Free Composting Seminar Coming to a Community Near You

We like to mix it up here at the District. Try new programs, throw ideas out there, and see what sticks. This spring we will go on a composting lecture road show of sorts, around Hamilton County.

Composting newbies and more seasoned veterans should both find useful information to get the most out of your backyard compost bin. During the one hour seminar we will discuss how to balance a compost bin, what materials are compostable, and some troubleshooting tips and tricks.

There will also be time to answer your burning composting questions (hopefully not actually burning, but we can answer that too).

At the end of the hour, you will receive a free kitchen collector, a “I heart compost” magnet, a simple guide to composting in your backyard, as well as a $20 coupon redeemable at partnering stores toward the purchase of a compost bin. Pretty good deal if you ask me.

Call 946-7734 or email susan.schumacher@hamilton-co.org to register. Space is limited. Coupons available to Hamilton County residents only.

• March 15,  6:00 pm: Colerain Township Government Complex, Trustees Chambers (4200 Springdale Road, Cincinnati Ohio 45251)
• March 21, 6:30 pm: Loveland City Hall, Council Chambers (120 W Loveland Avenue, Loveland, Ohio 45140)
• April 3,  6:00 pm: Blue Ash Recreation Center (4433 Cooper Road, Blue Ash, Ohio 45242)
• April 17, 6:30 pm: Cincinnati Zoo (3400 Vine Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45220)
• April 26, 6:00 pm: Deer Park Francis R. Healy Community Center (7640 Plainfield Rd. Deer Park, Ohio 45236)
• May 15,  6:30pm: Forest Park Senior Center (11555 Winton Road, Forest Park, Ohio 45240)
• May 23 6:00pm: Delhi Township Delhi Park Lodge (5125 Foley Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45238)
• June 5, 6:00pm: Sycamore Township Robert Schuler Sports Complex, Community Room (11580 Deerfield Rd Cincinnati, Ohio 45242)

Please tell your friends, family, and co-workers. We would like to fill up each lecture and spread the composting love.

Can you Compost Wine Corks?

I have a hard time throwing away wine corks. After all the work of screwing in the wine key and pulling out the cork to open the wine (and then the following “work” of drinking), I can easily toss the bottle into the recycling bin, but then I have this cork.

Since my “cork” consumption peaks during the holidays, I recently found myself staring at a collection of discarded corks and I had a revelation. Could these be composted?

Natural cork is an amazing resource made from sustainably harvested tree bark. They don’t even need to cut down the tree, they just pull off the bark and then it grows back like a sheep’s wool.

So, being natural and wood-like, cork should break down in the compost pile, right?

After some research I discovered if you want your wine cork to compost in this century you need to grind them up in a blender first. Cork is naturally impermeable- which makes it perfect for plugging a bottle of vino but makes composting a bit tricky. Grinding the cork will speed up the decomposition process.

Fortunately, there are many other uses for your unused cork if blending sounds too tedious:

1. Use them in the bottom of planters as an alternative to Styrofoam. The lightweight cork will help with plant drainage.

2. If you’re a crafty person, there are a myriad of projects you can take on. Here are some ideas: http://craftingagreenworld.com/2009/01/21/crafty-reuse-ten-projects-for-old-wine-corks/

3. You can also bring your corks to Whole Foods to recycle. http://wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/cincinnati/

One final note, make sure your cork is real cork. Synthetic cork will not decompose like natural cork and will not work well for the options above either. Here’s a website that should help you tell the difference and you'll learn more about natural cork: http://100percentcork.org/cork.php/why-cork.

Since I do not have a crafty bone in my body, I think I’ll start using corks in planters. I may try to compost a few too just to see how it works.

What do you do with your wine corks?

Here’s a Quick Way to Harvest Vermicompost

Worm composting is an easy way to compost food waste indoors without taking up too much space. But harvesting the vermicompost has always been labor intensive- until now.

This little trick was developed by a local teacher (always masters of innovation) who has a worm bin in her classroom.

Step One
Get a mesh bag like the kind used to hold oranges or onions in the grocery store.

Step Two
Eat the oranges or the onions and then fill the mesh bag with a generous amount of yummy-to-worms food scraps, like apple cores and banana peels.

Step Three
Bury the bag in your worm bin and wait a week or two. Don’t feed the worms anything else during this time. They will be drawn to the food in the bag.

Step Four
Pull the bag out and see the wormy goodness. Check out this video to see all the worms we attracted.

Squirmy Wormy Composters

Step Five
Move the worms into a new worm bin. There will still be some worms in the old bin so you can do the bag trick again until all the worms have been relocated to their new “digs.”

What’s left behind? Amazing, nutrient rich, vermicompost.

If you don’t have a spare worm bin, you can create a temporary holding container for the worms that is moist and dark. Then pick a sunny day, find a tarp, and head outside to mound the remaining vermicompost into small cone-shaped piles. The worms will move to the bottom of the cones and you can scoop the compost off the top.

Make sure all of your worms are separated before using the finished vermicompost outside so you don’t introduce an alien species in your yard. Let me know in the comments if you have any other tricks for vermicomposting.

Smashing Pumpkins

Halloween is the best holiday of the year. Okay, in my opinion it’s the best. I mean, what could be better than wearing costumes while eating candy and celebrating spiders, zombies and all things “scary”? But now that the spooky fun has past, it is time to retire the old, drooping jack o’ lantern to the compost bin.

