Tag Archives: past event

Getting Down and Dirty – Old Blue Truck Farm – Dealing with Food Security

What are you interested in?
In this hands-on workshop you can help prep a row so you have an up close look at Permaculture and what a difference it makes to creating healthy, living soil.
You’ll peer through a magnifying glass to understand what living soil really is.
You’ll have an opportunity to make tea and can even buy some to take home.
You’ll finally get an answer to the makeup of the soil in the valley and solutions with rock dust for balance PH.
You’ll see with your own eyes the difference of the nutritional value of what is grown in a Permaculture crop compared to store bought.
Hugelkultur bedYou may even get to help build a Hügelkultur bed.
Groundswell members: $20; non-members: $30
Date: was Sunday, 2023 May 7
Time: 10 – 12
Location: Old Blue Truck Farm
What to Bring: Wear grubbies, comfy shoes that can get dirty, garden gloves, water bowl and your garden journal (if you don’t have one you can buy one there for $10 (cash).
Facilitator and Host: Dale Wilker

Event photos and comments:
Old blue truck farm workshop/tour. The tips and the learning never stopped, as we created living soil and planted the first seeds of the season.
“I always learn new things and I have been gardening for 40 years. Dale has so much knowledge to move us to a gentler way with the earth and then the earth gives us more back.” – Jim.

Old Blue Truck Farm – Dealing with Food SecurityOld Blue Truck Farm – Dealing with Food SecurityOld Blue Truck Farm – Dealing with Food SecurityOld Blue Truck Farm – Dealing with Food SecurityOld Blue Truck Farm – Dealing with Food Security

Literally… EARTH DAY!

Help make Invermere a soil & food healthy community!

“We don’t have a fertility issue on our planet, we have a biology issue”.

Her most exciting accomplishment to date is seeing one of her clients apply vermiextract on a section of their sand “lawn”, cover with rotting hay, and in a short 18 months the micro-organisms and weeds made 1″ of beautiful soil – Soil scientists say it takes 100 – 500 years to make 1″ of soil

Better than a garburator, friendly than fertilizer, and the best kitchen cleaner ever… worms.
Learn how to feed & grow healthy soil, using composting worms, so your soil produces the best nutrient dense foods using your home wastes!
Save hundreds of thousands of pounds of food waste that go to landfills.

Date: April 22, 2023
Time: 1 to 3 PM
Location: Groundswell Community Greenhouse 1535 14th Street
Price: Members: $15. Non Members: $25

Special guest facilitator:
Owner and Soil Microbiology Consultant –
Susan Panyluk
Kootenay Worm Composting

Susan Panyluk

‘The Worm Lady’, Susan is passionate about composting worms, recycling, garbage and soil microbes that build soil with the plants!
Susan is an avid student of “Life in the Soil” microbiology, with the help of her microscope, and soil regeneration practices. She has studied under Dr. Elaine Ingham, world renowned Soil Microbiologist, Gabe Brown and many others. Susan is an international Advisor, Consultant, and Educator, and has consulted to the three largest commercial worm farms in North America.

Topics will include:
Waste Management, Food Nutrient Density/Food Security, Worm Anatomy, Building Healthy Soil, Caring for Worms, Worm System Maintenance, Breeding of worms, Harvesting castings, Use of castings for planting/watering , Vermi teas/extracts, Sustainability

Own Your Own Worm Hut
After twenty years of worm composting, experimenting and testing many different systems, Susan invented the Continuous Airflow “Worm Hut”. This system provides optimal airflow and moisture management, easy to use, and most importantly is super easy to harvest.
These systems will be available for purchase at the session with profits going to Groundswell for their education programs.

• Worm Huts – 135.00
• Worms in Living Soil mix – Small bag (approx. 1,000 worms); 60.00 and Large Bag 175.00 (approx. 3,000 worms which is recommended for the Worm Hut).

Take home your own nutritious compost for the best garden ever.
• 20 lb bag of vermicompost for planting/watering 40.00

Plan before Planting – Growing Possibilities

Before you stick your first seed in the ground this long weekend Jim Bennett will take us through the stages of expansion and contraction and how your garden can feed the multitudes or just become a place of peace.

He will share his learnings on how you can start small with pots, move to raised beds, move to hoop houses, and end up with a greenhouse you’ll enjoy all winter.

Nothing goes to waste, it is just reinvented.
potted plants
1. How a garden can expand and contract in stages from year to year based on your time and energy.
2. Growing in pots- pros, and cons
4. Enjoying an orchard in a limited space
5. Reducing water use while keeping your produce flourishing
6. Value and use of hoop houses
7. Greenhouse – do you really want a greenhouse? If so, what should you look for?

Date: May 18
Time: 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Location: Invermere – location and parking instructions will be provided with your ticket.
Cost: Members: $20; Non-members $30; (includes refreshments)

Note: During the last 30 minutes of the tour refreshments will be served during the Q&A and you will have an opportunity to talk to your fellow gardeners and learn from them and share your own experiences.

Things to bring:
water, comfortable shoes for standing and walking, dress in layers, bug repellent, sun screen, Garden Journal (if you don’t have one please let us know as you can buy one at the event from Groundswell – $10).

His and Her’s – two different and equally beautiful approaches

garden tour
In one garden you will learn from Jane the basics of how you take a Monty Don idea from Small Spaces, Big Dreams, and turn it into your dream garden. Jane will share the basics of preparation, the core elements of English cottage gardens, and how to get started. She will do an orientation on her three years of hand-drawn designs, choosing plants, the principles of organic gardening and how to think about creating drifts of plants, choosing what works for our area, and talking about the combination of perennials and annuals and how to think about transformation on a budget and all that this entails.
garden tour
And Doug will introduce a different kind of gardening with a similar theme but a totally different ecosystem based on working with glacial silt, plants that do well with dry conditions, and the principles of drip irrigation as a means to transform a large space with minimal water and an emphasis on avoiding weeding, and maximizing effect. He has a degree in horticulture and will speak to techniques like working with shrubs, grasses, and almost xeriscape environments. He will also speak to building standing beds, espalier techniques for fruit tree growing where you can do little maintenance and achieve the effect the Romans developed when they first espalier fruit.
garden tour
Date: June 24
Time: 10 AM to 12 PM
Location: Invermere – address will get given to you with your ticket purchase
Refreshments: drinks and fresh from-the-garden nibblies will be available while you ask questions of your hosts and enjoy the knowledge that always comes from being with a group of people interested in gardening.

Things to bring: water, comfortable shoes for standing and walking, hat, sunscreen, bug repellent, dress in layers, and your garden journal (if you don’t have one you can purchase one from Groundswell for $10).