Urban Composting

The rain showers here in NYC haven't let up in what seems weeks. If you are anything like me, your overall summertime morale hasn't benefited from all this precipitation, but the flowers, gardens and lawns sure have. My own urban garden is growing so fast, lush and green it's amazing!

Gardening is one of my favorite DIY hobbies. Such satisfaction from planting tiny little seeds, taking care of them, feeding the soil and watching everything grow! I used to think I didn't have much of a green thumb, but those days are a changin' my friends. Like anything else, the more you work at it the more you learn over time.

After covering the basics, the next logical step in my gardening journey is composting. For some reason composting had always intimidated me, I have always felt that you have to really 'know what you are doing' to get results....I sort of chuckle thinking about that now, because it's actually pretty easy. You throw stuff in a bin, mix it up once in a while and you get beautiful lush fertilizer. It just takes a little elbow grease and patience (and of course knowing your 'greens' and your 'browns')! Not only is it organic, it reduces your garbage output and it's totally free.

Urban composting can be done indoors or outdoors in various different ways, in small spaces and large. You can make it work for you, your lifestyle and your space. To fend off my composting fears (like how do I prevent a stinky bin, what about rats and flies and stuff...?) I attended a composting workshop held by the Lower East Side Ecology Center (through the NYC Compost Project). It gave me the confidence to go for it on my own and have been working mine for just over a month now!

My metal compost bin + what I added today (before it got a good stir!)

Don't have enough space, time or resources to compost yourself - but want to put your organic waste to good use?

Several of the city's Greenmarkets are running a pilot composting collection program. You can save your compost materials (like your veggie scraps, coffee grinds or eggshells) and bring them to the collection site. Did you know that over the past nine weekends they have collected almost 50,000 pounds of food scraps in Brooklyn and Manhattan? That is a ton of waste being kept out of New York City's garbage turned into useful nutrients.

Even if your urban garden is your windowsill or your fire escape it's enough space to have a DIY garden all your own. Carve out a little piece of green :)

Happy gardening!

Useful composting resources + links for NYC residents:

• Greenmarket Composting
• NYC Compost Project
• Purchase bins
• Organic gardening
• How to compost
• "Organic lawn care for the cheap and lazy'

Now go out there and get your hands dirty!!

Until next time.....

~ Corey