The PlayTrail is Boxerwood’s little gem. Every year hundreds of children and families enjoy the sound of the babbling brook, the shade of trees, the clanging of dishes in the mud kitchen and the joy of playing in nature. As one of the PlayTrail’s guardians, I like to add something new to wow the kids each year. This month, with …
Week #5: Building Soil
In our last blog post we touched on why your food scraps are so much better for the environment when they go into a compost pile versus when they go into the landfill. That positive change made by composting is a really big reason why composting is a good thing to do. But it’s not the only reason! Making compost …
Week #4: Backyard v. Landfill
Last week we heard from Phyllis Fevrier about the tiny chefs in our compost pile and treating your pile like a habitat. This week we wanted to build on Phyllis’ post with some more specifics. Phyllis wrote about the importance of keeping a balance of greens and browns in your compost pile because greens provide nitrogen and browns provide carbon, …
Week #3: Create Your Compost Cafe
If you were one of the many folks who came to pick up your composting supplies on Saturday, March 11th you probably spoke with Phyllis Fevrier (photo, far left). She, along with other Master Gardener volunteers, had a wonderful informational display table all about how to compost successfully. Phyllis is an invaluable resource for all things gardening and compost, and …
One Plant, Many Problems
Youngia japonica March 2023 A single sunflower is actually made of many thousands of small flowers, forming a composite that is arranged to attract pollinators. Sunflowers are in the plant family Asteraceae, the largest flowering plant family, with about 24,000 different species. Like sunflowers, other plants in this family have composite floral heads composed of many tiny flowers with their …
One Turtle, 421 Pledges
March 2023 We are all connected As the Early Education Coordinator I typically teach preschool to second grade students, then the “Upper Education” team takes over with the third graders. I was lucky enough to be one of the Boxerwood educators that got to go into the third grade classrooms this winter for the new Ocean Protectors program. The goal of …
One Project, 434 Citizen Scientists
March 2023 This month 103 households from Buena Vista, Lexington, and Rockbridge commenced our 2023 Backyard Compost Challenge – a record. The group includes 22 families who enjoyed the project so much last year they signed up again. Almost everyone else is new to composting. Once again we had a waitlist. This is one excited group – check out some …
#2: Meet the Backyard Composting Community
Thank you to all who submitted the pre-project survey that we sent out over the weekend. The survey gives us a sense of the knowledge and experience we’re bringing to the project – and the story behind our many motivations. Here are some the highlights: The basics: There are 103 participating households (including 22 returning households) involving 400+ people from …
backyard composting year three
Boxerwood Launches 3rd Annual Backyard Compost Challenge February 2023 In partnership with all three local jurisdictions, Boxerwood is once again facilitating a conservation challenge in which 80 local households receive free backyard composters in exchange for participating in a 10-week food diversion study. Now in its third year, The Backyard Compost Challenge has already helped 150 local households adopt composting …
Thank you, Devan
Thank you, Devan February 2023 This month we bid farewell to Devan Malore, a Boxerwood friend to the end. More than a friend – an inspiration! If you never had the good fortune to meet Devan, quite likely you still met his outdoor art. And if you met his art (here and there and everywhere), then you had met Devan: …