After I began to learn about herbicides from Dow Chemical remaining active in composted matter & killing gardens that it is used on, I posted a couple of times on the issue (http://backyardorganic.wordpress.com/category/pesticides-herbicides/). I also got curious enough to write to the EPA asking about the issue. Today I finally received a response.

My original email

Hello Richard & Peter,

I’m writing because I’ve recently found a lot of information about herbicides such as clopyralid and aminopyralid finding their way into compost. I was going to get free compost from my city, but after learning that they ship organic matter to a processing facility that handles multiple cities, the chances of getting herbicide laced compost increase significantly.

What, if anything, is the EPA doing to address this problem? If you can’t safely use compost from city programs, that is a disincentive for people that would otherwise participate in community composting programs to begin with, which in turn increases the amount of waste going into landfills.

As a result of this problem I can’t trust the free compost from my municipality and must compost in my yard as much as possible to ensure that only clean compost goes into my vegetable garden.

What is the EPA doing about this problem?

The response from the EPA

Dear Mr. Carleton–

Thank you for your email of October 30, 2009, expressing concern about herbicides such as clopyralid and aminopyralid finding their way into compost and the potential for this contaminated compost to damage or kill garden plants.  You ask what EPA is doing to address this problem.

Federal law requires that before selling or distributing a pesticide in the United States, a person or company must obtain a registration from EPA.  Before registering a new pesticide, EPA must first ensure that there is reasonable certainty that no harm to human health and the environment will result from use of the pesticide according to label directions and precautions.  If EPA later receives new data or information indicating a risk of concern, the Agency works to mitigate that risk by modifying the way the pesticide can be used, or by eliminating use completely if the risk cannot be mitigated.

Residues of the pyridine-containing herbicides clopyralid, aminopyralid, and picloram may remain in treated plant material or in manure from animals that have grazed in treated pastures or have been fed hay or forage harvested from treated pastures or crops.  EPA is aware that these pesticide residues may remain active in composted plant material or animal manure for a period of time.  The Agency is working with the manufacturer, Dow Chemical Company, to change the use of these pesticides as needed to address the contaminated compost problem.

Clopyralid was previously registered for use on residential lawns. In the western U.S., centralized programs collect lawn clippings and put them through an accelerated 90-day composting process, after which the material is sold as compost.  Crops treated with this compost were being damaged.  To address this problem, Dow has voluntarily cancelled the residential use of clopyralid.  Our understanding is that incidences of clopyralid-contaminated compost are declining, as a result.

Aminopyralid was registered in 2005 and is effective in controlling noxious weeds in the western U.S.  Currently some grazing restrictions exist when aminopyralid is used on pasture and rangeland. In the eastern U.S., horses have been allowed to graze on treated pastures, and third parties may collect the horse manure and market it as compost.  When applied to certain vegetable crops, this compost has caused damage.  EPA is currently working with Dow to address this problem.  Dow has stopped selling aminopyralid in the eastern U.S. while the company is developing and implementing a stewardship program.Meanwhile, negotiations are ongoing regarding further label restrictions.

Picloram is considered very useful in controlling invasive weeds in the western U.S.  While EPA is aware of an isolated incident several years ago (2000) in Washington State that involved picloram-contaminated compost, the invasive weed control use generally has not resulted in compost problems.  However, run-off and ground water problems in the southern U.S. and use of these contaminated waters for irrigation purposes has resulted in damage to treated crops due to picloram’s persistence in water and phytotoxicity.  In response, many of the crop uses of picloram have been cancelled.  Dow has lowered the application rate for the remaining uses from 12 pounds per acre to 1 to 2 pounds per acre.  Dow has also changed the formulation of picloram from a pellet to a liquid, resulting in improved calibration and less potential for over-application.  Finally, picloram also has been classified as a restricted use pesticide, so it may be used only by or under the direct supervision of trained, certified applicators.  The registrant has initiated a stewardship program providing education to users.  As a
result of all of these actions, there have been few reports of picloram contamination of irrigation water in recent years.

If new information becomes available indicating that additional mitigation is warranted, EPA will continue to take steps to reduce the potential for clopyralid, aminopyralid, and picloram to contaminate garden compost.  These three pesticides are scheduled to begin registration review in 2014.  Through this program, the Agency periodically reviews registered pesticides to make sure they meet the statutory standard for registration; that is, each pesticide can still perform its intended function without posing unreasonable risks to human health or the environment.  We encourage interested members of the public to participate in this open, transparent process.  For further information, please see the Agency’s Registration Review Web page,
http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/registration_review/ .

I hope this information is helpful and will be glad to be of any further assistance.

Rick Keigwin
Director, Pesticide Re-evaluation Division
Office of Pesticide Programs
US Environmental Protection Agency
Phone: 703-308-8000
FAX: 703-308-8005
Keigwin.Richard@epamail.epa.gov
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides

Traffic jam during the morning commute

Call me strange, but I would venture a guess that Della’s production from her back-end has more of a lasting effect on our land than what comes out of her bag.  Don’t get me wrong – I love the milk and everything that goes with that.  But she hasn’t given me milk every day of her 11 3/4 years, but she has given me enough manure every day to fuel our large gardens.  Most is deposited in the pasture, but during the winter, when she is stabled, I get a steaming heap o’ gold every day.  I groan out loud when I read of people buying mini cows so they don’t have so much manure to deal with.  Manure is not a liability on a small farm, it is part of the cycle, and we never have enough.  Ever wonder why you don’t have much pasture?  Well, maybe milk and meat isn’t the only thing a cow is good for… .  True Biodynamic farmers know the value of manure -  cattle manure specifically. 

