Barrie's great pumpkin is a national winner
Barrie residents' compost grew massive pumpkins (on the left) weighing 375.5 lbs. and a 256.5 lbs pumpkin on the right. Mon., Oct. 16, 2023 (CITY OF BARRIE)
A great pumpkin is worth its weight in compost.
The City of Barrie was awarded the grand prize in this year's Compost Council of Canada's Great Pumpkin National Growing Contest.
The city's solid waste operations staff grew a winner that weighed 375.5 lbs. this year, exceeding the city's previous award-winning giant pumpkin in 2021 at 310 lbs.
The pumpkin is grown in compost from yard waste collected from Barrie residents.
The winning municipality receives bragging rights, as well as $500 towards a horticultural initiative.
Compost is generated from Barrie's annual leaf and yard waste collection program and is processed according to the Ontario Guidelines for compost quality. Yard waste is collected weekly in Barrie during October and November.
In order to produce Grade AA quality compost, it's important to keep yard waste contaminant-free.
Acceptable and unacceptable yard waste items are:
Acceptable yard waste items:
- Leaves and brush
- Grass clippings
- Sod
- Garden waste
- Bales of straw
- Tree trimmings
- Christmas trees
- Download the CTV News app to get local alerts on your device
- Get the latest local updates sent to your email inbox
Unacceptable yard waste items:
- Kitchen waste
- Milled lumber
- Stumps or tree limbs with a diameter larger than 10 centimetres
- Tree limbs longer than six feet
- Unbundled brush or street sweepings
- Dirt or rocks
- Plastic pots and plastic packaging
- Garbage
Residents are encouraged to use the Waste Item Lookup tool and visit Barrie's Compost Program, and Yard Waste Collection web pages.
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