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18 Day Composting Trial at RIGC by Chris Enock

11/19/2016

If you were in the gardens last Sunday, you may have seen and heard Chris as he worked saying,"It's like making a salad!" Gina was helping out and her comment was, "He's on a mission!"

Chris explained,"We are trying to see if we can get the time to compost down to 18 days. It will take a few tries to get it right for sure. This is the first attempt, started this past Sunday 11/13. In theory and if done correctly, this batch will be completely done by 12/1. We will let you know how it goes!"

Here are some pics of the different materials being added to the compost heap in the order of the layers:

This idea was inspired by the video Soil by Geoff Lawton of the Permaculture Institute: (Please click on this title above or on the url below. Or you can copy and paste the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_-fPGcnDyE) The bit specifically about composting starts at around 17 minutes in to the film.

Chris approached Anthony Longo, who was glad to arrange for him to work on this project. And so, the experiment has begun...

Pumpkin Bash and Leaf Gathering- Dreams Do Come True!

11/5/2016

Dreams do come true...and in this case, because of the huge efforts of friends, partners, and neighbors. In January 2016, Anthony Longo and Julia Ferguson sat in Main Street Sweets before the RIGC board meeting talking about hopes for the year with compost and outreach. In their notes they wrote:

Work with BIG REUSE for organics recycling growth
Enlarge (begin) pumpkin smash and tree chipping

Christina Delfico, iDig2Learn, and Erycka De Jesus, BigReuse/NYC Compost and Anthony Longo spoke in a conference call in September to set the November 4th date for pumpkins and leaves. Then Erycka and Christina took the lead and worked together on preparations for a month. Erycka de Jesus and Devin Reitsma and Leah Retherford and their work with NYC Compost@ BigReuse were the reason we could offer to do this.

Christina Delfico's amazing service network, partnering skills, and production techniques brought connections with RIOC, Manhattan Park, P.S. I.S. 217, RIRA, and so many more on Roosevelt Island brought the happy crowds. We had a dream come true day yesterday! Everyone chipped in to bash pumpkins, gather leaves, and send these natural resources away to be composted! Julia Ferguson took personal day from work to help out. She spent her day watching and listening to the parents and children.

"This is what a farmer must feel like."
"This is what a gardener does."
"Can I take this to the worms?"
"I had a garden class at school!"
"Do you want to bring your pumpkin again next year?"

We sent over forty bags of leaves and three huge, green toters of pumpkins to be composted back into enriched soil for parks, gardens, street trees, and community groups. For more sounds and sights of the day, check out this video by Nick Turner posted to the Roosevelt Islander blogspot or like the Facebook page at BigReuse to see a live post.

Record Breaking Community Service for RIGC in 2016

11/1/2016

Thanks to all for all you do! We keep a beautiful garden growing for our Roosevelt Island community with thousands of volunteer hours combined.

Neal Weissman, V.P., reported on the details of our 2016 service and recognized special categories at our meeting on Sunday evening, October, 30, 2016.

Our full membership put in over 1,458 hours of collective community service. This averages to 11 hrs/plot. Of our 132 plots we have experienced an unprecedented 88% of our membership active with community service. The Board members put in the most time into this club, and they range between 60-100 hours of service with some Board members contributing at least 10 and sometimes 20 hours per week. 15% of our membership gave exactly 3 hrs. But the biggest group at 33% of our membership exceeds the 3 hour minimum (3-10 hrs) with another 11% on top of that.

This 11% group ranked as award winning high service members for special mention.

For those people, who have done the most work, (not including board members) the names were put into a hat for one of three special prizes.

6 people at 10-15 hours (Bronze) - hose nozzle
5 people at 15-20 hours (Silver) - special spade with extended handle
4 people at 20-60 hours (Gold) - solid metal clippers -Made in France

Special Recognition (The winner of the special drawing is underlined.)

BRONZE 10-15 HRS
1 Beth Schrum D 11
2 Anna Doumnova A 05
3 Hilda Rich B 28
4 Janet Linville B 01
5 Johan Marfey C 24
6 Curtis Lowrey Associate

SILVER 15-20
1 Aiesha Eleusizov Associate
2 Carole Kennedy B 13
3 Colleen Kennedy A 17
4 Maureen Leong C 35
5 Michael Bieganek B 33

GOLD 20-60
1 Karen Lee B 11
2 Farouk Amad C 56
3 Ron Schuppert C 13
4 Vaughn Anglesey B 14

Each person who did not win the main prize drawing was awarded a box of bulbs, as well as a certificate.

Thank you Neal for such careful work and care for our community service hours and membership!

18 Day Composting Trial at RIGC by Chris Enock

Pumpkin Bash and Leaf Gathering- Dreams Do Come True!

Record Breaking Community Service for RIGC in 2016

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18 Day Composting Trial at RIGC by Chris Enock

Pumpkin Bash and Leaf Gathering- Dreams Do Come True!

Record Breaking Community Service for RIGC in 2016﻿

Categories

Archives by date

Record Breaking Community Service for RIGC in 2016