Sunflowers are incredibly versatile and pretty easy to grow by kids and grown-ups alike; in the garden or planted in a large container. Sunflowers are visually stunning, provide nectar and pollen for bees and other beneficial insects, and their seeds feed a variety of birds. And that’s not all — people enjoy eating sunflower seeds, too and sunflower sprouts and microgreens make a terrific addition to a tasty salad or sandwich! There’s even more to learn about Sunflowers and ReImagine wants to help you make those connections, so come on down on Saturday April 25th to grab your FREE sunflower plant and get growing with us!
Saturday, April 25, 2026
DIY DAY & Sunflower Challenge Kick-off
11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Anglican Church of the Advent
510 Mt. View Avenue, Colwood, BC
General Admission is FREE or By Donation
Come connect with practical DIY actions to become more resourceful, save money and reduce waste at this FREE community event where you can also pick-up a free Metchosin Farm sunflower seedling and join in the West Shore Sunflower Challenge!
Join us for DIY DAY, where you can get tips and info about …
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- Repairing Stuff (our Pop-up Repair Café will be offering free repairs for stand mixers, toasters, lamps and bikes at this event)
- Recycling Beyond the Blue Box
- Saving Energy at Home
- Growing Your Own Food
- Composting
- Cooking & Preserving Food
- Protecting Green Spaces
- Sewing & Mending
- Upcycling
We’re grateful to be collaborating with the Arts & Culture Colwood Society to make this special location at the Esquimalt Lagoon Migratory Bird Sanctuary available for our workshop.
Sunday, May 3, 2026
Gardening for Pollinators and Other Wildlife
10:00 to 11:30 a.m.
Sunday, May 3, 2026
Goldfinch Arts Centre, 170 Goldfinch Road, Colwood
FREE! Space is Limited. Pre-registration Required
Done with the Kentucky bluegrass and ready to make a welcoming space for BC pollinators and birds? ReImagine West Shore member and retired ecological restoration professional, Judy Nault might be able to help!
There’s lots you can do to invite more nature into your life, and it’s fun to chat with other nature-lovers, too! Join Judy for this free introductory workshop at Arts & Culture Colwood’s lovely Goldfinch Art Centre overlooking Esquimalt Lagoon and discover what you can do to support pollinators and other wildlife in your backyard! Come for the workshop and stay for the local art!
Thursday, June 18, 2026
Food Preservation Basics
7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Thursday, June 18, 2026
Gordon United Church, 935 Goldstream Avenue, Langford
FREE! Space is Limited. Pre-registration Required
Come learn the basics of how to preserve the summer and autumn abundance.
We will learn the basics of dehydrating, cover how best to freeze foods, store foods, and the science behind hot water bath canning and fermenting, too.
Join Kayla Siefried from the Compost Education Centre to learn why preserving foods is not only a delicious way to taste summer in the dark rainy days of winter, but it is also an act of sustainability and creates more security in the food system.
Canadian Food First! 🇨🇦
Food Day Canada engages and inspires everyone to shop, cook and dine Canadian. It’s a chance for all Canadians to join hands in one massive celebration in praise of our farmers and fishers, our chefs and researchers and, above all, our home cooks. Join in and celebrate with Food Day Canada August 1, 2026.
ReImagine’s community potluck is one way for folks to celebrate Canadian food. If you can’t join us on August 1st, consider creating a simple meal that features the best of local seasonal flavours and share it at home with your family members and friends instead.
Saturday, August 1, 2026
Join ReImagine West Shore for a Food Day Canada Celebration 🇨🇦
Community Potluck Social
Local Ingredients ❋ World Flavours ❋ Family-Friendly
Saturday, August 1, 2026
5:00 to 8:00 p.m.
St Mary’s Church
4125 Metchosin Road, Metchosin, BC
FREE | Must Bring a Dish to Be Shared (please see options below)
Space is Limited; Pre-Registration Required
Come celebrate Food Day Canada together with neighbours, friends, and new faces at a warm, family-friendly potluck where we turn local ingredients into a sharing table of international dishes.
Bring a dish inspired by your culture, your travels, or a recipe you’ve always wanted to try —made (as much as possible) with ingredients grown, raised, baked, or crafted close to home. Think: BC berries in a Persian syrup, local salmon in a Japanese-style rice bowl, Island veggies in a Mexican street corn salad, farm eggs in a Spanish tortilla, fresh herbs in Lebanese tabbouleh.
