The Cowichan Lake Community Garden will be offering three more free gardening workshops this summer.
The workshops are run by the Cowichan Green Community with funding from Island Health.
The first workshop, Water Conservation Gardening, will be Saturday, July 18, 9 a.m.-11 a.m. Participants will learn gardening techniques that will help conserve water and reduce the amount of watering needed.
"We will build simple natural terraces to catch water and make a 'hugelkultur' bed, which uses woody debris buried into the ground to hold huge amounts of water," said Cowichan Green Community's Erin Ward. "We will also take a tour of the garden and demonstrate good mulching methods and materials, drought resistant plants and watering techniques."
The second workshop, Therapeutic Gardening for Everyone, will be Saturday, Aug. 1, 9 a.m.-11 a.m. Christine Pollard will instruct this course and share her knowledge from over 25 years of practising horticultural therapy.
"This workshop will explore some of the motivation behind the creation of our Cowichan Lake Community Garden, as gardening has proven to have a huge array of health benefits," Ward said. "Find out how therapeutic gardening can specifically improve our physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual selves."
The third workshop, Edible Garden Plant Identification Tour, will be Saturday, Aug. 15, 9 a.m.-11 a.m. This workshop will launch participants
into the world of plants while learning how to identify species and touring the garden. Participants will practice getting an eye for botanical features that will improve their plant and ecological garden knowledge.
All workshops are held at the Cowichan Lake Community Garden, across from the baseball fields of the Cowichan Lake Sports Arena, 311 South Shore Rd. No registration required.
For more information contact Erin Ward at the Cowichan Green Community, 250-748-8506 or email erin@cowichangreencommunity.org.
The Cowichan Lake Community Garden also holds weekly volunteering opportunities to plant and grow food and flowers in the shared gardens. No gardening experience necessary. For more information contact Cara at 250-749-4296 or email Smithcara50@gmail.com.