VV workshops with Robin Wheeler: Apartment Gardening, Winter and Year Round Gardening, Water Wisdom, Intentional Community, and Seed Saving

Robin is the founder of the Sustainable Living Arts School and runs Edible Landscapes (www.ediblelandscapes.ca) on the Sunshine Coast. She is the author of Food Security for the Faint of Heart, and Gardening for the Faint of Heart, and her workshops are a real treat.

These will be Robin's only workshops in Vancouver this summer (until mid-September).

9-11:30 am Winter Gardening/Concepts in Year Round Gardening Improve your skills for keeping your pantry and garden full all year round. We'll be discussing techniques for proper harvesting for long term storage as well as extending planting times with plant selection and site choices. We'll discuss what is edible all year round. Suggested donation $30-35.

11:45 am-12:30 pm Water Wisdom There is so much more than just buying a rain barrel that will help us through a dry spell. Choosing varieties that ripen early, improving tilth, creating "pot holes" and "miniswales", planting for deep roots - these are some of the techniques we will learn so that we can "drought proof" our gardens. Suggested donation $10.

1:15-2:30 pm Intentional Community - Shapes in Sharing City Dwellers have many skills and resources all around them, but may not have a mechanism for organizing and drawing on those skills in times of trouble. This class will look at the different shapes in sharing that take place so easily in rural communities and may need a boost in the city. We will talk about building trust and safeguarding our precious possessions while opening up to a wider community and its valuable support. Suggested donation $15.

2:45-4:15 pm Seed Saving in the City Seed saving is the missing link in food security. In our current climate of seed patenting and ownership, it's important that our communities retain their knowledge about how to properly save seeds. We'll talk about the politics and the joy of seed saving, learn basic skills, and discuss the creation of neighbourhood seed saving collectives in Vancouver. Your donation includes a copy of The Five Levels of Seed Saving by Terry Klokeid. Suggested donation $20-25.

4:30-6 pm Apartment and Container Gardening We will cover the problems of tiny gardens and will address some cures. We will talk about the best plants for small gardens and how to get the biggest, healthiest harvest possible. Suggested donation $15-20.

Suggested donation for the full day (5 workshops) is $80.

Workshops are offered on a pay what you can basis, and no one is turned away. As noted, suggested donations range from $10-35, depending on the length of the workshop, or $80 for the day. To register: (or to find out more about hosting a future workshop), please contact Ross at rmoster@flash.net. Participation is limited to 15 people per workshop.

Next workshops: September 13-14. Seed Saving day: September 19.