Green Living by Janet Marchant: Bringing Your Easter Leftovers Back to Life

Some Spring holidays have always put greenness front and center, as illustrated by the photo below, and last week I gave you what I hope were helpful pointers on how to make your Easter green, too!


Now that all of the organic chocolate bunnies have been eaten, and your children have broken or swallowed all of the wee plastic toys that were cunningly concealed inside their plastic Easter eggs, there's nothing left to do but clean up. What is one to do with those empty plastic eggshells and plastic Easter grass? Obviously, using them again next year is out of the question. Your children need fresh, clean, Easter eggs with their antimicrobial coating still intact. Besides, how would you store all those eggs and grass in a place where you could be sure of finding them a year from now?


Fortunately, there's a simple solution to these problems. It turns out that grass decomposes quickly, releasing helpful nitrogen into the soil, so you can just take that Easter grass and sprinkle it on your lawn or compost heap. If you are new to this composting idea, remember that worms are essential for creating good soil. That's why you should save a few Easter gummi worms to add to your backyard Easter grass pile. Be sure to match the color of the worms to the color of your Easter grass to provide the natural camouflage that is essential to successful gummivermiculture. Otherwise, the gummi worms might be devoured by the petrified marshmallow Peeps on the pile before they can do their wormy composting business.


I'm not sure if there is anything that is naturally inclined to eat marshmallow Peeps, but at least they'll be out of your house if you put them on the compost pile. Apparently, they can become violent if confined indoors for too long, and no chocolate candy will be safe if that happens.


If I ever find out more about useful backyard Peep predators, I'll be sure to fill you in on that in a future column. Meanwhile, enjoy your Spring greening!