Baby it's cold outside!

(by Kristie Rabasca, P.E., LEED AP, and occasional gardener)

And most of the trees are bare now. They have shed their leaves to the ground, and left you with the work of annual fall yard clean up. But what to do with all those leaves? As we complete fall clean up activities, such as raking and cutting back perennials, it is important to keep in mind the health of the waters around us. The Center for Watershed Protection and the Environmental Protection Agency provide recommendations for proper management of yard waste in order to protect our waters:

The Best Option: Keep yard waste on your property by mulching leaves and grass clippings into your lawn, or by composting in a responsible way. Small quantities of leaves can be mulched into the lawn with grass clippings as you mow. Larger quantities of leaves may need to be composted. Compost generally consists of the following materials:

• Browns—Includes materials such as dead leaves, branches , twigs
• Greens—Includes materials such as grass clippings, vegetable waste, fruit scraps, and coffee grounds
• Water

Here is one way to compost effectively:

1. Find a dry shady spot for your compost bin or pile that is accessible to your wheel barrow and a garden hose. Plan on enough space for two piles, so you can add to one, while the other “cooks.”
2. Add your brown and green materials as you collect them, making sure larger pieces are chopped or shredded.
3. Moisten dry materials as they are added.
4. Once your compost pile is established, mix grass clippings and green waste into the pile and bury fruit and vegetable waste under 10 inches of compost material.
5. Optional: Cover top of compost with a tarp to keep it moist.
6. When the material at the bottom is dark and rich in color, your compost is ready to use (this is usually occurs in two months to two years).
7. Remember that no matter what you do (don’t have enough green, don’t have enough brown, water too much, or water too little, or even if you let it freeze in the winter…) it will eventually turn into lovely dark compost!

The Next Best Option: Take yard waste to the transfer station for composting. Make sure you use the paper bags that will decompose.

Don’t blow or rake yard waste into the street – it will clog the storm drains which can cause flooding and ultimately cost your Town more to clean out those catch basins and pipes.

Don’t dump yard waste onto an embankment near a stream or river - It can clog the stream or river suffocating the fish and organisms that live in these delicate ecosystems.

Don’t burn your leaves – Leaves will naturally compress in volume so rapidly that after just one winter of stockpile you will have a very small pile that will be easier to manage in the spring.

For more information on composting, visit one of the following websites:

• EPA Website on Composting
• University of Maine Cooperative Extension website for Gardening and Horticulture