THE Com POST

Your weekly update on all things compost related!

So I know I talk a lot about compost on this blog, but it’s worth mentioning we are people, first and foremost. I Dig It, LLC is a woman owned small business and it’s a family affair to manage the ins and out of the garden. I felt compelled to pause and make a shout out to my amazing husband and best friend, who’s help is the only way I know to keep this dream alive. Here’s a picture of the family, after working in the garden.

He deserves some much needed credit. In addition to all he does, he’s the muscle that turns the compost piles… it’s kinda a big deal, we’re so lucky he’s so helpful! Now, on to more tales of composting!

This week we collected one and half bins at Galvez Garden and one bin from compost now. Again we are fighting dampness in the compost bin, so I added some dried sunflower stalks and pine needles I collected from the storm basin to the browns. We cleaned a catch basin to help reduce neighborhood flooding and hope the pine needles will help dry out the compost. Two birds, one stone.

When I pulled up to plant some tropicals, a mother and her child were admiring the living wall sculpture after dropping off their compost. I introduced myself and was sure to point out the seed library. They took home carrots. I’m so happy people are using it!

A fellow Master Gardener graduate was following us on Instagram (@idigitnola) and saw that we offer free compost. He dropped off three bags of garden scraps… I might need to remind him how much time compost takes to decompose…I can’t make it a regular thing to collect that much, but we were happy to oblige this time. What a wonderful world if I could collect and have space for this much all the time, but alas, we’re running out of room!

The weather is changing and I’m proud to report we’ve made it through our first summer! Lessons learned include underestimating how much rain impacts the process. I’m thinking we need to make a plan for that in the future. I don’t know what that looks like right now, but I’m happy that the addition of straw and pine needles seems to be helping with moisture.

In other great news, Saturday was Master Gardener graduation. Here’s a picture of me and the morning class.

I sincerely miss my morning classes at the botanical garden. It was such a fun and informative class! I’m so grateful to have been a part of it and hoping the LSUAG center can approve our garden as a Master Gardener project. It would be amazing if we could have other Master Gardeners helping out at Galvez, Stay tuned!

Thanks to everyone who came out to drop of their food scraps and divert them from landfills!