Throw it Away? No Way!
Got stuff you need to fix? Bring it to the Dundas Repair Café on Saturday Apr. 5 between 10am and 12pm and learn how to fix it, or have it fixed by our team of volunteers. The Action 13 Dundas Repair Café takes place at the Dundas Town Hall-Upper Level and is accessible by the 5 Delaware Bus Route-Head St. Loop. Items that our volunteers can help you fix include:
- Mending, darning, and textile repair
- Small wooden furniture repair
- Simple jewelry repair
- Small home appliance repair
- Lamps and electrical items
- Blade and garden tools sharpening
- New-metal recycling-drop off items smaller than a shoebox for metal recycling
Drop by, enjoy a coffee or tea, and learn about the lost art of repair
Join us for a morning of winter sowing (Ontario native seeds) and learn how to create winter interest with native plants. Bring your family for a scavenger hunt in the garden to see what hibernates in pollinator gardens. Also, explore what lives in the soil using a microscope. Dress for the weather. See you there!
Saturday November 30, 2024
10 am – 12 pm
Save the dates! Our upcoming Dundas Repair Cafes will take place at the Dundas Town Hall on:
Sat. Sept. 14, 2024
Sat. Nov. 23, 2024
Sat. Jan. 25, 2025 *10am – noon
Sat. Apr. 5. 2025
Do you have items you have been meaning to fix, but you haven’t gotten to it or don’t know how? Drop by the Dundas Repair Café it starts at 10 a.m (we stop taking items half an hour before close) to learn how and have your item fixed.
Our volunteer fixers can help teach you how to fix a huge range of items (limit 1 item per person):
home electronics,
small appliances,
small wooden furniture,
straight edge tool sharpening,
clothing mending,
textile repair, and much more!
Enjoy a cup of coffee or tea and take in the music, provided by Fool’s Gold. Meet other people who are interested in learning how to live more sustainably. Find out what all of the buzz is about!
If you would like to volunteer at the Dundas Repair Café, please email Lindsay@knightpfiffer.com
Fall harvest salsa sauce interactive demonstration – all ages can create these, great for school lunches and many meals!
Native plant sale
Soil hibernation demonstration; “don’t bag your butterflies “
Garlic planting demonstration, Fall planting is best!
Tips for harvesting, using, storage of fall harvest bounty and how to reduce food waste
Soft music of The Arthur Duo
Fun and interactive activities appropriate for kids of all ages
The garlic is ready to harvest! Come learn with us about how to store and preserve so that you have locally grown garlic all through the months ahead.
Soil health is key to great garlic. You’ll be learning about making and using compost tea.
There will also be a selection of Ontario native plants for sale, all grown from locally sourced seed.
Monday July 22 at 6:30pm, at the Green Block (beside Metro) in Dundas.
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Plant Sale is part of our event June 22
Back by popular demand the Action 13 plant sale is June 8 & 9.
Native plants grown from ethically sourced seed including hard-to-find varieties. This year we have over 85 species! $4 each.
Location: 18 Bendemere Ave in Dundas, at Mayfair Ave
Join us for an exciting event Saturday June 1 at 10am where you’ll learn to identify the common invasive plants that pose the biggest threat to our natural ecosystem.
Monday May 6 at 6:30pm. Growing your own edible mushroom patch. Meet at the Green Block in Dundas beside Metro.
Monday May 13 at 6:30pm. Ash Lloyd from Recomposition Collective will be running a workshop about growing edible mushrooms on a log. Location: Green Block, on Kerr St. beside Metro in Dundas.
Monday May 27 at 6:30pm we’re back at the Green Block for more mushroom madness growing tips and tricks.
Join us Saturday May 4 at 10am for a walk along Lower Spencer Creek. We’re meeting at the Spencer Creek Trail across from the old Canadian Tire location in Dundas, at Cootes Dr and Dundas St.
Tys Theysmeyer and Caroline Hill-Smith will be our guides to talk about restoration efforts by the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) and local water.
Bring binoculars and your fave plant ID app, a bag for litter too.
An evening with author and natural garden advocate Lorraine Johnson on Earth Day, Monday April 22, as we talk about the intersections of climate change and biodiversity. And what we can do at the local level right here in Hamilton with insights from Lynda Lukasik, Office of Climate Change Initiatives, City of Hamilton.
When: Talk starts at 7pm. Come early for book signing and social.
Where: 65 Hatt Street, Dundas at SHED Brewing.
Thank you to SHED Brewing for supporting local and providing the venue.
Thanks also to The Printed Word bookshop for arranging the book signing table.
With support from The Ed Smee Environmental Fund.
Dundas Repair Café
Sat. May 11, 2024
10 a.m. 1 p.m.
Dundas Town Hall
Accessible by 5 Delaware Bus Route- Head St. Loop
Do you have items you have been meaning to fix, but you haven’t gotten to it or don’t know how? Drop by the Dundas Repair Café on Sat. May 11 between 10 a.m. -1 p.m. (we stop taking items at 12:30 p.m.)to learn how and have your item fixed.
