THE DOWN AND DIRTY ON MY DIRT

Who would have thought that banana peels and onion skins still had a little utility left in them? I didn't realize just how much stuff we had been throwing in the garbage that we could've been turning into something useful.  In fact, by composting our food waste (no meat though) and reusing our bread bags (for produce and lunch bags) we've reduced our family's weekly garbage output to less than two thirteen gallon trash bags!  I am using a hot compost method to get a faster break-down and to kill any bad bacteria and weed seeds.

This is my method, please let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas:

My next batch of compost.  Notice the
cardboard box; I will shred it before I start
cooking this pile.  The smaller the pieces
are the faster they will break down

1.  I built a pile that was at least three feet tall and three feet wide.  The pile needs to be at least this big so the core temperature can get hot enough; you can make yours as long as you want but three feet is the most manageable to turn (more on this later)

2.  I used a mix of two different categories of material: carbon (brown) and nitrogen (green).  Examples of carbon materials would be straw, wood shavings (make sure these are not chemically treated), cardboard, dry leaves etc. Examples of nitrogen materials would be fresh grass clippings, kitchen waste, weeds, chicken poop, etc.

3.  I started piling these items until I had a three-foot tall mound.  I mixed all of the ingredients with a pitch fork and covered it with black plastic.  I didn't use anything fancy, just a piece of visqueen (vapor barrier for under houses) that we've had lying around for close to ten years.  We used to use it as a giant slip and slide.  You could also use an old tarp.  I covered it for two reasons.  First, the pile needs to reach a certain temperature for it to start breaking down.  The center of the pile will reach this temperature on its own but I'm impatient and like to see results quickly.  Second, it rains alot here and if the pile gets water-logged it will stop composting.

4.  I have been turning my pile every 3-4 days.  It doesn't need to be turned this often but it certainly speeds up the process by bringing oxygen to the center and breaking up big chunks.  Also, for me it's cathartic.  If you're squeamish about snakes and other creepy crawlies, use caution when pulling back your cover as they seem to love hanging out in this warm, dark place.

This is visqueen.  If you'd like to start
your own compost please don't go buy a
new tarp, you can find scraps of this on
building sites or salvage stores like the
Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  Or
the plastic that was used to wrap pallets
works great.  Just ask for it at your local
garden or hardware store; I'm sure they'd be
glad to dig some out of their garbage for you.

This guy might look scary but he was
only about the size of some of the
worms I found.

5.  When I last turned my pile I looked for a few clues to indicate that my pile was healthy.

• One, as I dug into the center I could feel warmth radiating off of the overturned compost from about an inch away (this means the conditions are right in the center for decomposition!)  If you want to get technical, the temperature of your pile should reach 135-160 degrees Fahrenheit.  You can check this with a compost thermometer which range in price from $15-$150.  I didn't feel the need to purchase one, I figure that if it's breaking down and feels warm it must be working... 
• Another, the pile smelled earthy; not rotten.  If your pile smells rotten, you have too much "green" nitrogen material and not enough "brown" carbon material or your pile is too wet.  If your pile is not composting properly it will release methane gas, which is stinky and bad for the environment.  If your pile looks exactly the same as it did when you first covered it, it might be too dry or too cold.
• The third is the presence of beneficial helpers like these little guys... 

red wiggler worms- these guys will munch on about half their weight
in compost every day turning it into worm castings aka. pure compost
goodness.  So the more the merrier!

       you can buy these worms and add them to your pile or in my case, we have enough of them
       around that they just showed up when my pile reached the right conditions.

6.  By the second time I turned my pile it had broken down enough to switch from the pitchfork to a spade-tipped shovel (aka digging shovel.)  I just dug straight down into the pile starting at the center.  This helped to break up some of the soggy piles of grass clippings and the dry spots of straw.  If these are not mixed together well enough it will take forever for them to break down.  I ended up with some BIG slimy clumps of grass that were really hard to break up into smaller chunks so next time I will not leave my grass clippings in a pile long enough to start getting slimy but rather intermix them with my straw (from chicken coop) as I dump each bag of grass.

dry straw- this came from the bottom/
center of the pile.  The wet grass
clippings actually sealed this area off to
oxygen and moisture.  If left alone
this would never compost

slimy grass clippings- these are too wet
and will rot instead of compost if left in
big clumps

7.  I will know that my compost is ready to add to my garden when I can no longer tell my carrot peels from my cardboard.  In other words, it will look like a uniform pile of beautiful black dirt.  Unfinished compost should only be added to a garden in the fall as mulch after the growing season is over.

This method seems to be working for me so far but I would love to know if any of you out there have had success with another method.  Or better yet, if there's a brave sole out there who would like to share their experience with a totally failed compost attempt, I would love to hear it.  Just add a comment below.  Let's grow together!

