二月十八日星期四下午三點到六點
，戴爾﹒席金斯教授將他的園藝課移至如來寺旁目前製做堆肥的地點，指導他的學生以及負責資源回收工作的幾位廚房執事人員，如何將聖城每日的廚房剩餘，轉化為一個成功的菜園。
他在一塊四呎平方的土地上，逐步示範如何將一堆廚餘做成堆肥。為了讓學員們明瞭正確的處理方法及原因，他不辭辛勞親自動手逐步操作，並請姜曉明居士一一翻譯成中文。
學員們先將土壤挖鬆，以便空氣流通。其餘成員則分組預備堆肥所需的材料；有的收集橡樹葉〈非大型楓葉〉；有的收集動物糞便。收齊後，席金斯教授指導大家將兩者混合平均，再將廚餘接入。最後堆成略呈四方型，四呎寬，四呎高的堆肥。完成之後，在堆肥的表面鋪上薄薄的一層肥料〈動物糞便〉，再噴上調了菌粉的清水，約二十加侖。
整個堆製過程歷時三小時，但仍需再等三個月左右，堆肥才能完全腐化分解，成為可供種菜的沃土。這期間，每月應予翻動一次；每一星期應持續製造一處堆肥。如此一堆一堆地累積，不久就可完成一片可供種植的菜園了。
因此席金斯教授此次不僅是現場示範製做堆肥的步驟，同時也教導學員們如何將每日的菜葉殘渣，轉化成一片可供種菜的園地。
雖然整個過程似乎費時冗長，然而以長遠的眼光來看，這能夠解決聖城內一些麻煩：諸如水果盛產季節的果蠅問題；有效處理拉圾以保持衛生等等
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On the afternoon of Thursday, Feb. 18,
between 3:00-6:00, Professor Dale Higgins took his
landscaping class and members of the kitchen recycling crew
to the compost site beside Tathagata Monastery. He showed
them how to transform the City's daily kitchen refuse into a
potential vegetable garden.
On a four foot by four foot plot, the
group was shown a step by step method of building a compost
heap from kitchen garbage that was collected during the day.
He painstakingly demonstrated the entire process, explaining
to the group the reason behind each step. One of the
students, Charmaine, translated his instructions into
Chinese.
Some members of the group busied
themselves in digging the soil to aerate the piece of plot
for the compost site. Others coordinated the supply of
materials needed to make the compost heap. Some gathered a
pile of oak leaves (not sycamore leaves), while others
gathered manure. When piles of oak leaves and manure had
been gathered, Professor Higgins asked the group to mix the
two together. Then the kitchen garbage for the day was added
in. The new heap was arranged into a 4' x 4' x 4' squarish
mound. Another thin layer of manure was spread over the
mound, and then the mound was sprinkled with approximately
twenty gallons of bacteria-treated water.
The entire process took nearly three
hours. It will take roughly three months for the heap to
decompose and become ripe for vegetation. The mound has to
be turned once a month. For the plot to turn into a
vegetable garden, the process must be repeated every week.
By adding to the plot bit by bit every week, we will soon
have a site ready for plant growth.
Not only did Professor Higgins perform a
hands-on demonstration of how to do a good compost, he also
taught students the proper steps of turning the City's small
plot into a potential vegetable garden by utilizing the
daily kitchen debris.
Although the entire process seems tedious
at the outset, if one were to look far ahead, the City
should be able to address some problems such as minimizing
flies during the fruit season and maintaining good
sanitation.
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