upcoming events

Dear Esquimalt Community Gardeners,

The Greater Victoria Compost Education Centre would like to invite you to participate in Grow-A-Row 2011. Grow-A-Row is a nation-wide initiative that began in 1986 in Winnipeg, Manitoba and has grown to include over 85 communities across Canada. It is aimed at recruiting local gardeners to plant an extra row of food in their gardens for those in need!

Last year we ran a very successful pilot program where we were able to recruit 45 local gardeners and collected 100 kgs of food for two local food banks, Best Babies and Our Place. This year we have decided to try and increase participation rates by reaching out to local community gardens, centers and groups in order to make this years program even more successful than last year.

We are hoping that you will be able to assist us with the following:


• Pass on our press release to those who you believe would be interested in knowing about this initiative and post it up on your local community garden news board,



• Join us on Thursday, February 24 from 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM to help us celebrate the launch of Grow-A-Row at Fairfield Community Centre, OSC Room


- 6:00 PM – 6:30 PM Meet and Greet with fellow gardeners, program coordinators and community members. Everyone is welcome, but please call or email if you are interested in attending so that we know how many people to expect. Refreshments provided.

- 6:30 PM -7:00 PM Program Launch – We will provide everyone with an introduction to the program, our goals for 2011 and presentations.

- 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM Workshop – Planning Your Garden 1.5 hours designed to teach the basics on planting, spacing, timing, succession, and garden rotation. Limit to 20 people, please register in advance. A second workshop will be hosted in the following week if there is a waitlist and



• Join us on Saturday, February 26 from 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM at The Compost Education Centre where we will be holding a Drop-in Seed Swap for Grow-A-Row participants. There will be free organic seeds handed out for your row and we are encouraging participants to bring extra seeds to share with others. Please bring small paper bags to collect your seeds in and a pen for labeling. Great fun to be had!

For more information please contact the Greater Victoria Compost Education Center.