Making a Complex Problem Simple as Dirt (Part 3)

So, here is where you have to decide what is right for you and your situation. (Keep in mind your answers to the Part 2 questions.) Indoor? Outdoor? Hot? Cold? Fancy? Cheap? Recycled? DIY? High maintenance? Low maintenance? The possibilities are pretty vast, and there is indeed something for everyone.

Let's look at some of those possibilities so your idea about compost can be composting nto something good.

Find the whole infographic on Treehugger.

Even more of the Why

Vermicomposting Basics Straight Outa Compton Nebraska (Worms!)

I've deliberately tried this one twice. So far, it has not gone well. Lots of little red wigglers gave their lives in my folly. I still love the idea, but I need to find a way to keep the little guygals at a temp more comfortable and stable than outdoors in Lubbock has to offer.

Super simple composting

Yucky But Useful!

I have actually tried this one, but not on purpose. Last year, I found black soldier fly larvae in one of my two compost boxes. I didn't know what they were until very recently. Who knew? Here I was worrying about the little invaders and had no idea that they were superstars of the composting world. I hope to step it up this year since they help to break down a lot of materials that are normally not acceptable in your compost.

While we do not have may opportunities for municipal composting (except for tree branches and Christmas trees) we do have access to something even better - the Heart of Lubbock Community Garden. Beth (Hi, Beth!) and the crew have a drop-off station at 21st Street and Avenue X here in Lubbock. For those of you who love the idea but don't want to keep up with it, this a great way to go.

Heart of Lubbock Community Garden

(From this rather cool local blog)

Cool Composting sidebar - mealworms eat (and digest) Styrofoam!

 

EPA: Composting at Home (Support the EPA!)

EPA: How to Create and Maintain an Indoor Worm Composting Bin

Little Green Goddess: Composting 101

(Great post for learning more)

Bokashi - brew your way to great compost

The high-tech Mesquite Hugger hot compost system

Happy tomatoes and peppers!

Happy gecko!

As for the Mesquite Hugger home, we do our composting in two shipping boxes turned compost 

boxes. (Have I mentioned that I am super cheap?) We've had great success with very little effort and very little thinking involved. As long as I stay mindful of the green to brown ratio, turn it once per week, and maintain the moisture levels, we get great compost which leads to happy geckos and tomatoes. And really, what more could a Mesquite Hugger want out of life? [Rhetorical answer: Maybe a job with Compost Pedalers where I could ride around on a cargo bike, return carbon to the ground, and keep Austin weird!]

Composter ideas on Instructables

Just in case I haven't thrown enough compost ideas into one post for you, check out all the compost ideas on Instructables. (I love Instructables.)

May something as basic and elemental as recycled refuse lead us all to a better place!

I'm Digging this VermiCompost Idea (Literally and Pun Intended)

I hate to admit it, but I am a miserable failure when it comes to vermicomposting. Mostly, it's been a lot of heat, a lot of drought, and whole lot of worm death - poor, brave, little guys gals dual-gender invertebrates!

But, I've been thinking about a plan to be successful without having the worm composter in the house. (Not everyone likes the idea of worms in the kitchen.)

I had something like this in mind

The plan is simple - a normal dual or triple bucket setup, but mostly buried in a shady place. That way, the worms get to live at a stable temperature with really great insulation. My garden will get the benefits of vermicomposting and I won't have to deal with all the senseless worm death at my hands. Definitely a win-win situation.

But you know me - the guy who writes much faster than he builds (and I'm a pretty slow writer.) So, I have not actually tackled the project.

But I do check my email. Today I received an email from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm. The email featured a new product that caught my eye. It's not the same idea as mine, but it's pretty darn close.

Uncle Jim's WormFeast!

 

Bury it, throw in your scraps, let your native worms do all of the composting work! All that for $29.90 and free shipping! It looks like the Mesquite Hugger may be trying Vermicomposting again soon. The WormFeast doesn't really allow you to harvest the compost or compost tea, but it does fertilize the immediate area around it while breaking all your scraps down into a much more earth-friendly substance. Place it in your garden and you have some good stuff happening down in the dirt!

 

Now, where did I put that over-used debit card and the posthole diggers this time?

 

May all your digging be worthwhile and may some wiggly invertebrates do the dirty work in your personal carbon reduction!

Earth Day Suggestions: #2 Get Down and Dirty

[Alternate title: Save the planet, save money, grow veggies, possibly have worms!]

This shirt helps me with my self-image issues.

Unlike yesterday's suggestion, this one is all about the dirt. But (and this is a big but) there are no car salesmen involved.

