NEWS

Q&Amy: The big green ball on East North Street

Amy Clarke Burns
aburns@greenvillenews.com

Q: What is the large sphere in a front yard on East North Street?

Amy in short: Thank you, kind reader, for asking this so that I had an excuse to call the homeowner and ask the question my sons have been asking me for years. It's a composter.

A bit more: Eighty-year-old Dennis Neves is the resident of that home on East North Street and owner of the giant green (or maybe blue or blue-green) ball, a mystery of such rampant proportions that it inspired its own Facebook page (complete with seven check-ins).

"It makes people ask questions. Works good at it," Neves quipped of the not one, but two, yard balls he's owned.

Neves said he first saw an advertisement for the composting ball in an organic gardening magazine. Sometime later he bought one through Alpine Industries, an air purifier company with a marketing wing.

A brochure on the yard ball from the time — easily dated by the high-waisted, acid-washed jeans the woman in the photo is wearing — boasts that it turns 15 bushels of grass or leaves into "concentrated nutrient nuggets" in 10 days.

Load the debris up, add some water and "dissolved catalyst," and roll it around. Repeat daily.

It has, according to the brochure, "a pleasant, earth-shape appearance."

"It does a real good job, but it's a lot of work. I find it easier just to throw the leaves in a big pile and let them rot. Takes a lot longer, ain't near as much work," Neves said.

Now the yard ball is just around for the fun of it, he said. His first one was stolen a few years ago, so he replaced it.

"This one I chained to the tree," he said. "It prevents strong winds or sticky hands from running away with it."

If you're inclined to have a spinning composter of your own, modern versions are available at severalonlineretailers, though mostly in black these days.

Got a question? Send it to Q&Amy by emailing me at aburns@greenvillenews.com or calling 864-298-3822. You can find me on Twitter at @QandAmyNews.