September topic presented by Calvin Gardner, By Ann Hoff-fanaian
We had Orange County Urban Residential Horticulture Extension Agent Calvin Gardner visit and give us a presentation on Composting at our first General Meeting in September at The Orlando Garden Club.
To begin he emphasized it is great to practice composting in Florida because our soil is very sandy. Gardner says Florida soil is “super sandy, it’s full of sand, doesn’t really hold on to a lot of stuff like water or nutrients. As opposed to compost, which is really primarily broken down organic matter.”
Composting is recycling naturally. Compost is “primarily broken down organic matter.” One principle of composting is recycling yard waste. Now, “If you want to recycle your yard waste and you don’t want to compost, you can always just mow your grass without a bag on it,” Gardner said. This is a great way to reincorporate organic matter into your soil. By composting our yard waste we can reduce our solid waste by one-third (1/3). This waste can be put back into our soil and, as Gardner puts it, “We can grow happy plants.”