Composting Posting

What is composting?

I love composting; well really, I just like another way to free up some of the trash that would go into my can. I also like the idea of doing my own recycling at home which is what composting is, turning something old into something new.  Composting is the breakdown of organic materials into a useable fertilizer for your yard or garden. Did you know that “Americans throw away 200 million pounds of trash a DAY and 15% of that is yard and kitchen waste”?? (sierraclub.org)

What do I need?

How you want to compost is up to you and your needs.  If you have a small or unfenced yard and aesthetics are important, a composter or tumbler may be what you want. These can be placed near your trash can and will keep all of your waste contained and attractive. Also, if you do not have a fenced yard, a composter or tumbler will keep rodents and animals out of your compost. Here are a few examples all found here: 

You can build a compost area out of chicken wire, old pallets or wood scraps.  Just fashion a bin out of one of the said materials. This option also keeps your debris in and animals out.

If you have a larger, fenced yard you can just make a pile. I chose an inconspicuous place behind our shed and near the garden.

Your inside container can vary as well. Some are decorative and sit on your counter and some are simple and can be hid in a cabinet.  Ours is a small bucket with a lid and has two brackets to hang it on the inside of a cabinet door.   Whatever you use, you need to have a lid to keep smells in and fruit flies out. You can even use a large coffee can with a lid.

What can I compost?

The key ingredients in compost are air, water, carbon (brown/leaves) and nitrogen (green/grass clippings). You can compost almost all of your yard and kitchen waste as long as it does not contain meat or greasy/ fatty liquids (this includes salad dressings). Some examples of compostables are below:

Over ripe fruits and vegetables

Fruit and vegetable peels

Coffee grounds

Flower cuttings

Yard waste (leaves, trimmings, weeds)

Paper (newspaper or shredded computer paper)

Cardboard (cut into small pieces)

Manure

Egg shells

Hair/Lint

*Tip: Chop up your compost before adding it to the pile, this helps with the decomposing process.

Now what?

Keeping your compost turned and moist is key!! My pile last summer turned into a huge ant pile. After a little research I found out that the dryness of the pile was the culprit. Keep it watered and keep it turned. Since I use a pile method, I turn my compost with a pitch fork. I try to make sure that when I add new materials, I cover them with older material from the bottom of the pile.  When your compost is ready to use in your yard or garden it should be brown, crumbly and smell earthy.

All that is left now is to reap the rewards of your efforts! Use your FREE compost in your garden, beds or pots! Enjoy!

Buzz!

Mini Post: Where did April go??!!

April flew by and we’ve been busy both in and outside of the hive in the weeks since I last posted. Earth Day weekend the Raleigh Museum of Natural Sciences sponsored a downtown Earth Fest. We explored the festival post-downpour so the crowd was down and perfect.

We celebrated Dax’s first birthday and Christening!

My husband and I went to Nashville for a conference!

After I realized Twinkle Toes’ current home was not secure, I borrowed a butterfly habitat from a fellow teacher. She also gave me four chrysalises that she had left over from her class project. We didn’t have them very long before they hatched into butterflies. This was very exciting and happened very fast. As first, it looked like an insect massacre as the sides of the netting were covered with a red, blood like fluid. This is apparently meconium, the fluid inside the chrysalis that the butterfly then pumps through their wings to prepare for life outside of the chrysalis.

We kept our fluttery friends for a couple of days and then had a little going home party. This was fun!

The heirloom tomatoes Ella planted in the egg cartons are sprouting nicely. We will  transplant these into the garden soon. I have so many plants!   I might transplant a few into pots on our deck as well.

We‘ve also had a decent amount of rain in the last couple of weeks and our garden is coming up nicely. We seem to have something new sprouting every few days!! (although we are down a tee-pee due to the storm)

I am currently working on my compost pile and will be sharing this info with you soon!

Happy Spring! Buzz!!

The Green B Garden: Part 2

(This is a week delayed, I posted on last Sunday and somehow deleted the entire post and I am just now sitting down to repost!!)

Hello Bees! We have been busy this weekend! We pretty much worked in the garden all weekend and we got a LOT done!! Saturday Ella and I made our bean/pea tee-pees. I had some bamboo in my craft closet from a mirror project that never came to fruition so that was money saved. I also had twine, so we were all set.  I stuck four bamboo poles in the dirt in a square. Ella held the top very tight and I wrapped the twine in and out until secure. We then added about four more poles and did the same.  We left an opening at the front for a door. The idea is that vines will grow up the poles creating a little hideout inside.  My concern is that I should have used taller poles, but we’ll see, this is a learning year!