Why you’ll love it:
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- A delicious way to meet neighbours (kids welcome, picky eaters welcome)
- A “taste around the world” buffet — with a local twist
- Recipe swapping, story sharing, and a table that feels like our community
How to join:
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- Bring: A dish that’s large enough for 8 to 12 people to share (main, side salad, dessert — anything goes) using as many local ingredients as possible. We’d also like you to bring your own plates, cutlery, cloth napkins, beverages and take-home containers to enjoy any leftovers (and help us keep this event as waste-free and affordable as possible). Tea, coffee and water will be provided.
- Label Your Dish: Please list your dish ingredients, especially any common allergens (nuts, dairy, gluten, eggs, seafood).
- Optional: We’d love for you to include a little card with the name of your dish, the cuisine it’s inspired by, and where your local ingredient(s) came from (farm/market/store).
Need some inspiration? You can find terrific recipe options on Food Day Canada’s website.
No time to cook? Bring local fruit, bread, cheese, or a ready-to-serve item from a local maker — your contribution still counts and we’d love to see you!
Let’s fill the table with local goodness and global flavours.
Register NOW and tell us what you’re planning to bring (and what cuisine you want to represent)! Space is limited.
Once you’ve indicated (above) which category of dish you’re bringing, we’d appreciate you providing a little more information about you and the dish you’re bringing by clicking below and completing our Google form. Thank you!
Sunday, August 9, 2026
Fruit Tree Pruning Workshop
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon
Sunday, August 9, 2026
Lagoon West Park, 170 Goldfinch Road, Colwood
FREE or By Donation
Space is Limited; Pre-Registration Required
Learn about summer pruning techniques to control disease, enhance the flavour of your backyard harvest, and make your tree more fruitful.
Taking shears to a beloved fruit tree is intimidating! But proper pruning is essential to maintain tree health and ensure a bountiful harvest. Join us at Colwood’s Lagoon West Park, overlooking Esquimalt Lagoon, to learn effective pruning techniques and ease your tree care woes.
This outdoor workshop will include an introduction to the basics of pruning as well as a live demonstration on one of the many trees in the orchard.
You’ll learn:
- how to select the proper tools;
- how to use and care for those tools, and why; and
- how to prune your trees and vines, and when.
Our goal is to send you home feeling confident to summer prune in your own backyard to promote a beautiful, productive and healthy harvest.
Be sure to come dressed for the elements as this workshop will be held outdoors.
About the Instructor
River (they/them) works for Lifecycles Project as the Welland Orchard Coordinator, as well as running their own landscaping business, Nightingale Gardens. They are passionate about increasing the resilience of urban and suburban landscapes through utilising plants native to these territories, increasing food security through integrating edible perennials and fruit trees into the landscape, and helping to increase connections to land through making gardening more possible and accessible.
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Hot Water Bath Canning Workshop
Thursday, September 17, 2026
7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Location To Be Confirmed
FREE! Space is Limited. Pre-registration Required
Ever wonder what to do with all those tomatoes? Or just want to make your own berry jam to enjoy in the dark days of winter? Come learn the safe steps to successfully make home canned goods using the hot water bath method as we make some delish jam together!
You will come away with a basic idea of how to can the season’s abundance safely, and have a list of resources to consult for further learning.
Presented by Kayla Siefried from the Compost Education Centre.
Not quite sure what a Repair Cafe is all about? Watch our latest video for details!
Saturday, September 26, 2026
Repair Café West Shore & Holiday Décor
Swap & Shop
11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Saturday, September 26, 2026
Gordon United Church, 935 Goldstream Avenue, Langford
FREE or By Donation
What do you do with a broken toaster or a sweater full of moth holes? Toss it? No way! Bring them to the Repair Café, where our fantastic volunteer repair team can assess and more than likely help you get your item repaired for free or by donation. And for those who want to give DIY a try, there will be tools and materials on hand for you to work on fixing some things yourself!
This Repair Café is paired with a Holiday Décor Swap & Shop where folks can bring their Fall and Winter holiday decorations that are clean and still in good working order, and looking for new homes.
Special Notes: We DO NOT accept gas-powered items (for repair or the swap & shop). We also ask that you make sure your item(s) are wiped down/cleaned before requesting a repair (we don’t want our repair heroes needing to clean out dirty vacuums before they can try to repair them for you). 🙏🏼
Got the tools and some time?
If you’re a Handy Superhero like our mascot Reggie the Wrench Guy, we’d love to have you join our righteous repair quest. Repair Café ReImagine West Shore could use more handy volunteers and we’re looking for local residents with different skills who can serve as repair experts during our Repair Café meetings. Check out our Call to Handyfolk and let us know if you can lend us a hand at an upcoming Repair Café!