The wheelbarrow with the golden load

The gray wheelbarrow is Della’s contribution to the continuing fertility of the garden, and the turquoise wheelbarrow holds the night-time contribution of my daughter’s horse.   My chores are light this time of year outside.  Della is dry, and only needs her princess stall cleaned & bedded, manger filled with hay, and fresh water.  I am still moving the cows through the last of stockpiled grass, but that doesn’t take long each day either.  Household chores mostly consist of chopping wood, and keeping the fires stoked.  So I have time to haul this bounty every day to the fallow area of the garden that I am sheet composting.  

All clear

I am fallowing half of the newest garden spot.  The weed pressure is too great, and the soil structure is poor.  Continuing to deplete it by growing vegetables is penny-wise and pound foolish.  Last fall, I seeded that portion to winter rye. 

Sheet mulch for 2010 fallow area

In essence I am feeding the soil and the cover crop.  Two loads a day are getting dumped here.  When the soil isn’t so wet, and I feel like I can do more good than harm, I will spread this a little thinner to get total coverage.  But meanwhile, two loads a day are adding up.  And it is supposed to be dry for 4 or 5 days, so you can guess what I may be doing over the holiday.

I’m trying to use everything in the yard to some kind of purpose, and, inspired by permaculture principles, I’ve developed my own system of tying together the backyard waste and food production. The table scraps and kitchen waste is “recycled” by feeding it directly to the chickens. The majority of the chicken poop is composted and then used to fertilize the garden and make up the majority of the garden soil each year. Connecting the waste from my table to the final production of eggs and vegetables is pretty awesome.

Here’s the before picture. Two eggs, very good. Loads of poop in the corners and flattened fluff, not so nice. I have to admit that it took three days of poop and dirt encrusted eggs for me to finally get a chance to change the coop. Six days of rain had made things very soggy and unlivable up there. Sorry, girls.

So here’s the way I keep the girls happy and dry, make sure I’m not letting bugs settle in, and recycle all the waste I can to make my garden and my eggs even more tasty!

First, I scoop out all the fluff (cedar shavings) from upstairs in the chicken coop. This is where they roost at night and where most of their poop is.

Second, I dump the whole mess, poop and shavings all, in the barrel composter and give it a whirl around.

I used to put all my non-meat food scraps in there, but harvesting the compost is tricky in a tumbler: there’s always your last few trips from the kitchen that haven’t composted fully and you end up with lemons, whole stalks of celery, and paper scraps in your dirt. This way, the only thing that’s going in the composter is poop, cedar shavings, garlic and onion scraps, and coffee grounds. (The chickens’ eggs start to taste funny if they eat the onion and garlic.)

Then, I let the coop air out in the sun and wind. It’s important to make sure that the soggy places get a chance to air before you replace the fluff.

Finally, I cut box tops and create a shelf inside the egg boxes, then I put the cedar shavings in. This helps when scooping out the fluff since the egg boxes tend to be the most traficked (and the most pooped). It’s easier to pull out a cardboard section than scraping all the poop off of the wood. And it keeps it cleaner.

I always sprinkle some diatomaceous earth in the coop before replacing the fluff. Essentially earthworm casings, this powder disrupts the work of tiny bugs called mites that can infest the coop. (Last year, every time I picked up a chicken I’d find the tiniest little mites all over my arms. Diatomaceous earth did the trick.)

From this

to this

and then we get these

and these.

]]> http://solanacompost.wordpress.com/2009/12/21/start-the-new-year-composting/ Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:33:43 +0000 Solana Center for Environmental Innovation http://solanacompost.wordpress.com/2009/12/21/start-the-new-year-composting/

Saturday, January 9^th, 2010
8am-10am
San Diego Zoo Otto Entrance
(one block south of main entrance)

Learn how to create rich garden soil, save water, and reduce trash at the landfill by recycling your kitchen scraps and garden debris at this FREE workshop.

Workshop is taught by trained Master Composters from the Solana Center for Environmental Innovation and cover how and what to compost using both a vermicomposting (worm) bin and a backyard composting bin.

Pre registration required. Please register online at www.solanacenter.org or by phone 760-436-7986 ext. 222. Limit 25 participants.

Click here to pre-register now!

 I love frolicking through snow drifts.  Sledding in the park.  Curling my frozen fingers around a steaming mug of hot chocolate. Snowshoeing and nordic skiing. I love these winter pastimes with an all-consuming joy. Yet, after two days of pretending I’m a creature out Jan Brett’s The Mitten, I’m ready for the thaw.

Within 72 hours of a blizzard, I start fantasizing about leafy vegetables and tanned skin. Lucky for me DCH has a greenhouse. It’s no Longwood Garden, but our tiny green oasis gives me a leap of joy. It reminds me that spring isn’t so far off and encourages me to start planning for the summer.

Today, I am thinking about compost. Not so glamorous perhaps, but nonetheless exciting. This coming spring we will be expanding our compost operation at the Baylor women’s prison, the place that I will be spending much of my time in the upcoming months. Alice Davis, a community gardener, urban farm coalition member, and master composter (such a talented woman, no?), has agreed to assist us in setting up a three bin system next to our vegetable garden there. Last summer at 12th and Brandywine we did this using some odd metal containers that our friend Eric Mayer happened upon at a local auction. They are working out fantastically well.

