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M E R I D I A N M A G A Z I N E

Going Green without Losing Your Mind:
Better Stewardship of Your Own Backyard
By Darla Gaylor

Compost Happens

Maybe you've seen a t-shirt or bumper sticker to this effect, and it's true. Compost does, indeed, happen...eventually. Besides recycling, one of the best things you can do to reduce the size of your weekly garbage output is to compost your kitchen and yard scraps. Unlike recycling, however, that costs you money- either directly or indirectly - composting is free and its a great step towards creating your own sustainable backyard.

Having recently attended a Master Composter Class with Nashville Metro Public Works, I found out there was quite a bit about composting I didn't already know. One of the major things was that rapid composting takes a bit of work. You can do the “forest floor” method of composting, just dumping your leaves, grass clippings and garden scraps all over your yard. Stomp on them every few weeks maybe, let the rain fall when it does, and at some point you'll have useable compost. But, if you want the good stuff more quickly, you're going to have to be a little more sophisticated and measured in your approach than that. Done properly and in earnest, compost can be a valuable addition to your houseplants, landscape, and vegetable gardens. With few extra additions, you'll have a great fertilizer, and with none at all, a top-notch top dressing for your lawn and garden, which will help enrich even the poorest of soils.

Making It Work in Weeks, Not Months

Successful composting requires oxygen . While you can technically bag up all of your leaves in black plastic & line your back fence with them, it is going to take some time (read: all winter and then some) for these leaves to break down without oxygen, and anaerobic composting doesn't smell too lovely either. If you will commit to turning your leaf pile every week or two, or even just jabbing holes into it with some frequency to allow oxygen into the pile, nature will takes its course more rapidly.
Successful composting also requires balance . I once thought JUST kitchen scraps, a handful of soil, and a few leaves was all I needed. A few very small, rotty, maggoty blobs later, I found out nature needs a balance of nitrogen (or green stuffs) and a much, much bigger load of carbon (or brown stuffs) to decompose in the way you want it to - into good, useable, non-disgusting compost. Instead, I should have been mixing an entire big black bag of leaves to a week's worth of a kitchen scraps, mixing well, then mixing more. Also, the smaller the materials, the faster they will compost. So, mulching the leaves or chopping up the kitchen waste is very helpful to the process, though not necessary.
Don't forget the water if you want compost in good time. This little omission will slow down your decomp process in a hurry. You want your pile to stay about as damp as a wrung out sponge, not too wet, not too dry. If Mother Nature doesn't help out, you must do so with a water hose. Just like you, all the wonderful microbes that help in breaking down those leaves and other “waste” need water.
For the fastest decomposition rate, bring on the heat . Most commercial composting units are black or dark green in color, to better absorb heat. If you opt for a do-it-yourself type of pile, that's perfectly fine, but like the commercial bins, you want to place it in an area with some sunshine, though not necessarily direct sun, which can quickly dry out your pile. I personally use a $40 Earth Machine, but have resources to give you feed back on other units. Email me if you're considering a commercial bin purchase; there are pros and cons to all of them.

Those are the basics, folks. It is really fairly simple, but like your lawn, a successful compost pile does take a bit of weekly effort. You probably need the exercise, so hop to it!

