Your weekly update on all things compost related!
Edited: Happy Sunday in St. Roch! This week we started with our newest additional compost collection. In partnership with Compost NOW, NOLA Artist Incubator, and the Green Project, we’re offering space at the garden to collect from an additional drop off site. Community members can drop off their food scraps at the Green Project at 2831 Marais Street on Thursday from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Those bins will be picked up and dropped off by us to be shared with future beatification projects presented by the NOLA Artist Incubator. We’re thrilled to be collaborating to divert food waste from our landfills.
On Friday we added two full bins to the mix from the Green Project. We’ve been told to expect two to three bins full weekly from our new partners in composting.
As today is Sunday, we set out our two bins for our collection and hung some new signs at the Galvez Street entrance of the garden. I feel like that’s the thing we’ve been missing, and I’m pleased with the simple newest addition.
When we went to pick up the bins, both were full.
Looking at our current two bin composting system, our second bin is getting full in a hurry! Here’s a shot of how much space the weekly collection takes in our composting system: with greens, and then with browns.
It’s looking like another bin (creating a 3 bin system) may be in our future. I’m totally down with making space to have a larger impact. I’m grateful that people are contributing to closing the loop and diverting waste from landfills and I’m proud that our garden can be a part of the process. All of these bins add up, y’all! Collectively we’re making a difference! Let’s keep it up!
Update of the red wigglers:
Today we turned the vermiculture set up and checked on the worms. They look fast, fat, and happy. I was surprised when I opened our bin to see frogs had made a home inside. This was a happy surprise as it means our compost isn’t too hot to hurt the worms, but still, unexpected. There’s all kinds of life in the little ecosystem that stays in the shady part of our back porch. I’m curious to learn and enjoying process. I’m not holding my breath for any castings. If composting and gardening has taught us anything, it that good things come to those that wait.
Dylan helped with feeding the worms in the vermiculture bin at home, adding our compost to the garden’s pile, and she sprinkled some wildflowers we found around the garden while we set up for collection. She dropped a bunch of seeds in random spots in the process, so I’m excited to see what grows where… stay tuned!
The garden is looking fantastic. I keep going to the property with seeds and goals to plant more vegetables and then; I am confronted with the fact that all our garden beds are full!
Our loofah has taken off! Every day I try and wrangle it around the arbor and parts of it are long enough they’ve reached the other side. I love how it looks when they wrap around themselves and gain width before they grow higher. I think it’s looking stunning! I do wonder what harvest will look like if they grow sponges. Time will tell.
The beans have almost entirely taken over our vegetable garden area. We’ve got melons, squash, pumpkins, pigeon peas, some companion herbs, cover crops, and sunflowers growing, but all you can see is that the beans are clearly winning at claiming their space. The entire back arbor is covered by one single plant… wild!
Next year I will most likely keep the beans out of the beds, to better conserve space. I do find the beautiful leaves and vines quite magical, so for this year we just plan to enjoy them, and live and learn.
I do enjoy the beds so full of life!
So to recap: we’re still the collection site at the garden, every Sunday from 10am-1pm. We’re also going to be collecting from the Green Project. So, if you can’t make Sunday at our garden, be sure to visit them Thursdays from 4:00-5:00. Also, if you haven’t heard, they’re also collecting oyster shells as part of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana’s Oyster Shell Recycling Program. You can drop off your frozen food scraps and support coastal restoration by bringing oyster shells to the Green Project at 2831 Marais Street.
I dig it. 
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