“It is utterly forbidden to be half-hearted about gardening; you have got to love your garden whether you like it or not.” W.C. Sellar, R.J. Yeetman, 1936.
Whether you are an experienced horticulturist, or still in the dreaming stage of starting your own garden, there is sure to be something to interest you at this Saturday’s Farmers’ Market Garden Day.
With the weather slowly shaking off the cool damp typical of a West Coast spring, its time to get out, bury your troubles, and go dig in the dirt!
To celebrate the advent and adventures of gardening season and the Day of the Honeybee, the Market will be hosting special guests from the BeeKeepers Association, and has teamed up with the Comox Strathcona Waste Management and Compost Education Centre have to give away a free composter.
The Education Centre will be hosting its own gardening event with Tyler Johns. He will be giving his Predators and Pollinators presentation at the Centre at 10.
Representatives of the 60-member Comox Valley Beekeepers’ Association will be setting up six observation hives and hosting Question and Answer sessions with pamphlets and giveaways.
President Jim Hunchuk says, “We will not be honey-coating the facts about bees.”
The documentary Vanishing of the Bees will be run continuously, so come and educate yourself and your children about this crucial part of our ecosystem.
As well, the Glacier Heritage Power and Equipment Club will be on site with a genuine old-time grain mill. Although wheat will not ripen in our climate, the members have obtained top-quality wheat from the Fraser Valley, from which they will mill the grain and sell the flour.
Experience how milling was done in the homesteads and small communities that didn’t have easy access to a large mill, and take away a bag of the purest, freshest flour you have probably ever tasted. They will also have some of their antique tractors on hand.
Not least for your plans for a productive morning of garden-themed enjoyment, the Comox Valley Farmers’ Market vendors will be offering a wide range of flower and veggie starts, as well as a truly eclectic variety of landscape plants, shrubs, small trees and perennials. Everything from fig trees to succulents to grasses, all grown in the Comox Valley, will be there to tempt your budding green thumb.
The Comox Valley Farmers’ Market Garden Day runs Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.
For details, visit www.comoxvalleyfarmersmarket.com and keep in touch on Facebook.
— Comox Valley Farmers' Market