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Summertime in the BelgradesContentsfor Printing Article Summaries |
Recycling by Compostingby Dale Finseth It is that time of year when folks are looking at their property after the long winter, anticipating the growth and luxurious foliage and the shade provided on a hot summer day. It is also a good time to review your recycling efforts in the yard. Last week, Josh talked about the various conservation projects that the Kennebec District will be working on during the 2009 field season. I'm devoting my first article of the new season to one of my favorite topics: recycling in the form of composting. Usually I wait until later in the season to start my rant about composting, but I'll get more of a jump on the topic this year. This spring has provided a nearly ideal environment to get your composting started. Perhaps you need to re-start your compost after the cold winter and early spring months. Temperatures have not been too hot, there has not been too much rain and we have had a number of sunny days. That warmth has served to get the compost pile which sat silently as a frozen block of yuck for most of the winter, and all the little microbes in there, busy working again. It is worth the effort to take the time and turn the compost pile in order to get some air circulation and an improved mix of nitrogen, carbon, oxygen and moisture. In my case, I've been able to add lawn clippings into the pile and the compost pile has exploded into activity. My pile has already reached temperatures of about 180°. Now, that's cookin'. It is estimated that composting your household waste will cut your annual waste from about 1 ton per household to one-half ton per household. That is a 50% reduction. Some of us may maximize what we compost and include paper and cardboard materials keeping even more household's waste out of the regular waste stream. In Maine that is usually a landfill. In the case of compost, it also means spending less on packaged soil amendments, since finished compost is a great addition to the soil. 
For those who do not want to build their own composter you can purchase free-standing composters that don't require any construction. The Earth Machine composter is one model that is very popular. It may be available through your town. The Kennebec District also has them for sale. It helps promote composting as a good practice for soil and water conservation and protection. Composting various materials on a larger scale can be a profitable activity. The perch that were removed from East Pond were trucked to a composting operation in Sidney and added to that farmer's compost product. By hauling the fish a shorter distance to that site, the cost of the bio-manipulation experiment was decreased substantially and people liked the idea of using compost that served a greater purpose. Turning our attention to water conservation, Maine does not seem to have a water shortage, but controlling the destructive flow of water is important. Runoff from rainstorms can load an awful lot of sediment and phosphorus into lakes, ponds, and streams. Some people chose to collect that rainwater and redistribute it slowly back to the ground and their gardens. This year the Kennebec District is also selling the SYSTERN Rain Barrel to conserve and reuse the rainwater from roofs and other areas. They are new this year and have been fairly popular. We are hoping that they become yet another tool in people's efforts to recycle and reuse in order to limit our impact on our natural resources. More information is available online from our website and from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension's Home Composting bulletin. You may also want to check out the Yardscaping site in Portland, where there are demonstration plantings that minimize maintenance i.e. fertilizer and water, use native plants and are beautiful to boot. The Kennebec County Soil & Water Conservation District is a non-profit organization that promotes conservation and the wise use of our natural resources. For more information about any of our projects, please contact Dale Finseth at The 2009 edition of the Kennebec County Ag Map is hot off the press. Pick up a copy at locations throughout the county or download it here to find local farm stands and Farmers' Markets and start eating food that was grown locally. Do your part to support local food production and all of its benefits! | ||