Dumpster Diving Mulch For NoMi Revitalization!

Photo and blog post by John Hoff

No doubt about it, the lifestyle of NoMi "revitalizers" is a frugal, green, and creative way of life. We do stuff like...

Dumpster dive garden mulch!

Yes, indeed, these bags of perfectly good garden mulch were...

...just thrown out as garbage at a garden supply store in an affluent southern suburb, I won't say which one. Each of the bags had a hole in it, but not a hole big enough to spill all the contents. In one instance, a MUSHROOM was growing out of a hole, and in another instance, some kind of green clover was growing out of a hole because, apparently, the bags had been sitting around with holes for quite a while. Most of the bags were high-quality cypress mulch, but there were also a couple bags of cow manure. (Heck of a thing, when you have to dumpster dive for manure)

The bags were set out BESIDE the dumpster, not INSIDE the dumpster, but it was still a case of dumpster diving. There were so many bags, it took two trips to get all the mulch.

The bags ended up back in NoMi where they will become part of our never-ending revitalization effort. Every day--seriously, EVERY DAY--frugal, green, artistic NoMi dwellers engage in these types of recyle, reuse, and RECOVERY efforts. But on this particular day I just happened to take a picture so guess what? It goes up on the blog.