A Few Issues More

If you're not pitching your compostables directly into the heap, you can collect your kitchen wastes in any old container with a lid, such as that non-recyclable, clear plastic cookie container, the plastic clam-shell your strawberries came in, or a quart sized yogurt container. I spent $10 on a simple container from Nashville Public Works a few months ago that is great, too. Whatever works, but a lid is a must. It keeps out the gnats and keeps in any smells.
Leaves and grass: two things that drive me absolutely nuts from a public waste standpoint. Why people spend hour upon hour every fall raking and bagging leaves and wasting the wonderful nutrient content of mulched grass clippings has been something that has long irked me. Why in the world would people waste so much of their time taking a fully clean and compostable product and wrap it in non-degradable plastic, then throw it in landfill space that could be used for “real waste”? In fact, the bags upon bags of leaves heaped on the corners of my neighbors back in “Tree Town USA,” Texas, almost lead me to walking with a box cutter late at night to “ free the leaves .” My husband was greatly relieved when I decided to put down the blade and just continue to rant every fall. Please, please, stop these outdated practices. Grass clippings of a reasonable length DO NOT lead to thatch. Excessive use of high-nitrogen chemical fertilizers, over watering, and mowing grass too infrequently leads to thatch. Likewise, while leaves in excess can indeed smother your grass and block storm drains in dangerous ways, just use your lawnmower to run the silly things over!! It's a whole lot more simple than bagging them, and the smaller leaf particles will break down quickly, providing great nutrients for your soil. What's left over can go into your new compost pile.
Like the lady whose article I linked above under “free the leaves,” my neighbors and my kids, not to mention my husband, probably think I'm nuts (well, my husband knows it...). Besides insisting one neighbor just blow his excess leaves into our lawn instead of bagging them, I collected close to 50 bags of leaves from peoples' curbsides this fall. Some I got dibs on early through a message board, others I just stopped suddenly on the side of the street and started loading. Towards the end of the season, my kids could be heard saying, “Not again mom!” Oh, well... these bags have allowed me to create some pretty good soil over the winter for my new raised beds, with bags to spare. I will simply save them for more composting later or scatter them around my trees and shrubs in place of mulch. Leaves, people, just let them lie!
Soil, it's all about the soil, and dirt is not soil. Poor farming practices, soil contamination, and low quality “dirt” are all reasons to compost and add layers of it directly on top of your lawn; this practice is know as “top-dressing.” When we use chemical fertilizers, we do absolutely nothing to build the soil of our yards. Chemical fertilizers are meant to act as steroids for grass, gardens, and landscaping. Lots of green, lots of bloom, but take away the steroids and that show diminishes. Now, take the time to build the soil, the stuff in which the roots of said plants must live, and your need for chemicals drops dramatically. Like credit cards, feeding the plants only allows you to look good, but once your credit (dirt) is exhausted, the bloom fades and you're exposed. Build the soil, like you'd build your savings account, and you don't need credit cards. You're solvent no matter what. Your bloom is real because your roots are in good soil, not dirt.
Don't forget about your schools and community. I'm hoping to work with my girls' school this spring and into next year to get a composting program up and running. Its not only a great example for the kids to see sustainability in action, it will also provide a number of hands-on science experiment opportunities. Would your city hall do a program? Your ward? A local business? It's worth asking.

Composting No- No's

There are a few items that should never be put in your compost pile. At the top of that list is dog and cat waste. Next on the list would be meat, bones, or anything that is greasy, like salad covered in dressing. With the exception of a mostly emptied, but not yet washed yogurt container that has been filled with water & emptied on to your pile, no dairy either. The very little bit of dairy the above yogurt carton contains is ok, because it also has some great little active bacteria cultures which will help activate your pile. You'll want to keep grass clippings with lots of weeds out, too. Few piles will get hot enough to kill those weed seeds, and the last thing you want is to transplant that evil nutgrass or bindweed around your yard or veggie garden. Those go in the trash, preferably in a paper yard bag. Weeds are fine in the landfill.

Vermicomposting is AWESOME!

Great. What is it? Vermicomposting is quite simply composting using special earth worms as your activator in place of or in addition to beneficial soil microbes. The output is a super charged fertilizer: worm poop! Vermicomposting is not going to give you the large scale compost that bags of leaves will, but then worm castings don't need any extra nutrients to make them a complete fertilizer. Additionally, setting up a bin is simple, cheap, and a great science experiment for the kids, at home and school!

After my first column ran in November, I got the following letter from Sara R., a sister in New Zealand:

I live in a rural area and most of my friends are farming in many different types from deer and crop farmers, to dairy and beef. As a townie my own farming endeavours are limited to my backyard. It is big enough for a Christmas and a New Years day lunch lamb and a lawn mower goat, but my pride and joy is my worm farm. 10,000 tiger worms munch through my family's food scraps making rich castings to add to my vege garden soil. To speed the process up I have a Bokashi bin under my kitchen sink for my scraps. This odour-less rapid composting system is great for keeping my household rubbish limited to un-recyclable rubbish, no more stinky garbage bins, heavy bags filled with slimy food scraps and I get liquid fertiliser to add to all of my garden. I'm even giving bottles of my "worm weeze " liquid fertiliser to friends for Christmas.

Before killing them off a few years ago with too much citrus and excess water, I also had a worm bin. It was great for my daughter, who insisted “one” of them was her pet, “Wormie.” I look forward to getting another bin set up one day soon. As it is, I catch every worm possible and gently toss them into my compost bin or garden beds. Worms rule!

Decrease Your Waste Even More

Last month's column produced a letter from Bonnie L:

Hello,

I have been using those nasty plastic bags for scooping cat litter. We have two kitties who live only inside so they create a bit of waste. My husband and I just talked about buying some cloth bags so we can stop collecting the plastic ones but I will need to find another place to put scooped litter.

Any thoughts you might have would be appreciated.

