Composting at an Elementary School

Over the last few months, I’ve been composting at Micheltorena Elementary.  I work as a school garden ranger, and people drop off compost. I turn the pile, get the kids involved and discuss nitrogen and carbon balance.

The hardest thing to accept has been, why won’t the school compost? I’ve been looking at the lunch menu and although not all the items can be broken down, some can be.

I often teach kids about growing our own food, permaculture, sustainability and zero-waste but all of that is pointless is we don’t teach by doing.

As of last week, I’ve been able to work hand-in-hand with the principal at this school to establish a small, 5-gallon compost bucket. Disclaimer, I work for Enrich LA, and this is an initiative for us as employees. My challenge isn’t the support, believe me I have it, but I need to figure out ways to get other people truly excited and engaged in this next endeavor.

I’m attaching a file, with my plans on what I intend to do, and what has been implemented –  in hopes that it will inspire you or inspire others to take the leap and compost at your neighborhood school.

We are in the implementation phase, so far we’ve collected a few pounds of organic waste. We’ve added it to the pile and used the paper plates (non-waxed) to balance the nitrogen and carbon.

I’ve included some pictures here, but the value is in the plan. Please credit me if you’d like to use it.

Signage from Enrich LA
current trash situation
without education, we end up with perfectly good food in the waste system and plastic in compost

Composting Plan for Elementary School

Why Don’t My Plants Grow?

Ok, so when I first started playing with dirt I made a lot of mistakes in terms of planting, transplanting and overall buying the wrong seeds at the wrong time.

I started making gardening friends (no joke) old folks, young folks, hippie folks and they had the same general wisdom – “Try it and see what happens…”

After failing and failing some more I decided to start learning more about my general climate, soil conditions and what types of seeds would sprout when.

Here was my first step – USDA Hardiness Zone Map

Here is a good planting guide from The Farmer’s Almanac

Don’t worry, I’ll keep updating these links as I find more. There are so many out there. I live in Los Angeles and I believe I’m in zone 10. My last frost is February 15, meaning anything I planted before then really didn’t have a fighting chance. Once I got to that point, I waited until past last frost, planted corn and some sage and it’s doing well.

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