Composting helps improve soil nutrition, water absorption, and healthy vegetable production. Healthy soils are at the core of food production and community garden sustainability.
Here’s the great news: the Compostadores are building a limited number of free compost bins for community gardens located in Hennepin County that are interested in starting up composting systems in the spring of 2013.
How the project works:
Compostadores lead free bin-build workshops for community gardens, and will guide gardeners through simple construction of compost bins with recycled pallets, while discussing composting and sharing information on composting basics.
Participating gardens should gather at least ten gardeners and community members to attend the workshop and help build a bin, and strongly suggest a compost team of 2-3 people from the garden who will be stewards of the compost bin. Compostadores will bring the supplies and educational materials to guide the workshops and teach you the skills that you need for successful composting endeavors, both in bin construction and composting.
Your community garden will keep and fill the bin, and will be able to use the finished compost to enrich the garden!
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If your community garden is in Hennepin County, please copy and paste the following information into an email or word document and send to Nate@gardeningmatters.org or
Gardening Matters: 310 E 38th St, Suite 204b, Minneapolis, MN 55409
Name of Garden: __________ #of Garden plots: ________
Garden Contact Name: ______________________________
Email address/Phone Number of contact: _____________________________________
To ensure that the bin builds are a good fit for your garden, we ask you to fill out a couple of questions. Applications will be accepted on a first-come-first served basis, but priority will be given to: gardens that can commit to bringing in gardeners and community members to attend the bin build, gardens serving communities of higher need, and those without successful compost systems.
1. Does your garden already successfully compost? Tell us about it. If not, why not?
2. Does your Garden serve those with lesser access to healthy food? Low-income gardeners, donating to a food shelf, etc.
3. Are you able to recruit a compost team or at least 10 gardeners and/or community members to attend the bin-build workshop? All are invited to participate, regardless of whether they’re gardeners, although we encourage gardener participation and a compost team to improve stewardship of the compost bin.
The Compostadores 