Introducing: Dirt Works, A Neighborhood Wide Composting Effort

Pringle Creek Community residents Kenn and Jane Poznar have been composting for more than 25 years and have expanded their "quick" compost method to include other neighbors, Painter's Hall Cafe and the garden.

This new program complements the current efforts to turn kitchen scraps, leftover food and garden material into compost, reducing the waste stream leaving the community. Jane explains, "our process is to reduce the particle size of food waste (we used a blender) to speed the composting process. With the help of worms and healthy soil microbes, the sludge transforms into beautiful black compost in a matter of days."

They have organized a system for neighbors to deposit their kitchen waste in a bin near the newly designed compost corner of the garden. 

"All fruit and vegetable trimmings, egg shells, food waste (including meat waste and small bones), coffee grounds and filters, paper napkins and towels, spent flowers and back-of-the-refrigerator fuzzy stuff" can be left for grinding, Jane writes. Jane collects the bin daily, runs the contents through a specially designed trash compactor and then adds it to the compost bins for finishing. 

                               

Kenn and Jane plan to keep records of the amount of kitchen and garden waste collected and processed using their Dirt Works method. 

Total Amounts:

March = 39 pounds collected and processed

April = 65 pounds collected and processed (thus far!)

Finished compost will be made available to the neighbors to use in their garden plots and landscape.

Compost contributions grown in our gardens and greenhouse will never have to leave Pringle Creek Community and will nourish the next batch of vegetables and fruit that are grown and enjoyed on-site.