Photo Courtesy: TCD

 Any gardener will tell you the importance of compost in your garden. When it comes to organic gardening, ”Feed the soil not the plants,” is an especially important adage. Spreading compost each spring is a good practice as the added humus improves the quality of your soil dramatically. So, for those of you wondering exactly what compost is, I’ll provide a brief description…

Compost is best described as the product of decomposed organic matter. Ideal compost is a blend of various composted materials including nitrogen rich waste like grass clippings, fruits, vegetables, and coffee grounds as well as carbon rich materials, like straw.  Both these types of compost are extremely beneficial to a garden because they hold in moisture and soluble minerals which are important factors for effective production. If you are looking to maximize the efficiency of your compost system your goal should be a percentage of 30:1, carbon to nitrogen. Figuring this ratio out can be tricky but you can estimate by noting how much moisture is present in what you are adding to your compost. For example most dry materials (think sticks and straw) are primarily carbon, while wet items (your morning coffee grounds and various rotting vegetables) have a greater amount of nitrogen. Balancing these materials will allow for a more efficient rate of decomposition and therefore quicker turnaround for when you can use your compost.

A simple compost system is made up of a bin which you pile waste into. Unless you have a very large system, you should avoid putting in dairy, meat, and animal products because they are slow to breakdown and many furry little critters have a taste for these items.  By simply “turning” the waste, i.e. bringing what is on the bottom up to the top, you can assist in increasing oxygen which stimulates more bacterial action.  The bacteria break down the waste products and leave you with a rich humus. More serious or large-scale composters utilize a three system compost. By setting up three compost bins you are allowing yourself the space to have a starting bin, a bin for compost in process, and then a final bin for the finished compost, ready to be used. If you don’t regularly add compost to your garden, give it a try this spring and I think you will be pleasantly surprised at what comes forth from your soil during the growing months. Let me know how it goes!

May 2010 will mark my first full year of my getting out of Americas daily rat race.  I didn’t have thousands in a 401K plan or invested in stock and bonds so retirement fund was little effected when the so called Great Recession came along .  I never tried to live beyond my means. I have never used credit cards. I did let my banker talk me into getting a debt card and that seems to work well.  It allows me to pay by plastic yet I do not incur any interest or other charges.

I was very careful, I bought a smaller home, drive an older vehicle. This allowed me to be debt free when I retired. I do not have a mortgage or auto loan to worry about making every month. This alone allows me to live better than many of my friends on much less cash income. I refuse to go into debt to purchase thing that I ‘want’ or need. If I don’t have cash in bank to cover this expense, I simply wait and save until such time as I can pay cash for this expenditure. Nothing says secure easy living like cash in your pocket.

I grow a medium size garden every summer and make a second planting in late July or August to provide me with fresh food 8 to 9 months a year. I catch run off water from my gutters to water a few chickens, rabbits and my garden this provide all the eggs and most of my yearly meat supply needs. Ducks and geese are easy to raise, require little supplemental feeding. I just don’t like duck or goose eggs or meat.

I have found that it does not require as much water for my garden as I was using when watering from my tap. Now I only water when plants ‘really’ need watering. It seems that waiting it out for normal rain fall is almost always best for me and my garden. I only water now to prevent plants from dieing in the hottest driest parts of summer. Pot and raised bed growing works well for many but they also require much more supplemental watering than simple in ground gardening.

When planting I wide space rows at least 42 or more inches between rows. This allows me easy access to plants when harvesting. It seems to me that plants not being crowed in narrow rows produce more and larger vegetable crops as well. Spreading grass clippings, old soiled hay and chicken litter between rows help keep mud off my shoes and is a real effective soil builder when tilled into the soil at the end of my growing season.

Small space, big tomato

Next time maybe we can talk about how the cow eat the cabbage!

The Garden Worm gardening website
The Garden Worm blog

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Organic garden compost is great for giving your garden a healthy environment

Organic garden compost is used for giving vegetable and fruits a better growing environment. Organic compost helps gardens develop environments which are conducive to healthy plants, they bring good bugs which keep away bad bugs, the compost helps to deliver more nurturance to the plants in a natural way and helps keep the plants healthy, vibrant and green.

Organic garden compost can be made or bought from the store, and should be used always when doing gardening, one of the many benefits of organic compost is that it can help bring back dead soil, or soil which is very week from having no nurturance in it. Say you have a piece of land which is very dry and barren, nothing growing in it.

The land is a yellow light brown color, meaning hardly any life it in. Rich soil or ground is usually a dark brown or blackish in color, meaning it has much nurturance to give to the plants. By mixing organic compost into your dead soil you can effectively bring back the soil to a much healthier state which will support life.

Compost is full of vitamins, minerals and good bacteria which will grow and give much needed nurturance to the plants which are placed into the ground. Usually compost is way too rich to use alone, it is mostly used as an agent for mixing with earth to make the earth better for growing.

If we planted our fruits and vegetables strait into compost it might be too much for them to handle and we would kill our vegetable by giving them too much in nutrition. So we need to mix our compost so we get an even about of earth to compost.

Making homemade organic garden compost is very easy ; all you need to do is get a small bucket and place it in your kitchen and whenever you eat organic fruits and vegetable which need peeling such as bananas, oranges, squash, corn, sometimes the ends of broccoli, and cauliflower, avocados take the peelings and drop them into your compost bucket.

