Sustainability at Home: How to feed your soil with compost
The UCOP Sustainability Affinity Group, in partnership with the UCOP Department of Energy and Sustainability, invites the UC community to participate in “Sustainability at Home,” a three-part virtual speaker series event in celebration of Earth Month (April).
Our second event will take place on Thursday, March 25, from 12-1 p.m., with a presentation by three San Mateo County Office of Sustainability Master Composters, Nancy Kruberg, Joe Lees and Kelly Torikai. These experts will discuss how you can be sustainable at home by transforming food scraps and plant trimmings into a nutrient-rich soil amendment for your garden. Learn how to partner with soil food web organisms in both backyard compost piles and vermicompost bins. Come join us for this lunchtime presentation – we’re serving up some compost tea!
Speakers
- Nancy Kruberg has been a San Mateo County Office of Sustainability Master Composter since 2014 and a UC Master Gardener of San Mateo and San Francisco Counties since 2018. She has studied the soil food web and microscopy with Elaine Ingham since 2015, gardens regeneratively on her suburban hobby farm and composts using thermophilic, cold/static and vermiculture methods.
- Joe Lees has been a San Mateo County Office of Sustainability Master Composter since 2008 and now teaches the training course. He has been a UC Master Gardener of San Mateo and San Francisco Counties since 2009 and enjoys growing vegetables in foggy coastal climates. Joe makes one batch of thermophilic compost per year and tends a cold/static compost pile and a couple of worm bins.
- Kelly Torikai has been a San Mateo County Office of Sustainability Master Composter since 2008 and a UC Master Gardener of San Mateo and San Francisco Counties since 2018. She manages a cold/static backyard compost bin, several worm bins and enjoys sharing sustainable and organic gardening principles with others.
About the Sustainability at Home series
Part one of our speaker series was a huge success! Over 120 people Zoomed-in to watch UC Master Gardener Shilpa Thanawala demonstrate how we can be sustainable at home by planting spring herbs and vegetables.
Join us next month for the third and final Sustainability at Home presentation! UCOP Director of Sustainability Matthew St. Clair will get our Earth Month celebration started, followed by a UC Master Food Preserver presentation on canning, pickling and dehydration.
To learn more about the Sustainability Affinity Group, please contact Michael Aires or Donna Seaward.
Tags: compost, sustainability, UCOP Sustainability Group