The Organic Composting Handbook by Dede Cummings

Author:Dede Cummings [Cummings, Dede]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781629142609
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2015-01-06T06:00:00+00:00

Elizabeth Ungerleider

What challenges have you run into with composting and gardening at the school?

Our all school garden is far enough away from the school now so that school board members probably wouldn’t raise the same issues against outdoor composting that they raised years ago. Their concerns back then were that compost would attract ­vermin and it would smell. (Actually, composting materials have a pleasant smell. It’s all in how you approach things.)

A problem with having the garden so far from the school, though, is that kids can’t get all the way out to the garden daily during the snowy winter months in Vermont.

We have a new custodian who is on board to help explore composting options for us this spring. I’m hopeful that we can get rolling with our composting program.

When and how do you apply the compost to your garden beds?

Compost takes many forms. Winter rye, once it grows to a certain height, fixes nitrogen into the soil. It can be planted after harvest in the fall. It is then cut down and becomes an important part of our garden mulch.

In the spring, we have dairy farmers and organic farmers/parents in our community who volunteer to spread manure and to till our garden in May for our June Planting Day. Children love to watch these big machines do their work. (Our garden is 75x150 feet . . . a lot of growing space.)

The kids help us spread composted mulch over the garlic beds we plant in November. The best compost is horse manure or rabbit manure because there are no hayseeds in it. Hayseeds tend to create more weeding work in the summer months. We mulch with straw. It keeps moisture in and keeps weeds from growing between rows.

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