MGABC

Sooke Seedy Saturday
2026-02-28 10:00 - 15:00 (America/Toronto) | Sooke Community Hall, Shields Road, Sooke, BC, Canada
Spring into Sooke Seedy Saturday -It’s Time to Grow! Join us for a day of seeds, sustainability and common connection. This family-friendly local food growing event showcases seed and plant vendors, seed exchange, wild harvesters, food artisans, educational displays and kids’ activities. $5 suggested donation.

How Birds Help: Gardening with Reciprocity
2026-02-21 13:00 - 15:00 | Compost Education Centre, 1216 North Park St., Victoria, BC, Canada
Learn how common backyard birds can help you become a better gardener.

Explore the role that birds play in our ecosystem and how we can mimic conditions in our gardens to form a reciprocal relationship with our winged neighbours.

Native Plant Workshop
2026-02-21 12:00 - 15:00, 2026-02-20 12:00 - 15:00 | Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary, 3873 Swan Lake Road, Victoria, BC, Canada
Capital region residents are invited to attend an introductory workshop about gardening with drought-resistant native plants.

YOU WILL LEARN ABOUT:

native plant identification

an overview of the cultural history & ecological benefits of native plants

a tour of the Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary native plant gardens, and

an introduction to the CRD’s water conservation program

Pre-registration is required for these in person workshops and costs $5.

This covers the cost of a packet of locally grown native seeds. In-person workshops have a maximum enrollment of 30 participants.

Slots fill quickly – enroll today!

Salt Spring Seedy Saturday
2026-02-21 10:00 - 15:00 | Salt Spring Island Farmers’ Institute, 351 Rainbow Road, Salt Spring Island, Canada

Penticton Seedy Saturday 2026
2026-02-21 10:00 - 14:00 | Penticton Seniors’ Drop-In Centre, 2965 South Main Street, Penticton, British Columbia, V2A 5J7, Canada
Penticton Seedy Saturday is back for 2026!

Okanagan Master Gardeners will be there with an advice clinic table, and we’d love to see you.

Date: Saturday, February 21, 2026Time: 10:00 AM to 2:00 PMLocation: Penticton Seniors’ Centre2965 South Main Street, PentictonFree parking. Free admission. Donations welcome.

Hosted by Okanagan Seed Savers, this community event includes guest speakers, seed libraries, a seed swap table, seed vendors, and lots of local gardening knowledge. It’s a great way to kick off the gardening season.

We are also involved in most Seedy Saturday events across the Okanagan this spring, helping support seed sharing, local food, and resilient gardens across our region.

If you’re in the Penticton area, come say hello and bring your gardening questions.

Vendor registrationhttps://tinyurl.com/Pentictonseedy26

Plant ID and Culture with Jane Tice
2026-02-21 01:00 - 16:00, 2026-01-31 13:00 - 16:00 | Horticultural Centre of the Pacific, 505 Quayle Rd, Victoria, BC, Canada
If you are a new gardener, new to Victoria or just want to brush up on your plant knowledge, this is a great place to get started. This is a monthly class where participants will be introduced to 20 new plants which fit with our local climate. Plants are selected for our local growing conditions and the value they bring to the garden. Part of the class will be in the classroom and part will be out in the gardens to view the plants for that month. Dress for the weather and bring something to take notes.

Introduction to Winter Fruit Tree Pruning
2026-02-15 13:00 - 15:00 | Horticultural Centre of the Pacific, 505 Quayle Rd, Victoria, BC, Canada
This workshop will focus on apple and pear tree pruning in the winter. What is the intention and desired outcome for pruning at this time of year and how does one decide where to prune and how much? All will be revealed under the expert instruction of Gordon Mackay, who will also provide tips on how to train younger fruit trees after planting, and discussing important tips to consider when working with older trees.

Victoria Seedy Saturday
2026-02-14 11:00 - 16:00 | Crystal Gardens, 713 Douglas Street, Victoria, Canada

Free In-Person Workshop: Composting Basics
2026-02-07 10:00 - 12:00 | Compost Education Centre, 1216 North Park St., Victoria, BC, Canada
Learn to make your own backyard compost- a living soil amendment rich in nutrients and micro-organisms!

