I recorded the video above earlier today in mynjgarden.com in Bayville, NJ in Ocean County. Yesterday I had a discussion on Instagram with the owner of a local juice bar and organic cafe called Ocean Organics. I reached out to them to ask them if I could come by their store and pick up some of the fruit and veggie pulp waste that they create when they make all of their delicious, fresh organic juices. They said that they would set a bag aside for me. Hooray!
I stopped by Ocean Organics today to buy some fresh juice and some golden oats that I thought were really tasty and I introduced myself to the folks in the store. Evan was super helpful and gave me a big garbage bag of pulp. While I was there we talked about permaculture and he told me that he’s part of the Toms River Moving Forward Group – this is a group of local permaculture fans and volunteers who organize community gardens in the area. Here’s their mission statement from their Facebook group: “Our goal is to inspire, educate and encourage sustainable and regenerative environmental relationships between the people, their culture, and locally grown food.” This is a link to their site: https://www.trmovingforward.com/. These guys sound like a group after my own heart! I can’t wait to get involved with the projects they are working on!
When I got home, I spread that pulp all around my gardens… a shovel full here… a shovel full there…
If I had more, I would definitely have been able to use it. I would have spread it all through my struggling, sandy LAWN if I could… but for now, I just gave the plants that are coming up slowly a little extra boost of nitrogen. Full disclosure, Evan DID warn me that I should mix the pulp with some carbon like wood chips before using it in my gardens – but I was spreading a pretty thin layer and I don’t think there is any harm in applying that amount directly to the beds. The ONLY drawback I can see is that it might attract some wildlife cause it smelled AMAZING! I bet critters could smell that fresh fruit and veggies from far, far away.
It was a couple of hours after I shot the video before the rain started, but I wasn’t disappointed – it got to us eventually and watered everything really well today.
I’ve decided to start a new annual post on this blog called Garden Roll Call. I just started planting in this yard last spring, so I can list everything I’ve planted so far and when it was installed. By the time I had left the old house, I was confused about a few of the fruit trees and berry bushes… had they been in for 4 years, or 5? So I plan to make a post of all the plants in the yard (at least the perennials), when I put them in and how they are doing and when they started producing. I think this will be helpful over time, especially if I have years that produce better crops than others. Perhaps logging this information will help me figure out why and best practices for my micro-climates.