The most important part of composting pumpkins is in the title of this post, and it has nothing to do with Billy Corgan. Pumpkins can be quite bulky (especially if you have multiple jack o’ lanterns like me) so we need to condense the size by smashing them up. A great way to relieve stress and a fun activity for the whole family.

Here are some ideas for ways to smash pumpkins:

• Stomping on them (wear old shoes!)
• Thumping them with a mallet
• Stabbing them with a shovel
• Throwing them against the wall

Pumpkins add valuable water and nitrogen to your pile at a time when it is mostly dry leaves. Just be sure to remove the candle before tossing the smashed pumpkin bits in the bin.

If you'd like to smash your pumpkin in public, go to Mt. Washington's annual Pumpkin Chuck this weekend: www.mwcc.org/

For 18 other great tips on how to recycle your pumpkin check out the Metro DC Lawn and Garden Blog.

Next, I guess I should also take care of those “decorative” cobwebs around my house.

Six Rules of Composting

“Dang hippies” I muttered as I desperately navigated through a slow-moving sea of people who were exactly like me. The ‘Innovative Composting’ lecture would start at 3:00 pm. It was 2:57. Of all the lectures I highlighted in my Mother Earth News Fair Program, I wanted to see this one the most.

Why do I find myself 300 miles from home with a 20 pound infant on my hip walking miles through beekeeping workshops and solar water heater displays?

Because I love learning (I know, you may as well grab a marker and write “dork” on my forehead). The prospect of discovering a better method of composting, organic gardening, or other “earthy” goodies led me to the Mother Earth News Fair last month. And it was as wonderfully hippytastic as the name promised.

I eventually did find the ‘Innovative Composting” talk. The speaker, author and garden expert Barbara Pleasant, offered advice useful for any level composter. She came up with 6 Rules of Composting:

1. Choose labor-saving sites

2. Work with what you have

3. Help decomposers do their job

4. Reuse and recycle

5. Remember the magic is in the mix

6. Customize composting to suit your garden needs

Read the expanded version on her website: www.compostgardening.com/basicsfromthebook/sixbasicrules.html.

One of my favorite points Ms. Pleasant made is to be patient, “compost time is slow time.” Any task that allows me to just sit back and wait for the results is good with me.

By the end of her talk I had enough compost blog fodder to last a few months. Then I was off to learn how to spin my own alpaca yarn. Hmm…I wonder what my husband would think of a pet alpaca?

Compost Like George Washington

George Washington, our first president whose handsome mug graces our $1 bill, also built the nation’s first known compost bin! (Woo hoo, history!!!) Not surprisingly, the father of our country has much to teach us about backyard composting.

Cover Your Pile
Washington was worried about too much rain leaching nutrients from his “dung repository” so he built a roof and open-walled structure over the 31 x 12 foot compost pit. Covers are, of course, also great for keeping out unwanted pests and maintaining the proper amount of moisture in the bin.

Compost Everything Possible
Washington believed you should throw trash “of every sort and kind” into the compost pile. Obviously he didn’t have to worry about plastic trash but he was on to something. If you look into your garbage there are probably items you could be composting.

Along with “leaves of trees, corn stalks, thistles, and coarse weeds,” Washington also likely composted “tanner’s bark, woolen rags, cuttings of leather…hair, bones ground or powdered…human urine and soap suds.” Eww, sometimes it’s good to live in the 21st Century.

Location, Location, Location
A compost bin has to be convenient to use, otherwise most of us will be too lazy to compost. Washington’s compost pit was actually close to his Mount Vernon mansion and very convenient to the horse stables.

George Washington believed that agricultural advancement was important for the new America and he fashioned Mount Vernon to serve as a model for the “new” science-based agriculture. Washington made composting an integral part of that model. Hmm, composting as an integral part of America…I like the sound of that.

“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.” -George Washington

Visit the Mount Vernon website for more information www.mountvernon.org/visit-his-estate/preserving-his-estate/archaeology-projects/repository-dung/history.

Five Ways to Use Finished Compost

Thar’s gold in them thar hills!

Or at least “brown gold” in that thar compost pile. Have you seen how much non-composters pay for high-quality compost at the garden store? Here are five easy ways to cash in your harvest and make use of finished compost.

1. Amend Your Soil
Compost is not exactly fertilizer. The real “pay dirt” of the compost is that it improves soil tilth and helps feed soil microbes. The HCSWCD recommends adding 25% compost if possible before planting a new area and then testing the soil to see if you need anything else.

2. Substitute for Mulch
Finished compost is beautiful stuff. You can spread 2-3 inches around flowers as an alternative to store bought mulch. Compost “mulch” will help hold moisture around plants and eventually incorporate into the soil.

3. Brew Some Compost Tea

“Steep” a shovel full of compost in a 5-gallon bucket of water for a few days. The result will look similar to tea (do I really need to say “Don’t Drink This”?). Use the “tea” to water your plants. Compost tea makes the finished compost go further in the garden.

4. Improve Your Lawn

If your yard is more lawn than flower bed, simply sprinkle 1-3 inches of finished compost over the grass and rake it evenly. In a week or two the compost will settle and disappear into the lawn, improving the soil, and making your grass look as good as gold.

5. Create a Potting Mix

Your potted plants will enjoy compost too. Mix 1/3 finished compost, 1/3 soil, and 1/3 sand to create a DIY potting mix.

Isn’t the beauty of composting that we are making something valuable out of what other people think of as garbage? I’ll be pondering this as I dig for brown gold this week in my compost bin.