STARTING WITH SOMETHING I SHOULDN'T BE ABLE TO KILL...

In years past, I tended to buy pretty flowers from the nursery, spend a day planting then forget about them by the next week.  The next spring I would pull the grey sticks and slimy leaves out of my pots and planters and give horticulture another go.  This time, however, I am growing food for my family instead of just flowers.  I am putting alot of time and planning into the design of our mini farm and I will have the help of my whole family.  Hopefully this will turn my brown thumb into a green thumb!

To ease into this farming thing, I am starting with some herbs that essentially grow like weeds and don't need any TLC.  I only have one built-in bed in my entire yard and I haven't even weeded it in years...

It's a narrow planter between my front walkway and my house.  As you can see, it's been home to dandelions, grass, and some mint (these suckers are well established).

This May we have been lucky to get short periods of sunshine in between pelting downpours.  Since I live close to the coast I can usually see the next rainstorm coming.  From the looks of this cloud I have about fifteen minutes...

With some effort and a larger-than-average garden shovel I was able to break up most of the weeds without losing too much dirt.  Then I sent Bellina to do the dirty job of picking up the nasty grubs and slugs, yuck!

I planted rosemary which I love for roasting chicken (don't tell Bellina) and dill which is great in salads and for making pickles (I'll be planting my cucumbers for pickles later this week)

No sooner had I gotten my plants in, the wheelbarrow dumped and my tools and chicken put away it started pouring! Perfect timing and I didn't have to water in my new plants.  Thanks, mother nature!

Where to start?

 Even though it is late in the season to start thinking about a vegetable garden, we plan to work on our infrastructure this year and plant a small fall crop of cucumbers, potatoes, lettuce, carrots, parsnips and herbs.  We are working on a few batches of compost to start amending our soil instead of bringing in loads of topsoil and fertilizer.  Topsoil and fertilizer can be expensive and you don't really know what you're getting.  Our grass clippings and chicken poop, however, are free!

Our sad little fence is all that separates our lot from the road, a PUD substation and the rest of our neighborhood.   We only have the one side of our property fenced but hope to re-fence the whole thing soon so we can keep our critters in and the neighborhood dogs out. 

These little ladies are some of the hardest working members of our crew.  Even though only one of our three chickens is laying eggs right now, the other two are skilled fertilizer producers and...

they sure know their way around a compost pile.  They love to dig for worms which helps to aerate the pile. (Don't worry, the chickens only go out in the yard while I'm standing there with them.  Otherwise they cruise around the yard in their chicken tractor, totally protected from dogs, neighborhood children and other pests.)  

The projects we will be focusing on this week are:

• Raised beds (one or two to start)
• compost bins
• planting potatoes in an unexpected way
• planting dill seeds in the front yard

For these projects and all of our projects we will be using as many repurposed and salvaged items as  possible.  Why not keep some gently-used but still perfectly good stuff out of the landfill?  And we're doing this on the cheap so every penny saved by finding free or really inexpensive used stuff is what we're all about!

Where Does My Food Come From?

With my family now on a shoestring budget I have really been pinching pennies when it comes to the food we are eating.  As I started to scrutinize food prices I found myself asking why the stuff I can now afford is ultra-processed, unidentifiable from its original form, frozen or packaged and full of ingredients I can't pronounce while the wholesome, single-ingredient stuff that grows in the ground all around us is so expensive. And also, where does my food come from (before I buy it at Safeway)?

This is a simplified version of what I found out: large corporate farms are subsidized (or payed by our government) to grow huge crops of corn and soybeans. Since the farmers are being payed by the government, they can sell the corn and soybeans for less than it costs them to grow it.  Well, you say, this is only two crops; you're right, however, we all eat more corn and soy than you think.  In fact, about 90% of the food on the shelf at the grocery store contains corn or soy.

Additionally, this type of farming has a huge impact on the environment and smaller family-owned farms.  Since these farms only grow one or two types of crops they have depleted the natural nutrients in the soil and now rely heavily on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.  Smaller farms can't compete with the market prices because they aren't receiving the same subsidies from the government thus they are forced out of business.

I've decided that I no longer want to participate in a system that encourages us to consume unhealthy food and that siphons income away from local businesses.  One solution is to buy organically raised and locally grown produce and meat but who can afford that right now?

I've taken stock in what my family has to offer and come up with a solution: turn our small city lot into an agricultural oasis!  With some ingenuity and little luck we will convert our unlandscaped backyard into a postage-stamp sized sustainable and organic farm complete with chickens and rabbits.  Our hope is to grow enough food to drastically reduce our family's dependence on commercially raised food and eventually have enough left over to share with our family and friends.

This is The Urban Farm Project, check in on our progress and hopefully some of you will consider giving this a try as well.  Let's grow together!