Gardening with Bronx Green-Up: Making Compost through Collaboration

Gardening with Bronx Green-Up: Making Compost through Colaboration: With the help of Thomas McQuillan of Baldor Specialty Foods and Sung and Paul from the Bronx Green-Up's Grow Greens class, I was able to...

Making Compost through Collaboration

With the help of Thomas McQuillan of Baldor Specialty Foods and Sung and Paul from the Bronx Green-Up's Grow Greens class, I was able to fill up a compost bin with 3 huge pails of Baldor's watermelon and cantaloupe rind at the Hunts Point Park and Recreation Center.  Sung and Paul mixed in leave and dead branches to give us an ideal ratio of carbon and nitrogen materials. Now it is up to the microorganisms to break the mixture down into a rich humus material for the plants.  Great team effort!

Baldor's Specialty Food Delivering Buckets of Compost Material

Thomas McQuillan of SparCs - Division of Baldor Specialty Foods

Close-up of Rinds for Compost Bin

Adding Green Nitrogen Rich Material to Bin

Rinds with Leaves

 Empty Buckets

Watermelon Rinds on Top of Leaves

Paul is mixing  leaves, branches, and rinds together

Sung is cutting down the rind into little pieces

Late Winter Planting and Tree Pruning in Drew Gardens

Bronx River View at Drew Gardens

Cutting Tool for Branches

Cutting Branch

Trimming Branch

Cutting Branch with Tool

Pruning Tree

View of Drew Gardens

Planting Bulbs

Planting Seeds in Starter Trays at Bissel Gardens

Bissel Garden Mural

Students Starting Seeds in Trays

Mixing the ORGANIC Potting Soil to Perfect Consistency

Waster the Soil, So It Can Be Shaped into a Loose Ball

Filling the Starter Trays with Prepared Dirt

Organic Soil with Perlite Being Placed in Tray

Heirloom Seeds to Place in Starter Trays

Placing Seeds Into Tray

Watering Seeds To Germinate

Preparing Beds for Planting and Cover Crops

New Roots Garden in Mid March

Hairy Vetch a Cover Crop that Releases Nitrogen Into Soil

Close-up of Roots with the Bacteria Rhizobium

Cover Crop Close-Up

Turning Over the Hairy Vetch, which Promote Nitrogen Rich Soil from the Rhizobium

Ursula Uprooting Hairy Vecht

After Cover Crop is Removed, Soil will be Ready for Planting

Cover Crop, Buckwheat

Buckwheat, Cover Crop, Decomposing for Compost

Pulling The Buckwheat Out of the Bed

Raking Out the Green Buckwheat from Roots

Little Worm from Garden Bed

Volunteer Turning Over the Buckwheat to Expose Roots and Bury the Green

Ursula and Khadeesha Turning Over Buckwheat, Cover Crop

Prepping Raised Beds For Spring Planting

Volunteer Picking up Straw that was Protecting Soil From Winter's Elements

NYBG's Green-Up Teaching How To Start a Garden

Green-Up's Kadeesha Planting Seeds for Demo

How to Start Seeds for Garden Instruction

Close-up of Planting Seeds

Green Thumb Organization Distributing Soil to Urban Gardeners

Green-ups Gardening Class

Instructor, Kadeesha, Combining Soils For Seed Starters

Students Planning Their Planting Strategy

Student Filling Their Seed Tray with Dirt

NYBG's Kadeesha Instructing Class

Planting Seeds in Starter Tray

Students Planning Seeding Cycle