Cochrane & Area Gardening Expo – April 28, 2024
Whether you’re an experienced gardener, taking your first steps into gardening, or newly relocated to Cochrane and realizing you may need a few tips for gardening in this zone – this event will get you excited about digging in the dirt!
SUNDAY, APRIL 28
11:00 am – 3:00 pm
Cochrane Lions Event Centre | Entry is free of charge
Here’s what you will discover at the Gardening Expo
- Vendors: 40+ vendors selling seeds, seedlings, and gardening related products
- Experienced Local Gardeners: take time to chat with subject matter experts about your gardening challenges
- Seed Exchange Table operated by the Cochrane & District Horticultural Society: bring your extra seeds to add to the exchange and/or purchase seeds (by donation) to fill the gaps in your garden.
- Guest Speaker Presentations: throughout the event you can take a seat in the speaker’s zone and have the opportunity to hear local gardeners share their knowledge, tips and tricks for making their gardens flourish.
- 11:30 am – SEEDS TO SUPPER: ADVENTURES IN GROWING YOUR OWN FOOD. Rising food costs, diminishing food quality, and the environmental impacts of log haul transportation are all motivating factors to seek out homegrown solutions to our food crisis. Being able to grow your own food to supplement your family’s meals empowers you to address these concerns and gives you access to unparalleled flavour and freshness for your meal ingredients. We do face weather and soil challenges with gardening in Cochrane. Join Andrea Blonsky, local gardener and founder of the Cochrane Community Garden Society, for an information packed session on what and how to grow to optimize your harvest.
- 12:30 pm – GROW A FOOD FOREST IN YOUR BACKYARD. Learn the secrets of transforming a part of your urban or rural yard into a flourishing perennial food forest. Join Callandra Caufield, Founder of the Backyard Harvest Project blog, as she shares insights on designing, plant selection, and the installation process for your very own cold-climate food forest. Whether your space is vast or compact, this session promises to ignite your excitement for perennial food cultivation and give you the practical tips to get started.
- 1:30 pm – YEAR ROUND GARDENING WITH MICROGREENS. Join Christina Ambrock of Super Donkey Acres for a session on how to garden 365 days a year with mighty, mighty microgreens. These veggies are micro versions of their larger counterparts and packed with nutrition. Come learn tips and tricks to growing these year round in the comfort of your home.
Vendor List
The following includes vendors and community groups & organizations participating in the Gardening Expo. This list will be updated in the days preceding the event – check back for updates.
| A’Bunadh Seeds | Heirloom and open pollinated non GMO seeds of all types for zone 2B website |
| Susy Alfaro | Seedlings; Aprons |
| A Dome at Home | Flowers, herbs & tomato seedlings |
| Anything Grows Cochrane Garden Center | Gardening education; Gardener’s handbook; Plants; Gardening accessories website |
| Blooming Bee Gardening | Starter kits for gardening (e.g. lettuce, tomatoes); Native starts/seeds (skeleton plant, lupin, yarrow, allium etc.) |
| Cochrane & Area Food Connections | Community awareness: food security & resources; Information: fall harvest & fruit cleanup. website |
| Cochrane Community Gardens Society | Information / Awareness; Heirloom seed potato |
| Cochrane & District Horticultural Society | Seed Exchange Table; Information |
| Cochrane Public Library | Promotion & Awareness: Gardening tools lending program; Seed Library website |
| CoCreative Seeds | Vegetable seedlings; Seeds (140 varieties) website |
| Common Sense Seeds | Seeds (vegetable: tomato, peppers, and other veggies) website |
| Cultivate Cochrane | Solar Roller demonstration; Food sovereignty educational activities |
| Super Donkey Acres | Farmers’ Leaf | Microgreen starter kits. website |
| Fig & Fern Botanicals | Rare indoor houseplants |
| Linda Fee | Self-watering pots; Plants-books and other related material |
| Found Books & Shop | Nature, gardening & outdoor books. website |
| Garden Soil-utions | Seedlings; Worm castings; Authored Books: ‘No Guff Vegetable Gardening’, ‘Gardener’s Gratitude Journal’ website |
| Doug Gardens Inc. | Eco-friendly fertilizers. website |
| Kate’s Gardens | Seedlings: tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash, flowers, herbs, and more Custom hanging baskets |
| Brenda Link | Plants: peppers, tomatoes |
| Catherine Legary | Pepper plants |
| Liza’s Plants YYC | Seeds and seedlings website |
| Megan Luscombe | Aloe vera plants Orange, ginger, citrus and avocado cuttings |
| Rafter 1 Ranch | Vegetable Seedlings. website |
| Sky May Noton | Vegetable and flower seedlings |
| Stealth Flowers | Heirloom veggie bedding plants Flower annuals/perennials |
| Summit Hill Farm | Promoting CSA for summer veggies Carrot, heat tolerant lettuce and radicchio trials through canovi seed trials (seed adaptation and saving in climate change). website |
| The Guides for the Prairie Gardener | Gardening books for prairie gardeners. website |
| Totally Hooked | Indoor plants, planters, macrame hangers, metal plant stakes, seeds, garden decor |
| Town of Cochrane | Promotion & Awareness: Town’s water conservation rebate program; Upcoming compost event. website |
| Urban Farm School | Promoting Urban Farm Schools workshops website |
| Westgard | Vegetable seedlings; Plants; Flowers |
| Worm Worked Composting | Vermicompost; Seedlings |
Vendor Information
Are you a local gardener that would like to sell your seedlings, collected seeds, or plants? Perhaps you’re a maker of yard & garden handcrafts? If you grow or make the items you wish to sell, you may be a good fit for this event. Vendor fee is $15 for a 6′ table (provided).
Applications for interested vendors are available for download:
Applications will require your name, contact information and a description of the items you would want to sell at your table. Submit a few photos if you create unique products (pictures of tomato seedlings not required…. 😉 ).
Questions? Email: cage@cochraneenvironment.org
The Cochrane & Area Gardening Expo is hosted by the Cochrane Environmental Action Committee (CEAC). Proceeds from the vendor fees and seed exchange table will be donated to a local organization to support environmental action in the Cochrane community.