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Fall Leaf Drop-Off Hours

We accept leaves, as well as, plant discards, tree branches, and unused potted soil.

October 26 – December 30, 2021

Same time as our public food waste drop-off hours.
When the garden is open:

Tuesdays 1:30 – 3:30 pm

Thursdays 3:30 – 6 pm

Saturdays 2 – 4 pm

For more information and other leaf drop-off sites, visit nyc.gov/drop-fall-leaves

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Food Waste Drop-Off Notice, Updated

For our 24-hour drop-off to resume: 

  1. We need volunteers*.
    To volunteer, go to downtoearthgarden.org/volunteer (online signup form).
    * Goal: 14+ volunteers, 2 per day, each choosing a day/week, + backups.
  1. Sanitation (DSNY) to restart their Curbside Composting**.
    Resumption of DSNY’s pickup service depends on how many have signed up within the neighborhood. Please have your building consider signing up: nyc.gov/curbsidecomposting

** Curbside Composting (organic waste pickup) — Pre-pandemic, DSNY picked up about 40% of our food waste; we composted 60% in-garden.
So, in order for a 24-hour drop-off to not overwhelm us, we need both: volunteers and DSNY to resume their pickup.

For further information, visit downtoearthgarden.org/composting

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Food Waste Drop-Off Notice

For our 24-hour drop-off to resume again: 

  1. We need at least 11 volunteers (our pre-pandemic number), but now, ideally 14* or more to fully cover 7 days a week (2 volunteers per day).

* One of our main volunteers was able to do 3 or 4 days a week pre-pandemic, including covering for others; and now, only 1 day, maybe 2 days, a week. So, need more volunteers.

To volunteer, see downtoearthgarden.org/volunteer

  1. Sanitation (DSNY) is expected to restart their organic waste pickup this fall. Pre-pandemic, DSNY picked up about 40% of our food waste, while we were able to process 60% in-garden. So, in order to make sure our 24-hour drop-off will not overwhelm us, we need both: enough volunteers and DSNY to resume their pickup. 

For further information, visit downtoearthgarden.org/composting

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Help Clean Up Our Block, National Day of Service 1/18/21 Mon 1:30 pm

In honor of MLK,  the 12th Street Block Association along with Down to Earth Garden is participating in the National Day of Service by working together to make our block a better place to live by doing a street tree clean up, replacing tree guards for our new trees, and in preparation for spring planting. 

Please join us at Down to Earth Garden, corner of 12 St and Ave B,  Monday Jan 18 at 1:30 to honor MLK and help clean up our block.

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EM-5 bokashi workshop online 11/21/20 Sat 1pm

Contact us or email us to attend.

This workshop focuses on making EM-5, which is mainly used as a foliar spray for plants and trees (providing nutrients through the leaves). We also use it to spray down the entire garden as a microbial inoculant, including into our composting bins, as well as, dealing with odor problems (rat odors, dog urine on leaves, etc.)

The recipe includes the same base ingredients (blackstrap molasses and EM-1) we use to make the wheat bran bokashi sprinkle and the Activated EM (“bokashi spray”) for bokashi composting. The other ingredients are apple cider vinegar, 40% alcohol (the cheapest vodka, tequila, or whiskey), and optionally garlic cloves and hot spicy peppers (Scoville rating of 25,000 SHU or higher), such as cayenne, habañero, and ghost peppers.

For the full recipe and application rates: https://recyclefoodwaste.org/files/EM-5foliar.pdf

For further information on bokashi composting, visit recyclefoodwaste.org.