Oh, how I wish we had a municipal compost. It grieves me to take some of the vegetative materials we have at this time of year to the waste dump.
We have compost bins in our garden but composting the excess of windfall or discarded apples plus fall pruning is too much at this time of year. We juice our apples and freeze them, give them away and do all we can but there are still bag loads of damaged apples to be dealt with. We put a reasonable amount in the compost but the brewery smell becomes a little much quite quickly and attracts some critters we don’t want to have to deal with. Squirrel helps out as do the dogs. Even Toady has been doing his bit with the wasps.
I do not cut down my perennials in the fall, preferring to leave the decomposing structure to protect the plants beneath and the air pockets to keep snow aloft. However we often prune in the fall, as spring pruning promotes more growth. There are always dead branches, crossover branches or just tidy up branches to look after. Not all of my trees were perfect choices for their locations.
Woody material such as this is wonderful for a compost, if it is chipped. It is also makes great mulch if you own a chipper. A good chipper is not cheap, and weighing storage and cost against taking the material to the local dump has been a frequent discussion in our house. I often think there would be work for a roaming chipper.
The one good thing about this vegetative material is that it does get used in the dump for dust suppression and layering on other waste materials. Apples or excess fruit and vegetable waste does not.
Many people do cut down their plants in the fall and with all the extra vegetables and fruit there is a lot of material from many households that could be used in compost but it is not. I would say the majority of households in my town do not have home composting facilities and the amount of vegetative material that is taken to the dump is an enormous waste of what could become ‘black gold’, the nutrient rich humus that our heavy clay soil needs to become more productive. With a compost making facility that could sell the compost back to residents in the spring we would have what we need to make our local food production even more viable.
My town is a relatively small one with a population of around 20,000, but Fernie — a neighbouring town of 7,000— will begin their vegetative waste pick-up program this September. I hope our city is able soon to find the wherewithal to get this program up and running.
San Francisco has been doing this for almost 30 years and I believe it is time for all towns to have this option. With more and more apartments, tiny gardens and many who choose not to or cannot compost in their own back gardens it really is a necessity.
The province of British Columbia puts out many materials about municipal composting. I, therefore hope that in the not too distant future my town can do what is beneficial for our environment, local food production and its citizens.