In spite of a few rain showers, the Castlegar Garden and Nature Fest was a success again this year. Gardeners, nature lovers, and those wanting to learn more about everything from planting to beekeeping showed up to browse the booths and make purchases.
Other groups were on hand offering a variety of educational opportunities including WildSafe BC, Castlegar Communities in Bloom and Scouts Canada.
As part of the event the City of Castlegar gave away 600 bags of compost. The bags were hand-loaded into resident's vehicles by Mayor Lawrence Chernoff and city councillors Dan Rye, Deb McIntosh, Florio Vassilikakis and Bruno Tassone. The compost came from a project the city has undertaken where it takes the yard waste collected from citizens along with grass and tree clippings from city properties and turns it into a high grade compost. This year the compost is also being used for top soil for the new dog park at the Millennium Park and to top dress the Castlegar Community Complex fields.