18+ Friday’ Jaly'?S, 1994 -Nearity Shdre News”

Compost is your garden’s best nutrition resource

PART OF the credit for the beauti-
ful gardens in North Vancouver's
{lahee townhouse complex is due
to one family's kitchen scraps.

Xanne Musick is the gardener
for the Norgate complex. She and
her partner Mitch Quinn live in one
of the townhomes, and use part of
their “postage-stamp backyard” to
compost their fruit and vegetable
kitchen waste.

The finished compost is used to
condition the soil in the two-and-a-
half acres of garden surrounding
the townhouses.

Quinn built their small cedar
and wire mesh composter after vis-
iting the compost demonstration
garden in Ambleside. He has since
built a larger, three-bin unit that all
townhouse residents use to com-
post their leaves and garden clip-

pings.

66 ... the finished
compost is a
nutrient-rich
tonic for your
garden ...99

“It’s always been really good
and full of worms,” Quinn says of
his backyard composter.

He goes “by sight and feel” in
looking after the bin; the only
maintenance he finds is required is
the occasional watering during the
dry season, and sporadic aeration
with a pitchfork.

The Greater Vancouver

p
- ust over,
e* COMNEL OF,

Regional District (GVRD) and its
member municipalities are encour-
aging local residents to discover
the benefits of composting.

Not only is the finished com-
post a nutrient-rich tonic for your
garden, composting is also an
essential tool that will help the

regional district reach its waste
seduction goal of 50% by the year
2000.

Composting yard and kitchen
waste can cut down on many
households’ garbage by over 30%.

Waste reduction was the prima-
ry reason Quinn and Musick began

eubmittod

XANNE MUSIK (left) and Mitch Quinn have made composting
easy at thelr Norgate townhouse complex.

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composting their kitchen waste. By
composting and avoiding non-
recyclable or over-packaged goods
in the supermarket, Quinn says
they have cut down their garbage
to one small plastic bucket per

¥ Showroom Hours
i Mon.-Fri. 8am-3pm

To help householders get start-
ed with composting, many munici-
palities are selling compost units at
subsidized rates.

Both the GVRD and some

See more page 22

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