Our volunteer fixers can help teach you how to fix a huge range of items (limit 1 item per person):
- home electronics,
- small appliances,
- small wooden furniture,
- straight edge tool sharpening,
- clothing mending,
- textile repair, and much more!
Enjoy a cup of coffee or tea and take in the music, provided by Fool’s Gold. Kids can make a Mother’s Day gift item at our Kids Table. Meet other people who are interested in learning how to live more sustainably. Find out what all of the buzz is about! If you would like to volunteer at the Dundas Repair Café, please email Lindsay@knightpfiffer.com.
On Saturday December 2, from 10am-12 pm, drop in to the Dundas Town Hall (upper level) for the launch of the NEW Dundas Repair Cafe. Enjoy a cup of tea or coffee and have your clothing and other household items repaired at no charge. Volunteers will be on hand to fix and teach you how to make simple repairs.
Featured repair stations on December 2 will include:
- De-pilling station (get your sweaters and knitwear de-pilled)
- Clothing patching (creative or utilitarian)
- Seam repairs
- Button and hook fastening
- Creative clothing embroidery
- Sock darning, learn how to darn
- Craft table on seasonal decorations from natural materials
- Take the Jump information – learn how you can take action to help the environmUent
It was such a hit the first time around, we’re doing it again! All welcome at the Winter Sowing workshop on Saturday November 18. Starts 9:30am. Location: 33 Woodward Ave, Dundas.
Ethically sourced seeds from plants native to Ontario will be provided for species that need this type of cold, moist stratification.
The plants that grow from this initiative will be used with various community events.
In 2022 we grew 900 seedlings. Our goal this year is 1100.
Join us at the Green Block to share in the celebration of a long, successful season and harvest. Monday October 23 starting at 5:30pm. We’d love for you to join us for music – as long as it’s not too cold for our musicians – a screening of photos from the season and an opportunity to provide input into shaping our community as well as visioning for Green Block Growing in the year to come.
If you are moved to bring food to share please do, but no obligation.
Also you are welcome to bring: · a mug or bowl and a utensil for food sampling we may have · a chair · and friends.
The Green Block is on Kerr Street, Dundas by the Metro parking lot.
Alex Wilson, councillor for Hamilton Ward 13, will tell us what the City is doing to fight the province’s forced expansion, in spite of there being no justification for it. He will also share the key takeaways from that day’s Annual Report to Council by Lynda Lukasik, Director of the Office of Climate Change Initiatives. |
There will be a Q&A afterwards. Hosted by Hamilton 350. |
Wednesday, 18 October 2023, 7pm – 8:30ishThis meeting is open to all, here’s the Zoom link |
Join us for a weird and wonderful “Tree Talk” with Julia Hitchcock. Get all the info you need to grow your fruit/food/nut trees. Starts 6pm at the Green Block in Dundas – on Kerr Street beside Metro parking lot.
Pawpaw Parade 2023 is also part of this event, by invitation.
Pawpaw Parade and Giveaway. Apply before October 13. 2023.
Action 13 is the “Host” for the Hamilton area.
- tree giveaway
- seed kits
- tree sales
An evening with author and natural garden advocate Lorraine Johnson on Tuesday October 10 as we talk about the intersections of climate change and biodiversity. And what we can do at the local level right here in Hamilton.
When: Talk starts at 7pm. Come early for book signing and social.
Where: 65 Hatt Street, Dundas at SHED Brewing.
Thank you to SHED Brewing for supporting local and providing the venue.
Thanks also to The Printed Word bookshop for arranging the book signing table.
Join us for an exciting event where you’ll learn to identify the common invasive plants that pose the biggest threat to our natural ecosystem.
Watch the recorded session here.
Living Design Process workshop “Playing Nature’s Tune”
Saturday July 15, 2023 at 10am-12pm
How can we harmonize our lives with life’s creative melody?
Green Block Growing presents an interactive Living Design Process (LDP) workshop.
Spend your morning at the Green Block with your LDP guide Adrian Hodgson, Design Jam Permaculture, as we immerse ourselves in an experiential creative process that aims to spark a fresh perspective.
“Living Design Process”
What if how we created a building, or a garden, or even a conversation resonated deeply with how a tree or embryo grows?
Living Design Process is an exploration of how it might go if our change-making were at one with the way life continually creates itself
.. as a radical and transformative approach to how we humans understand and enact our role as expressions of Earth.
By consciously evolving how we create, LDP brings new levels of life, beauty and wholeness to what we create.
Cost: FREE or pay as you like (proceeds go to Green Block Growing events –suggested donation $0-$20, or some alternative means of support). All ages are welcome
Location: At the “Green Block” on Kerr St (off Hatt St. and Ogilvie St., behind the Metro grocery store parking lot)
Rain or shine
Since ancient times friends and family have gathered to celebrate the return of light, sunlight, life, fertility, and the potential for a good harvest. Join us at the Green Block in Dundas to celebrate the solstice and the beginning of summer.
This gathering is on Saturday June 24 from 10:00am – noon at the “Green Block” on Kerr Street beside the Metro grocery store. Rain or shine.
