Hello from downtown Victoria

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starr.m
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Joined: Tue 18-Jan-2022, 19:21
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Hi all,
My name is Starr. I live in the city of Victoria, in a residential neighbourhood just outside the downtown core. I have a cute little character house on a property next to a park. I have been gardening flowers and vegetables for pretty much all of my adult life. I have a passion for food sustainability and permaculture / regenerative gardening.

If I am being honest I am a lazy gardener/urban farmer. I instinctively have been using a number of the principles being taught in the course merely because I am too lazy and cheap to weed, rake up leaves, or take a truck of yard waste to the dump. I've never liked the idea of throwing out food waste, so we have always composted & mulched with leaves. What I am loving about the video tutorials is diving deeper into how to more successfully and strategically (rather than accidentally) manage a no-till garden.

When my kids were in elementary school I ran a year round native plant, pollinator garden & vegetable gardening student education program as a parent volunteer the school. I used to bring my portable vermicompost bin and tour it around the classrooms in winter. I have been missing gardening with the kids (did you know many city kids have never dug with a hand shovel in the dirt, or looked at a worm up close?).

I decided it was time to ramp up my own home garden now that I had more time, since the kids are no longer in elementary school. I just started my first Bokashi bucket, and am excited to see how it improves the living soil in some of my raised beds.

Because we live on a park, we are surrounded by trees that we can't cut back or prune, as they are on public property. Over the past 15 years, the tress have grown so tall that my original raised vegetable beds are now mostly covered with shade in the summer months. I have been primarily planting in pots, and moving them around the yard while I figure out what grows best in which areas of the yard, with limited access to sunshine. This year I am embarking on removing some old areas of garden that get the best summer sun and replacing them with vegetable gardens.

I just sat in last night on an orientation workshop with my local public library and the LifeCycles Project on a free co-operative seed sharing & saving program. Such a cool idea. Can't wait to get my free seeds and save my own next year for sharing.

Hoping with everything that I am learning, and the improved soil quality that we will have an amazing year round feast of delicious vegetables this year!

-Starr
PeasIntheRain
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Hi Starr,
Nice to meet you -- it sounds like you have a lovely spot and lots of good practices already going on!

This sounds amazing: "workshop with my local public library and the LifeCycles Project on a free co-operative seed sharing & saving program". I'd love to hear more. It's given me the extra nudge I needed to contact my library about sharing plant starts this spring (after being turned down by the local garden club).

Thanks :)
Tiffany
starr.m
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Here's some info about the Greater Victoria Public Library and Lifecycles Project seed sharing venture if you're interested in learning more.

https://lifecyclesproject.ca/our-projects/seed-library/

Starr
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