Victoria Horticultural Society Special Presentation
2026-02-03 19:00 - 20:30 | BC
The Victoria Horticultural Society is hosting a Zoom meeting on February 3, 2026, from 7:00-8:30 pm. Our speaker is Dr. Ross Bayton, director of Heronswood Garden in Kingston, Washington, author of several gardening books, and former editor of BBC Gardener’s World Magazine. His topic is “Heronswood’s Renaissance: Building for Ferns and a New Future.” He will discuss the cultivation, reproduction and diversity of ferns in the history of Heronswood and for our own gardens in the Pacific Northwest. Only $5:00 for non-members! To register and for more information, visit www.vichortsociety.org.

Grow the Best Garden: In-Person 5 Part Workshop
2026-01-31 09:30 - 12:30 | Compost Education Centre, 1216 North Park St., Victoria, BC, Canada
Join the Compost Education Centre for a 5 part “Grow the Best Garden” series that will lead you from planning, to soil, to planting, to harvesting success!

Join us for a series that explores a wide variety of incredibly important gardening topics, from planning and planting, to harvest and seed saving!

Whether you’re a novice or an experienced gardener, this series will be certain to offer you tips and tricks, strategies and tools for growing your best garden ever.

Grow the Best Garden: Online 5 Part Workshop
2026-01-29 18:30 - 21:00 | This is an online course

Plant Identification and Culture Workshop with Jane Tice
2025-12-13 01:00 - 16:00, 2025-11-29 13:00 - 16:00 | Horticultural Centre of the Pacific, 505 Quayle Rd, Victoria, BC, Canada

Friends of Uplands Park - Education Talk on Biodiversity and Free Plants!
2025-11-26 07:00 - 20:30 | Windsor Park Pavilion, 2451 Windsor Rd., Victoria, BC, Canada
Biodiversity Begins at Home

Wylie Thomas talks about Biodiversity loss as accelerating globally, with scientists

warning it could rival past mass extinctions. Here in Oak Bay, however, each of us

can take meaningful action. By planting native species from our local Garry Oak

ecosystem, into our gardens, we can support biodiversity while creating landscapes

more resilient to climate change—better adapted to longer summer droughts and

rising temperatures.

Wylie will talk for an hour, then plants will be given to all who want them to help

biodiversity

Free Workshop: Yard Free Composting
2025-11-22 10:00 - 12:00 | Compost Education Centre, 1216 North Park St., Victoria
We’ll cover options that are available for composting without a yard. Surprisingly, there are many, and we’ll discover the benefits and drawbacks to each so you can determine the system that is right for your life & home. We’ll learn about:

-countertop electric food dehydrators & “composters”

-private food scrap pick up, municipal food scrap pick up & proper use of greenbins

-bokashi composting

-worm composting

The Victoria Horticultural Society Special Presentation: Exploring the World of Sinningias (Gloxinia) with Bryan Emery
2025-11-04 19:15 - 21:00 | Ukranian Cultural Centre, 3277 Douglas St., Victoria, BC, Canada
The Victoria Horticultural Society will meet on Nov. 4, 2025 from 7:15 to 9:00 PM at the Ukrainian Cultural Centre (3277 Douglas St).

Our speaker is Bryan Emery, who will address the topic “Exploring the world of Sinningias (Gloxinia) beyond the ‘Florist Gloxinia’ ,“including their use in gardens and containers. Bryan is the owner of Bryan’s Plants, a specialty plant nursery in Victoria.

Only $5:00 at the door for non-members! For more information, visit www.vichortsociety.org.

Mason Bee Cocoon Harvest and Cleaning Workshop
2025-11-01 10:00 - 12:00 | Horticultural Centre of the Pacific, 505 Quayle Rd, Victoria, BC, Canada
If you have a mason bee nesting box out this Summer and are not sure what to do next, then this class is for you. Cleaning your nesting box and cocoons is vital for the health of the bees and an essential task for the mason bee keeper. The purpose is to save viable cocoons and safely store them over the winter away from pests and diseases. Cleaning your nesting box also prevents pests and diseases from spreading to other bees in your area.

Free In-person Workshop: Composting Basics
2025-11-01 10:00 - 12:00 | Compost Education Centre, 1216 North Park St., Victoria
What is the recipe for compost success and why does composting matter? This workshop will explore the answers to these questions, and will offer instructions on what it takes to produce an amendment for your garden that is rich in beneficial microorganisms and nutrients! We’ll cover the 6 factors for composting success, how to choose the best composting system for your needs and how to increase the rodent resistance of your compost pile.

