THE Com POST

Your weekly update on all things compost and garden related!

This week we nearly filled both bins with neighbor’s kitchen scraps!

Our daughter takes her job of crunching up the eggshells very seriously, despite never being assigned this task… I think it’s precious.

Update on the dried corn as a brown: it seems to have worked. No flies, so I’m a believer that it worked.

I took the before and after picture to show how much space the two full bins fill in our compost pile after we dump them in. It’s quite incredible to think that within a week or so it will all shrink back down to where we started this week, due to the process. Though truth be told, we are filling up this compost pile quite quickly. I think it is related to all the other community gardens that offer this service have taking a break over the summer. We’re one of the few sites just crazy enough to keep our doors open in this heat, so naturally we’re seeing an uptake on drop off days when it not raining outside.

We’ve been doing some stuff in our yard at home, so I got the left over soil, a lagniappe for the garden. Dylan’s been doing a great job mimicking, so she’s been spreading it all around the garden when I’m not looking. Good thing we have a project coming up where we intend to put it to good use.

We’ve spent every morning this week weeding and I am happy to say it has paid off! The garden is looking great!

Our nursery is loaded with plants, kindly donated by parks and parkways. We have two trays of vincas and three trays of butterfly weed that we’re going to water for the next week while they get acclimated to our site. They came filled with ladybugs and even butterfly eggs and pupa! It’s nice to see that the ladybugs have hung around and we’re keeping our eyes open for new caterpillars and butterflies in the garden.

We are sharing these with the NOLA Artist Incubator and their upcoming Artist-in-residence, Anna K. Lemnitzer. Anna will be making a living art installation at the garden, so we’re happy to provide plants, soil, compost, and other materials for her project. I’m especially proud to say the compost she’ll be using was made right here, at our beloved Galvez Garden! Stay tuned to see updates of what she creates in the space!

Thanks again to everyone who contributed to our garden and diverted waste from our landfills. Now you know, not only can we turn it into compost, but soon it will be used to create art! We’re super excited about that. Happy gardening, y’all!