Finally, spring is here and plants are showing signs of life. It’s definitely been a long hard winter and the warmer temperatures and rain are most welcome. (POND IS FULL for the FIRST TIME EVER!!!!) It is becoming abundantly clear to those of us living close to the land that there is no longer predicable weather for growing food, which further supports our choice of moving more towards perennial gardening (see below for workshops on perennial foods). Food is getting more difficult to grow, plan for, predict, harvest, protect, and the costs of food are certainly going UP. What a joy to rarely ever go to the grocery store.
This is what a happy Gord looks like when he finds his favourite mug (had for 14 years) sitting in the grape arbour…It was lost for over a week.
We have been busy with tours, council work, consulting, and the gardens (and the usual general “poop” disturbing and distributing). We have been busy innovating with our raised garden beds to increase our productivity and resiliency. Our co-housing neighbours Tayler and Solara have been busy with their interns working on some challenging areas to bring them into higher production for perennial gardens for beauty and function. Our lower garden has had a major face lift as has our walnut tree guild.
Hatchet & Seed Edible Landscapes: Tayler and Solara are very talented and offer broad-ranging landscape design and installation services. They partner with home-owners, businesses, municipalities, planners, farmers, community groups & developers to connect food, place and people in inspiring ways! It’s easy to see why we all chose to work and live here together on this amazing land.
Life with two – 2 year olds…always a blur.
Next opportunity to come and check it all out and see what’s new at Eco-Sense is on Saturday March 18th from 10am-2pm when the nursery will be open. New this year we are also selling 1 and 2 lb bags of cover crop peas for food, mulch, and N2 fixing. Check out the plant list to see what we have in stock. We have lots of new plants in stock just in time for the Spring season…Including larger fruit and nut trees. The first sweet potatoes slips will also be available…but still way too early to plant.
Tours and Workshops: Link here for all the details: https://eco-sense.ca/our-services/courses/.
- Hatchet & Seed Perennial Vegetables – Expand your Gardens Resiliency (Solara): March 18th in Lantzville 10am-2:30pm. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/perennial-vegetables-expand-your-gardens-resiliency-tickets-31084497569?aff=es2
- ECO-SENSE GRAFTING WORKSHOP (Gord and Ann): March 30th, 2017 from 1pm-4pm. https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/eco-sense-grafting-workshop-tickets-10101669365
- Hatchet & Seed sponsoring “Around the World in 80 Plants” with Stephen Barstow: March 31 1-5pm. https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/around-the-world-in-80-plants-wstephen-barstow-tickets-32789491251?aff=es2
- ECO-SENSE GREY WATER WORKSHOP (Gord and Ann): April 27th, 2017 from 10am-3pm. https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/eco-sense-gray-water-workshop-tickets-32533711206
- ECO-SENSE / HATCHET & SEED GREEN HOME & EDIBLE LANDSCAPE TOUR (Gord & Ann, Tayler & Solara): May 28th, 2017 from 1pm-5pm. VERY SPECIAL AND UNIQUE PUBLIC TOUR. https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/eco-sense-hatchet-seed-green-home-edible-landscape-tour-tickets-32000201464?aff=erellivmlt
- ECO-SENSE COMPOSTING TOILET MINI WORKSHOP (Gord and Ann): July 22nd, 2017 from 10am-noon. https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/eco-sense-composting-toilet-workshop-tickets-32535409285
Typical Eco-Sense lunch: Fermented cabbage, scarlet runner beans, pickled egg, apple, and cheddar cheese. All home made and local!
Resources:
- Up to date plant list with prices that INCLUDE the GST is here: Plant List/Prices
- Links to all the PDF’s of our nursery signs of the various plants we sell. Many people have asked for this, so here it is: Nursery Signs
- Videos and media on the Eco-Sense home: https://eco-sense.ca/in-the-media/videos/ and https://eco-sense.ca/in-the-media/links/
Now if we could only stop the ducks from laying eggs IN THE POND, we would be happy.
Ann and Gord
The Living Building Challenge
Eco-Sense 