When your little bucket is full take it outside and dump it on the ground in a nearby place, make sure you keep your compost pile in a place where you are going to use it for planting, it makes the planting easier if you do not have to transport your compost so much.

Next take a shovel full or two and dump dirt onto your compost you just dumped on the ground, you can even mix it up a little bit. This starts the decomposing process of all the organic matter mixed with the earth. You can even speed up the process by placing a black cloth or plastic bag over your compost heap to give it some heat, and stirring up your mixture with a shovel every two to three days.

Some organic compost can be ready to use in one month or less and some take longer, the best time to use your compost is when it looks almost like dirt, most of the vegetables and fruits you put into it have been broken down and mixed into the soil, and the compost mixture is nice and dark.

When we grow food from our organic compost we will be eating the richest, most tasty fruits and vegetable ever in our lives, because of all the nurturance, vitamins’ and minerals which is in the compost gets eaten by our plants.

Well it’s finally gotten cold, and that means a bunch of trees have been taking turns dumping their leaves in your yard. Now that you’ve gotten them raked into neat little piles, the question arises: “What should I do with all these leaves?” This year, instead of bagging them up and sending them off to the landfill, how about pushing them into some of the less-manicured flower beds or into an unused corner of the backyard?

This accomplishes a number of good things:

(1) You don’t have to go to the trouble of putting them into bags, and you don’t have to worry about buying those extra thick ones that are more expensive.

(2) If you live in a municipality that charges extra to collect yard debris, you won’t have to pay for that service.

(3) Energy will not be wasted transporting your leaves to the landfill (or even to a municipal composting center), nor will precious landfill space be taken up with a perfectly good resource.

(4) Yard waste causes landfills to release large quantities of methane. Fewer leaves in the landfill means fewer greenhouse gases.

(5) Your leaf mulch will protect the soil, locking in moisture and preventing erosion. This means you don’t have to buy mulch from a store or use nearly as much water on your landscaping.

(6) Leaf mulch also keeps most weeds from growing, which means you’ll have a lot less pulling and spraying to do next summer.

(6) Within a year or so, most leaves will decompose into high-quality compost/soil, providing you with a resource that you would otherwise have had to pay for.

(7) You can use your new compost as fertilizer rather than buying expensive chemicals that pollute nearby streams and destroy the microbial life upon which soil fertility depends.

If your neighbors haven’t yet figured out the benefits of keeping their own leaves, you may even be able to collect some extra ones from them!

“Hi. Have you an enzymatic product used to treat soil for growing tomatoes to prevent wilt diseases? THanks. ~D.”

___________________________________________________________________

Thank you for the email.  I’m sorry, but we do not carry any enzymatic products for soil treatments.

There is some buzz in the horticultural world about treating the soil around tomatoes with enzymatic products like Kefir, a milk-based product that has a grainy texture and is a combination of bacteria and yeasts in a yogurt-like mixture of proteins, lipids, and sugars. The thought behind using this is kind of like putting your plant on probiotics – Kefir contains a species of yeast called Torula sp. and Saccharomyces sp.  When Kefir curds are incorporated into the root zone of the plant, the inclusion of the enzymes from the Torula ‘bulk up’ the production of erythritol in the plant (erythritol is a storage compound found in the roots of a plant).  Essentially, it makes the roots more robust and better functioning.  As for the Saccharomyces, enzymes from this yeast allow for a reorganization of amino acids in the root tissues, and it is thought that this alteration may strengthen the roots of a plant to combat various bacterial and fungal pathogens.

However, there are three problems with treatments like this.  The first is that most enzymatic additions to the soil degrade in the heat of summer.  They prefer soil temperatures of 68 to about 90 degrees.  Depending on the color and composition of the soil, the temperature of the soil in the summer months may exceed this.  The second thing is that there hasn’t been a lot of university or field research done on these in terms of control for wilts in any plant.  And third, enzymatic treatments are very temperamental when it comes to other organic products you may be using in your garden, like copper or other pesticides (chemical or organic).

As an organic gardener, the main wilt diseases I worry about with my tomatoes are Fusarium and Verticillium.  The best way to combat these problems (and others in the process) are to incorporate the five following methods:

–Select resistant varieties. Using varieties that have more disease resistance will aid in the plant being healthy and less prone to various other diseases.

–Suppress diseases. A soil is considered suppressive when, in spite of favorable conditions for disease to occur, a pathogen either cannot become established, establishes but produces no disease, or establishes and produces disease for a short time and then declines.    Among the most beneficial root-inhabiting organisms, mycorrhizal fungi can cover plant roots, forming what is known as a fungal mat. The mycorrhizal fungi protect plant roots from diseases in several ways:

–By providing a physical barrier to the invading pathogen.

–By providing antagonistic chemicals that work as antibiotics and toxins against pathogenic organisms

–By competing with the pathogen for available resources.

–By increasing the nutrient-uptake ability of plant roots. For example, improved phosphorus uptake in the host plant has commonly been associated with mychorrhizal fungi. When plants are not deprived of nutrients, they are better able to tolerate or resist disease-causing organisms.

–By changing the amount and type of plant root exudates. Pathogens dependent on certain exudates will be at a disadvantage as the exudates change.

