I always know it is spring time when my email inbox starts to overflow. Other signs include birds tweeting on the phone lines, crocuses blooming, and everyone is abuzz with plans for the coming season.

This week, here are some (and I apologize, not all), of the exciting things you should check out, apply to, or get involved with if you are interested in gardens and food. As always keep an eye on the Halifax Garden Network Calendar for an updated list of workshops and events.

The Shortlist:

Seedy Saturdays
Plant Propagation and Considerations for Greenhouse Soil Workshop
Passive Solar Greenhouse Design Workshop
Introduction to Permaculture Workshop
Permaculture Certificate Course
Community Garden Coordinator Workshop
Hands On Season Extension For Market Gardeners
Loaded Ladle: Looking for new Board Members
Spryfield Urban Farm: Job Posting

The Long List:

Seedy Saturdays

Seedy Saturdays are amazing events held all over Canada in the spring where local, small scale, and back-yard seed savers and growers get together to share their wares and information. They are great events to go to to purchase your seed supply and to learn a whole lot about what and how to grow certain varieties. Here are dates and times of Seedy Saturday events across Nova Scotia:

Dartmouth, NS

Alderney Landing Farmer’s Market

Saturday March 24, 9-11 a.m.

Contact Sarah Ensslin for more information

Halifax, NS

Captain William Spry Community Centre, 16 Sussex Street

Saturday March 31, 2-4 p.m.

For more information or to book a table to sell seeds, bulbs, and other garden supplies, please contact Marjorie Willison for more information.

Sackville, NB

Tweedy Hall, Mount Alison University

Saturday March 31, 2012 1-3 p.m.

In conjunction with ACORN’s AGM, we are also hosting The POLITICS OF FOOD Forum (Everyone welcome–please help spread the word!), which will feature a series of speakers through the course of the afternoon.

For more information contact Lucia Stephen.

Wolfville, NS

Farmer’s Market building, 24 Elm Av.

Saturday April 7, 8:30-1 p.m.

Our fifth annual Seedy Saturday will feature a community seed exchange, a plant swap, a workshop speaker series, a Town of Wolfville children’s gardening program, free admission, a fundraising table for Seeds of Diversity Canada, and a number of vendors selling local seeds, plants, transplants, composted seaweed, tubers, Acadian forest tree saplings, and much more. Our event takes place in conjunction with the Wolfville Farmers’ Market, featuring 50 additional vendors, free live music, fair trade coffee, and delicious breakfasts and lunches. We hope you’ll join us!

For more information contact Michelle Fike (902) 697-3344

Plant Propagation and Considerations for Greenhouse Soil

Wednesday, 28 March, 18:30 – 19:30

Ecology Action Centre, 2705 Fern Lane

Facilitator: Rebecca Singer, Native Plants Pollinator Project Coordinator at EAC

Come get your hands dirty and learn some tricks for starting your garden transplants. We will talk about the soil issues involved in greenhouse gardening and how to best use the elements to have strong and healthy transplants to get a jump-start with your garden. Please bring containers to take some seeds home with you! Well meet at the Ecology Action Centre in the board room at 6:30 on March 28th. We’ll later move over to the greenhouse to take a look and plant some seeds. Everyone welcome, no registration required. Free.

Passive Solar Design Workshop

April 14th – 10am-5pm

Ecology Action Centre 2705 Fern Lane

Cost: $75

Come learn the basics of passive solar design for growing food in all seasons through the story of the Bloomfield Community Greenhouse. This full-day, hands-on workshop will equip you with the basics to start designing your own greenhouse!

Topics will include:

Basics of passive solar design.
Designing a greenhouse for winter food production
Factors to consider: Site, solar access, temperature, humidity, light and air.
Thoughtful choice of crops for a winter greenhouse.
Introduction to off-grid solar electricity.
Energy gain and loss in a greenhouse
Design forum – bring your dream greenhouse design and work together on it, or a practice exercise.

Event partners: Ecology Action Centre, Community Energy Cooperative, Full Cycle Builders.Click Here to register. Questions or concerns? Please contact Sonia for more information.

Permaculture for Transition Workshop

April 14-15 9-5 p.m.

St. Luke’s United Church, Tantallon.

You will come out of this workshop with the knowledge for finding positive and practical solutions to creating energy and time-efficient gardens, designing wisely with water, building soil out of nothing, designing opportunities for meaningful community projects, creating a holistic design plan for your property and much more! Cost is $145, and just $65 for the first six under age 30 to register. These low prices are made possible by a generous grant from the Rural Communities Foundation of Nova Scotia to strengthen resilience in our area. To that end we will offer registration exclusively to local folks until March 15. The course includes delicious homemade meals and snacks from gourmet cooks as well as a detailed reading list and handout materials.

To register, email David Wimberly. Visit transitionbay.ca for more information.

Permaculture Design Certificate Course

Earn your certification in permaculture design at The Blockhouse School Project and leave your mark on an exciting new project!

72 hour intensive course
Course runs: May 12-27, 2012
Implementation (optional): May 28-June 2

The course, facilitated by Graham Calder, has a broad curriculum demonstrating the principles, patterns and practices of permaculture design. It utilizes a variety of perspectives from local self-sufficiency to international aid. The course is forged to give a foundation for restoring, rebuilding and reconnecting human ecosystems.

Community Garden Coordinator Workshop

Saturday April 14th, 11-4:30 p.m.

