Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Compost Like Jack Johnson

In this video produced by Sustainable America, musician Jack Johnson takes us to a special zero waste elementary school in Hawaii to learn how they compost.

 
Good music
Adorable kids
Beautiful setting
Composting-loving artist


Do you need any more reasons to watch this video?

 


Thursday, June 16, 2016

Just Mow It

Most “green” habits people ask you to adopt require more work, not less. Bringing your own grocery bags (check).  Riding a bike or walking instead of driving (check). Installing a rain barrel (check). All which I’m happy to oblige since my tree-hugging, granola-eating, hippie side is generally most dominant.

But when I learned there was a way to feed my lawn and avoid fertilizers that required less work than my current method of raking up grass clippings for the compost bin, my lazy side almost did a back flip. Almost, meaning she considered it while lounging in a lawn chair and sipping a home-grown mojito.

Let me introduce you to my new best friend: Just Mow It.

Just Mow It is the simple practice of leaving your grass clippings on the lawn. Yep, you just leave them there and they quickly break down to fertilize your grass and add biomass to the soil.

Just Mow It requires three important steps:
  1. Keep your grass at about three inches. 
  2. Mow twice per week in spring and fall. You should remove about 1/3 of the grass’s leaf surface each time. Any more and you hurt the grass. Ouch.
  3. Mow when the grass is dry so you don’t get clumps.

If you are interested in learning more about this lovely and slightly lazy “green” method of maintaining your lawn, check out our website. You too can be sipping mojitos, watching your lawn fertilize itself.

Monday, June 6, 2016

The First Graduating Class of the Year


Post by guest-blogger and compost-lover Jenny Lohmann

Having had some glorious weekend weather has permitted me to get out and tend to my garden and compost pile. I have two different compost piles, one for leaves and one “working” pile.
Gathering my equipment: pitchfork, rake, shovel, and tarp, I get to work. First, I use my pitchfork to move the unfinished compost on the top over to my leaf pile. Next, I rake the stragglers, bits of twigs, seeds, and vines to the side and… voila!

Hello beautiful compost, my homemade, plant-loving nutrient.

 
I happily shovel the finished compost onto a tarp to be mixed later into my soil and potting mix. Any I have left over will be sprinkled about my yard to add organic matter.

Before I disperse my home-cooked compost, I invite my neighbor to view my labor of love. As any successful composter knows, it’s a proud moment to see your compost finished and ready to nourish the life in your yard. I look forward to a summer of coaching many classes of food scraps and yard waste into seasoned do-gooders who make our soil a better place.