–Crop rotation. Avoiding disease buildup is probably the most widely emphasized benefit of crop rotation in vegetable production. Many diseases build up in the soil when the same crop is grown in the same field year after year. Rotation to a non-susceptible crop can help break this cycle by reducing pathogen levels. To be effective, rotations must be carefully planned. Since diseases usually attack plants related to each other, it is helpful to group vegetable rotations by family—e.g., solanacious, alliums, cole crops, cucurbits. The susceptible crop, related plants, and alternate host plants for the disease must be kept out of the field during the rotation period. Since plant pathogens persist in the soil for different lengths of time, the length of the rotation will vary with the disease being managed. To effectively plan a crop rotation, it is essential to know what crops are affected by what disease organisms.

In most cases, crop rotation effectively controls those pathogens that survive in soil or on crop residue. Crop rotation will not help control diseases that can survive long periods in the soil without a host—Fusarium, for example. Rotation, by itself, is only effective on pathogens that can overwinter in the field or be introduced on infected seeds or transplants. Of course, disease-free transplants or seed should be used in combination with crop rotation. The period of time between susceptible crops is highly variable, depending on the disease. Three years without tomatoes or other related crops (potato, tomatillo, eggplant, petunia, ground cherry, huckleberries, peppers) is needed to avoid various wilts.

–Organic and Nutritional Enhancements. Soil pH, calcium level, nitrogen form, and the availability of nutrients can all play major roles in disease management. Adequate crop nutrition makes plants more tolerant of or resistant to disease. Also, the nutrient status of the soil and the use of particular fertilizers and amendments can have significant impacts on the pathogen’s environment.  For example, a direct correlation between adequate calcium levels, and/or higher pH, and decreasing levels of Fusarium wilt occurrence has been established for a number of crops, including tomatoes.

Nitrate forms of nitrogen fertilizer may suppress Fusarium wilt of tomato, while the ammonia form increases disease severity. The nitrate form tends to make the root zone less acidic. Basically, the beneficial effects of high pH are lost by using acidifying ammonium nitrogen. Tomato studies have shown that use of nitrate nitrogen in soil with an already high pH results in even better wilt control.

Potassium fertility is also associated with disease management. Inadequate potash levels can lead to susceptibility to Verticillium wilt.  High potassium levels also retard Fusarium in tomatoes.

–Compost.  Compost is effective because it fosters a more diverse soil environment in which a myriad of soil organisms exist. Compost acts as a food source and shelter for the antagonists that compete with plant pathogens, for those organisms that prey on and parasitize pathogens, and for those beneficials that produce antibiotics. Root rots caused by Pythium and Phytophthora are generally suppressed by the high numbers and diversity of beneficial microbes found in the compost. Such beneficials prevent the germination of spores and infection of plants growing on the amended soil. To get more reliable results from compost, the compost itself needs to be stable and of consistent quality.

It has become evident that a “one size fits all” approach to composting used in disease management will not work. Depending on feed stock, inoculum, and composting process, composts have different characteristics affecting disease management potential. For example, high carbon to nitrogen ratio (C:N) tree bark compost generally works well to suppress Fusarium wilts in tomatoes. With lower C:N ratio composts, Fusarium wilts may become more severe as a result of the excess nitrogen, which favors Fusarium. Compost from manure typically has a low C:N ratio.

I’ve tried worms, piles, a tumbler, and the bokashi bucket.

Worms

I tried a few times with the worms, thoroughly cleaning my stackable worm tower between attempts. The worms turned out great compost and they did keep the smell to a tolerable minimum.  I didn’t have trouble maintaining them or keeping them alive, but I kept getting unwelcome guests such as tiny beetles that crawled up my arm and bit me when I’d add new scraps, harmless but disgusting little white worms, enormous sprawling mushrooms, and fruit flies.  These were not acceptable indoors and it seemed a shame to only be able to compost outdoors.  I was unwilling to take the precautions to keep a worm bin alive over the winter outside, so I gave up on vermiculture at my home.

An alternative to my rather expensive worm tower is a rubbermaid bin with holes drilled in its lid and sides.

We had one of these at the preschool where I taught.  Unfortunately, the kids did not maintain their interest in it.  They were most interested in holding the worms, and sometimes, poor wormies, we let them.  The worms could not compost the preschoolers’ leftover snack and lunches quickly enough, so we only added food once every few weeks and continued to put the rest in the trash.  Eventually we forgot about the worms and they all dried up.  It might have been more successful if we’d had more worms to start with and if the teachers had been more organized in incorporating the process into the curriculum.

Bokashi

Bokashi is my favorite composting method by far.  It involves a simple bucket with a spigot and a tray with holes in it at the bottom so liquid “compost tea” can accumulate at the bottom and be drained away.

Bokashi works with EM – efficient microbes.  The bokashi mixture is fermented wheat germ with molasses and a blend of bacteria which digest food without producing a lot of heat and virtually no odor.  With the right blend of microbes, you can even add fish, dairy, and meat!

Bokashi does not completely break down the food – you have to bury it in the garden or use a secondary composting method.  I use it to pre-compost the food I add to my composter

An additional benefit is the compost tea.  You dilute it 1:100 with water and pour it on your potted plants.  They love it.  Most potting soil is deficient in microorganisms – which can help your plants’ immunity.

You might want to test the Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphorus ratio of your bokashi compost tea.  I haven’t done this yet, but I’ve been pouring bokashi compost tea water on my potted plants for years and have never had bad results.  All of the plants produced new growth, some of them flowered,  and the new leaves were generally bigger and greener.