My response:

I would say what you are doing is a perfectly good "reuse" of the bags. At least they aren't just getting thrown out. However, I recently found out there are these wonderful little things called " digesters ." Here is another link to consider, too, about composting pet waste. While you don't want to compost pet waste, in the traditional sense of composting, you can compost/ digest it separately. I plan on getting a Green Cone Digester next month for our household kitchen waste that may not be composted due to fat, meat or bones.

I actually requested a Green Cone Digester for Valentine's Day, after getting another planting bed for my birthday the month before. Boring, I know, but it's what I wanted. Hubby told me to wait another month and instead I got a gift certificate to a local spa. What a guy!

Between composting, digesting- Green Cone style, and recycling, you should have pretty minimal household waste; perhaps even the smallest trash bag on the block. Lucky you. Seriously, though, this is a challenge I take weekly. Now, before you all think I never use a plastic grocery bag or throw away a perfectly compostable lettuce head or buy a water bottle while I'm away from the house, stop. I'm not perfect. I'm about 90 %+ committed to what I do, but there are some days I'm almost too exhausted to care 100%. Days I do just “chunk it in the trash” or buy the bottle, then throw it away. The difference is I always come back to what I believe is best. Where are you?

Parting Thoughts, Parting Shots

I know I outlined my philosophy on environmental issues in my first column: crunchy, but conservative. Or as I told a friend recently, I'm a light, apple green shade of “Green.” However, a few recent events have urged me to repeat my stance.

Episode 1:

I recycle for five class rooms at my kids' school. I bought the bins (trash cans), printed spiffy labels (“Mrs. X's Class Recycles”), and I pick them up weekly, hauling the contents five miles off to the closest recycling center. As I was completing this task last week, a sweet little girl simply made the comment, “Yeah, save the Earth,” and I had to restrain myself from eye rolling too obviously while I pulled a tight smiled over gritted teeth and nodded.

Episode 2:

I stopped in to pick up a small single item at a local drug store last weekend. After the attendant wrung up my sale, she started the automatic movement to put my little purchase in a plastic bag, when I stopped her. I usually just simply say, “That's okay, I don't need a bag,” and go my way. However this poor girl caught me at the wrong time when she said, “Oh, yeah, ‘Save the Earth!'” I took in a deep breath and said, “I'm not saving anything, I just don't need the bag!”

Episode 3:

While listening to a radio program, an article from the Guardian newspaper in the UK was referenced. The main point of the article was that Green Peace was once again cursing America and their selfish, environmentally destructive ways by demanding soft, fluffy 2-ply toilet paper, thereby, killing millions of virgin forest trees every year. I shook my head, thinking, “You have got to be kidding! What a way to turn people away from their cause!” Extremism is just not my thing, nor is embracing ridiculous Green mantras.

By that third episode, I'd had it! I have to reiterate: I do not do what I do, nor do I urge you monthly to develop better, more environmentally sensitive habits because I'm trying to “save the planet”. What happens to the Earth as a by product of my actions is fantastic, but my main motivation is stewardship and diminishing wastefulness. I went through 46 hours of natural labor with my second child not purely because I thought it was the eco-happy, baby- friendly thing to do, I did it because I absolutely hate needles and I figured if my grandmother could do it six (or seven?) times, I could do it just once! In deed, if our great grandparents could farm naturally and take care of and clean up after themselves, we can too! And while I'm sure my great grandmother would have been jumping for joy at the prospects of the automatic dishwasher or washing machine I come close to worshipping some days, I have little doubt she'd see the waste we produce on a daily basis or the excesses with which surround ourselves and consider it just that: “a waste.”

In an email yesterday, Sara from New Zealand, added to my thoughts:

“... self sufficiency goes further than the pantry and into being less dependent on services, whether provided by private industry or government and is a corner stone of the Church's teachings. It would have been really easy to bail on Nauvoo when you could just make more things when you arrived where you were going and you didn't need to worry about debt collectors because you paid cash. Yup our grandparents had the right idea, how did we get so lost?”

Certainly, if we took the advice we have been given since the early days of the church: 1) be self-sufficient, 2) be prepared for whatever may come, 3) grow our gardens, and 4) save our money, staying well clear of debt, not running so hard after the things of the earth, I have little doubt the things of the Earth would be better off, and so would we. But unless they make recycled 12 packs of double roll toilet paper, me and my house will be doing it with softer, cheaper 2-ply, thank you very much!

If you have ideas that have worked in your community or family about “going green” and you would like to share them with other Meridian readers, please email me here (no paper mail please!): gaylor@meridianmagazine.com

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