Weekend Tips for Winter Composting

Before the snow arrives, take a look at your yard and see if there is an opportunity to work less and get more from your winter composting.

First, see if there is a spot close to your kitchen door that gets a lot of sun. I don't like walking through knee-deep snow drifts to dump my kitchen scraps, so convenience at this time of year is very important.

Fortunately, there is a sunny spot just outside my back door were I relocate my bin for winter. Next summer, my herbs will love the nutrient boost that the compost will leave behind.

A few hours of sun means my black plastic bin will absorb enough solar energy to restart the composting process every day. I can add all my kitchen scraps and not fill the bin - it's MAGIC!

No flies means I don't have to worry about covering the food waste with soil or leaves. I do have a bag of leaves handy, so I can add a layer of browns every couple decimetres to balance the C:N and trap some air for the spring thaw.

During the cold, dark months it is one of my guilty pleasures to soak in a deep, hot bath. I assuage my guilt by taking a bucket of bathwater out to the compost bin (after the water has sat overnight and added its heat and humidity to my home). This keeps the mice away, too.

Shelter will keep the wind our and the moisture in, so when spring finally arrives next July there will be plenty of moisture to keep it working.

As early as you can in spring, move the bin back to its summer location, toss any unfinished material into your wheelbarrow, and let your winter compost cure until it can be dug into the bed.

You can laugh at how easy it was while you pick fresh herbs for the kitchen.

Summer Leaf Thieves Beware!

I am a leaf thief.
(image from mastercomposter.com)
I steal leaves in both green and brown and, aside from the occasional handful of pet waste, I have enjoyed using my nieghbour's organic waste to create an abundant landscape.

I have learned over the years that compost is very forgiving and can handle a certain amount of weed seed, diseased material, oils, acids, meat and dairy, and yes, even doo-doo. Stealing fresh grass clippings is one way to get a nice, hot pile going and keep the pile working well.

Today, an article came to me from LetsRecycle.com warning about certain chemicals that will persist in compost and manure piles and do some damage to sensitive crops down the road.

The chemicals are clopyralid and aminopyralid, found in some herbicides. Happily, they are not found in the latest trendy lawn treatement - CGM.

This might be a time to mention, if you have not heard, that Good Growing Neighbours may be affected in this round of budget talks. In this post Weed 'N Feed world, I hope the messages are picked up by other programs (indeed, Office of Environment, EPCOR, and many garden centres are doing a great job of spreading the word about healthy lawn practices).

clippings on newspaper makes a great mulch to lead you up the garden paths.

Next summer, when stealing grass clippings for my garden, I will look for a few weeds in the bag, sniff around for a faint cereal smell, and watch a bit more closely for pet waste. A bumper crop of tomatoes means tasty salsa on Mojito night!

I have heard that the currency of the future will not be fresh water, but photosynthesis. In a way I am robbing today's riches and socking it away under my mattess of topsoil. The soil is my bank and I will continue my clandestine deposits for future family feasts!

Bokashi Resources from Suzanne Lewis

Those of you who attended Suzanne Lewis' Anaerobic Composting presentation at Inspire were promised links to the videos referenced during the discussion. The links are below.

For those not familiar with Bokashi, here is an introductory video that just makes me want to go out and buy some stuff and start digging:

As this fellow said, Bokashi is a fermentation process, not a comosting process. "In home composting applications, kitchen waste is placed into a container which can be sealed with an air tight lid. These scraps are then inoculated with a Bokashi EM mix. This usually takes the form of a carrier, such as rice hulls, wheat bran or saw dust, that has been inoculated with composting micro-organisms. The EM are natural lactic acid bacteria, yeast, and phototrophic bacteria that act as a microbe community within the kitchen scraps, fermenting and accelerating breakdown of the organic matter." (from Wikipedia)

Here are the links to other aspects of Bokashi:

Burying 1

Burying 2

Do-it-yourself Bucket system - a great idea for the ReUse crowd!

Do-it-yourself EM

If you make your own EM, and would be willing to share a bit with other MC/Rs please leave a comment after this post.

Wheat Bran based EM

A longer video on making, like, totally rad Bokashi, dude.

Check out the many other videos on YouTube - obviously there are a lot of people who swear by this system.

For years, I have wondered what the benefits of this process would be... I would still use my collection pail since I have no room near my kitchen for the buckets and bag of Bokashi. I would only dig it into the soil when I am not growing things (spring and autumn) so would either store it or compost it (go figure).

I found a video titled Bokashi vs. Composting that raised some interesting issues. Since it was delivered by a guy who looks like he is here to pick up the laundry I think I will do some fact checking before abandoning my Earth Machine. By the way, composting is not stinking, back-breaking work like some of these videos suggest. Neither is Bokashi labour free, unless they are willing to come over, make the EM, then make the Bokashi, and then bury the stuff for me, and it is certainly not inexpensive. Sheesh!

So, what do you think???

On a personal note...

If you missed Inspire 2010, you missed a lovely venue, great food, funny and engaging speakers, a smooth registration process, enviro-swag, workshops, discussions, garbage chandeliers, energy, inspiration, memories, and good friends.

For me, a high point was hearing applause when Garry mentioned improvements to our processes and the new initiatives coming up. It is not often I hear people thrilled with waste handling, and it renewed my commitment to our programs. Thanks to all of you for that.

I want to send a special Thank You to Sonya, Marilyn, Kate, Richard, and Christine for all the work you did to make this event possible. I look forward to the next one!

Compostable disposables issue broadens

I have been trying to get my tiny brain around the Biodegradible products and packaging issue for some time.

SunChips, of course, comes to mind as a recent addition to the discussion. For those of you not following this, the packaging has been discontinued in the US, and celebrated in Canada.

I have had little luck with bio-d material in my home compost bin, and it seems others are having similar issues, like the University of Vermont.

Here is a new twist - packaging that can be just washed away. Although after reading this I wonder why we don't simply make all packaging out of chocolate in the first place. Yum!

On top of all that, the August edition of BioCycle magazine contains a bunch more information on the topic.

Leaves my tiny brain hurtin' for the good old days of wicker baskets and milk bottles.