Back to Recycling "In The News"
By Louise Sullivan
Have you thought about your composter lately? Nancy Atwell, of A to Z Gardeners here on the Cape has a few tips to help us get started making brown gold from yard waste and vegetable peels. Here’s Nancy’s recipe.
Recipe for Garden Gold
For best results and the “hottest” pile, place the composter is
a sunny location.
Add a layer of small twigs to lift the pile up off of the ground and promote
air circulation.
Add, in equal parts, green waste, (weeds, and unwanted plants from the garden,
vegetable waste from the kitchen), and
brown waste, (leaves, and shredded newsprint).
Water sparingly.
Continue to add alternate layers of green and brown material as the pile compacts.
When the composter is full, let it rest and begin another pile.
The compost is “done” when it resembles loamy garden soil. In
a closed container, this will take a full season.
Do not add cooked food, fat, meat scraps or animal refuse.
“Stirring” the pile will hasten the process.
There is no need to add an accelerant unless you want speedier results.
Cape Public Works will have the black composter units, which have proved so popular, for sale for $36.50. They may be purchased and picked up at the Public Works building on Cooper Dr., beside the Transfer Station. Call 799-4151 for more information.
Nancy doesn’t bother with small composters however. She, and her husband Tom tie four wooden pallets (sometimes available at the Transfer Station), together with old clothesline to make large open bins. On the sunny winter day when I climbed the snow banks to visit Nancy’s garden, there were seven homemade compost bins in various stages of garden readiness. Nancy says this method usually takes about three years but yields a much larger amount of compost.
If you don’t wish to compost at home, or haven’t
room, the Transfer Station composts grass clippings, leaves and weeds in the
large pile past the cardboard recycling trailer. This year finished compost
will be for sale at Jordan’s Farm Stand on Wells Road.