Sponsored by the Capital Regional District, City of Colwood, City of Langford, Town of View Royal, District of Metchosin, District of Highlands, Vancity, PATH and the Province of British Columbia. 🙏🏼🛠️💚
Putting Your Garden to Bed Workshop
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon
Saturday, October 3, 2026
Gordon United Church, 935 Goldstream Avenue, Langford
FREE! Space is Limited. Pre-registration Required
Fall is the time to put the garden to rest. Whether you have overwintering crops in the vegetable gardens, perennials that need pruning back and tucking in, autumn is the time to ensure the soil is protected from winter winds and rains.
In this workshop we’ll cover the following:
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- the best techniques for building soil all winter long
- preferred mulches to protect soils
- vegetable crops that overwinter well
- which crops need which type of insulation and winter care
- making compost in cooler temperatures
- wintertime garden maintenance
Join Kayla Siefried from the Compost Education Centre to help you get your garden safely tucked away for winter.
Grow Your Own Groceries Workshop
Thursday, October 15, 2026
7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Gordon United Church
935 Goldstream Avenue, Langford
FREE! Space is Limited. Pre-registration Required
Want to grow your own groceries but not sure where to even start?
This tip and info-rich workshop is designed for beginners who want to get their hands dirty and start producing fresh produce in their backyards or in containers.
We’ll cover soil health, basic gardening techniques like watering, weeding and mulching and so much more.
Presented by Kayla Siefried from the Compost Education Centre.
Westhills Park Restoration and FireSmart Event
9:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 17, 2026
Westhills Park
2988 Dornier Road, Langford
FREE; Pre-registration Requested (for tool and refreshment planning); Drop-ins OK, too! 😊
Keep the park FireSmart safe and support the natural ecosystem by helping to remove flammable wood and invasive species. A great outdoor event for folks of all ages who love nature! Snacks, water and tools will be provided. A collaboration with Langford Parks and Langford FireRescue and generously supported by FireSmart Canada.
What you should bring to the workshop:
• Fabric(s)
• Notions (thread, buttons, zippers, etc.)
• Sewing machine if you have one.
Mythrose will provide:
• 3 Sewing Machines
• Serger
• Scissors and other equipment (maybe even an Embroidery Machine!)
Saturday, October 24, 2026
Pop-Up Sewing Makerspace & Clothing Swap
Saturday, October 24, 2026
Group #1: 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. OR
Group #2: 1:30 to 3:00 p.m.
Gordon United Church, 935 Goldstream Avenue, Langford
Clothing Swap 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. (Drop-in)
Join Heather Ireland (tailor, upcycler and costume-designer) of Langford-based Mythrose for a fantastic opportunity to get some expert help, learn new techniques, and connect with fellow sewing enthusiasts. This workshop is intended for folks who are already working on a project, NOT for people just learning how to sew. Heather will offer valuable guidance, answer your questions and help you tackle your sewing projects … and she’ll bring along a few sewing machines, a serger and other equipment!
Got no time to sew, but have some cool clothes to swap? Drop by to grab something new-to-you for Autumn/Winter!
Register below for Group #1 or Group #2 and please click on the Project Background Form button to share information that will help us better prepare for your participation in the workshop.
Got a question or curiosity about this workshop session? Drop us a note.
Planning Your Year-Round Veggie Garden
Saturday, November 14, 2026
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon
Gordon United Church
935 Goldstream Avenue, Langford
FREE! Space is Limited; Pre-registration Required
Here on the West Shore good planning makes it possible to harvest produce from our gardens during every month of the year. Knowing when to sow seeds is important. But it’s just as crucial to know when and how to transition one crop to another. This presentation will show you how to plan to grow year-round, care for your soil, protect your crops in winter, and we’ll even touch on pests and diseases!
Presented by Kayla Siefried from the Compost Education Centre.
SHOP LOCAL YEAR-ROUND!
Shop Local Map & Directory
Online initiative to promote shopping local all year-round!
ReImagine’s Shop Local Map & Online Directory includes over 100 local businesses, vendors and experiences. There’s something for everyone – and we all get to lend a hand in supporting great local enterprises!
If you’re interested in exploring the possibility of sharing your garden or farm, please be sure to check out the land matching programs being run by the Young Agrarians.
Garden Sharing
Finding that you’ve now got too much yard or garden to handle and curious about what it would take to share part of it with others? Garden Sharing is an innovative way to save money and grow more nutritious food locally while building stronger community connections. And the Young Agrarians of Canada already have a system in place to support it!
The Young Agrarians are a nation-wide non-profit farmer resource organization, which has extended its farmland mapping program (UMAP) to include both rural and urban gardens, centralizing information for those looking for garden space to use and those with garden space to share.