Speaking of learning year, I’ve found the most confusing part of this gardening process is what to plant and when.  Should I start seeds inside or out and should I plant seeds or starter plants??  I decided on a combination approach as a result of a wonderfully helpful conversation I had with a lady in the garden store in Old Salem, NC. I was there this week on an amazing field trip and bought a couple packets of heirloom seeds (tomatoes and okra) from Seed Savers, a nonprofit heirloom seed collection group. (more about this to come) The lady in the garden shop told me to cheat on a few plants (tomatoes, eggplants and peppers) and buy starter plants. She suggested seeds for the rest of the items I was interested in planting. I was set on planting the heirloom seeds I bought so she told me I could start those inside in a sunny window and then transplant.

 Ella planting the heirloom seeds in egg cartons.

Here’s what else we bought:

Tomatoes (seeds and plants)

Eggplant (plant)

Red, Yellow and Green Bell Peppers (Plants)

Cayenne Peppers (plant)

Peas (seeds)

Green Beans (seeds)

Summer Squash (seeds)

Cucumbers (seeds)

Lettuce (seeds)

Radishes (seeds)

Okra (seeds)

Sunflowers (seeds)

On our shopping trip for plants and seeds we also bought four tomato cages, a handful of small stakes, a solar globe and two humming bird feeders (I melted last years feeders in the dishwasher).

First I laid the plants out where we wanted to plant them, planted them and inserted the cages and stakes.  Next we planted the seeds. Here’s my rough sketch/plan for planting and to also remember what we planted where.

Last I used an old hose that had the end chewed off as a drip line. I used duct tape to close off the end and then used scissors to cut slits along the hose.  I want to eventually hook this up to a rain barrel but in the meantime we’ll use the hose and the sprinkler.

This is Twinkle Toes. She is a Giant Leopard Moth!!

We found her while planting.

So… that’s, that, I guess; now we just wait to germinate!! J I’ll keep you posted on the progress but in an effort to keep you from being bored to death with two inch plants, stay tuned for posts about composting, Seed Savers and humming birds!

 Ella's reward for her hard work!!

Buzz!

The Green B Garden: Part 1

Here at the hive we are planting our very first organic veggie garden. I emphasize "very first" as I am learning as I go and have no real idea of what I am doing! I spent the winter months researching garden "how tos", talking to those "in the know" (i.e. my parents and grandparents), and finally committing to a plan I felt was doable for a beginner. 

Today was day one. My husband kindly rented a tiller for the day and upon arriving home said, “Do you know how to use this?” "Sure, Sure, of course!!"  ;)

"We've got this Mommy!"

After a brief phone tutorial from my dad and a few YouTube videos, I was up and running!

Today I tilled my 8 X 8 area (we are starting small) again, a  "beginner garden". I am loosely going by a mix of a couple plans I found on the Better Homes and Gardens website. One is a children’s garden and one is a small veggie garden. You can see the plans here.


All American Veggie Garden

Easy Children's Garden



 This is what I accomplished today..

-walked off an 8 x 8 area of an “all day sun” section of our yard
-tilled the area to break up the ground
- raked and shoveled grass and rocks from the area (I used the displaced soil and grass to fill holes in our yard)
-tilled again
-added peat moss and manure
-tilled again
-raked some more to remove remaining grass and rocks
-cleaned up surrounding perimeter

She found a nice collections of worms by the time we were done. (Poor worms!)

Now the garden area will sit for a week. I don’t have a recommendation for the peat moss and manure, I told my husband to get whatever they had organic. Anyway, this is just what he got, I’m not sure what brands etc. are best at this point.

Ready for veggies!!

Stay tuned! Next weekend is Easter and we will be traveling for the weekend but we plan to pick back up on our garden plans once we return! (more info to come as to what we are planting etc.)


Please let me know if you have any specific questions or have any suggestions for me!

Happy gardening!

Buzz!!

Earth Hour 2012

I can’t believe it has been six years since my husband and I sat by candlelight debating whether or not we were cheating by not unplugging the fridge to participate in the very first Earth Hour. We will be participating again this Saturday night for Earth Hour 2012, where millions of people around the world go powerless for one hour to support the need for further awareness for climate change.

The event began in Sydney, Australia in 2007 where World Wildlife Fund, Australia encouraged individuals and businesses to go powerless for one hour.  By 2011, the event had grown to millions of participants across 135 countries.

Earth Hour 2012 will continue the annual event with an added twist. This year you can log onto to YouTube and accept an “If You Will, I Will” challenge. You can also create your own “IYWIW” to challenge others to recycle, use less water, buy local, etc. by offering something of yourself. (i.e. “If you commit to recycling, I will bike to work for two weeks” etc.) See more here: IYWIW Challenge 

This year I am very excited to share this event with my three-year-old daughter. We plan to do something with glow sticks and flashlights; we’ll let her take it from there! To participate, simply turn off and unplug everything in your home (except the fridge! J) for one hour beginning at 8:30 p.m. on March 31^st.

What are you going to do for an hour without power? 

