But raking wasn’t the only problem. At the time, North
College Hill had a pay as you throw
waste program. There was no extra charge to recycle, but you had to purchase
stickers for every garbage can you put to the curb. I was house-poor, but knew
I couldn’t put leaves in the recycling bin. So I called the thriftiest person I
knew, my grandfather (“Peepaw”), for advice.
Gordon Maham "Peepaw" with a giant turnip |
Peepaw’s favorite saying was “a penny saved is a penny
earned.” He was a smart man and an avid gardener and told me to just make a
pile in my backyard where the leaves can decompose instead of paying to throw
them away. He said in a couple of years I could dig up the compost to use in my
garden, which went right along with another of his favorite sayings, “waste not,
want not.”
I got right to work wheelbarrowing all my leaves to an
appropriate place in my back yard, because Peepaw said, “when a task is once
begun never leave it till it’s done” (I always hated that saying). I could have
turned ,
watered, and balanced
my carbon rich leaves with some nitrogen rich material to speed up the
decomposition process. But I remembered my Peepaw always saying “let’s simplify
more,” so I just left my pile alone to do its thing in its own time.
A couple of years later, I removed overgrown bushes that had
been planted decades ago. The soil was almost
completely clay, so I mixed wheelbarrows full of my leaf mold compost.
It added nutrients, improved the soil’s structure, and increased water
retention before I planted some beautiful flowers and hostas.
I saved thousands
of pennies by avoiding landfill costs and not having to buy top soil or compost,
produced no waste, and best of all, it was really simple.
Can you think of any other old time saying that relates to
composting?
“Be a Peaceful Planet Person” -Gordon Maham |
"Patience is a bitter plant, but it has sweet fruit" Making compost may take awhile, but man is it worth the wait!
ReplyDeleteGreat one!
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