This gathering is a celebration of the summer solstice and will have a special emphasis on kids. There will be activities including, bee house making, origami and planting of a sunflower to take home. There will also be a microscope for looking at the life in the soil, and more!
Starting Thursday June 1 we’re excited to partner with the UK-based climate group “Take the Jump” for their first ever North American “climate ambassador” sessions.
Format: Online each Thursday at 6pm EST for five (5) weeks.
Sessions will be recorded.
Details: This online course will give you all the tools you need to communicate about making sustainable changes, and Taking the Jump, in a way that will avoid conflict, inspire people, and lead to positive outcomes. The course includes various learning materials and plenty of chances to practice communicating.Session topics are:
- Connecting with others (June 1) – Exploring the barriers to making a change
- Change through inspiration (June 8) – Exciting others about what’s possible
- Communication Toolkit (June 15) – Principles and steps for communicating, plus practice sessions.
- Deepening (une 22) – Recaps, practice and FAQ’s
- Becoming an Ambassador (June 22) – Groups, workshops, and resources
Plant Sale ! Our volunteers have been hard at work growing Ontario native plants from seed.
Limited supply. $2 each or 3 for $5
It is equally important to build a garden that benefits nature as well as fight food insecurity.
This event will focus on companion planting and growing your veg with the help of native pollinator plants.
-Planting demos
-Proteins in the garden
-Handmade soaps
-Eat less meet
Featuring local chef “Chef Nancy” with recipies for earth to table and cooking for the climate.
Plant “this” not “that” advice.
Plant sale too
Saturday May 13th at the Green Block in Dundas. From 10am – noon, rain or shine.
We live in an urban setting and space for growing is often limited to a balcony, a deck or a small corner of a back yard.
Come and learn about food production and native pollinator plants in containers of all kinds of shapes and materials.
Learn how to build a self watering wicking bed container and learn how to build a vertical garden with a wood palette.
Our popular “Saturdays in Spring” in-person events are back for 2023!
April 29 “From the Garden”
Come to the Green Block at Kerr St. by Metro. We’ll be there 10am – 12pm.
April 15 “Water and Wildflowers”
More details about events in May and June coming soon.
Monday March 6 | 6:30-7:30pm
Join us with Pat Kozowyk of Baba Link Farm to talk about berry varieties, planting them and care.
This is the BIG one. We need you there! Bring a sign, bring a friend. Wear green.
Starts at 1pm and will wrap up around 2pm after speeches from well known community advocates.
#GreenbeltGrab
#SaveFarmland
#RepealBill23
As part of a province wide Day of Action join the Pop Up Rally in Dundas on Saturday November 19. Bring a sign!
We are speaking up to:
-stop sprawl
-save the Greenbelt
-against Bill 23 “More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022”
* Access our Bill 23 Toolkit here
Meet at 11am near the Spencer Trail at the southwest corner of the intersection at Cootes Drive and East Street N. in Dundas (across from the former Canadian Tire).
Ontario’s Bill 23 “More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022” defines the province’s own Housing Task Force. So what’s really behind this rouse to build much needed affordable housing?
More than just climate at stake here, the impacts of the proposed changes with this Bill are staggering.
Join us to talk, to listen, to share and find out what you can do. We all need to stand up against this threat.
Bill 23 Toolkit and resources available as well.
Come meet the “big trees” of the Dundas Driving Park. Learn their history and their nature on this introduction to the augmented reality walking tour.
Bring a mobile device (iPhone, iPad) if you have one. And a mug for warm apple cider from local farm.
For more details follow Dundas Driving Park AR Tree Tour group on Facebook (Meta).
From site prep and soil conditions, to plant selection and growing native plants, these sessions offer tips and shared learning experiences for gardeners of all levels.
Sept 10, Sept 19, Nov 26; various times.
New time! Now starts at 6:30pm
Do you like plants and gardening? Got food security or growing your own on your mind? If you live in the Dundas area and want to meet like minded people, come by the Green Block on Kerr Street, beside the Metro.
Every Monday from 7 to 8:30pm to meet, chat, and grow together. Drop-in when you can, all welcome. Hosted by Action 13 and the Community Permaculture Lab.
2022.May.28 Get Growing, not Mowing – demonstrations and information about container gardening, growing your own veg, habitat for bees and birds.
2022.Spring Our first outdoor series, all are welcome. April 2 “Observe and Interact” permaculture experience, April 16 “Green Block Spring Kick-off” and April 30 “Wings and Wildflowers” walk.
2022.March.26 Join us for the first of our “Saturdays in Spring” in-person events! Saturday March 26 as we walk and talk with guide and local water expert Caroline, along the lower Spencer Creek in Dundas.
2022.March.03 What is the City of Hamilton doing about the climate crisis? How are others stepping up to the challenge?
Join us for a 90-minute climate conversation. Hear from local experts about how climate change is affecting us in Hamilton. Join a breakout group on the topic of your choice and talk with others who also want to make a difference.
Whether you are just starting out on your climate journey or perhaps you’re already well on your way, we want to hear what you have to say about climate change in(action).