January 16, 2025
Speaker: Laurelle Oldford-Down
Topic: Container gardening
Laurelle loved playing in the dirt and remembers watching her Grandfather in his veggie garden. She completed a landscaping certificate from Kwantlen and has been a landscape designer for close to 30 years. Laurelle owned and operated her own design and install company. About five years ago, she got into grafting and selling heritage apple trees and buying and reselling berry bushes (blueberries, lingonberries, Goji berries, Tayberries, raspberries, huckleberries, sea buckthorn, grapes, sour bush cherries (U Sask), and cranberries) at Seedy Saturday, the VanDusen Plant Sale, etc. She works part-time in Art's Nursery in Port Kells and also writes garden articles, runs garden workshops, still dabbles in landscape design and delights in exciting people about gardening especially edible gardening.
February 20, 2025
Speaker: Lucretia Schanfarber
Topic: The Power of no-dig gardening.
Lucretia Schanfarber is a dedicated organic gardener, motivational speaker and writer. Her mission is to motivate and teach people to Cultivate Edible Landscapes & Superfood Gardens while Building Soil Health & Fertility. She has worked as a writer for "alive magazine," Canada's most popular health magazine and as a contributing editor to the award-winning "Encyclopedia of Natural Healing." Lucretia's simple message is: "We will all live longer, healthier and happier lives when we grow more of our own food & work together to build a lasting culture of organic gardening communities." She creatively blends her expertise in natural healing and organic gardening to deliver an entertaining, educational and uplifting presentation. She has written two mini-books "How to Grow Your Own SuperFoods" and “How to Build Your Own SuperSoil".
March 20, 2025
Speaker: Jason Crouch from Fraser Valley Rose Farm
Topic: Roses
April 24, 2025
Table Talks from LVGC Members
Topics TBA
May 15, 2025 – Zoom presentation only
Speaker: Linda Gilkeson
Topic: Where have all the insects gone
Linda earned a Ph.D. in Entomology from McGill University in 1986, then moved to British Columbia to work for Applied Bio-Nomics Ltd., a company that produces biological controls. From 1991 to 2002 she worked for the provincial government, promoting programs to reduce and eliminate pesticide use. She was head of the provincial State of Environment Reporting Unit for the next six years, then the Executive Director of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy until the end of 2011. Linda now devotes her time to writing, teaching and consulting.
Linda’s comprehensive gardening book, Backyard Bounty: The Complete Guide to year-Round Organic Gardening in the Pacific Northwest, is a BC best seller. She has just published a newly revised and expanded 3rd edition of her comprehensive pest management guide, West Coast Gardening: Natural Insect, Weed & Disease Control. In the past, she has co-authored pest management training manuals for the provincial government and organic gardening books for Rodale Press and now focuses on publishing books for local gardeners.
As a private consultant, Linda is a regular instructor in the Master Gardener programs in BC and is busy year around giving workshops on pest management and organic gardening.
Linda has served as President of the Entomological Society of Canada, the Professional Pest Management Association of BC, the Entomological Society of BC and the Salt Spring Island Garden Club. She was awarded a Queen’s Jubilee medal in 2003 and an outstanding achievement award from the Professional Pest Management Association of BC in 2005.