Celebrate Life, Compost!
Celebrate Life, Compost! By Rob Arner What better way to celebrate life then composting. Compost pays: it reduces the need for fertilizers, waters and pesticides; extends the life of landfills; prevents erosion, stormwater runoff and degrades many types of pollutants; enriches soils besides providing numerous additional benefits. George Washington was one of our nation's first dedicated composters. As archaeological excavations at Mount Vernon have revealed, Washington was a pioneer of progressive farming, who constantly experimented on how to make his soil more fertile since tobacco depleted his farm. The Mount Vernon dung repository is the only structure of its type documented to exist in colonial America . Washington placed a high priority on careful management of the land and its resources. He not only experimented with organic materials and animal manure but also rejected such farming practices of his day as shallow plowing, which led to erosion of the