Finally, The Nursery is Open

Last Sunday we closed our nursery in anticipation of the big storm…which never happened. It was however a good practice run to think about how we would prepare for, and try to mitigate for, extreme rain and wind. Very grateful that nothing much materialized.

We are all ready for this weeks open house for sales of perennial edible plants.

WHEN: Sunday Oct 23 from 10am-2pm
Sunday Oct 30 from 10am-2pm

WHERE: 3295 Compton road in the East Highlands

We are well stocked with all the hard to find food forestry edible perennial plants. The whole idea of creating edible forest gardens or food forests is REALLY catching on. People are doing it small scale in their yards, farms are creating larger landscapes of food forests, and municipalities are landscaping with edible perennials for beauty and function.

Check out this recent project with the City of Colwood that Eco-Sense has had the privilege of participating in. http://www.colwood.ca/news-events/news/2016-10-06-000000/painter-trail-official-opening-celebrating-new-connections

Here’s the up to date list of plants available at Eco-Sense: Plant List

Council initiative of the week:
The entire council of Highlands is not supporting the CRD Regional Growth Strategy (RGS) update as it currently stands. All municipalities in the region need to give it support in order for the document to come into legal effect. The whole idea is for the region to collectively decide how and where to grow. The fact is that people are moving to this region, and we need to plan responsibly for this.

The one final sticking point in the RGS is about using water servicing as a growth management tool. Historically the RGS did have this tool, and the revised RGS is proposing to remove this tool to limit growth. Initially there were many municipalities that were opposed to removing water servicing as a growth management tool as it would make it more difficult to control sprawl into forested areas a long ways out of town. But now, only Highlands is saying no. So Highlands may have to go this alone meaning forced mediation…and if that doesn’t work, then forced arbitration. For all of this, Highlands would have to pay half of the legal cost. This potential legal cost… this is a really BIG deal for such a tiny community to feel so strongly that we would hold up the entire region by not supporting the RGS. The specifics as to the impacts seems to be lost on all the other municipalities sadly.

Gord and Ann have coined a new term for the RGS: the Rapid Growth Strategy.

Mary Lake Park: A group in the Highlands is working their butts off to try and buy a piece of land to turn into a park here in the Highlands. This project is led by Bob McMinn, who at 92 seems unstoppable. He has assembled a team of dedicated volunteers working to make this a reality. This park land is simply amazing and would complete a 25km trail loop through the Highlands. Check out their website and follow their progress.