My favorite part of this program is that my work has replaced all of the trash bags in the bathrooms with compostable bags and there are signs denoting these bags for only paper.  This means that all of the wasted paper from people drying their hands is now composted instead of trashed.  I don’t know about your work, but at mine we tend to fill the can in each bathroom every day.

This has been a super easy switch for my coworkers and I, so why don’t more companies try out composting.  My first thought was cost, but it turns out that composting is significantly cheaper than throwing in the landfill.  So what it comes down to is ease of setting up these sorts of programs.  Many cities have composting programs, but they are not well advertised, sometime they cost money to take part in, and often take a little more effort than paying the garbage man.  That is not how this has to be, and it is clear that things are changing… slowly.

It is one thing for the National Renewable Energy Lab (where I work) to start a program like this, but I believe with a little effort we can have all sort of businesses around the country start similar programs.  So, next time you have an office meeting or talk to your boss, try suggesting a program like this for your office.

More information on Industrial Composting Programs

Many of these are specialized for certain cities, but the general information is very helpful for anyone interested in composting and you can always try searching for your city and compost.

-Composting at Work

-EPA’s Guide to Large Scale Composting

-Compost Portland

-P2Pays Compost

Last year when my wife and I moved into our new a house, my mother gave us a gardening book called  All New Square Foot Gardening.  At the time, I had never heard of SFG, but now– my second year gardening under these suggestions– I just love it.  If you are interested in becoming a new gardener or revamping your old plot, I would highly recommend this book.

Square foot gardening was developed by Mel Bartholomew as a way to make gardening easier, more fun and take up less space.  With all of the space and time constraints of modern life, Bartholomew’s innovations provide a home garden that is practical and manageable, even with a full time job.

The basic guiding principles are these:

1. Grow more in less space

2. Use better soil

3. Have a more accessible space that is easier to work so gardening takes less time

This may may initially sound overwhelming, but I promise it works and it’s simple!  The first step is to grow your garden in four-foot, square boxes instead of long in the shape of long rows.  This accomplishes two things:

First, not growing plants in rows allows you to fit a lot more in a given area, and there is no need to allow for rows in which to walk between your plants, since you can reach all the plants in the square-foot garden by simply leaning over.  Therefore, when a plant should be spaced 6 inches apart, you can put four plants in a 1ft square as opposed to one plant every six inches with a row on either side.

Second, this allows you to use better soil.  While it would be impractical to impost an entire row garden worth of soil, with a 4×4 six inch deep SFG it becomes easy.  Instead of digging up and using the poor soil that exists in your yard, build raised beds and fill them with Mel’s mix.  Raised beds are fabulous! No tilling, no hurt backs. All you need to do is create a soil mixture of 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 compost. You will be importing all of the dirt, which has very little to none weeds– NO WEEDING!  Also, the soil is full of nutrients from the compost, much more so than your yard soil would be.  Lastly, the soil is light and airy, allowing for plenty of water drainage and space for roots to grow.

Since your garden is now much smaller, now, it is significantly easier to work with while providing just as much food.  On top of that, you can grow it closer to the house, it requires no weeding, and it looks awesome.

I know I have not gone into all the details here, but this should be enough to peak your interest. You can learn more from Bartholemew’s book or the video and links I have included at the bottom of the page.  For me, this has made gardening a real pleasure that I have time to enjoy, and I hope that you get as much out of it as I do.  And thanks, Mom, for getting me started on this great project. We all love it!

Square Foot Gardening Links

-Vertical Square Foot Gardening

-Square Foot Gardening Foundation

-Wikipedia

-Tim’s Square Foot Gardening

-My Square Foot Garden

Spring Planting Schedule

-The Vegetable Garden

-The Farmers Almanac

Most of the food waste that is stinking up your garbage could be turned into black gold (or at least that is what gardeners think of it).  Compost is packed with all the nutrients that your vegetables need, and all you have to do is throw all your organic plant waste in a pile.  Well, that might not be ALL of it, but I promise that it is super easy.