For me, Earth Day is about a few big things - tackling climate change, cleaning up the mess we've made, and finding ways not to make such a big mess for the future. Today's topic deals with all three and it's about making a little mess to drastically reduce some bigger messes.

It's all about COMPOST!

In the past, I did a little composting here and there, but last year I was blessed with a big wooden box that helped me kick up the composting in a fairly big way. (And I now have a Mediterranean gecko preserve in a box in the backyard too. Win-Win!)

The first thing you need to know about composting - it's cheap and easy! This may sound simplistic, but composting is just throwing a loosely balanced bunch of trash together, stirring it up occasionally, and ending up with a bunch of free fertilizer.

Why should you do it?

You can easily cut down your household garbage production by 1/3. You can cut down on greenhouse gas production in your local landfill and you can lessen the need for more landfills. You can save $ on fertilizer (or you can donate it to someone who will use it - like a neighborhood garden or grub farm). It could be your opportunity to finally have 1000's of worms as pets - if you decide to try vermicomposting.

Want to learn more?

Check out this infographic from a 2011 Treehugger article. (Good composting is timeless!) (Separated for easier viewing)

 

 

 

 

 

May we conquer our problems one food scrap at a time!

 

PS. For those of you who are all about the worms, Uncle Jim is having an Earth Day sale (for you big spenders).

 

More Saturday Garden Stuff - Lubbock

Most of this summer's gardening experiments have gone well, so I thought I'd post a few more pics for you.

The Food Is Free Project planter is finally coming around. I finally figured out where I botched this one in the beginning. My soil had/has too much clay and will not allow sufficient water wicking to occur through the soil. So, I started watering and fertilizing from the top and the plants are (mostly) thriving.

I left town last week for four days. When I left town the plant had three green tomatoes on it. When I returned, there were seventeen!

The olla tomatoes are recovering from the physiological leaf roll (too much water from our monsoon a few weeks ago) and the tomatoes are looking good and tasting great. Thanks Lubbock Master Gardeners for these hardy plants.

This locust was hanging out on the back fence and I liked the look of him. So here he is for you to see. If you want a little locust info to ruminate - all locusts are grasshoppers but not all grasshoppers are locusts. Don't even get me started on crickets!

This locust was on the sweet pepper plant. I snapped this pic and then relocated her to the four-o'clock jungle at the east end of the yard.

Other news, my second try at vermicomposting was a dismal failure. It's too snagging hot here to try that in July.

My friend the grackle girl once again hung out while I mowed. She scarfed up lots of juicy bugs. It's good to have neighbors. We also have a young mockingbird hanging out and being a punk. He seems to have a strong dislike for bluejays and is keeping the pretty boys (and the neighbor's cat) at bay.

May your experiments bring you this much joy and tasty food!

Thanks for reading!

PCR: Lubbock Master Gardeners, a Garden Instructable, Random stuff

Snagit! Things were looking so good...

Okay, I admit it - I don't know what I'm doing. I am more mechanic than gardener. The front-porch-olla tomatoes have been rocking right along and putting out some beautiful and very tasty fruit. (My wife and I have been very impressed with our green thumbs.) Then we got up a few days ago and found that our beautiful green plants had turned brown and wilted overnight. Snagit, we were doing so well!

So, what do you do when you run out of solutions - you go look for smarter people who know more than you do. And I am a big fan of keeping it local, so I sought out the Lubbock Master Gardeners Association. Sure enough, a little bit of time on their site and I found some answers. Maybe physiological leaf roll, maybe bacterial canker, maybe late blight. (I still have a lot to learn.)

If you want to learn more about local gardening and conservation issues, check out these upcoming training presentations from the LMGA or consider becoming a Master Gardener yourself. Master Gardeners to share conservation tips (AJ article)

This really cool, heavily-hyphenated, self-wicking, recycled, water-collecting, good-looking, raised-bed planter showed up on Instrucatables this week. Check-it-out!

Build a Large Self Watering Garden & Greenhouse from Reused Materials

Last Saturday morning I found these size 12 mushrooms at a central Lubbock school playground.

The red wigglers arrived last Thursday and are happily munching away on newspaper, coffee grounds, and veggie scraps. Stay tuned for more footless compost.

 

 

May you find your answers, get smarter, get healthier, and help us all to heal our overly stressed world.

 

Thank you for reading!

Minipost: Two project beginnings and a gecko surprise

More humble beginnings

Okay, so it's not much progress, but Knippa helped me drag Electropigeon #1 out of the back room and place it on the motorcycle stand. The journey of a thousand amps.... (For you gas-o-holics out there, we also dragged his Vespa Rally project to his house and placed it on his motorcycle stand.)

