Composting Progression and Digression

Feel my bulging arm muscles! 

We've saved 8,075 pounds of food and yard debris from the landfill!

Composting is going well. I have 7 bins in progress and microbes are turning all that would-be landfill into beautiful fertilizer. Compost is actually more than fertilizer in Juneau--it's an outright growing medium! The second (albeit smaller) dump truck load of topsoil I got recently is just as horrible as the last lode. The few vibrant transplants I planted in the stuff promptly died within a week. You can't grow anything in a solid cake of muck. It has terrible structure, no porosity, and no nutrients.I don't even know how these places can call their product "topsoil." I wouldn't be so disgruntled if they called their load "dirt." It's like a bakery saying they'll deliver cookies and they drop off some flour and butter. It may help you make cookies, but it ain't cookies!  ANYway, mix in a bunch of compost, rabbit manure, and leaves into it and you can grow something. Once I start harvesting all my new compost I'm going to skip the dirt and fill my new beds with a mixture of sand and compost. 

Just over a month ago I picked up another business in the co-op: B's Bistro and Bakery. They're  located downtown on 2nd street. Stop on by and tell them how great they are for composting. You can thank them by purchasing something delicious.

a new peace magnet

I also have been composting for Helping Hands, which gives food to people in need. They collect outdated food items, including produce, and redistribute it. Whatever doesn't get handed out before true expiration now gets composted. The former waste of a store turns into the gold of the needy. Then the waste of the foodbank turns into the gold of my garden. This interesting chain of passing food on got me thinking about extending it even further by turning the gold of my garden into the gold of the needy. I recently heard about the Plant a Row program. Basically, a person or organization plants an extra row in their garden for charity. It's an easy thing to do and does a lot of good for others. I set aside a plot and am putting my thinnings in it. So far I have lettuce, parsley, kale, carrots, and--I think--broccoli (they're mystery plants that got passed on to me).

Consider planting a row, a bed, or just a pot!