Kelle Rankin-Sunter: Community gardening educator

Why did you start Blaine CORE?

I started the CORE program in 2010 after lots of neighbors walking by would just say, ‘Wow, you’re growing this in your garden. How did you know how to do that?’ And I kept thinking, God, wouldn’t it be great to have a demonstration garden in Blaine?

I wasn’t going to form a 501(c)(3) to plant fruit trees — that was crazy. So I went to the library, and I said, ‘Can I teach a class on pruning fruit trees?’ And we had over 50 people in that very first class. Then people would say, ‘Can you teach about starting a garden? Can you teach us about how to build soil?’ And so I expanded, and now we teach 30 to 40 classes a year on gardening and life skills. We have over 2,000 people on our email list.

And these are all free. It’s my gift to my community.

Do you have a favorite class?

I would have to say pruning is one of my big favorites, just because it’s so beautiful to take a tree that’s completely overgrown and out of control and help people get it back in shape and make it beautiful, and put it back into production of fruit again.

What is the Bookworms fundraising project?

The library had these totes for transporting books from one branch to another. They’re plastic. They’re nice and sturdy. We wanted to keep them out of the landfill. I’ve actually lusted after the totes before, because wow, those would make awesome worm bins. 

I take some home and immediately start shredding newspaper and collecting my kitchen compost, and called my friend to get red wigglers, because she has had worm bins for forever. 

All last summer, I kept them under a bush, fed them kitchen waste, and they absolutely thrived. I had an entire box full of worms by the end of the summer. 

I told Friends of the Blaine Library: CORE will retrofit the totes; supply each tote with instructions, cardboard, shredded newspaper and live worms; sell them … and all the money comes back to the library. 

People who are limited to their living situation and want to keep yard waste and kitchen waste out of the landfill could have a worm bin. It’s neat, it’s tidy, it’s not huge. 

We don’t have 100 totes, we don’t have 200 totes. We have 800 totes that need a home. So whether you want to buy a tote just to use for organizing your life, or whether you want to have a full blown worm bin, which I strongly encourage, because they’re wonderful pets, come to the library.

How can someone get a Bookworms bin?

You can come to the Blaine Library and buy totes right off the shelf for $10, with a solid bottom or grate bottom. If you are storing something that needs lots of airflow, like Dahlia tubers, or maybe you want to pick the produce in your garden and be able to hose it off, you can use it to do that. 

If you want the solid totes, they’re great for packing like an emergency kit in your car, or maybe crafts for your kids, or books, or whatever. 

The in-ground worm bin is $20 and the three-bin system with worms is $50. You come to the library, you pay for it, and you put down your contact info on a list, and then I reach out and find out when you want to take delivery because obviously we don’t want to have live worms sitting in the library getting really, really hungry.

I don’t mind delivering to Bellingham or Everson or Lynden. I have an electric car. I get 170 miles per gallon equivalent to gas.

Find more information about Bookworms on the Whatcom County Library website.