Here are some ideas:

- Plan a romantic, candle lit dinner for your partner

- Tell ghost stories with the kiddos

- Pretend to “camp” inside and set up a tent and use flashlights

- Play flashlight hide and seek

- Be creative and enjoy an hour joining a fantastic movement across the world for the betterment of our planet!

Have Fun!

Buzz!

Mini-Post: What I’m Reading

This past weekend was pretty laid back. My parents were in town for a nice visit and we spent most of the time visiting with little time for any projects to report on. Not much on my eco-radar this week besides the great Chipolte/Willie Nelson/Coldplay commercial during the Grammy’s. If you missed it, it was amazing and l LOVED it!!! You can see it here.

Even with the busy weekend I was able to get in some reading and I thought you all might be interested to see what’s in my reading queue lately!

Currently reading:    

             

 Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv

This book, which I am just starting, is based on the idea that today's child has replaced natural play (i.e. outside with other children) with a solitary, digital lifestyle revolving around television and video games. It also supports the belief that the increased diagnosis of ADD and ADHD in children is linked to this disconnect with nature. I have personally felt this way for a long time and was very excited to discover this book and a name (although not scientific) for this “nature deficit”. More to come on this later…

Just finished in my classroom:

Four Against The Odds: The Struggle To Save Our Environment (Scholastic Biography) by Stephen Krensky

This is a great book for the high elementary to middle school reader. This book features a series of short biographies about four unique individuals who were ahead of their times in the fight for the environment. The Four Against the Odds include: John Muir who saved Yosemite National Park and founded the Sierra Club in the late 1800s to early 1900s; Racheal Carson who fought pesticide companies for safer practices and showed the world that these chemical not only kill bugs, they kill people too; Lois Gibbs who fought against her city for the evacuation and reimbursement for a neighborhood built on a toxic waste dump; and finally Chico Mendes who lost his life due to his commitment to the fight to save the rainforests.

The Down-to-Earth Guide To Global Warming by Laurie David and Cambria Gordon

This is another great book for the elementary reader or anyone who wants a very understandable guide to the ins and outs of global warming. This book is packed with fun illustrations and great pictures that really engage the reader. The book also does a great job of breaking down environmental lingo into everyday terms that the reader can wrap their head around.

Just finished in my leisure:

Clapton: The Autobiography by Eric Clapton

I’m a biography lover and I’ve had this book for a while. I made a deal with myself that I could not buy anymore Kindle books until I finished the last of my hard copies on my shelf (one to go, Chelsea, Chelsea, Bang, Bang!). I loved this book! I may be biased because I have been in love with Eric Clapton since a 6^th grade ski trip when I heard Timepieces for the first time! The book begins with Clapton as a child discovering a mistruth about his grandparents and follows the guitar legend through a series of ups and downs both musically and personally. Spoiler Alert: It has a happy ending! J

I hope this gives you few books to add to your reading list. If you have any good reads, please share!

Buzz!!

Pay it Forward: That’s Green Right?

Last weekend I was very excited to head to Atlanta to visit my BBFs and celebrate the upcoming arrival of a new baby. I had a great time while I was in Atlanta and we packed a lot into a couple of days. I wanted to pass along a few of the places I visited and really enjoyed.

Saturday morning my friend Jill and I went for a workout at Wellco located in the Urban Body Studios in the Poncey Highland area of Atlanta. Owners Reyci Martorell and David Mauer led the semi-private session that I am still feeling today. According to their website “Our unique training philosophy progressively challenges the body through a focus on multi-directional movement skills, speed, agility, quickness, reactivity, balance and whole body strength and power to create greater kinesthetic and neuromuscular communication within the body.” 


While the workout was tough (and I thought I might forget my own name) both Reyci and David were enthusiastic and encouraging the entire class; the time seemed to fly by!! With classes practically all day and easy online scheduling, it makes for zero excuses.

Thanks guys!

  

Wellco owners Reyci Martorell and David Mauer

While I was in town we also visited a few new places I had not been to before. What struck me was that everywhere I went this weekend I had over the top, wonderfully friendly service and I just wanted to mention these places. 

For breakfast Saturday morning, we visited Stone Soup Kitchen located between Cabbage Town and Grant Park. The food was wonderful along with the Mimosa(sss) and our server (yeah, you with the beard) was great (and my friend is single)!! 

Saturday night we had dinner at the Wrecking Bar Brewpub located in Little 5 Points. The staff was so friendly and pleasant. From the bar to the table the service was excellent and our server handled our party of 15 with ease.

We finished up the night with a concert and a baby shower the next day. Word of mouth means a lot when you are a small business owner or self-employed. Being a patron of local businesses in your area and spreading the word is the best way to support these establishments.

Pay it forward!

Buzz!

(Note: Above photos courtesy of the respective websites)