North Branch Library

Free, please R.S.V.P.

This is a free all day event designed to bring coordinators, volunteers and community members who work with Community Gardens together to talk and to learn from presentors and from each other. The workshop will cover communication and building engagement in the garden, soil fertility in the community garden setting, and offer a chance for gardeners to ask questions and share solutions in small conversations.

All types of gardens are invited and encouraged to attend, from the traditional community garden, to school and univeristy gardens, gardens at shelters, family resource centres, youth centres and more. We hope each garden can elect a couple of folks to come and share their garden’s knowledge and struggles. Please R.S.V.P. to Garity by sending the participants names and contact information as soon as possible.

Hands On Season Extension for Market Gardeners

Saturday April 7, 2-8 pm.

Abundant Acres Farm

Join us at Abundant Acres for an afternoon hands-on session to build a low-cost, unheated hoop house (2-4) and stay for the potluck afterwards to talk shop about greenhouse growing and other season-extension techniques. The session is free, please bring something to contribute to the potluck. Click here for directions to the farm.

Loaded Ladle is looking for Board Members

The Loaded Ladle is a Dalhousie-based group that serves free, locally-sourced and communally-cooked meals every Tuesday on campus, while engaging in radical food politics through dialogue and action.The Loaded Ladle is looking for Board Members to elect at our AGM on March 22nd. Many of our long-term members are graduating and moving away, and it’d be great to have some experienced food lovers and activists on Board. We have room for up to four community members, so you don’t have to be a student!

Being a Board Member is an unpaid, volunteer position that requires a certain level of commitment, but not a huge level of work. You would be required to come to weekly meetings, engage in some email discussion, and oversee some aspect of our work, such as planning workshops (or providing the resources so that volunteers can plan workshops), making sure the group sticks to our policies/constitution during their decision-making, or overseeing our paid staff.

If you can’t commit to being a Board Member, we can always use helping hands, and are looking for people to host workshops or help plan events!

To find out more about what it means to be a Board Member, and how to nominate yourself, check out our blog.

To get involved, email us, or find us on Facebook!

Urban Farm Museum in Spryfield Garden and Program Coordinator

Job Announcement
Working at the Urban Farm Museum in Spryfield is a marvellous opportunity to work outdoors with vegetables, herbs, fruits, children, families, and youth during the growing season. Mostly outdoors, some indoor work. Sturdy footwear and protective clothing required.
April 17 to October 15, 2012, Tuesday to Saturday (morning only on Saturdays) 1 evening, and sometimes 2 evenings, per week. Part-time beginning and end of season.
For complete job description, email jamac@ns.sympatico.ca

Application deadline by 5 pm on April 5, 2012

Written By: Garity Chapman

There are so many schools these days growing some kind of grub, or making plans for a garden in the future. It’s so wonderful to see parents, teachers and students alike get all excited over a school yard garden space and the benefits to learning, health and happiness are significant.

This post will gather all the school garden resources I know of. Please send it along to your favorite parent, teenager, principle, teacher or community health worker to help spread the word, the funding and the resources. If you have any knowledge to add please leave us a comment.

Support for School Gardens in Nova Scotia

The Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture has a School Garden Project, which includes a small funding program (up to $500) for new school gardens and a School Garden Resource Guide.

Garden Funding

In addition to the Department of Agriculture’s school garden funding there are a few other funding sources. These include:

Evergreen: School Ground Greening Project

TD Friends of the Environment Foundation

Wellness Funds: You can apply through your local Community Health Board

Local Food Fund: They are not currently open for applications but check back in the summer 2012.

In addition to applying for grants you can talk to your principal to brainstorm funding options and also bring the idea to your community at large. Some local businesses may be interested in sponsoring your project.

Learning More

The internet has endless amounts of information on school gardens, so much so that sometimes it’s helpful to have a curated list. Here is ours.

Local Information:

Edible Schoolyard: Video produced by Slow Food Nova Scotia telling the story of a very successful school garden program and Arthur Hines Elementary in Hants County. This dvd is available at a public library near you.

SPEC’s School Garden Start-up Guide: Another school garden resource guide, put out by a group in B.C. Has a great list of tools, some helpful advice and a month-by-month break down of what to think about when.

School Food Gardens- Challenges, Barriers and How to Overcome Them. A great short article on what to do about summer maintenance, vandalism, and engagement.

Sample Garden Budget: To give you an idea of start-up costs.

School Resource List: An extensive list of local and international resources in case you haven’t found what you are looking for here.

You can also get in touch with a school near you that already has a garden. If you don’t know where to start, take a look at this school garden list to see if someone down the road might have some advice to offer.

Look to your community for knowledge you posses collectively. Farmers are experts at growing grub here in Nova Scotia. Get in touch with an Atlantic Master Gardener, whose role is to offer their gardening know-how to the general public as part of the program. You can email the President to ask for a volunteer to teach you and your school more about growing food.

Here are 3 amazing web resources from projects in the USA:

California School Garden Network

Kids Gardening

The Edible Schoolyard

Rubber boots to share.

Well that’s what I have, I hope it is helpful. Of course you are always welcome to give us a call here at the Urban Garden Project (902.442.1077) and we’ll do our best to help you out and point you in the right direction.

Written by: Garity Chapman

Halifax Garden Network

Tag Archives: garden support

Spring Bird Tweets: Some News on Food Action in Nova Scotia