Jamaica Plain Man Runs Car-Free Composting Service

Andy Brooks started Bootstrap Compost in January 2011. He'll pick up your compost on foot, by bike or on the T.

Bootstrap Compost is the brainchild of Andy Brooks. In January 2011, the longtime JP resident launched the service. Bootstrap Compost will pick up discarded food waste at your home, and turn your garbage into rich garden compost. The idea occurred to Brooks while visiting Montpelier, Vermont, where he was inspired by a similar service called Earthgirl Composting.  Brooks, who has worked as a writer, musician, and started a t-shirt company, explained that he was tired of looking for work for more than a year. “I called it Bootstrap because it was a way of empowering myself and the community with everyone doing their part,” he said.  Prices for the service start at $8 for a pick-up every two weeks.  (Customers who contract for extended 8 or …

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Growing Greener

Compost — The Urban Gardener's Silver Bullet

From backyard gardens to condo complexes, it's time for JP gardeners to find ways to recycle waste to create compost — for all the ills of the garden!

October, New England’s finest month. The sky is never bluer, and the autumn leaves have begun their quiet circus of color.  Some people are humming melancholy tunes about leaves tumbling down and feeling nostalgic about the fleeting joys of summer, but gardeners who know The Secret are smiling to themselves. The Secret: If there is a silver bullet that can solve just about any gardener’s problems, it is compost, an incredible resource which those in the know will be creating from those autumn leaves. Yes, if the soil in your garden sticks together like clay and nothing drains well, compost could fix it. If the soil in your garden won’t stick together at all – it’s like sand and all the water drains right away — compost could make it better…

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