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City,
Farm Families Reflect Back on Composting Experience
By Darci
Clark – For the Sun
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This
time of the Westman year, our thoughts typically turn away from
cold and snowy yards (unless you have yet to put up Christmas
lights) and in toward warm homes. It is a period of reflection
on the past growing season – triumphs, tribulations and
that tricky adversary – the weather!
 In this
eighth installment of Compost Quest,
our project families were asked to do just that – reflect
on the past season in the eco-spotlight and share with our readers
what they liked and learned about this most natural form of
recycling. This column also takes a long-awaited personal turn
as we finally reveal the people behind the compostoon sketches!
As we have new readers join us with each monthly column, I always
offer a brief project bio to draw them into our composting circle.
Compost Quest is a tongue-in-cheek
local version of ‘Enviro-Survivor’ where we peek
over the shoulders of two busy Westman families – one
urban and one rural – as they learn the ins and outs of
backyard composting. The concept grew out of a larger community
action project called “Composting 101”
which promotes the economic and environmental benefits of backyard
composting. Our goal was to show how average Westman households
can make simple changes of habit that will help conserve our
scarce landfill space, save money and prevent pollution.
Our farm family can now be known to readers as the McPhersons:
George, Darlene, Mitchell
and Nicola. They live on a picturesque farm
site south of Brandon, with Mitchell in Grade Eight and Nicola
in Grade Five at Meadows School.
Our theory was that a working farm yard, as opposed to a small
urban yard, would need a large open bin, but the reality has
proven somewhat different from expectations. We set the McPhersons
up with a bin made of recycled wooden pallets in an area away
from the immediate house landscaping, but in hindsight, Darlene
thinks that a closed commercial unit situated closer to the
house would have better suited their particular habits.
After a couple of months into the growing season, the family
quickly realized that the large amounts of yard waste that we
anticipated going in to the bin was better managed using their
traditional methods of grass cycling, soil incorporation (ploughing
under) and mulching – they just hadn’t labeled these
tried-and-true efforts as actual composting. What organic waste
that remained was not much different from a small urban home
– kitchen scraps and plant prunings – and probably
amounted to less volume than most city households as the grass
clippings and leaves were left to decompose naturally.
Because they are such nice folks, the McPhersons continued with
the pallet bin challenge and George says they got a kick out
of all the calls from neighbors and friends who recognized them
from the sketches. The McPhersons still learned the value of
creating homegrown humus to boost their foundation plantings
and ably demonstrated that there is a composting style and method
for everyone. The project was a great way to show the new generation
that stewardship of the land never goes out of fashion.
Our city household is now revealed as the Prices:
Bill, Ronnie, Tanner,
nine, Tessa, seven, and Janelle,
who is just three years old. They live in the Linden Lanes area
of the city. Ronnie felt their whole experience proves that
backyard composting is the best way for urban residents to dramatically
reduce their garbage output and highly recommends it. Bill was
initially a bit skeptical, but is now quite impressed at what
they produced in a short period of time with relatively little
work.
Ronnie and Bill found that it just took a little conscious change
in routine to make diverting waste to the composter into an
established habit. If they ever forgot, Tanner would quickly
remind them; Mom and Dad just as quickly concur that Tanner
was the true foreman of the project! Tessa claims that there
wasn’t much hard work to it, but all signs point to Tanner’s
effective management being key. We will have to wait until spring
to find out if his humus has turned out as good as his Grandpa’s.
The Prices are now committed backyard composters and plan to
continue over the winter so that they can get the jump on spring.
They felt the project encouraged family closeness and that being
in the Brandon Sun each month was cool.
Both families – the McPhersons and the
Prices – are now off to a well-earned
mini vacation courtesy of the Victoria Inn.
We simply wanted to show our appreciation by arranging this
little break, but I’m sure the families will also be checking
the poolside plants to see if they need a little compost boost!
After the Christmas break, tune back in the first Sunday in
January as we wind up our media project with a seasonal overview
of the composting process and what steps to take so you are
ready for the new growing season.
Please call us at 727-5675 if you are interested in composting
information or for copies of previous columns. Composting
101 provides presentations, demonstration workshops
and educational material to help make backyard composting second
nature.
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