Free attendance to this workshop is generously subsidized by the CRD.

Grow Your Own Mushrooms
2025-10-25 13:00 - 15:00 | Compost Education Centre, 1216 North Park St., Victoria
In this workshop students will learn the main steps used in cultivating mushrooms at home using low tech methods. The lecture will include basic fungal biology, information on tools needed to grow mushrooms, making liquid culture, grain spawn and preparation of straw for Oyster mushrooms and for King Stropharia. For the hands-on part, students will be making their own straw bag with Oyster Mushroom spawn to bring home. The focus will be to introduce people to the exciting potential of growing mushrooms at home and in the garden and provide them with the necessary information to begin on their fungal adventures.

Free Workshop: Sheet Mulching
2025-10-25 10:00 - 12:00 | Compost Education Centre, 1216 North Park St., Victoria
In situ composting, or soil building in the form of Sheet Mulching is a fast process of building fertile soil where there isn’t any, converting lawn landscapes into active growing gardens, or simply adding more nutrients to existing gardens. We’ll first learn about the principles behind sheet mulching and why/how it works, then we’ll build a sheet mulch bed in the gardens at the Compost Education Centre with a variety of organic matter. Come ready to get dirty and do some shoveling!

Free attendance to this workshop is generously subsidized by the CRD.

Harvesting Mason Bees
2025-10-18 10:00 - 12:00 | Compost Education Centre, 1216 North Park St., Victoria
Bring your bee houses that have been out for the growing season and we will learn how to harvest the cocoons of our native mason bees, and do that harvesting together. We will identify any pests and parasites that we encounter, learn how to clean the cocoons properly leaving the houses ready for the spring. We will also learn how to store the cocoons safely over the winters, any trouble shooting and how to release the bees again in spring.

Victoria Orchid Society 2025 Show and Sale
2025-10-18 09:00 - 16:00, 2025-10-17 13:00 - 19:00 | Lady of Fatima Church, 1635 Elk Lake Drive, Victoria, BC, Canada
Admission $7 Orchid displays, sales, and tropical plants for sale.

Victoria Horticultural Society Special Presentation: How to Support our Local Birds with Ann Nightingale
2025-10-07 06:30 - 21:00 | Ukrainian Cultural Centre, 3277 Douglas St., Victoria
The Victoria Horticultural Society will meet on October 7, 2025 at the Ukrainian Cultural Centre (3277 Douglas St). The meeting will be preceded by a workshop on worm composting presented by Bethany Couture, from Garden Alchemist (6:30-7:00 pm). Our featured speaker (8:00-9:00 pm) is Ann Nightingale, who is an active volunteer with Rocky Point Bird Observatory and Nature Victoria and has coordinated the Victoria Christmas Bird Count for more than 20 years. She will speak about the birds inhabiting our neighborhoods and how we can support them in a time of avian flu and climate change. Only $5:00 at the door for non-members! For more information, visit www.vichortsociety.org.

On-line Workshop: Gardening With Native Plants
2025-10-05 12:00 - 14:00 | BC
Capital region residents are invited to attend an introductory workshop about gardening with drought-resistant native plants.

An Introduction to Lichens
2025-10-04 13:00 - 15:00 | Compost Education Centre, 1216 North Park St., Victoria
This workshop introduces participants to noticing, identifying, and understanding the amazing lichens that surround us in our urban and suburban ecosystems. Build your knowledge around how to identify lichens, what a lichen is, common lichen species in Lekwungen Territory, what a lichen can tell us about the environment, lichen ecology, and discuss the ethics of collecting fallen lichens for various uses. Will take place both indoors and outdoors with the possibility of microscope work.

Free Workshop: Under the Microscope - Living Soils
2025-10-04 10:00 - 12:00 | Compost Education Centre, 1216 North Park St., Victoria
The soil under our feet is teeming with a web of microscopic life, whose complex interactions support all other terrestrial life. Healthy soils feature an intact and diverse microbial food web, which sustain nutrient cycles and maintain soil structure. Under the microscope, together we will observe living soil microbes, and gain an understanding of the different niches that they occupy within the soil food web.

We’ll finish by discussing the most effective ways to steward this living medium, and come away with a inspired understanding of the intricate ways life in the soil, supports all life on earth.
