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 Time: SATURDAY, November 7th from 1pm – 4pm
Location: Carmel Middle School
Carmel Middle School Green Team members will be accepting your fall leaves and pumpkins for compost. Please bring your bagged leaves (please be sure there are no sticks, branches or other trash in the bags) and your Halloween pumpkins (candle removed). The drop site is in the front parking lot of Carmel Middle School.
GREEN TIP
The Leaf Recycling event at Carmel Middle School is a convenient way to compost your leaves if you don't have a way to do it at home. But for those who do and want to give it a try, here are some helpful suggestions.
What to do with all those leaves?
It depends on how many you have on the ground. But whatever you do, don’t throw them away- they contain riches for your yard!
“A light layer of leaves can simply be mowed over, thus returning the tidbits to the yard’s soil as organic matter.” It is free fertilizer for grass and trees.
But what can you do with the thick layers and piles of them? Rake piled leaves onto a large tarp and drag to a leaf pen made from plastic garden fencing or plastic hardware cloth secured to a few upright stakes. After each newly-added load, stomp them down and add some water. Leave one side of the pen open until the end of the leaf season so you can rake or blow them right into the pen without lifting heavy loads of them. When you run out of leaves, seal off the pen and let Nature run its course. Autumn rains and winter snow will give your leaf piles the additional water they need.
The next fall, you will find that these leaves have turned into rich organic matter. The outer layer may look like dry leaves, but fear not. Inside is what many call “gold” for your garden. Work it into your soil and use it like mulch- it will help retain moisture. Also, substitute it for peat moss in any garden project. And finally, enrich the soil in any part of your yard- flower beds and vegetable gardens alike will benefit!
The Complete Compost Gardening Guide, by Barbara Pleasant and Deborah L. Martin
Green Tip submitted by MaryEllen St.Angelo, Carmel Elementary, July 7, 2009
Othere Sources:
http://treesandshrubs.about.com/od/bookproductreviews/gr/CompleteCompost.htm
http://www.compostgardening.com/basicsfromthebook/sixbasicrules.html
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