Tell One Friend: Leave those Browns on the Ground

Spring has sprung. The snow melts away to reveal leaves and dead grass on lawns and yards. Yes, some folks will gather up these dead and dry plants. These are good "browns" for home composting. But it's also okay to leave browns on the ground.

Leave it on the Lawn

Lawns and landscapes like a layer of mulch. Autumn leaves and dead grass are also a good source of carbon for the soil. These browns break down slowly over the entire growing season. They provide free food for your lawn while protecting soil from sun and wind.

Invite friends and neighbours to keep some leaves and dry grass on the lawn. Be thoughtful about it. Choose parts of the landscape to look trim and tidy, while leaving other parts more natural. Remember, Mother Nature isn't a clean freak.

Residents can also mow over dry leaves. This breaks up leaves into smaller bits for the mulch layer. A mulching mower is nice, but it's not needed.

Help keep grass and leaves out of landfills by leaving clippings and leaves on the lawn this spring and summer. Alternatively, you can compost these items at home. If you need to bag and remove grass, leaves and yard waste from your property, please drop them off at an Eco Station for free or set out in clear or coloured bags (not black, blue or paper). This will help staff at the Edmonton Waste Management Centre easily distinguish yard waste from garbage and send it for composting. 

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Share Your Message Effectively

Try these tips to connect with friends, family, neighbours, and co-workers.

Model the Behaviour
Show friends and family how you use leaves and dry grass on your landscape. Talk up the benefits to your soil and plant health.

Make it Normal
Post a photo of mulch on social media.

Offer Timely Prompts
While friends and neighbours are doing spring clean up, mention how Browns are a valuable for both lawn and landscape.

Give Positive Feedback
"Your natural lawn with your mulched browns looks great!"

Highlight the Benefits
Change the narrative. Aesthetically-pleasing lawns and plants are healthy and not necessarily perfect. Healthy, natural lawns and plants, nourished with compost, contribute to a healthy urban eco-system. Insects, birds and animals will thank you.

Visit edmonton.ca/compost

Previous Tell One Friend: Set Up an Eco Station Box

Tell One Friend: Prepare Your Autumn Leaves

It's autumn. Tree leaves fall in brilliant shades of yellow, orange and red.  Before long, those leaves turn brown and get crunchy. Preparing leaves is an important step in home composting and reducing waste.

How to Prepare Autumn Leaves

• Mulch dried leaves on your lawn. Mow over the leaves once or twice to break them down. They are a great source of carbon for your lawn.
• Store leaves as 'browns' for your home compost. This is a smart way to have a stash of browns for next spring and summer
• Mulch dried leaves on your plant beds. Just pile them around plants. It's like free fertilizer for your soil.

Using leaves on your landscape means less waste picked up at the curb.

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Share Your Message Effectively

Try these tips to connect with friends, family, neighbours and co-workers. 

Model the Behaviour

Show friends and family how you prepare and use leaves.

Make it Normal

Post photos of your autumn leaves on social media.

Offer Timely Prompts

While a neighbour is cleaning their yard, ask them for their leaves and mention that they are valuable. Your enthusiasm shows how they might be losing a valuable resource of their own.

Give Positive Feedback

"Those mulched leaves on your lawn look natural. I'm excited to see your lawn next spring."

Visit edmonton.ca/composting

Previous Tell One Friend: Take Batteries out to the Eco Station

Tell One Friend: Mow High, Mow Often

Do you leave your clippings on the lawn? Remember to mow high and mow often.

Mowing high ensures that your clip only 1/3 of the length of the grass blades, each time. Small clippings also break down easily. Mowing often develops a deep, extensive root system and leaves little room for weeds to grow.

• Raise your mower blade to medium range.
  Mow to the height of your pinky, or 6 to 8 cm (2.5 to 3 inches).
• Mow about every 4 to 5 days during the heavy growth season.
  When growth is slower, cutting once a week or less will suffice.
• Sharpen the blade. It's makes for a sharp-looking lawn.
  Grass recovers more quickly when cut cleanly.

Help your friends and neighbours keep it simple.

Prompt Them
"It's really simple to leave my clippings on the lawn. I don't cut off too much of the grass at a time. I mow regularly, but I don't have the hassle of bagging and dragging my grass."

One Small Ask
"Can I show you how to raise the blade on your mower? You can decide what length to go with afterwards."

Give Feedback
"I love how lush your lawn looks, and I noticed you leaving the clippings on the lawn. Will you get in touch if you ever need help?"

Did You Know?
It is not too late to go bagless if the grass has grown a bit too long. Just raise your mower blade to the highest possible setting. Go over your lawn once, then lower the blade it to a medium range, and mow the lawn a second time. It will still be more time effective than bagging your grass and ensures your clippings remain small enough to break down efficiently.

Visit edmonton.ca/gobagless
Visit edmonton.ca/waste to learn What Goes Where.

Next Tell One Friend: "No Drinking Straw, Thank You"
Previous Tell One Friend: Make Waste-Wise Actions Visible

Myth or Fact: Going Bagless Makes Thatch

MYTH!

Going bagless will not make more thatch. On the contrary, grass clippings are great for your lawn!

