WINTERWINTER

20132013

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE COMPOST EDUCATION CENTRE

THE LATEST DIRTTHE LATEST DIRT

New Year - New Look! By Nadine Collison

Over the past year or two we have been looking at re-branding. We looked at a new logo, a new name, and other ways which we could rebrand and after meeting upon meeting of deliberation this is what we have de-cided:

New Name: There was a lot of discussion about our name. On the one hand, we wanted to communicate that we do more than just teach people to compost. On the other hand, we have built a solid reputation as the Greater Victoria Compost Education Centre and didn’t want to lose that by changing our name too drastically. In the end we have decided our common name will change from “The Greater Victoria Compost Educa-tion Centre” to the “Compost Education Centre”. Our society name, the Victoria Compost and Conservation Education Society, remains unchanged.

New Logo: While deciding on a new name, we wanted to have a logo that was less kid-oriented while simultaneously communicating to people that we are more than just compost. The new logo, designed by Simeon Goa, is bold and modern, while capturing many facets of com-posting and organic gardening. The images within the tree include vegetables, an apple core, leaves, garden tools, a chicken etc… and lets the observer know we encompass more than just compost.

New Website: Along with the new name and the logo, we will be launching our new website over the holiday season. It will have more interactive features for workshop regis-tration and membership renewals as well as being much easier to navigate compared to our current web-site.

Staff

Nadine Collison

Marika Smith

Alysha Punne�

Clare Pepper

Contact us at

1216 North Park Street

(at Chambers)

Victoria BC V8T 1C9

Hours of Opera-on

Wed. - Sat. 10am to 4pm

Closed on statutory holidays

& long weekends.

Closed Dec. 15 - Jan. 7

Phone: 386-WORM(9676)

Fax: 386-9678

E-mail: info@compost.bc.ca

Website: www.compost.bc.ca

Board of Directors

Nik Hill

Marion Wylie

Janet Hockin

David Neate

Wendy Dunn

Bill McKechnie

Tamara Chirovsky

Contributors to this issue of

THE LATEST DIRT

Nadine Collison

Marika Smith

Newsle9er Forma:ng

Nadine Collison

We gratefully acknowledge the

core funding support that we re-

ceive from the CRD and the City of

Victoria. Addi9onal support is pro-

vided through the generosity of our

community funders, Compost Club

Members and the residents of CRD.

Our Logo Over the Years

Our logo: 2006 - 2013

Our logo: 2001 - 2006

Our logo: 1995 - 2001

Our new logo: 2013 - ??

THE LATEST DIRT is published quarterly. Unless

otherwise noted, ar9cles appearing in this news-

le�er may be reprinted only in other not-for-profit

publica9ons, with the credit given to the author

(when named) and THE LATEST DIRT.

Printed on-post consumer recycled paper.

Plans for 2014

Holiday Sale

Each year, staff at the Compost Education Centre strive to come up with interesting new workshops, schools program, events, and new education opportunities for our member-ship and for the general public. Here are some of our plans for 2014:

Theme Days: In 2014, we are planning on having 2 theme days. One will be a Pollination Education Day where we will have educa-tion and demonstrations of all sorts of things related to our pollinators. The second theme day, Rainy Day, will revolve around rain gardens and rainwater management.

New Workshops: Like last year, we will be offering 2 series: our Sustainable Home and Garden Series and our Intensives Series. Mem-bers will continue to get 2 workshops for free from our Sus-tainable Home and Garden Series, and we will be dropping the price of our 3-hour Intensives workshops to $20 for members and $25 for non-members. Some of the new work-shops include Sheet Mulching, Hugelkultur, and Mushroom Inoculated Paths. Registration for our 2014 workshop series will open January 15.

New FREE Workshops: We will be adding another workshop to our free series which currently includes: Composting Basics, Advanced Composting, Worm Composting, and Grow Your Own Food 101. The new free workshop will be entitled “Soil Sci-ence 101” and will introduce attendees to the biological and chemical processes of soil and how that knowledge can help us develop better soil.

Documentary Screenings: We are also thrilled to announce some documentary screen-ings which will be by donation. The first will be the award-winning Clean Bin Project which will screened February 21 at the Fernwood Community Centre. The screening will be followed by a talk by the filmmakers.

Kids’ Drop-In Series: In 2013, we piloted a drop-in workshop series on Saturdays for kids. We found that it was quite successful and have monthly workshops planned throughout the year. Please check our website in January for more details and registra-tion.

We will be holding our annual Holiday Sale this December again. We will be open in December up until our Holiday Sale which will be Saturday, December 14 from 10am - 4pm. We will have yummy snacks, hot apple cider, mem-bership pricing for everyone, and special gifts with purchase for members. So get all you need for the gardeners and composters on your list at our holiday sale!

Holiday SaleHoliday SaleHoliday SaleHoliday Sale Saturday Dec. 14Saturday Dec. 14Saturday Dec. 14Saturday Dec. 14

10am 10am 10am 10am ---- 4pm4pm4pm4pm

Tes-ng New Composter

We are testing a new com-poster, a mid-scale composter by Jora Kompost. It is an in-sulated composter that can take all foods (cooked food, meat, pasta, dairy) and yard waste for 10-12 people and produce finished compost in 6-8 weeks. The composter is a tumbler design and is mixed with a 1:1 ratio of greens and browns. It is also rodent proof. As we do not produce enough food waste here at the Centre alone, we have made a deal with Pedal to Petal to help them compost the food waste they collect. We are really excited to see the results!

Workshops subject to change without no ce. Registra on begins January 15, 2014

MUST PRE-REGISTER FOR WORKSHOPS AT WWW.COMPOSTEDUCATION.EVENTBRITE.CA

Upcoming EventsUpcoming EventsUpcoming EventsUpcoming Events

Giving

Goes

Green!

Giving to the

Compost Ed. Centre is easy! Save 9me and paper by

submiCng your dona9ons on-line through Canada

Helps.org. Simply surf over to www.canada

helps.org and type in “Compost”. Our name is on

the top of the search results. Or, visit our website

and click the Canada Helps link. And of course, do-

na9ons are s9ll happily accepted at our office.

Grow A Row - Goal Surpassed!

Date Event Time Cost

Dec. 14 Holiday Sale 10am - 4pm Membership pricing for

everyone & special deals and

treats for members!

Dec. 16- Jan. 7 Centre CLOSED

Jan. 8 Centre RE-OPENS Wed- Sat 10am - 4pm

Jan. 18 Winter Pruning 2pm - 4pm $15 - Members refer to policy

Feb. 1 Composting Basics 10am - 12pm FREE

Feb. 21 “Clean Bin Project”

Documentary Screening TBA By donation

Feb. 22 Soil Science 101 10am - 12pm FREE

Feb. 22 Plan Your Year-Round Veggie Garden 2pm - 4pm $15 - Members refer to policy

We have completed our fourth year of Grow A Row and we are thrilled to announce that for the second year in a row we have again surpassed our goal. In 2013, we collected and redistributed the most locally grown food we ever have - over 1,600kg! We would like to thank all the growers, community gardens, and recipient organizations we worked with 2013, and we look forward to having another successful year in 2014. We’ll see you then!