One time I left a full bokashi bucket unattended for over a year.  When I finally opened it up I expected the worst.  What I found was orange peels that still smelled like oranges and coffee grounds that still smelled like coffee, except everything in it was squishy!

Compost Tumbler

My house got its compost tumbler at a bargain price from the City.  When the bokashi is full, I empty it into the tumbler.  I also add my guinea pigs’ used bedding, coffee grounds, and the dirt from dead potted plants.

The advantage of the compost tumbler over the compost tower also offered by the city is aeration.  Being able to turn the compost, to mix it all up so it is more or less homogenous (and thus homogenous in its C:N ratio) and aerated, keeps it from being smelly and makes it decompose faster.

The key with the compost tumbler is to keep a balance of roughly 1:30 Nitrogen:Carbon.  “Greens” are high in nitrogen.  “Browns” are high in carbon. Food scraps/the bokashi contents are generally “greens” while raked leaves, straw, and my guinea pigs’ recycled paper bedding are “browns.”  A mix of about half and half is generally good.

Too much “green” stuff can lead to stinky compost.

Coffee grounds are roughly 2% nitrogen.  They’re great.  You can get them from Starbucks.

If the compost starts to smell, I add the EM wheat bran from the bokashi, turn it, and if available, add more “browns.”  Turning it is usually sufficient.  I’ve turned out about five barrels full (about 35 cubic feet) in the past year.  Two times I (or a housemate)  found it to be smelly, usually at the start of a new batch.  Not emptying it out completely will help keep the next batch from smelling.

Compost Pile

At Land’s Sake farm, and at my former girl scout leader’s house, they use compost piles.   It’s critical to maintain the right ratio of greens to browns to avoid nasty smells and quick turn-over.  Speaking of turn over, a compost pile must be turned with a pitch fork.  This is kind of a pain.  An advantage is there is much less of a limit on size.  Occasionally I’ve had to throw food scraps or guinea pig bedding in the garbage because my tumbler and bokashi were full and not ready to be added to the garden.  This would not be necessary with a pile.

This is not a good method for a city because of vermin.   If food scraps are not fully decomposed, rats and mice will eat them.  Get a tumbler or a tower or make a worm bin or get a bokashi bucket, but don’t make a compost pile if you live in the city.  That is asking for trouble.

I love elevated subways.  I love coffee as well.

German Christmas chocolate.

I compost.

El sello Compost está sacando una buena colección de albums de varios estilos , hoy tenemos por aqui el mas Disco de todos. Poner a funcionar la bola de discoteca en vuestro cuarto , vestiros para la ocasión y a bailar a lo Tony Manero

01. Jay Shepheard - Absolute Voltage (Original)
02. Karma - Beach Towel (I:Cube Cosmix Marathon remix)
03. TJ Kong & Nuno Dos Santos - Dropout (Original)
04. Phreek Plus One - New York Dolls (Original)
05. Zwicker - Oddity (feat Olivera Stanimirov - John Talabot remix)
06. Marcel Krieg - Take A Ride (True Disco mix)
07. Shahrokh Sound Of K - Love Happens (feat Toyin Taylor - Supersonic Lovers dub)
08. Syrup - 51 Cents Left (Original)
09. Roberto Rodriguez - About This Love (feat Max C - Crazy P remix dub)
10. Wigald Boning - Kobra Dance (Joris Voorn Interpretation)
11. Phreek Plus One - Astro Boogie (Sportloto Alpha remix)
12. Eddy Meets Yannah - Solid Ground (Crazy P remix)
13. Moon Machine - Superglued (Original)
14. Michael Reinboth - Compost Disco Selection: Astro Boogie Neo Disco Voltage (MIX ABUM)

http://rapidshare.com/files/319199174/VA--Compost_Disco_Selection_Astro_Boogie_Neo_Disco_Voltage_Vol._1_CPT343-5-WEB-2009-OMA.part1.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/319199258/VA--Compost_Disco_Selection_Astro_Boogie_Neo_Disco_Voltage_Vol._1_CPT343-5-WEB-2009-OMA.part2.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/319197642/VA--Compost_Disco_Selection_Astro_Boogie_Neo_Disco_Voltage_Vol._1_CPT343-5-WEB-2009-OMA.part3.rar

Aaron (pictured below) and I cleaned out two composting toilets on the farm. We have a total of six composting toilets on the farm, soon to be eight. The average American uses about 80 gallons of water a day just flushing the toilet. We figure why call it waste when it can be put to good use as humanure. We don’t use any humanure on our vegetable crops. Instead we spread it on our pasture where our animals graze. We could use it on food crops if we followed the USDA guidelines for composting humanure… in case you were wondering.

One of the toilets we emptied today belongs to one of the families that lives on the farm. This was the first time it had been emptied in a year, since their duplex was built. The compost in there was pretty well finished and not very putrid at all. The design for those is a toilet near an outside wall where the waste falls onto a slope that goes out of the building into a chamber on the ground. That one took a year for a family of four to fill.

The other one we did today was in our education building. This was the first composting toilet on the property and consistently the most disgusting to empty. As you can see, the design does not make it really easy to empty. It’s a large compartment so there is a lot of crap to shovel when it’s full. It also gets a little spongy or squishy. The drier stuff on the top actually floats on the sludgy liquid stuff below. So as you shovel it gets more and more liquid and sludge-like. The smell in this one is horrible and nasty. Only a gas mask would be effective in filtering out the brutal odor of this one. We earned a Manure Movers of America shirt today.