Thatch is mostly old roots, stems, and leaves that have not yet broken down. It's a layer of accumulated dead stuff between your living grass, and their roots and soil. This build-up is typically made of the types of debris that are most resistant to decay, such as dead leaves, grass roots, and stems.

Grass needs some thatch for protection. But when the thatch layer is too thick, it can be a boundary that blocks nutrients, water, and air from reaching the root system. This leads to poor grass health.

Won't the Grassclippings Add More Thatch?

It's easy to see why so many people believe this myth. But it's just not true.
Grass clippings are 80 to 85% water. So they break down quickly and do not add to thatch.

Lawn care experts agree that going bagless is a great way to support lush and healthy grass.

The primary causes of thatch are over-watering and over-fertilizing. These encourage excessive root growth. The roots take longer to break down, so the thatch layer builds up.

Going bagless is great for your lawn. Grass clippings create a small layer of mulch to protect the soil and grass roots. As clippings break down, they return water and valuable nutrients back to the soil.

Make sure to leave your clippings on the lawn!

Visit edmonton.ca/compost

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Go to Compost 'S cool

Image source: Blackhawk Hardware

   

Recap: MCR Munch & Mulch (June, 2018)

20 MCRs enjoyed a sunny, spring morning at Compost 'S cool, last Saturday. In good company, we learned, we chatted, we discussed, and we played in the dirt.

5 Ways to Deal with Grass, Leaves, and Plants... But Not "Compost"

• Mad Science: bokashi, extracts, teas & brews
• A Sensus of Humus: how to make leaf mold
• Interment: burial, trenching & double digging
• The Green, Green, Grass of Home: going bagless (grasscycling)
• Litter Bugs: chop & drop, deadheading, mulching & lasagna gardening

The group broke into four teams. Each team toured all four stations to learn about the topics above. At each station, one person from the team led a chat about the station.

Special thanks to MCR Deb P. She hosted the Mad Science station and taught us about bokashi. She even sent folks off with samples of EM (effective micro-organisms) to try their own bokashi compost.

The day ended with a fun game of Compost 'S cool charades.

Congrats to all those MCRs who were recognized for reaching milestones and long service. You rock!

We look forward to seeing everyone at the MCR Tree Planting, in July.

Stay in Touch: 5 Easy Ways to Record

• Click here record volunteering
• Visit MyVolunteerPage.com
• Email mcrp@edmonton.ca
• Phone 780-496-5991
• Text 780-668-0217

   

Time to Save Your Eggshells by MCR Maria K.

As an avid gardener and Master Composter Recycler (class of 2007), I’ve learned a lot of wonderful garden tips that have helped to reduce the work of our City’s waste collectors. Here’s a small and simple trick, one of my favourites, that I employ every year, all year long, and it’s really easy!

There’s an ice cream pail under my kitchen sink, all year, for eggshells. Why? Because they are an excellent mineral resource and slug discourager. I don’t even bother to wash them because I find they dry out in the pail. When my pail gets full, I take a potato masher and mash them down so that I can add more. By spring planting, I usually have a pail or two that are at least three-quarters full. (My family likes eggs, what can I say?)

Eggshells have nice sharp edges, so I use them pretty liberally wherever I plant lettuce and other veggies that slugs consider tender vittles. Basically, I plant the seeds in the soil, and cover the seed bed with eggshells, and the plants find their way through, no problem. In a few weeks, it looks quite pretty, eggshells with greens.

Tomato plants, in particular, really appreciate the calcium from mashed eggshells. I try to keep some on hand at all times and use a few hand-fulls wherever I see slug trails in my yard. You could say my slug population has really decreased over the last ten years!

And here’s a little bonus tip: When you get your hair cut, ask for the trimmings. Turns out hair is a nice source of slow-release nitrogen – another favourite snack of most plants.

Why give away eggshells and hair clippings (pet fur, too) when they are great resources for growing things?

Even if you’re not a gardener, chances are that you know someone who is. Offering them your eggshells is a great conversation starter about waste reduction. Why not try it?

Visit edmonton.ca/compost

Maria K. is an MCR who is all about living simply, reducing consumption and waste, gardening, and feeding the soil we depend on for good food. She has more Simple Suggestions at simplemoodlings.blogspot.ca.

     

Only YOU Can Prevent Dutch Elm Disease

Did you know Edmonton is home to one of the world’s largest concentrations of elm trees uninfected with Dutch elm disease?

Prevention of Dutch elm disease starts by keeping elm trees healthy. During the colder months (October 1 to March 31), prune dead wood from your elm trees. Dead wood is a habitat for the insect that causes Dutch elm disease. (The City is responsible for pruning and maintaining trees on boulevards.) It is illegal to prune between April 1 and September 30.

To Safely Dispose of Elm Wood:

• Small elm branches can be bundled and placed at the curb with regular household waste. Bundles must be smaller than 1.2 m (4 ft) and 20 kg (44 lbs).
• Large elm branches and logs can be taken to special elm disposal bins at an Eco Station. Drop off is free. Branches must be smaller than 1.2m (4 ft) in order to fit the bins.
• Large loads (more than a half-ton truck) and commercial loads must be taken to the Edmonton Waste Management Centre. Disposal fees apply.