The first step to making a great compost pile is saving all of your organic waste. This means vegetable scraps, grass clippings, raked leaves and/or any other left over plant material.  Just make sure to leave out any meat, dairy, or table scraps. Then, start a pile of these in the back yard.  If you want to get fancy, you can buy a composter like one of these, but you don’t have to have one; it just speeds up the process (we don’t have a fancy one, though).

thanks to Healthy Organic Gardnes

We have put a three to four foot wide fence of chicken wire in a corner of our yard and filled it with plant matter.  It helps to make this pile at least this big so that it has the weight and material to properly decay, but if you don’t have that much, just start with what you have.  The way that a compost pile works is that microbes and bacteria slowly eat through your pile and in the process, heat it up.  Moisture and this heat are essential for having proper bacteria growth so a pile large enough to insulate this heat is a must.  The heat created from this decay is enough to make giant piles of woodchips spontaneously combust, but you won’t have to worry about that.

The last step is to make sure that your compost has air and moisture. Now, it may seem counterproductive, but it is quite important to make sure that you regularly turn your compost pile.  This aerates the material and allows the decomposition to take place. A good general rule of thumb is that the faster that you want your compost to be ready, the more often your should turn it.

Once you get your pile started, you will be amazed at how easy it is and how big of a reward you will reap. From producing less trash, to maintaining an organic garden, the benefits are obvious. Also, when you buy compost at the garden center, it is usually made from one material and lacks the variety of nutrients that you find in homemade compost.  Homemade compost is comprised of all different sorts of materials and as such, has no shortage of the nutrients that your plants need.  This will help you to grow a bountiful garden WITHOUT fertilizer.  So, If you are spending all of your time longingly looking out the window and itching for spring to come so you can start your garden, why not spend this week getting a compost pile going.

Information about Composting in your Garden

-How to Compost

-EPA

-Composting 101

Information about Square Foot Gardening

-Square Foot Gardening Foundation

-Wikipedia

In outdoor education circles, there is a similar initiative that is encouraged when visiting pristine environments.  It is called Leave no Trace and the basic philosophy can be summed up in the common saying “Take only pictures and leave only footprints.”

The goal of permaculture is to take those same principles and incorporate them into every day life in such a way that both humans and the environment in which we live benefit.  These are the 12 defining characteristics that permaculture strives to promote:

thanks to Instructables.com

Observe and interact – We can learn a lot from observing our surroundings and it is important to do so.  Without this principle, we can never truly fit into the natural ecosystem.

Catch and store energy –While there are complicated new technologies that are able to do this, the heart of energy storage promotes more natural ways such as growing a garden, harnessing passive solar and using natural vegetation.

Obtain a yield –One of the basic necessities of life requires a food source.  By applying this principle –produce more than you consume– to our entire lives, we can become more productive without destroying our habitat.

thanks to TreeHugger.com

Apply self-regulation and accept feedback – Even the best designs need a guiding hand, and by paying attention to our surroundings, we can be that guide and improve on our habitat.  By accepting feedback, we can promote diversity, while at the same time realize when to let nature take its course.

Use and value renewable resources and services – There are limited resources available to us, but by making the most of what we have and taking only what we need, there will be enough to go around.  By trying to restore the resources that we use, that balance can even yield a production side as opposed to consumption.

Produce no waste –  By producing less waste, we can stretch our resources and leave more land for productive uses.  Even when we do produce waste, we can put it to use through methods like composting and thus redefine waste as a usable resource.

thanks to HappyFarming.com

Design from patterns to details – Nature regularly forms patterns and designs that should be recognized and emulated.  By doing so, we can both assimilate with nature and promote stronger and sustainable design.

Integrate rather than segregate – One of the reasons that modern farming requires the amount of fertilizers and pesticides that it does is that crops are segregated.  By integrating the right animals and plant together, we can promote a balance that no longer needs unnatural additions.

thanks to Wikipedia

Use small and slow solutions – While it is often tempting to change everything at once, it is important to remember that the earth operates on a much larger and longer timescale, and slow changes will often be readily accepted.  While we can’t work on a geological timescale, we need to remember that nature is used to moving much slower than we do.

Use and value diversity – You’ve heard the adage: “never put all your eggs in the same basket”? Well, what your grandmother always told you still holds true today.  Diversity, if utilized properly, can not only add variety, but also make each individual component stronger.

Use edges and value the marginal – New ideas often come from the margins of society, and it is important to help this liminal creativity flourish.  These “cusp” zones are often where integration of cultures, ideas, materials, etc. occur and where revolutionary ideas are born.  Encourage that to continue happening (foster those baby Einsteins!).

Creatively use and respond to change – Things don’t often work out the way that we plan them, so it is important to be willing to make alterations in creative ways.  These solutions are often ones that we wouldn’t normally think of and are nature’s way of guiding us on new paths. Don’t be too rigid to continue learning! Keep an open mind!