Weekend Compost - The males produce thicker and larger spears

My original intent was to do a "Friday Compost" (I call it this because the main stream news is rotten to read, and this is a great alternative) every Friday. But I suddenly found myself extremely busy, and then Blogger.com started having issues this week. I was also generating huge spikes in readers when I started blogging about work life balance. Based on work life balance popularity, and the fact that my gardening occurs on the weekends, Friday Compost will now be called Weekend Compost, and be the garden chronicle. I will write and post as I get time on weekends when I have something to write about. I'd rather garden than write about it.

Gifts from making lunch

Most of our vegetable seeds germinated very well (thanks Door  Gunner!). I moved a few of the lettuce to the garden last weekend, and am leaving the softer plants under the cold frame until next weekend. The carrot ends I saved while putting together lunch a couple of months ago have sprouted and are growing. See the results in the pics on the right.

There are so many vegetables we purchase that have all we need to grow them again. By doing this, we get more bang for our shopping bucks! Some examples of regrowable vegetables are potatoes, carrots, onions, scallions, and many more I am probably not thinking of. What did I miss? Add your favorite grocery store gifts to the comments below.

Four of the gifts have taken root
(the ferns in the black pots are the carrots)

We are anxiously awaiting our bees. A friend ordered a few hives, and decided she only wanted two, so we are hoping to get one hive very soon. My honey's bee keeper suit arrived last week, and she looked pretty awesome (and sexy) in the white suit with the head net. Maybe she'll let me post pictures of her in it once the bees arrive.

My "big" project for this weekend was to install a critter fence around the garden. We have a very large chipmunk and squirrel population, and they are wards of the yard, eating all they can get. If only I could convince the chipmunks that squirrels taste good, and vice versa. After much research online, we settled on a Mr. McGregor's fence kit. It came in quickly, and I was able to install it in about an hour. So much for a big project. I still need to dig in the edges of the plastic, and remove more grass for the veggie garden. I also need to move the lettuce from the temporary cage on the left, into the garden. Okay, so I measured wrong the first time around. The bird feeder will also find a new home.

I am a man who reads instructions

We spent part of Saturday taking part in Garden Conservancy 's Open Days. We've participated in this for years. It is a great way to see local gardens, and we always leave with inspiration we apply at home. As we left one site, a home owner nearby was selling loads of perennials in pots. We filled my honey's Miata with so many plants that I had to peer through the foliage of a Day Lilly as we headed home. Pictures of the plants will follow at some point.

We just ordered Asparagus and more Rhubarb for our gardens. We never realized that there are males and females. For the sake of any potential Asparagus social activities, we were going to get a gender mix of 50/50 males to females. As we read more about Asparagus, we found that males produce thicker and larger spears, since they don't produce as many seeds. That was the clincher. We purchased males, since we wanted a more prolific plant in terms of food production.

Looks like the rain is easing up, time to get back to gardening...

The Friday Compost - all the news that's fit to rot

Let it rot. That's our motto. We even rot some of the newspapers that we peel our root veggies onto. The newspaper may not be organic, but in the overall scheme of things, they probably add less to soil contamination than the fallout of the car exhausts from the 900,000 people living in my county.

This morning's Friday Compost before turning it over

Composting is very simple. I've done this for years. You only need four things - nitrogen, carbon, water, and heat. Nature will do the rest. Nitrogen is basically anything green, and comes from the various vegetable scraps we accumulate during food preparation, the few times I catch our grass clippings, and from the occasional refrigerator reject. Carbon is brown - or dead, like yesterday's news - and is primarily tree branches, leaves, or any other items that aren't green. Water is crucial to the rotting process. Keeping your compost wet will keep it rotting. Keeping the compost hot will help it rot faster.

There are several ways to generate heat. One time I dumped our fireplace ash into the compost, and didn't realize it had hot embers in it. The ensuing smoke and fire was exciting, but NOT the way to generate heat. A good way to generate heat is to dump some of your grass clippings on top, but you are better off leaving the clippings on the lawn. Last year we purchased a plastic composting bin with a lid, and this black container generates heat from the solar gain of being exposed to the sun. After years of open composting, I am sold on the value of a good plastic bin with a lid.

We keep a small container on our counter, and when we prepare food, we toss the scraps in it. Every morning before work, I empty the container into the compost bin. I do this year-round. I have yet to run out of space, and we eat lots of vegetables and fruit. We also add egg shells, coffee grinds, tea leaves, and of course, the fireplace ash. After I confirm there are no hot embers remaining.

There seems to be a common myth that compost smells bad. Trust me, it doesn't smell bad. Through a new Google feature called "Rub and Sniff", if you rub your monitor where the compost picture is (below), and then smell your finger, you will experience what compost smells like from 3 feet away. Then wipe the finger smudge from your monitor. Placing the compost by your property boundary closest to your least desirable neighbor is a waste of effort. Place it close enough to make it convenient to use, and far enough away to not trip over it.

Friday Compost turned over

There are a few things you must do to keep your compost healthy. You must turn it a few times a week. I use a spading fork for this. You must also ensure that the contents of your compost bin is making contact with the ground. This allows for worms, and beneficial bacteria to migrate into the pile and speed the composting process. I use the handle from a broken garden tool to open gaps in the muck, and this lets the compost fall to the bottom after I remove compost from the access door at the bottom. I have taken about 5 shovels of great compost from the pile so far this year, and this is what was produced over the winter. I expect to get loads more as the weather warms and I start to turn the gardens.

