Organic Matters

This is a sponsored post. I am honored to share my thoughts on gardening with EcoScraps Garden Mix. EcoScraps is on a mission. They recycle food waste, that would otherwise be clogging our landfills, so that we can enjoy the healthy benefits of enriched soil for healthier plants. It's environmentally friendly! I love being environmentally friendly, and healthy, and I love doing what I can to ensure a friendly and healthy environment for future generations. So! When they asked me try their product I was delighted.

We have a fairly large urban lot, and we have children and cats and chickens and goats and bunnies... all kinds of activity and lives in motion, here. My policy in the yard, and home: no pesticides, no exceptions. It's an easy choice, because I am not offended by bugs or weeds, and I am eager to keep a safe and healthy home for us, for our friends, for our community. And besides, chickens like bugs, goats eat weeds. Heck, I actually enjoy pulling weeds. It's an odd meditative thing. My point is, I am comfortable with the trade-offs. We do not want to add to the chemical run-off streaming into the oceans. We don't want to increase the toxicity of the soil, the air, the water. We don't need to assault the earth with synthetic products that lose effectivity, cause chronic illness, kill beneficial life, and put our environment at risk. Wherever my children play, whatever the hens scratch and peck, I want to be sure that they are living in a cleaner, safer environment.

Even synthetic fertilizers put me off. Synthetically produced Nitrogen is a pollutant, they use nonrenewable fossil fuels to produce, and synthetic Nitrogen diminishes the health and fertility of the soil, making the soil and the plants weak. There is plenty of evidence, scientific and anecdotal, to prove to me that we are better off without pesticides and synthetic fertilizer, so let's just get to the good stuff! Because, there are so many wonderful resources out there, and good choices we can make!

We compost. I guess it's our own small scale Closed Loop Waste Model, just like EcoScraps'. Since our home composting operation is small, there are many times when we need to add a healthy, organic compost mix... like when filling new garden beds, or planting bare root fruit trees. Improving the garden soil is a key part in gardening success. And if there is one thing we want to enjoy, after digging, tilling, planting, watering, weeding and waiting... it's a successful harvest, from healthy and bountiful plants.

My mother-in-law saw all of our bags of EcoScraps Compost Mix waiting in the backyard, and she said, "I use EcoScraps, too!" She thinks it's good stuff. No poop. No chemicals. And working toward sustainability by reducing food waste in landfills: It is good stuff! And it's easy to find, too.

Organic matters, because my family matters. And it's a comfort knowing that we are trying to do things better. Maybe only in small ways, but still... it feels good. When we broke open the bags of Compost Mix that EcoScraps sent us, Maria noticed how dark and rich the soil looked, how much moisture it was holding. And she smelled it, saying "It smells really good, doesn't it?" I agreed. And she went on to tell me about how composting veggies don't smell too good, but when they are done, and have become composted soil, it smells really good. Remind me to thank the gardeners and teachers at her school. I love that she is learning these things!

And thank you, EcoScraps! We potted a sea lavender for inside the chicken run, which Lady Betty Orpington appreciates. And our garden bed is amended with your good smelling EcoScraps Compost Mix and planted with zinnias, kale, carrots, and beats... organic, of course! We'll keep you posted on the garden, the chickens, and goats, too, and we'll join the Compost Revolution!