THE Com POST

Your weekly update on all things compost related

Never a dull moment in the life of a community gardener! Today when we went to pick up the bins we saw that we had been visited by a budding artist…some children found our paint and decided to redecorate… it was a mess! Needless to say, someone had fun. I had the paint in the children’s area for when we have activities with youth. All the supplies, including brushes, were readily available. I have since moved the paint to behind the lean-to. Looks like I have some painting to do in the near future. C’est la vie.

On to the compost; we collected two full bins from the Green Project and one from Galvez Garden this week. We’re officially overflowing in the compost bin (it’s literally starting to come apart on one side) so this second compost bin is done with accepting greens. The decomposition process can take anywhere from two weeks to two years depending on conditions like the size, materials, and how often it is turned. We haven’t been turning it as much as we should, admittedly. I’m assuming maybe six weeks from now, with weekly turning, we’ll make some progress towards reaping the benefits of all our hard work. Here’s a picture of the full bin:

The next time I take a pitchfork to it, I may need to add some more browns, we’ll have to see. The browns we have been using are great , because they’ve been so finely shredded, they’re likely to break down sooner. I am also aware of some of the larger greens we’ve added (I’m thinking of all the pumpkins in there), so next time I turn it I should really try and break those up some more the accelerate the process.

On a side note, the family is visiting for the holidays and I’m so excited to show them the garden! I really wish I didn’t have the new paint jobs around the garden (it’s ridiculous, really, you just have to laugh or you’ll cry), but I suppose it comes with the territory. Perhaps we can put some new plants in as a family when they visit. I’m really looking forward to showings them around our beloved space!

In closing, thanks to everyone who came out to divert waste from our landfills! Until next week, happy composting!