“How do we make a difference?”
I have watched us become a throw away society, at such an exponential rate.
The short days and long dark hours give light to contemplating conversations, like compost.
It is import that my personal life and professional life focus on a minimal carbon foot print. By being thoughtful on my waste my garbage can is usually 1/4 to 1/2 full, a much lighter load. I think my garbage men like me as they are still old fashioned and lift the buckets themselves! Or maybe it has to do with the fact that I like to give them tips, and remember my thank yous.
Keep Composting
To help minimize the amount of waste that leaves my place for the land fill, we compost.
The dry climate of Colorado requires a little more work to successfully compost. Finding the balance between Green and Brown Matter.
I remember working at my first flower shop, watching trash bins upon trash bins of green material being combined with plastic and tossed into the dumpster and on to the landfill.
“Why are you throwing this away? There is no AWAY!!!”
But this was the early 90s, and I was a nature girl, and the majority of society was down with boy bands. This was my first flower shop gig and I did not want to mess it up. Thankfully I landed in a shop that jammed the Beastie Boys while designing, getting down with Root Down made it all better.
Oh wait back to composting!
We compost, reuse and recycle, it’s the way it’s done at Bloem. You set up a system and people get it. At Bloem we first think reuse, Can we give a design element a different life? We have a collection of old and new glass vases, some people just give to us, some we find at estate sales, it’s an eclectic collection.
At Bloem we first think reuse. Can we give a design element a different life?
During Christmas we had extra cedar garland. My daughters preschool was learning about scents of the season, SO we donated a big ‘ol bag of cedar. The children’s eyes lit up as they smelled the fresh cedar, some for the first time!
A basic 3 Bin System
Box 1 Woody Branches- Chop/Break down as much as possible
Box 2 Only 1/2 full Mixing Green & Brown
Box 3 Almost Ready
The balance of Carbon (Brown) vs Nitrogen (Green) is key. Your compost should not be stinky, opposite if your pile is not “Doing Anything”, ie breaking down, then you are also out of balance.
30 Parts Carbon to 1 Part Nitrogen
The Carbon to Nitrogen Ration C:N
If C is too high, decomposition slows down. If C is too low and N is too high then you get a stinky pile.
Ideally you need a 30:1 ration. Add 2 parts of Green Material to 1 part of Brown.
Wait! Don’t let me loose you! This does not need to be a difficult scientific experiment.
Start your pile with a good layer of shredded leaves (don’t want to shred, no worries, your pile will take longer to breakdown, but it will)
I found a leaf blower/sucker does this perfectly! And it is an easy way to transport the leaves in the fall.
Now add some Green: Vegetable Peelings, egg shells, plant cuttings.
Water each layer as you go.
To keep this from getting stinky add a shovel of garden soil. The garden soil has the right amount of bug life (micro organisms) to start breaking it down.
Next add Browns: This is leaves, dryer lint, newspaper (most is now printed with a soy ink).
Note: I did not add Grass clippings to this list! They have way too much Nitrogen and in Colorado will turn your pile into a stinky mess. Your compost pile will get soggy and won’t break down at the same rate as the rest of the pile, leaving you frustrated. Use the mulch mode on your lawn mower instead of bagging it. Adding Nitrogen directly to your lawn, reducing your demand for lawn fertilizers. Home owners are one of the worst ground water polluters, due to the run off.
To speed up production toss your pile regularly, watering as you go. Yes in Colorado it helps to water your compost pile.
Tips:
- Never add meat scraps to your pile, it contains harmful bacteria, a backyard compost does not get hot enough
- Do not add weeds/seeds
- Wood Ash is very alkaline, not good for Colorado Soil
- Do not add Pressure Treated Wood
