AHUMC Green Team

Almaden Hills strives to be a church that cares about all aspects of our faith. Part of our faith includes caring for the earth and creation around us. Almaden Hills is a certified Green Business. Our Green Team focuses on "greening" the church through Worship, Education, Building and Grounds, Discipleship and Advocacy. We encourage you to get involved. For more information, please contact Leslie Hallenbeck.

 

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Greening Our Celebrations

The Green Team has prepared a set of guidelines for keeping our celebrations and other events "green." Click here for details!

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Help Us to Recycle!

The Green Team is collecting CA Redemption aluminum, plastic, and glass on the first Sunday morning of every month. Just drop them off on your way to church, in the area adjacent to the office building. Thank you for your donations, especially those of you who have crushed and sorted before bringing them. Many thanks, also, to the adults and children who have helped crush and sort each month. The money is used for green projects in the church.

A Bit About Compost

Composting is basically nature's way of recycling. If a pile of leaves is left alone, it will eventually decompose, but if mixed together with a little moisture, the process speeds up and we get compost, that wonderful soil amendment that's rich in nutrients.

Composting doesn't need to be complicated. There are plenty of myths, rules and adages but the truth is, compost happens, whether you help it or not. There is no "right way" to do it. Composting can be as hard or as easy as you want it to be. For instance, the rule of "two parts brown to one part green" may be helpful but isn't absolutely necessary. Keeping the ingredients balanced -- in our case, dead leaves and cut grass -- is just an optional formula.

Turning the compost pile on a regular basis is also an option. You can do it to satisfy your own curiosity but turning the pile to increase oxygen content is not really necessary. Unless the pile is overly wet, oxygen gets into the pile just fine. Turning does help mix materials and break them into smaller pieces, so go ahead, grab a pitchfork and dig in.

"Hot" compost is also not necessarily better than "cold" compost. The temperature of the compost doesn't affect the final product. In fact, some say well cured compost contains a more diverse bacteria count than its super-heated coun- terpart. Most "experts" would also say that compost is ready when you can no longer recognize the original ingredi- ents. Yet many plants thrive in trenches and holes filled with compost-in-progress and immature compost is great for layering on neglected soil.

So, the point is, compost happens and it doesn't have to be messy or complicated or time consuming to get a usable product.