Speakers 2023

JANUARY – Enjoy the snowdrops & lengthening days 🙂
no meeting in January

FEBRUARY 22, 2023 – via Zoom
WINTER BIRDS IN OUR GARDENS with Bob Clarke
Rocky Point Bird Observatory
Bio – Bob Clark has had a lifelong affinity with natural history. In retirement, he enjoys hiking in our incredibly biodiverse local areas and exploring much of Vancouver Island. He also keeps active through volunteering. Bob is the Board President of the Island Community Mental Health Association and past President of the Royal BC Museum’s Volunteer executive. Currently volunteering in Ornithology in the RBCM collections, he’s also helped in the Bird and Mammal Preparation Lab. Bob, his like-minded wife, and two adult daughters have family memberships with the Victoria Natural History Society and the Rocky Point Bird Observatory. Bob is increasingly involved with RPBO, learning more about our local birds and contributing in any way possible to their conservation.

MARCH 22, 2023 – In person 🙂
KEEPING YOUR SOIL ENRICHED with Val Roberts Landscape Design
Bio – Valerie Roberts studied Botany in Africa, then worked in England before emigrating to Canada in 1970. She worked at various nurseries in Nova Scotia while continuing her horticulture studies. After moving to BC, Valarie opened a successful landscaping & garden design business. Now retired, she keeps her thumb green as Gardening Director on her Strata board.

APRIL 26, 2023 – in-person
CREATING A PLEASING CONTAINER with Lynda Dowling of Happy Valley Lavender Farm
Lynda gives us a refresher on the type of pot required when planting trees versus plants. She emphasizes the importance of using soils meant for containers, the value of fertilizer, and how to layer it within the container. Lynda’s presentation includes a demonstration of arranging the various plants within the pot and the practical use of a smaller rubber container within a larger, heavier container for easier removal and repotting. The beautiful arrangement will be raffled off to one of our garden club members.
https://happyvalleylavender.com/lavender-recipes.php#more
Bio – Lynda and Micheal Dowling started Happy Valley Herb Farm in 1983. Lynda also operates Off The Farm Landscaping, offering total landscaping & garden care, from patios, to rooftop, to seaside, to forest & downtown too.

MAY 24, 2023 – in person
FOODSCAPING OUR FUTURE with Joshua Clae Wagler of Edible Landscapes Design
Our fragile food supply chain has been tested countless times in recent years. Beyond the pandemic, climate change has been at the root of many of these disturbances, manifesting as floods, fires, drought, and other extreme weather events. These factors combined have given birth to an unprecedented interest in growing food at home, and yet have also provided a unique set of gardening challenges. In this time of great change, your environment is bursting with potential, whether you live in an apartment, on an acreage, or somewhere in between. Looking to the forest as our teacher, Josh will explore the philosophy, principles and practices to transform your landscape into a foodscape. No matter how large or small, sunny or shady your space, it is possible to cultivate a beautiful, resilient, deliciously decentralized foodshed for the future starting in your own home.
https://www.ediblelandscapesdesign.com
Bio – Joshua Clae Wagler was born into a family of farmers, foodies, and nature lovers. Enchanted by his grandparents’ farm and fascinated by growth, Joshua majored in Urban Studies at the University of Calgary. Eventually, travelling overseas to Pacific Asia to study the Globalization and Sustainability of Cities. Returning home, he began seeking practical, scalable, and inspiring solutions to the social and environmental problems he witnessed overseas and at home. In 2011 he began studying food forestry, nutrition, permaculture, and homesteading. The journey had come full circle, and Joshua found a career connected to his original joy and inspiration: the farm, the forest, and the dinner table. In 2013 he co-founded Edible Landscapes Design Ltd. in Victoria, BC, working to transform the City of Gardens (and beyond) into an edible ecosystem bursting with superfoods for generations to come.

JUNE 28, 2023 – in person, at a member’s garden
Find details in the members’ newsletter

JULY & AUGUST – Enjoy your summer garden 🙂
no meetings in July/August

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023 – in person
Rock Gardens with Maria Hendrix of West Bay Rock Gardens
Maria Hendrix from West Bay Rock Gardens specializes in masonry and landscaping. She grew up in an alpine nursery and started her own business in 2020, constructing rock gardens. Maria enjoys encouraging fellow gardeners to create and share information to make successful, long-lived, drought-tolerant, low-maintenance Rock Gardens.

OCTOBER 25, 20232 – in person
GLORIOUS GRASSES with Mike Rogers
When he moved into his current house on Craigflower Road, Mike quickly discovered that the front unfenced garden was known by the local deer population as the Rogers “all-you-can-eat buffet”! Consequently, he began to look out for truly deer-resistant plants to populate his garden. One group of plants that fits the bill is ornamental grasses and their allies, and so has evolved a love affair with these wonderful plants.
Since embarking on his adventures with ornamental grasses, Mike has been delighted with another aspect of many true grasses: their toughness and especially their drought tolerance once established. This will become increasingly important as water resources become more strained in the coming years.
In the talk, Mike will walk us through the continuing transformation of his front yard from bare cobbles to its current state of exuberant, waving and shimmering foliage. In the exploration stages of the project and through to the current day, regular visits to the “ornamental grass” section of many local nurseries have turned up many wonderful new varieties and cultivars of true grasses and some sedges. These will be shared and used to whet the appetite of soon-to-be or already-converted grass aficionados.
The second half of the presentation will be more hands-on with tips on planting, upkeep and
propagation, including an abridged list of mistakes (hopefully) not to be repeated.
Bio – Mike has embraced the variety of plant choices in Victoria and loves to grow anything that will survive here, including his current enthusiasms – salvias and ornamental grasses. He can often be seen in HCP’s Takata Japanese Garden, in VIRAGS’ rock garden in Beacon Hill Park or manning the Plant Stall at VHS meetings.

NOVEMBER 22, 2023 – in person
Enjoy the annual Mini-Show Awards Celebration
(It does not include a speaker presentation nor a mini-show.)

DECEMBER – Enjoy the Holiday Season 🙂
no meeting in December.