| Bits and Pieces of interest to composters |
10-Yard Penalty for Roughing the Planet?
By Deb, February 10, 2010
It does my heart good when composting gets a mainstream mention, and it’s hard to get more mainstream than a commercial during the 4th quarter of this year’s Super Bowl.
In case you were in the kitchen grabbing a final plateful of nachos when it aired, the “Green Police” ad featured a force of eco-cops issuing citations for all kinds of insults to the environment—choosing a plastic bag at the checkout counter, disposing of batteries in the trash, drinking from foam cups. When they catch a man about to throw vegetable trimmings into the garbage can, helicopters shine floodlights through the kitchen windows, as a voice over a bullhorn pronounces, “That’s a compost infraction!” Sweet.
Even if heavy-handed enforcement seems unlikely to win hearts and minds to the worthy causes of recycling, energy conservation, and composting, it’s encouraging to think about millions of Super Bowl viewers getting the message—in a humorous, high-quality presentation—that each of us needs to do his part to preserve the environment. Will it make a difference? Audi is betting on the ad (for their clean diesel car) to attract enough buyers to make it worth the money spent placing it in TV’s priciest time slot. A compost advocate can hope that the ad will pay off for the planet, too, by moving even a small percentage of those viewers to change a light bulb, to bring a reusable bag to the store, to start a compost pile. That’s a Super Bowl victory we can all cheer about!
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| Composting Comes to the White House |
By Barbara
July 4, 2009
I believe that growing a food garden of any size will make you a better person and lead to a happier life. It is therefore deeply pleasing to see our new president and his family sharing this belief – and setting an example -- by growing an organic food garden. The garden's design looked great from the get-go, but I’ve been wondering about the White House Kitchen Garden’s composting plans.
A new video (Click here or use the YouTube player above) made by the White House staff shows a lovely multi-bin unit made of wood, which should work pretty well as long as it stays shut. In summer, I like to use enclosed composting units with lids for composting food waste, because a healthy population of flying insects is part of the scene. They are drawn as much by moisture as by food, but covering each bucket of wet waste with several handfuls of pulled weeds or spent plants before popping on the lid keeps the critters at reasonable levels.
Some folks (presumably non-composters) have expressed concern about insects in the White House compost, which I find curious. The only real troublemakers – yellow jackets – won’t become a nuisance until their colonies fall apart in late summer. Until then, insects in and around the compost may appear wild and excitable, but they will do more good than harm.
Every food garden is a work in progress that changes for the better with each passing season, and I hope for precisely this future for the White House garden. Four years of constant composting will work wonders for the soil, not just in DC but maybe in your town, too. In the world of compost gardening, four years is plenty of time to transform “yes I can” into “see we did.”
Want to follow developments at the White House Kitchen Garden? Your best source is Susan Reimer's blog for the Baltimore Sun.
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| Photo by Donna Chiarelli |
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| Scratch Your Gardening Itch
By Deb, 2/21/08
When an unseasonably warm, sunny day interrupts otherwise wintry weather in your area, let compost save you from the urge to jump the gun on the year's gardening agenda. While it's still too early to prune or plant, take advantage of a mild spell to turn a pile or to lay the groundwork for a new compost project. Help a "walking" compost heap take another step or gather up ingredients such as dried leaves or ornamental grasses that you didn't have time to tend during the busier fall months.
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During a recent stretch of mild weather I was able to harvest finished, cured compost from one of my heaps. I shoveled my supply of "brown gold" in a plastic mesh bag that once held grass seed and stashed it in the garage. When it's time to start seeds and fill pots, I'll have easy access to my compost, even on cold, wet days when I can't get out to the heap.
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| Photo by Deb Martin |
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| Kids Get It!
By Deb, May 2, 2008
I might have come in second to the Audubon guys handing out “Winged Migration” bird stickers at the DaVinci Science Center’s Earth Day fest, but my bin full of wiggly worms was a popular stop. Earthworms are durable! Many small hands sifted through the shredded newspaper bedding and many small voices squealed in delight when they spotted their quarry.
Take note:
• For every adult who looked at me like I was crazy when I said I kept the bin in my basement and put carrot peels and coffee grounds in it, there were four or five kids who thought it was the coolest thing they’d ever seen.
•Spending time with kids and talking to them about compost is a good way to raise your hopes about the future. There’s a lot of doom and gloom out there, and plenty for each of us to do in terms of helping our planet recover from centuries of human-centric behavior.
•Kids really get it! They care about the environment, and they understand how much every action matters. And that’s good, because our future—and the worms’—is in their hands.
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Upon reflection…
Gardening provides ample reasons and resources for making compost, but even non-gardeners can benefit from compost projects that divert kitchen scraps out of the waste stream. You know, the one that flows to the landfill in big, fuel-guzzling trucks. For folks who pay for trash collection based on how much they throw away, composting is a no-brainer way to cut costs by cutting down on what gets carried to the curb.
Meanwhile, we all need to remember that the “away” in “throw away” is a costly illusion. It all has to wind up someplace—usually a rapidly filling landfill. Although Earth Day only happens once a year, each of us should use it as a reminder to do whatever we can to reduce wastes, reuse whatever we can, and recycle as much as possible. The little actions of lots of people can add up to make a big difference, just as the little actions of lots of worms adds up to fertile soil that supports a rich ecosystem.
If you want to boost the worm factor in your gardens without tending a vermicompost bin, just put out some “worm welcome mats.” By mulching the soil with wet newspaper or corrugated cardboard, covered with a more attractive layer of grass clippings, pine straw or wood chips, you can create just-right conditions for a healthy population of earthworms. In my own garden, I use cardboard to cover the pathways. When it’s moist, there almost always are earthworms underneath; in drier conditions, the worms tend to go deep while crickets and ground beetles congregate there.
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| Photo by Donna Chiarelli |
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Brent and Becky's
Not-so-Secret Stash
By Barbara, April 8, 2008
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| Photo by Donna Chiarelli |
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April 8, 2008
Recently I was among a handful of garden writers who descended upon Brent and Becky's Bulbs in Gloucester, VA. The spring-flowering bulbs in Brent and Becky's home gardens were at their peak, but all that eye-popping beauty didn't keep me from being distracted by Brent's secret treasure – a 40 foot long column of compost! Comprised mostly of stable litter from the neighbor's horses (high quality horse manure and wood shavings), it has lots of old mulches and grass clippings in there, too. Using the compost mix calculator provided by the Klickitat County, WA, Solid Waste managers, my eyeball guesstimate yielded a C/N ratio around 40/1 – a great balance for heaps like Brent's, that are rarely turned and allowed to perk along at their own speed.
Besides using plenty of compost for overall soil improvement, Brent says he plants bulbs right on top of the ground and then covers them with mounds of compost in sites where the soil is gunky clay. And here's a great tip from Becky: plant sunflowers near spring-flowering bulbs to shade the ripening foliage from hot summer sun.
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