G3 Associates Ashley Parrish-Decker and Jill Sarick-Santos, teamed up with others at the City of Ventura, CA for some Mulch Madness. The City of Ventura purchased compost from Agromin, 80 yards for two parks, and allowed people to come an pick up as much mulch as they could get in their buckets, bags and truck beds. It was a great success, since by noon all 80 yards were gone.
Jill, the Environmental Specialist with the City of Ventura, and Ashley, the Ventura Chapter Chair for Surfrider’s Ocean Friendly Gardens Program and a G3 instructor, are both major cheerleaders for G3 principles and techniques.
At G3 we call Mulch “The low hanging fruit”. If you aren’t ready to rip out your lawn quite yet, mulching in areas where you have barren soil is certainly something you can do to help your soil and save on water. If you have already removed your lawn and are ready to boost up the life in your soil mulch is a key ingredient for sheet mulching.
The event was a great success, and an important one to have at least once a year. Most every city offers free mulch and sometimes compost to its citizens, but not many people are aware of it. G3 hopes to make a much bigger deal of this next year. Managing member Pamela Berstler has been saying for years “forget March Madness and focus on Mulch Madness instead, since spring is a great time to do some maintenance work on Ocean Friendly Gardens.”