Do not to store wood from fallen or damaged trees, as this increases the risk of spreading Dutch elm and other tree diseases. Fallen trees on private property should be removed by a professional tree removal company. Do not keep or transport fallen elm tree debris for firewood.

Identifying Elm Trees

The elm tree has the following characteristics:

Green, toothed leaves that turn yellow in fall;

Bark that is deeply ridged and grey-brown in color;

A roughly vase- or fountain-like shape;

A height of about 35 metres (115 feet) and trunk diameter of about 175 centimetres (68 inches) at maturity.

Visit edmonton.ca - Dutch Elm Disease

Myth or Fact: Bare Soil Before Winter

"Should my soil be clean and bare, so it can breathe over winter?"

Myth! A thin layer of mulch over your garden beds will help keep the soil alive and well in the cold winter months. Bare soil is dying soil. Many of us are busy preparing our yards and gardens for winter. We tend to rip everything out of the garden and leave our bare soil to endure the harsh winter ahead. This is not the best thing to do. Mulch is a layer of organics (often wood chips or chopped up plant material from pruning) that will break down over time and help the soil stay alive. Soil can breathe easily through the mulch. A good mulch layer protects the soil from the cold winds that would dry out bare soil and kill soil microbes. Mulch also protects the soil from snow cover during winter, providing warmth and keeping moisture in. Mulch it up! The cheapest and easiest way to get mulch is to gather prunings from your garden clean-up, cut them up into 2 - 5 cm pieces, and scatter them over your garden soil to create a protective layer. Smaller pieces will break down more quickly into the soil. You can also use wood chips, but these are often harder to find and will take a while to break down depending on the size. During the gardening season, you can also add grass clippings as a mulch to protect your soil while the garden is in use. By mulching your soil you will be protecting it from the wind allowing soil microbes to thrive helping the soil to stay moist Want to learn more? Visit edmonton.ca/compost Subscribe to Keep Composting to get compost information delivered straight to your inbox, just 4 times per year.  Image source: Senior Gardening

 

Raised Garden Beds for $5 Each...Plus Labour - by MCR Sarah D.

Last summer I knew I wanted to convert some of my expansive front lawn to gardens. Being an admittedly lazy person when it comes to gardening (and given my late start to the season) I didn't want to rototill my front yard into rows to make this happen. Instead I turned to what I had recently learned from my participation in the City of Edmonton’s Master Composter Recycler (MCR) program.

A gorgeous example of reuse in action

In the MCR program, I learned about Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore in North Edmonton and the abundance of construction materials that could be found there. Not knowing what to expect, I took the trip over to the store to check it out. Upon arriving I noticed the remnants of window packaging in the front industrial yard – wood frames with cross beams casually labeled $5 each in sharpie. I immediately saw what these misshapen old frames could become. Just in case they'd already sold, I tried not to get too excited at my exquisite find.

Can you see where I'm going with this?

I pretended to ignore them, heart racing, and casually walked inside and up to the front counter. Trying to act natural I asked the clerk if I could purchase the empty window shipping crates and was over-joyed to discover I was not too late! We purchased 7 of them and had to make several trips back and forth to get them home – safety first. As you can imagine, making sure that each load was secure with straps and bungee cords was no small task.  It turned out I was extra lucky; we found out afterward that they could’ve sold them several times over later that day!

Once home I laid the frames out on the front lawn. This process for me took some time as I tried to think of the best way to use them. I went through a few patterns by placing and replacing them, and even sketching layouts that I liked on paper. I eventually found the design that would make the best use of the chain link fence and the position of the sun as it hits my yard.

Perfect place by the fence, and another bed in the middle of the yard

At first I thought about removing all the grass from the bottom of wherever I placed them, but quickly abandoned this notion in favour of something far easier. I decided to use old cardboard and newspapers to line the bottom of my new garden beds to ensure that the lawn below would not grow up through the soil. First, the kids and I removed some of the cross beams that would get in the way of roots and that didn’t really add a lot of structural integrity.

In order to make these garden beds as reuse friendly as possible, I collected some unfinished compost from my compost pile that had settled over the previous winter. I lined some of the beds with it and some without. If you don’t have any finished compost, unfinished will do in this case or you can purchase some compost through the City of Edmonton’s list of compost retailers.

Adding unfinished compost

Then I topped all the beds with soil I had purchased to fill the remaining volume, and voila! Raised garden beds for $5 plus labour and a little soil. All other materials were free/recycled!

Soon to be the envy of the neighbourhood

That first year we planted our veggies and had a great crop of onions, beets, carrots and basil and other fresh herbs. Truly a reuse success!

Life doesn't get any better than this!

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Sarah became a Master Composter Recycler in May, 2014. She is passionate about reducing waste, both in her own life and the lives of others. She enjoys being a volunteer and helping to build a sense of community in Edmonton - making connections with like-minded people and learning fromt he wisdom and experiences of others.
"I especially like volunteering for events as sharing information I believe in, and am passionate about, gets me fired up!"