Looking for some earth-friendly ways to garden this summer?
Lawn Care
Give grasscycling a try by removing your lawnmower’s bag and leaving the clippings on the lawn. Going bagless saves you the time and effort required to bag the clippings, and it improves lawn health. The clippings break down quickly and add nutrients to the soil, reducing the need for watering and fertilizing, and protect the soil from extreme elements. Grasscycling also helps to prevent disease, thatch and weed growth.
Grass clippings can be composted in backyard composters – just don’t put grass clippings in your garbage cart or dump them in neighborhood green belts as it can attract wildlife and create a fire hazard.
The Benefits of Composting
The Regional District also accepts grass clippings, leaves and branches at several locations:
- Foothills Boulevard Regional Landfill
- Quinn Street Recycling Depot and Regional Transfer Station
- Vanway Regional Transfer Station
- Shelley Regional Transfer Station
- Cummings Road Regional Transfer Station
- Mackenzie Regional Transfer Station and Select Landfill
- Valemount Regional Transfer Station
The material is then turned into NorGrow, a Class A compost, that is available for purchase to improve the health of your soil. The benefits of adding compost to lawns and gardens include:
- It’s a source of organic matter and supplies carbon, a key component in the interaction between plants and soil.
- Elements like boron, copper, iron, manganese and zinc are added to the soil. Plants need these elements to grow and compost binds them to the soil for plants to utilize over a long time period.
- There is more variety in the size of soil particles which helps deal with problematic clay soil – in wet times compost increases water movement and during dry spells, it retains more water. The larger particles in compost also increase aeration, letting more air reach plant roots, and warm up the soil faster in the spring.
For more information on minimizing waste by reducing, reusing, recycling and composting, visit www.sortsmart.ca.
Website: www.rdffg.bc.ca
