Wind, Rain and Recycling

There was a lot of wind this morning and then the rain started so I stayed indoors today. 

Our subject today is recycling.  Depending on where you live there are many items that can be recycled.

Since I have restructured how we handle our garbage here at my house I have been able to reduce our "garbage" greatly.  With composting and recycling I have been able to cut our "garbage" in half.  The "garbage" I am referring to is anything we get rid of that can't be composted or recycled.  

Here, we can recycle many plastics, glass, newsprint, phone-books, tin cans, aluminum cans, batteries and brown paper bags.  In our "green" bin we are able to have sticks, twigs, food scraps, egg cartons, pizza boxes and many more items sent to a large composting site.  Vegetable and fruit scraps go into our worm bin.  Hazardous waste items can be dropped off at a designated place for free - saving garbage space and making sure they don't end up in our drinking water as we live directly over our aquifer.  E-cycling is huge - dropping off electronic devices for free!  I also only bag my grass clippings when I need some greens for my compost pile - otherwise, my mulching mower makes free fertilizer for my lawn.

I have already put my home made compost in my vegetable garden and have made compost tea that I have sprayed on every plant in my yard.  I am anxiously awaiting the worm compost - I'm sure it will be well worth the wait.

So the good we see here is multi-fold.  We are saving money on disposal costs - saving money on fertilizer costs - growing a completely organic garden - saving money on organic produce - reducing the garbage sent to be incinerated - recycling everything we can to reduce packaging costs - our "footprints" are shrinking - the list just seems to go on and on.  I can't see any downsides to this at all.  My husband doesn't have to think about what goes where, I have told him to leave anything in question on the counter and I will take care of it.

 

Look into recycling where you live - you just might be surprised how easy, effective and cost saving it can be for very little effort on your part.

Day 7 and 8 - - rebuild

Blogger was down yesterday and this morning so I couldn't do my usual updates.  Pile temp today was 90 and I turned the pile adding water as needed.  

We are expecting rain for about a week - I will take the pile temp daily as long as I won't get soaked in doing so.

Day 6 - rebuild

Ambient temp 56

Pile core temp 136

The pile is noticeably shrinking.  

I love composting.

Day 5 - rebuild and worm compost tea directions

Ambient temp 59

Pile core temp 156

The pile is looking good and steaming away.

I checked my worms yesterday and I do believe they have multiplied.  They look happy and well fed.  Can't wait to use their "contributions" to make some tea.

Castings Teas suppress disease and pests on vegetation and will boost the crucial microbial activity known as the Soil Food Web (SFW) which is so crucial to organic soils.  Perhaps the most widely used and known use of teas is to suppress/eliminate black spot and powdery mildew on roses.  By spraying Castings Tea on the surface of leaves, you are doing two things.  First, you coat the leaf with millions if not billions of microbes all competing for a food source.  Some, for instance protozoa, eat bacteria which may be eating decaying plant material.  Others eat other microbes and their wastes.  In the end, there are not enough resources for the harmful molds and fungi to flourish.  In addition, you are also coating the leaf with a protective surface that protects the leaf cells from attack by foreign spores or airborne microbes.  Finally, by inoculating the soil with Castings Tea, microbes break down nutrients for uptake into plants thereby increasing plant health and the plant’s own disease resistance/suppression.

Worm Castings Tea -  4 Gallon Brew Recipe

 

Ingredients:

  4-8 cups castings

¼ cup sulfur free molasses

4+ gallons Chlorine free water

 

Note:  If you have chlorinated water, fill your pail and let it sit overnight uncovered, and the chlorine will evaporate.  

 Tea Brewer components:

 Min. 5 gallon plastic pail, bucket or barrel

Air pump with air stone or some other air dispersal device

   

 In a 5 gallon pail, fill with 4 gallons or so of warm water with the molasses.  Turn on the pump with the hose and stone attached before placing the stone into the solution. Leave the pump running when removing the stone from the brew to keep water from entering the stone. 

   For best results, use the ‘open brew’ approach by placing the castings directly into the water.   

 Brew until a noticeable frothy slime (“bio-slime”) develops on the surface of the water and the smell of the ingredients is very weak or no longer present.  The absence of molasses odor indicates that the microorganisms have consumed the ingredients!  Once the food is gone the populations will begin to decrease.  On warm summer days, you can begin a brew in the evening, and the tea will be ready for application the next morning. 

 

   Spray the tea onto foliage, stems, roots and surrounding soil, or simply pour it onto you plants and vegetation.  Spray early morning or in the evening or in the shade, not in the sunshine.

 When you are finished, use the left over castings for your soil amendment needs. 

Day 4 - rebuild

Ambient temp 51

Pile core temp 164

Lots of steam rising out of the pile this morning and it smells heavenly.

Day 3 - re-build

Ambient temp 57

Pile core temp 152

It looks like the addition of some greens helped this pile.

It's hard for me to judge 30 parts browns to 1 part green when all of the ingredients have different compositions.  As you can see below, it can be confusing.  I recommend watching your pile daily and adjusting as necessary.  Eventually you will get the "feel" for it.

Material	C:N Ratio
Coffee Grounds	20:1
Corn Stalks	60:1
Cow Manure	20:1
Fruit Wastes	35:1
Grass Clippings	20:1
Horse Manure w/ Litter	60:1
Leaves	60:1
Newspaper	50-200:1
Oak Leaves (Green)	26:1
Peat Moss	58:1
Pine Needles	60-110:1
Rotted Manure	20:1
Sawdust / Wood	600:1
Sawdust Weathered for two months	325:1
Straw	80-100:1
Table Scraps	15:1
Vegetable Trimmings	12-20:1

Keep in mind these essential for a successful "hot" compost pile.

	Moisture
	Aeration
	Pile temperature
	Particle size
	Carbon to nitrogen ratio thanks to http://www.compostinfo.com

Day 2 of the re-build

Ambient temp 56

Pile core temp 99

I'm hoping we're back to making compost.  I didn't do the math with the original pile build (I don't like ratio math) and I'm thinking I didn't take into consideration the amount of pine needles I was working with.  I did chop them with my mulching mower but now it looks like it could have used more green.

The most fun about this sort of thing is you really can't do it "wrong" - everything will break down eventually.  Getting your hands in the dirt and trying different "recipes" is sometimes the best part.

Spent some time at the Family Fun extravaganza at the convention center today.  We were talking worms to any kid that would listen.  Kids are the best.

 Juanita displaying the worms.

Back on track....I hope

The pile went cold last week.  I tried turning, adding water and saying some magic words..nothing worked.

This last Monday I graduated from my husband calls "Compost College" - he said he would build me a three bin composting system as a graduation present.  With this in mind, I let the pile sit until I could revive it.  During this past week I mowed my back lawn and collected a 32 gallon can of lawn clippings.  

The new bin was constructed today:

The Prothero Pile is currently in the far right bin.  I mixed in most of the grass clippings and added water as I re-built the pile.  My theory is the pile ran out of gas (greens).

My first pile came out amazing.  I have a batch of compost tea brewing in the garage now.

Oh yeah, I'm a Master Composter!