNEY

Growing Citrus in South Coastal BC

Bob Duncan, Fruit Trees and More

Homegrown lemons and oranges? Learn from a master about the cultural requirements and variety selection for success in growing citrus in South Coastal BC.

Bob owns Fruit Trees and More with his wife Verna, and for over 30 years they have been growing tree fruits, specializing in temperate, warm temperate, Mediterranean and hardy subtropical fruit trees. They grow over 400 varieties of tree fruits including 30+ varieties of citrus. Their orchard is used as a teaching tool to demonstrate various training systems and cultural techniques.

Website: http://www.fruittreesandmore.com

 
 

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2:00pm

THEATRE

Backyard Berries & Winter Preserves

Carolyn Herriot, The Garden Path Nursery

Learn how pleasurable it is to grow a variety of berries in your garden and reap the benefits year round. Carolyn shares growing tips and cultural conditions for a wide selection of berries from tayberries to red currants. Then go into the kitchen to see what happens for the enjoyment and healthful benefits of this fruitful bounty to continue well past the growing season.

Carolyn is author of A Year On The Garden Path, a 52-Week Organic Gardening Guide and The Zero Mile Diet, a Year-round Guide to Growing Organic Food (Harbour Publishing). She is a food security consultant and regular columnist for GardenWise and CommonGround magazines. After 20 years operating The Garden Path Nursery Carolyn now focuses on growing certified organic ‘Seeds of Victoria’ at The Garden Path Centre in Victoria.

Website: http://earthfuture.com/gardenpath/

 
 

2:00pm

SIDNEY

What’s the Current Hot Potato? Making Food Policy in the Capital Region

Pat Reichert, Moderator

From marauding deer to urban chickens, dumping fill on agriculture land to guerilla gardening on city boulevards, in the last decade we have seen local government increasingly grapple with food and agriculture issues. Come and learn about the evolution of food planning and policy making in the region. Are we making progress? Do meetings, words, and policy turn into actions that make a difference on the ground? Hear from a panel of food activists, local government, and members of the Capital Region Food Policy Working Group who dish on the “hot potatoes” of food policy and planning initiatives in our region.

Pat has worked on many food security projects on Salt Spring Island including the Salt Spring Island Food Security Plan, the Salt Spring Area Farm Plan and three research studies on commercial farm produce production on the island. She is part of the “Save Salt Spring Lamb” abattoir project, coordinator of the Growing Up Organic program, and coordinator of the Salt Spring Farm Produce Centre planning project. Pat is also a member of the Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiative Roundtable (CR-FAIR) steering committee and of the Capital Region Food Policy Working Group. She was recently elected to the board of the Salt Spring Island Farmland Trust.

Sponsored by Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable (CR-FAIR)

Website: www.communitycouncil.ca

 
 

2:00pm

COLWOOD

More Than One Native: How Various Bee Pollinators Work With Flower Designs To Make Your Garden More Bountiful

Gord Hutchings, Hutchings Bee Service

Flowering plants have been with us for over 130 million years and have evolved in concert with over 25,000 different species of native bees – the flower pollinator specialists. With over 450 species of native bees in BC and the Yukon, these bees still perform the majority of pollination, especially for native plants. Most people don’t recognize what these native bees look like, much less know about their life cycles and biology. Native bees have developed a variety of anatomical characteristics that are best suited to extract nectar and pollen from various shapes and designs of flowers, and they are perfectly in tune with our climatic conditions. Learn of the fascinating characteristics of our local diverse bee fauna, their habitat requirements, and how your garden flowers and food plants can benefit from their presence.

Gord is a local entomologist, and former field biologist involved in entomological projects throughout BC and the Yukon.

Website: http://sites.google.com/site/hutchingsbeeservice/

 
 

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3:00pm

THEATRE

Food from the Hood: Backyards, Boulevards and More

Gabe Epstein, Moderator

Opportunities for growing food in cities abound, and neighborhoods are getting active using urban lands in creative and cooperative ways. Come and learn about the rise of neighbourhood-based food producing and food security groups around Victoria. Representatives from Gorge Tillicum Urban Farmers (GTUF), Vic West Urban Farmers (VWUF), Jubilee Urban Farmers (JUF), and Hillside Urban Farmers For Sustainability (HUFFS) share the history and nature of their groups – what they believe, what they do, what they’ve learned, what they can and can’t achieve, and more.

Gabe is a retired elementary school teacher. He is now a backyard gardener and co-coordinator for the Gorge Tillicum Urban Farmers (GTUF) neighbourhood group.

Sponsored by Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable (CR-FAIR)

Website: www.communitycouncil.ca