Some items are not for the compost bin - meat, including chicken should never be added. Fish scraps are great, but be sure to bury it in the center of the bin to avoid any odors. Don't add any dairy, fats, or plastic.

Our town used to pick up garbage twice a week. Due to cost increases, they have cut back on pickups to once a week. Due to the type of items that end up in the garbage, our trash can doesn't smell, and the volume of garbage we generate is so low that a once a week pickup is just fine for us. Think of how much less would go to the landfill if everyone ate local, organic foods, and composted the scraps. This would also keep the farmers near us in business. The volume of compost we generate isn't huge, but there is great satisfaction in seeing our waste turned into an organic and clean soil amendment and fertilizer.

So give it a try! You will get addicted to it. Most counties sell discounted composting bins, so before purchasing one at a store, check with your local and county government. If you are already composting, did I miss anything? Is it working for you?

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You'd see all the signs, make a guess, and be wrong

I was surprised last summer when I saw some friends for the first time in years. One of them immediately started a political conversation with me. It came across as confrontational at first, until I realized we agreed on many of the positions he was taking. After a short time, I asked him why he'd think I wouldn't agree with him. He cited my lifestyle choices as the reason to think we were not in alignment on many political issues.

What are my lifestyle choices? I live a low impact, green lifestyle. It isn't hard to do, and has provided me many benefits in terms of overall happiness, as well as in my financial and physical health. I think of this as part hobby, and part lifestyle. The more I become immersed in my chosen greenness, the more I come up with ideas on how to be more green.

Many days I roll out of my driveway on one of my bicycles, and pedal the 8.5 miles to my job. I wear my business casual clothes, with my shirt pressed and folded in my large front basket. My bike commute route has me sharing space with car drivers, pedestrians, commercial vehicles, and potholes. On days I don't bike commute, I carpool. If I have to take the car, I wrap in my errands on that day to take advantage using it. I also use my bike for most local errands. One less car is good for everyone.

My honey and I are part of a food co-op, Purple Dragon, and are vegetarians (I do eat fish and chicken occasionally). Every two weeks we receive a large box of local, organic, and healthy vegetables. Participating in this keeps our local and organic farmers in business. It also has an impact on our health. At least we like to think so.

We take all of the vegetable scraps, as well as egg shells, coffee grinds and other assorted kitchen waste, and compost it in our backyard in our Earth Machine. There are many benefits to doing this. We carry less garbage to the curb, send less to the landfill, and produce a nutrient-rich soil medium with the scraps from our organic produce.

Our lawn consists of diverse greens. We don't treat it with chemicals. I just started sowing in White Clover seeds to decrease maintenance needs, and provide pollen for bees. Our spring Crocus don't have to compete with the crabgrass prevention chemicals. I cut the grass with a manual lawn mower. I don't catch my clippings, and as a result I don't fertilize the lawn.

We have started the process of growing vegetables on our property. I built a cold frame from leftover building materials, and we have our first batch of seeds germinating. Our landscape is designed using many native species, and with the birds in mind. Planting just one shrub that provides food for birds makes a huge difference. Imagine if we all did this.

Our gardens is being dug now, and our compost us being utilized to supplement the soil. We will plant in a way to take advantage of the sun, and put in a fence to keep the tree rats (squirrels) out. Part of our plan is to get a couple of chickens to round out the suburban homestead.

The downspouts from our rain gutters have diverters installed, and the water is captured in barrels. We use the water from these barrels to water our plants (we don't water the lawn), as well as keep our compost moist.

We enjoy local theater, whether it be from my occasional part in a play, or our being in the audience enjoying the talents of other people. We both practice yoga, and have owned two Volvos.

If you put all of the above together, you would probably assume I am a liberal. And you'd be wrong. I am a supporter of our American form of government, and we are a representative republic. Notice I am not a Republican, meaning I am not registered in this party, and don't identify myself as such. I'm philosophically a libertarian - a lower-cased libertarian, not a member of any political party. I believe that individual rights trump all government power, and my lifestyle is an expression of me embracing my rights. One of my intentions for 2011 was not to blog about politics, so I will stop any more discussion of it right here. This blog is about putting labels on people, and how these are often wrong.

The decisions I make in regards to my lifestyle are based on being a good steward of the resources I can manage. This is aligned with my fiscal conservatism, in that I save money from my lifestyle, and I reap health benefits. These health benefits are in the form of a normal weight, no health flags to worry about, and a much happier disposition.

We often look at people, and based on what they are wearing, driving, or doing, we apply labels. Many of these labels are applied as a way to make a judgment about a person. An example of this is when we see someone in a Hummer. We may automatically believe they are a political conservative, and they don't care about the environment. We may see someone who is financially wealthy, and think of them as someone who takes advantage of others. Or we may see someone riding a bicycle to replace a car, and assume they are an environmentalist liberal. These conclusions are often wrong.

Think about this during your day, while monitoring your inner voice, and you will probably see examples of what I'm talking about. Try to alter that voice, and see people without judgment. It will free your mind up for more important things, like where to plant that native shrub to feed the local birds. What labels do you come up with? Do you like being labeled?

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