The UMAP shows locations of gardens and farms with extra space or in need of helpers, listing the size, type and nature of the land for those looking, who can also post specifics of what they want. So far only a handful of Greater Victoria locations are listed, but ReImagine West Shore is hoping the resource may find fresh interest on the West Shore, so are working with the Young Agrarians to promote the resource for interested community members.
Past Events
Container Gardening Workshop
7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Thursday, April 9, 2026
Gordon United Church, 935 Goldstream Avenue, Langford
FREE! Space is Limited. Pre-registration Required
Growing veggies, flowers and fruits is not only for the garden – growing in containers can be an incredibly rewarding and abundant way to add nourishment and local veg to your meals.
Join Kayla Siefried from the Compost Education Centre to learn about what types of containers are the best to use, how to replenish nutrients and choose the right soil, and what varieties of fruit, veg and flowers are best grown in containers.
Permaculture 101 Workshop
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon
Saturday, March 14, 2026
Gordon United Church, 935 Goldstream Avenue, Langford
FREE! Space is Limited. Pre-registration Required
Resilient lifestyles are necessary in these changing times. Discover how you can model your garden, home and life after nature, using the permaculture principles. Permaculture is a sustainable design theory modelled on natural ecosystems.
With attention paid to where these practices and knowledge originated, the Compost Education Centre’s Kayla Siefried will introduce you to the ethics and principles of permaculture and talk about scalable ways to apply the theory to your garden, home and life.
Speakers (appearing in two classrooms):
- 12 noon — Speaker Space #1 – Fiona Hamersley-Chambers (Metchosin Farm) — Saving Your Garden Seeds
- 12 noon — Speaker Space #2 – Jeffrey Ellom (Compost Education Centre) — Composting Basics
- 1:00 p.m. — Speaker Space #1 – Kate Fraser (Bees Please Farm) — Raising Bees & Chickens
- 1:00 p.m. — Speaker Space #2 – Gord Baird (Eco-Sense) — Permaculture Basics
Our Seedy Saturday 2026 Exhibitors
Bees Please Farm
Bot Any Plants? & Adam’s Landscaping
Coastal Soul Emporium
Colwood Garden Society
Compost Education Centre
FarmFolk/CityFolk & Eco-Seed Co-op
Flourish! School Food Society
Full Circle Seeds
Good Seed Land
Habitat Acquisition Trust
Hidden Track Farm
Highlands Community Garden
Holly-Rose Farm Stand
John the Mason Bee Guy
Langford Community Garden
Lohbrunner Community Farm Cooperative
Metchosin Farm
Metchosin Grown Society Community Garden
Metchosin Mason Bees
Murder Bay Mushrooms
New Roots Landscaping
ReImagine West Shore
Royal Bay Secondary School Garden Club
RUSH Initiative
Salt Spring Herbs
Seeds of Diversity Canada
Smoky Mountain Apiary
Special Effects Flower Farm
Titan Terrace Tree Farm
Victoria Master Gardeners’ Association
Saturday, March 7, 2026
West Shore Seedy Saturday 2026 and Student Quilt Show
11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 7, 2026
Royal Bay Secondary School
3500 Ryder Hesjedal Way, Colwood, BC
General Admission is FREE or By Donation
Exhibitor Registration Available NOW — ONLY 1 SPOT LEFT!
Come and connect with farmers, seed vendors, gardeners, and community groups to find your local seeds for the season, swap seeds and seed origin stories, learn how to grow more of your own food, and create nurturing spaces for pollinators.
For this 3rd Annual West Shore Seedy Saturday, we have more space for exhibitors, delicious snacks from Flourish!, a dedicated area for speakers to share knowledge throughout the day, and for this edition we’ll also have the terrific “Eat Your Fruits & Veggies Quilt Show” on offer from the students of Royal Bay Secondary School.
West Shore Seedy Saturday is a ReImagine West Shore community food security collaboration with Flourish! School Food Society and sponsored by the City of Langford, City of Colwood, Town of View Royal, District of Metchosin, District of Highlands, Capital Regional District, PATH, Vancity and the Province of British Columbia.
Just a ‘taste’ of the fruit and veggie-themed student quilts that will be featured at our 3rd Annual Seedy Saturday!
Plan and Prepare Your Garden Workshop
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon
Saturday, February 7, 2026
Gordon United Church, 935 Goldstream Avenue, Langford
FREE! Space is Limited. Pre-registration Required
It’s the time of year when gardeners get excited about plotting and planning what they will be planting in their garden. Here on Southern Vancouver Island, good planning makes it possible to harvest produce from our gardens during every month of the year. Join Kayla Siefried from the Compost Education Centre to get yourself organized for the growing season!
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