Let’s leave January behind and welcome February.
A month of hope, change and love. Resolutions of new years are either in full swing or have fizzled out. Spring feels just around the corner. The weather changes everyday in the Maritimes, -10 to +10 degrees Celsius. This unstable weather pattern has our brains buzzing. These are the affects of climate change that are not to be ignored: Floods, flash freezing, heat waves, all these things will intensify.
Food security is something we take very seriously and we are all feeling the pressure in the grocery stores. Taking action and caring for our community is essential. The formally “Hodge Podge” Bridgewater community garden on Aberdeen, across from the superstore is a treasure of herbs, vegetables and pollinators. Open to the public with private garden beds available. We want to encourage our community to be self sustaining, which is why we are so excited to bring you the 17th Annual Seedy Saturday!
Seedy Saturday is a local buy, sell and trade event. Held at the DesBrisay Museum, hosted by Helping Nature Heal, with support from Local Vendors. The day will bring giveaways, guest speakers, and a free lunch, plus seeds for your garden. Yonder Hill Farms generously donates organic produce. Which is then processed in to a delicious meal by Fancy Pants and served to you, by our staff. La Have Bakery donates bread to the event, as we love to show off our local talent.
Our speakers will break down Bokashi and Biodynamic celestial planting techniques. We are so lucky to have an amazing group of naturalists and environmentalists in our region. Seedy Saturday is a great time to educate and socialize your self, after such cold lonely days.
Bokashi method will be presented by Rick Ketcheson.
Rick will talk on biochar and Bokashi composting, bringing new ways to improve soil quality. While to some of us these practices are new, they are based on ancient methods practiced for thousands of years.
Rick was raised on a family farm in Saskatchewan and studied mechanical engineering. He has worked in Canada, the US and France. After retiring in 2012 his interests turned to food security, community gardens, permaculture, forest gardens, soil biology, and regenerative agriculture. He studied permaculture in Cuba, and food forestry and the soil food web while in British Columbia. He has been making and using biochar for enhancing soil health for more than five years. He lives in Annapolis Royal where he and his partner are currently building a small urban food forest next to their home. – via North Mountain Permaculture 2020
We will also have Rosemary Tayler presenting for the Earth Haven Learning Centre. Rosemary Tayler and Kathryn Aunger are the co-creators of the Celestial Planting Calendar. She will be presenting how to use the planting calendar with its’ unique colour coding system,
So come join us this Saturday February 11th 2023!
This month is the preparation time for spring. The planning of your garden can be so rewarding. What do you want your harvest to look like come summer and fall? Do you need some pointers? We are offering March workshops to help you with your nature interests.
March 15th – Pruning Techniques
March 22nd – “Got Erosion?”
March 29th – Food Forest Design
For sign-up details contact us at office@helpingnatureheal.com
Keep an eye out for our climate piece running this Saturday Feb 11 at 7 PM on CTV W5 across Canada. Some content is a web piece, including our living shoreline segment. A special web extra that will live within the CTV website.