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Last updated 11/17/09
by Bo Xu (boxu@)

Gardening & Composting at Butler

Below you can find information on gardening and some tips on composting

Gardening in Butler

Gardening Coordinators

Contact information is on the committee page. Please contact them with any questions regarding gardening at Butler.

Flower Beds Around Your Butler Apartment

You are allowed to plant flowers and ornamentals along the outside walls of your apartment (specifically, residents are allowed 18” from their house to personalize their unit. In order to avoid unintentional mowing of this area, residents are advised to cleary indicate this area with a border of some kind.).

You are not allowed to plant food-bearing plants near your apartment, however. Past use of lead-based paints on the buildings can endanger your health if you grow food for consumption near the units.

For the dangers and ill health affects of lead: New Jersey Fact Sheet

Community Garden

There is an organic community garden - with 24 full plots - at the east end of the complex for use by residents.

Are you interested in joining the Organic Butler Community Garden? All garden plots are currently occupied. You may request to be put on a waiting list. However, there are already many people on the list now. Please contact the Gardening Co-Coordinators for more information. Thank you!

For more information about the community garden (especially current gardeners), please check out the Butler Garden Blog.

Lyme disease

If you're gardening, you're outdoors, which means that you may be susceptible to Lyme Disease. New Jersey is unfortunately an area at risk for Lyme Disease. If you have any questions, the CDC has an excellent website, with photographs of what the pests look like who carry the disease and what the rash looks like that indicates the disease. Lyme Disease is a treatable illness. Click here for the CDC Lyme Disease page.

Gardening Rules

  • Anything that you put in the garden must be taken out by the following spring. (If you are leaving before then, please remove the fences, etc. before you leave).

    (Explanation: This year the grounds maintenance crew helped us by plowing the garden in preparation for the 2007 season. They are willing to help us plow every year in the event that the gardeners take the responsibility to clear the entire garden each spring.)

  • Do not use boards, stones, or bricks in the garden for pathways or borders to your garden (as they tend to sink down and get buried, which makes them almost impossible to dig out). For pathways, please use cardboard or brown paper bags with wood chips on top to hold them down. Absolutely do not put boards or heavy stones down, unless you put cardboard down first, and are only using the boards to hold the cardboard down (in this way the cardboard will prevent the boards and rocks from sinking).

  • Please put any trash that you see in the garden in garbage or grocery bags in the shed and put in the dumpster.

  • Do not block the composter.

  • For every bucket of compost that you add to the garden (banana peels, etc.) add a scoop of dry stuff (woods chips or leaf litter).

  • Do not add weeds to the composter.

  • Do not put rugs in the garden.

  • Remember that the garden is organic: thus we prohibit the use of certain pesticides considered dangerous.

  • No pressure treated lumber for posts, etc. This includes arsenic treated and ACQ treated.

    (Explanation: Prior to last year, pressure treated lumber was bathed in an arsenic solution. Recent studies in Satish Myneni's group from geosciences show that leafy vegetables take up massive quantities of arsenic from the soil when pressure treated lumber is nearby. Even plants 2-8 feet away from the lumber are contaminated. These plants will not look sick in any significant way, but I would worry about someone who eats a lot of these contaminated vegetables. Now, after an EPA imposed ban, lumber is treated with ACQ or other chemicals that contain copper. The government and manufacturers claim this is much safer than arsenic treated wood, but I'd like to be conservative with our garden. Copper is also toxic, and I imagine similar principles apply for copper uptake as for arsenic uptake. We really don't have a need for pressure treated lumber, since our gardeners aren't planning on staying for 10 years.)

Composting at Butler

All Butler residents are welcome and encouraged to contribute appropriate composting material. The Butler Gardeners appreciate your help in producing an organic fertilizer to keep the garden chemical free. Compost is an important ingredient to a healthy garden and we ask that you keep the following in mind when using the composters. Thanks.

A super-handy, printout-able, worthy of hanging on your fridge one page summary of composting tips is available here. This flyer provides the most current information about composting in Butler.

 

Please DO Compost:

  • Vegetable and fruit SCRAPS (not whole)
  • Bread, Rice, Pasta, Oatmeal
  • Coffee grounds, Tea bags (no staple)
  • Eggshells (rinsed and crushed)
  • Cornhusks
  • Garden clippings
  • Shredded BLACK&WHITE paper

Please DO NOT compost:

  • Pet droppings
  • Meat scraps or bones
  • Fish and Seafood
  • Dairy products, Greasy foods, Fat, Oil
  • Corncobs
  • Plastic or Metal  (NO PLASTIC BAGS)
  • Pine needles, Sticks, and Weeds.

 

HOW TO USE THE COMPOSTER:

  1. Open the composter (for composter 1: unlatch the panel on the bin; for composter 2: rotate and remove the lid) and add compost scraps (WET MATERIAL or the GREEN). The composters are in service alternatively. Check the bulletin board beside the composters to see which one is in use (other composters will be locked).
  2. Use the scoop to add DRY MATERIAL (or the BROWN) with the same WEIGHT of your added compost scraps from the provided dry material box. If the composter appears wet or has a strong odor, please ADD ADDITIONAL DRY MATERIAL to the mix.
  3. Close the composter (for composter 1: secure the latches; for composter 2: place the lid back and turn to lock it).
  4. Rotate the composter ONE FULL rotation to mix the added materials and assist the composting process.

    Contact the current garden coordinators if you have questions or need help with the composter.

    If the composter smells, what do I do? Please add more DRY MATERIAL.

    Carbon-rich materials (DRY BROWN materials such as dead leaves) are essential to help absorb moisture and aerate the food scrapes, so that the compost does not stay too wet and compact (which would create anaerobic decomposition which smells. We want aerobic composition to happen which does not smell.

    Nitrogen-rich materials (WET GREEN materials such as vegetable and fruit scraps) are also essential; without them the compost won't heat up. Nitrogen enables the microorganisms to break down the carbon materials.

    How does composting Work?

    Composting is the process of breaking down, or decomposing, organic matter. This requires 4 ingredients: carbon, nitrogen, air, and moisture. A compost heap is a tiny ecosystem with various micro-and macro-organisms doing their specific job.

    The bacteria secrete enzymes, which digest and break down the organic material. As they feed, they convert carbon to energy in the form of heat. Compost may reach as high as 170°F, killing weed seeds and disease organisms in the process.