Also, I ordered 500 red wigglers from Uncle Jim so we can begin vermicomposting soon. Worm woohoo everybody!

Cooler than the Geico spokeslizard - but they may be cousins

And I added some produce scraps to the compost box today and saw this little dude hanging out - a Mediterranean house gecko. He's doubled in size since the last time we encountered each other.

May your green projects flourish and attract exotic and interesting visitors!

Happy Independence Day!

The Project Itch List - Green Brain Dreaming

Click here for original image

(I sometimes write about the old overactive brain and its need to create and learn and work with the underactive hands. Be warned - this is one of those. The creative itch has turned into a burning need lately. Busy-ness is frustrating, snagit!)

The Practical Hipster Electric Bike

The simply elegant Maxwell ebike

 

The Faraday, the Vela, the Genze, and now the Maxwell (That thing is so snagging cool it hurts!) have been working on me, and the one-wheel and two-wheel trailers gathering dust in the garage along with the direct-drive hub motor mounted to another dust-gathering e-bike have all fermented in my head to make me want to build my own hipster e-bike that I could use for shopping, water gathering, recycling, and commuting with the little brother. And really, I have all the parts...

Compost happens, but it requires a little work or some worms

Uncle Jim's Worm Farm

The backyard box composter is rocking and rolling, but I need to start another compost pile (or two) so that the current one will have a chance to mature. I have been wanting to build a compost tumbler like this instructable or this instructable (Itch itch itch). To tide me over until I get to build that one, I plan to order 500 red wrigglers to get the vermicomposter up and digesting. I will keep you informed about our descent into the wormhole.

Here Comes the Sun

More and more solar-powered vehicles, refrigerators, fans, and projects have presented themselves to me lately. (I love the little solar-powered Zenn that just popped up for sale on evtradingpost.com and Ebay this week.) All of it serves to remind me that I have the components lying around to build a solar-powered charging station that would be sufficient to keep the Vespa and an e-bike charged pretty easily.

Solar Zenn

And the project I most want to work on: the Electric Pigeon

Yep, I had already been feeling it, but this weekend I rode the electric Vespa and (BOOM!) realized that an electric vintage scooter (for me) is the pinnacle of enjoyable transport. The Vespa is my first-draft version with lots of bumps and hiccups along the way. I am ready to build the second draft scooter now.

Pigeon 1 and the donorcycle

May your overactive brain and your underactive hands find some common ground in your green projects! If mine do, I'll let you know.

Thanks for reading!

PCR Updates: Ollas. Raised Bed, No Worms (Snagit!)

The runaway success (with minimal investment) is the ollas on the porch approach. The plants have thrived, flowered, and are now putting on fruit - at least the free tomato plants are. Now, if I just had a bigger porch...

Ollas on the porch are rocking!

 

Want to make your own ollas? Here is an instructable for you.

Yea!!!

The Food Is Free Project raised-bed, self-wicking planter is less of a success, but I think it's a victim of my own cheapness. I think I messed up with poor quality soil. As I add more compost and a little fertilizer, things are looking sad but better. We do have two celebrity tomatoes out there!

If you look closely, there are two tiny tomatoes in the photo.

 

My attempts at catching local worms have been less than impressive. I did come up with one very small red wiggler. I am travelling for work quite a bit, but that should slow in July, so I am going to order a bunch of worms when there is time to get them started. I am hoping to avoid last year's worm carnage. My wife has started juicing, so the Mesquite Hugger demand for composting has definitely increased. I will keep you (com)posted.

Zucchini flowers!

May your adventures in personal carbon reduction be fruitful!



 

Personal Carbon Reduction: Vermicomposting & Find Your Own Worms

 (Find it here)

Making mistakes. I include this in my list of special skills. Last year we tried vermicomposting (composting with worms) at our house. It did not go so well. I started with two 5-gallon buckets and $25 worth of mail-order red wigglers - the worms known for being the best vermicomposters out there. You probably don't need the gory details. It was an incredibly hot, dry, busy summer.  Worms don't like hot, dry, and busy summers.

(Find it here)

This year, I am planning to try again. Since I am too cheap to drop another $25 on worms, I am planning to catch my own by following the advice on this page:

Attracting Compost Worms in Your Backyard

My composter is already built, but if you want to join in on the fun, here are instructions for building your own 3-bucket or 3-tub version for yourself:

How to Make an Inexpensive Worm Bin from (3) Plastic Buckets

And while we are on the subject of personal carbon reduction and worms, check out this Grist article that combines the two:

What do we need to fight climate change? More worms.

May you and those slimy little guys form a garden-feeding, earth-saving pile of compost and worm tea!

(Find it here)