If you’re interested in making better use of your own poop check out The Humanure Handbook.

Do you have wet, slimy and strong-smelling compost? Cover the heap to protect against rain and add more woody material.

An inexpensive paper shredder is a great tool for shredding paper for your compost bin.

Paper provides a carbon source for your compost bin. Many kinds of paper can be added to your compost bin, even those with colored ink. The secret to using paper successfully is to shred or chop it and then moisten it before adding it to your bin. It is also helpful to alternate layers of paper with materials that provide more aeration (chopped branches, etc.) to avoid matting. For worm bins, a moist layer of paper on the top of castings and food can help keep away flies and also provide a carbon source for your worms.

It’s the holidays and things are getting a little crazy, but I want to bring you, my faithful reader, a report from the ECHO Agricultural Conference in Ft. Myers, FL. First, it was my first time to Florida and it proved that stereotypes all come from some kernel of truth. The weather was ridiculously warm and humid for December and there were numerous AARP members in convertibles.

ECHO is primarily a demonstration farm that trains people for agricultural missions. Many of the organizations that work with ECHO and that were at the conference come at agricultural work overseas from a conservative evangelical perspective. While I believe strongly in holistic ministry that includes the physical, spiritual, political and social aspects of life, I tend to come at it from a more social justice perspective. The farm itself is impressive with so many plants, methods and demonstrations packed into such a small space. ECHO is geared towards tropical agriculture because this is where both most of the world’s poverty and most missionaries are located.

Over the week we had lots of conversations between sessions, over meals and in cars. There’s no way to cover all the territory adequately. So, I’ll try to give you my highlights.

Cross Cultural Communication
This class was probably the most at odds with my own theology (to put it diplomatically). The speaker tried to tackle issues related to worldview, culture, religion and agriculture in one hour. I took an entire semester on this topic in seminary and still have a lot to understand. The speaker claimed that the underlying problem in other countries is one of worldview. It became clear that “they” had an incorrect worldview while the correct worldview was a combination of the scientific and biblical worldview. He also lumped all religions other than Christianity into the category of animism, claiming several times that Islam was essentially animistic. The statement was made several times that the problem was with other culture’s view of nature as something we can’t control. The solution was the biblical worldview, which was to subdue the earth, meaning control and manipulate it. This was a very disturbing workshop to me. I hope to explore this more in an upcoming post on why I think there is no such thing as a biblical worldview.

Third Culture Kids
This was probably the most practical and helpful workshop as a parent. I think there is something helpful in our globalized world about kids who are not at home in any particular culture, but have a real sense of the diversity and unity of humanity across cultures.

Sand Dams
The Mennonite Central Committee has a project in which dams are created in African countries. Initially the dams fill with water during the rainy season. Then the eventually fill with sand as the water settles. This sand is then composed of about 40% water. The water captured in the sand does not evaporate and is easily accessible to local communities. An amazing innovative project. It challenged some of my assumptions and ways of thinking, turning over some of my expectations about water access and solutions.

Natural Medicine
Ralph Wiegand gave an excellent talk on the use of natural medicine, defined as the combining of modern and traditional medicine. In particular he has worked on the use of artemesia tea as a complete treatment for malaria. In contrast to the workshop on cross cultural communication Wiegand gave great weight and value to traditional knowledge.

Nutritional Garden
A graduate from ECHO has developed a Nutritional Kitchen Garden at a hospital in Central African Republic where they teach nutrition, farm experimentation and agricultural knowledge and skills. Definitely one of the best presentations at the conference.

Compost and Soil Biology
I went to a workshop on compost and one on soil biology in the same afternoon. I’m no expert, but I do know some about both of these topics. You may recall the controversy about Soil Foodweb, Inc. in our class on compost tea at the farm. The leader for both of these workshops is sold on a lot of the claims made by Dr. Elaine Ingham and Soil Foodweb folks. Unfortunately I felt like composting was made overly complicated and discouraged people from doing it. They were more technical about the percent Nitrogen and ratio of bacteria to fungi. There are important rules of thumb for good composting, but they don’t need to be so technical in my opinion.

The Soil Food web folks also tout the benefits of Effective Microorganisms (EM). Basically these are anaerobic bacteria, what they called facultative anaerobes, that are beneficial to help compost when it becomes anaerobic. The example given was a poultry barn where the bedding has become anaerobic with that pungent ammonia smell. EM could be used to reverse those negative effects supposedly. It seems to me that the answer to bad management practices is not another product to fix it. That’s the way industrial agriculture solves problems (e.g. antibiotics, irradiation, etc.). Isn’t the answer instead to use better management practices to deal with the waste or bedding and manage composting more closely. I asked how EM were created or manufactured and was told that it’s proprietary. That should always be your first clue that something is bunk. If the answers to our agricultural and ecological problems are not open source they aren’t really answers. They’re just new ways to make money off of disasters (What Naomi Klein calls Disaster Capitalism).

It was a thought provoking and educational trip. I definitely enjoyed their farm and all they had going on. It is important to be in dialogue with people we don’t agree with, particularly those working in the same field, literally and figuratively.

http://www.organicauthority.com If you want to know how easy it is to worm compost then watch this video to find out.

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Compost is "the best fertilizer on earth" because it’s as natural and organic as you can get and you can make it yourself and be green at the same time.

