During a recent install, I was reminded of the importance of composting, and the ease with which it can be done. While planting a shrub I noticed a ‘Mother Compost’ truck on the street, picking up containers from my client. Mother Compost is a fellow woman-owned business focused on sustainability by keeping kitchen waste out of landfills and feeding the soil with natural fertilizer produced by the composting process.
Gwenn Nolan, Mother Compost founder, has made composting nearly effortless for her fellow Main Line residents. Subscribers receive composting containers which are picked up on a defined schedule and transformed into organic soil enhancer the homeowner can use for gardening.
Like Gwenn, I fully support composting. I’ve had a compost pile on my property for over 20 years. My plants and I are grateful for the ‘black gold’ that results from the natural decomposition of organic matter. Many of my landscaping clients have designated spaces on their property where we place debris from garden maintenance or installations. For my clients who don’t have compost piles, we offer to remove the debris and take it to a commercial site for processing.
My compost pile consists of two easily moved, L-shaped sections. Plastic tubing provides air circulation and speeds up decomposition.
While I go to a commercial site for waste recycling of client debris, many townships offer drop-off services to residents. Whether you establish your own compost pile, transport waste to a municipal site, or pay for a service to transform kitchen and garden waste into compost, the goal is to reduce waste and improve the soil.
A steamy compost pile decomposing and creating black gold.
Compost adds nutrients to the soil and is a great mulch too. Look at that bucket full of goodness!
Many people assume that yard waste received by landfills will decompose naturally, but this is typically not the case. In a landfill, organic matter is smothered at the bottom of a large pile which prevents its decomposition and produces methane gas, which contributes to global warming. When you realize that 40-50% of the garbage received by US landfills is compostable, you understand that you can have a large impact and be the change you want to see in the world by making a small change in how you handle food and garden scraps.
Simply change your practices. Preserve kitchen scraps for the compost pile instead of putting them in the trash.
The choice to compost is yours and the options for composting vast. Our natural world benefits. I invite you to join Gwenn and me (and many others) in keeping the ‘land’ out of the landfill and putting it back into Mother Earth.