March marks the beginning of workshop season here at the soil lab. Traipsing around the valley with my microscope and watching folks make the connection between soil health, ecosystem health and their own health is one of my favourite things to do. Watching kids light up when they see soil microbes for the first time… priceless! I’ll be at schools, farms, and community settings, and I invite you to join me.

This spring I’m excited to have a new teaching tool to share. Andrea from Pacific Composting and I have developed a soil food web infographic that is accessible to kids and people of all ages. Come check it out at The Soil Food Web – For Families! workshop at Duncan Seedy Sunday on March 23rd, 12pm. We’ll be taking a peek at these important soil organisms and learning how you can bring them into your garden through the materials you add to your compost. Andrea will follow at 1pm with a talk about easy composting methods you can start at home.

Other March opportunities:

Cobble Hill Seedy Saturday

March 15, 10-2pm.
I’ll be in the Stu Armour Hall with soil biology inoculums for sale as well as a small amount of Johnson-Su compost for anyone interested in trying out seed coats this year (search “Dr David Johnson, Johnson-Su bioreactor webinars” for why you might find this interesting!). Feel free to bring in a sample if you want to take a quick look at “who” is home in your soil or compost.

Soil Biology Workshops

Take a deep dive into all things soil food web and how to make highly microbial composts, compost extracts and compost teas in Soil Biology Part 1 and Soil Biology Part 2. Offered on Thursday evenings beginning March 27. Listed in the CVRD Recreation Guide, call 250-748-7529 to register.

3-part Practical Composting Workshop

Registration is open for a 3-part practical composting workshop through the V.I.U Professional Development Program. This is not just any compost – it’s a method to make compost that contains all of the organisms that you need to regenerate living soil. Contact Julia Fisher for details, [email protected] or 250-746-3581.

See you out there!