Build a compost pile (the preferred method) or place scraps in a compost container. You can compost grass clippings, leaves, sawdust, dead plants, coffee grounds, tea leaves, fish scraps, uncooked vegetable scraps, fruit peels and animal manure, among other substances. Water the pile to maintain moisture, which facilitates breakdown, and be sure to stir your compost every two weeks to keep microorganisms busy.

Or you can worm compost and have these amazing creatures (worms) create the best organic fertilizer and worm team from your kitchen scraps.

“Uff-da” is a Norwegian expression I learned from my husband’s family, and is similar to “oy-vey” or “aww-dang” It’s just been that kind of year :s

This year, I’ve learned about patience the hard way.  It started off with a bar brawl on my sister’s birthday in January.  This hippy hasn’t been in a fist fight since high school (20 years ago).  I think I just lost  my last marble this year, trying to balance Work along with Washburn and Motherhood.  That and our family budget resembles an overcooked noodle.  I had hoped to be more available to the UCD garden project this summer, especially after the success of our Flower Power fundraiser.  Although my studies at Washburn kept me away from the garden site, I did try to share information via facebook and sometimes this blog.  What I didn’t realize, and couldn’t really comprehend, was that some of our staff literally did not know how plants grow.  I’ve had chilling visions of young children’s chores consisting of dusting the plastic plant decor, instead of watering and caring for live plants.  This aspect of society, that an entire generation of now high school and college graduates has zero knowledge of plant life, is quite alarming.  I realize just how over-dependent on others the People have become.  This makes it all that much more important to teach the next generation how to grow plants for food and sustinence.  However, I became impatient in allowing others to learn at their own pace.  And I grew impatient with the time it takes for any grassroots project to truly grow.  Our staff are still learning that plants take time and care.  While we did not harvest any food out of our garden, we did learn that rabbits like spinach and squash.  We learned that strawberry transplants need lots of water, but not pine-sol & water.  We learned that the roly-pig composter needs to be watered, because it does not absorb rainwater like a traditional, open compost heap.  If I could see inside the pig, I’d know what the problem was.  Has something taken root (like whole potatoes)?  Is it seriously clogged and needs to be taken apart and started over (stinky-dinky)?  BTW, volunteers welcome   Another downside to this year and the garden project is that I have not been able to work on it first-hand, because I’m in the Toddler 1 room, and these children are too young to dig a garden (but we do water our container plants).  See, the thing is, its not about me wanting to garden with children, its about children learning how to garden.   If these children in our care can be introduced to plant science, they will be successful science learners in higher grades, and maybe, just maybe, those with school gardens across the nation can grow a generation of individuals who know how to work a farm and provide food to communities.  The current state of the farming industry is about to collapse (hunch), and our nation will be in dire straits if we lose our ability to engage in a cooperative relationship with nature.

So I ask you, dear reader, to take a baby step with me.  Side by side, with our own two hands.  Remember, we should forgive our friends their flaws as readily as we forgive our own.  This is possibly the one difficult lesson it took me a year to learn, and I apologize for getting too pushy back there in September (it was my 37th birthday, and I was freaking out!).  Also please understand that while some staff at UCD are only temporary, others have long-term, professional goals in Early Childhood Education; this garden classroom is what I hope to accomplish in transforming UCD to grow with the 21st century.  When thinking of technology, think about what life was like before Mr. Weatherman’s radar, or even a rain gauge for Mr. Almanac.  Today’s technology gives you a soil test tool the size of a pocket-light.  Think about how processed food has affected previous generations of the People (cancer, diabetes, heart disease) and think about how our bodies are part of the Natural world.  Where does real food come from?  Time to tip the scales back to balanced in the world, and each of us has to act.

The baby step begins with a tiny seed, care, and Love.

Bokashi EM mix is kind of expensive.  Until recently it was not locally available.  I am no stranger to fermentation and microbes.  I decided to make my own.

I tried to follow these instructions:

I used some bokashi “biosa” a friend mailed to me from Arizona.  I bought wheat bran from the Agway in Waltham where I get my chicken feed.  I used molasses and sea salt I had in the cabinet, and I boiled the water I used and then let it cool to the right temperature.

The first batch I kept in a Reef Salts 5 gallon bucket.  I opened it up after about a month.  It was very damp.  I did not think it seemed feasible to dry it; animals would get in it and/or it would blow away, so I left it moist.  After a few weeks it started to get green and fuzzy.

I tried again with my remaining wheat bran.  Since it had gotten colder, I kept it indoors in my workroom.  After a little over a month, it was time to lift the lid.

I peeled off the trash bag (the instructions say it’s anaerobic so I thought to increase the likelihood of a clean product, I’d cover it up)…

and…

EWWWWWW!!!!

Straight outside to the compost tumbler.

Fortunately, bokashi starter is now available locally from Greenward near Porter Square for 11.50/kg.  That’s less than it costs most places online and there’s no shipping.  It’s still kind of pricey.

I have some thoughts as to why this went wrong.

I’ve brewed beer before.  It involves a high degree of sterilization.  This process had virtually no sterilization involved.  I thought since it’s not for human consumption, it would be okay to be lazy.  I now know that that was a mistake.  When it gets warmer, I would like to try again.

I feel kind of bad because I used up the last of my “mother culture” instead of feeding it and maintaining it.  Since I got it from a friend, I was not sure how close to the original it was – microbial communities do shift depending on a variety of factors!

The article about bokashi on wikipedia suggests that I could use the yeast from my brewing process with my bokashi.  My friend told me that she and her husband add their spent yeast to their compost and it cooks like crazy.