Compost

Photos are from the Organic garden donated by Alice Waters to the Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley CA - In this garden urban students have an opportunity to discover the learning gardening skills. More about Alice Waters here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Waters

Also photos from the medical center built at the F.A.M.E. center near Arusha Tanzania - serving tribal people over a wide area . http://www.fameafrica.org/about.html

Students planting garden seeds

I had a love hate relationship with my big red Sears garden chipper. It was clunky and deafening loud - but it could take my garden debris and turn it into beautiful small chips that broke down quickly and made fine mulch for my plants. But it got to be more trouble than it was worth – One part after another broke due to metal fatigue due to vibration and I ended up spending way too much time keeping it running. So I have returned to composting my gardening waste. Its slower but it is satisfying.

Martin Luther King Garden School - Berkeley CA

In nature, fallen leaves and accumulated fallen plant material slowly breaks down and forms humus – nutrient rich organic material that replenishes soil to make it fertile. This is the natural way by which key nutrients are recycled back into the ecosystem. There is some wholesome and "real" about walking past my compost pile and catching a little whiff of sweet aerobic compost in-the-making... its like the smell of walking in a woodland after a rainstorm when the natural plant cycle is in full swing.

Students learning how to make compost

In theory the process is simple: Make sure that the compost pile gets plenty of oxygen. If it is, it will have a pleasant earthy smell. If it is deficient in oxygen ( anaerobic ) if will smell like decaying manure… You have to add enough but not too much water for the compost organisms to function… Some compostable materials are high in carbon (such as sawdust, cardboard, and dry leaves ) and other materials are high in nitrogen ( such as lawn clippings, manure, and fresh garden clippings )- both have to be present and more or less in the right balance. If all three of these conditions are met, the good bacteria and fungi will be active and their metabolism will release heat to about 130F-140F. ( This also kills weed seeds.) Making compost is all about finding the right balance – not too much and not too little – but just enough of everything… Then just be patient and let it happen...

One of the speciality grardens at MLK School

Now some specific details:

1. The bacteria and fungi come naturally from the air - When they digest or "oxidize" plant products - they need carbon rich materials which serve as an energy source. Nitrogen is used in making protein. Most of the compostable material should be carbon-rich with just enough nitrogen to fascilitate the decomposition process.

Garden work team - MLK

Composting will slow down if there is not enough nitrogen. Excess nitrogen can be detected by the presence of ammonia gas .Generally if too much nitrogen rich materials the mixture gets slimy and anaerobic. If this happens add torn pieces of cardboard ( high C ) to quickly put the system back in balance.

The garden also demonstrates the growth of highly nutritious but relatively unknown vegetables: Amaranth

If a fresh pile of stuff is not generating heat - even when moistened – it doesn’t have anough high nitrogen material – add manure or a small amount of ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulphate which is a chemical source of nitrogen. ( half a cup to a couple cubic feet of fresh compost should activate the bacteria and fungus)

2. If you increase the surface area of the material to be composted it will speed things up. If you can chop or chip the material - good! - if you can’t, it will just take more time. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for the microorganisms to digest the material and grow. Insects and earthworms are a help in breaking down materials into smaller particles that bacteria and fungi can digest. Water is essential. Reach your hand in to sample "the feel" – it should never be dry, not should it feel slimy and sticky. Use the squeeze test – if it feels like a wrung out sponge that’s just right! If the water level is too low the activity of the compost organisms will decline. If the pile does get too wet just add more dry material to bring it back to balance.

MLK school - students learn to cook what they grow...

4. What can be composted?:



From the Garden... 
Fallen Leaves, Cut tall grass or lawn clippings, Garden clippings, 
 Weeds (without ripe seeds) 


From the Kitchen... 
Fruit scraps 
Vegetable trimmings 
Egg shells (crushed) 
Tea bags 
Coffee grounds with filters 
Shredded paper,

Paper products ( high carbon ): Cardboard, torn up newspapers...

DO NOT include... 
Meat, fish and bones 
Plastics 
Metals 
Fats and oils 
Dairy products 
Pet waste 
Cheese, meat or other sauces 

... Animal products attract, rodents, flies, rotten fruit attracts fruit flies

F.A.M.E. Medical Center garden -Elephants sometimes come in the night to graze - they are driven off by beating pans to make noise!

5. Getting started… Whatever method you choose, do the following: – add to it freely – watch the balance of materials – water as needed – turn to give plenty of air by turning and mixing every 2 weeks– variety is good – watch your Carbon - Nitrogen balance

a. Make a free standing pile of compostable materials in a corner of your yard

b. Buy an enclosed plastic composting container

c. Construct a wire screen cylinder as large as you need for your compost system ( my preference )

6. Once every couple of weeks its good to use a garden fork to remix the compost pile - this aerates and brings materials from the outside into the active zone...

7. Compost is ready to be used when it is dark in color, crumbly and has a good "earthy" smell. You can sift the compost to eliminate material which has not yet finished composting - but in most cases that isn't necessary... If you want you can return unfinished materials back to the compost pile to extract every last bit of humous.

F.A.M.E. Medical Center garden - fertilized with compost - near Arusha Tanzania

8. Worms! Adding worms to your system will speed the break down of the materials and give the soil organisms some help. Only minor allowances need to be made to your method...

Use "redworms" (Eisenia foetida) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenia_fetida not regular earthworms. These guys naturally live in compost or manure but usually don't ( usually) burrow into the soil. They are happiest at temperatures between 50F and 70F. Redworms process food quickly and turn food wastes into nutrient-rich "castings." Worm castings are an excellent fertilizer additive for gardens or potted plants. 



F.A.M.E. Medical Center garden - Raw mineral soil benefits greatly by adding organic compost!

Redworms are added to the compost system benefit from shredded moist cardboard and/or moistened paper into which they burrow The worms will gradually reproduce or die according to the amount of food they receive. A sudden addition of a large amount of food waste may attract fruit flies, so increases should be made gradually. In a healthy box, worms can build large populations and consume four to six pounds of food scraps per week.

There is a Sikh temple near my home that provide many meals each day. Rather than pay for scraps to be hauled away they have developed an elaborate pest free, odor free system for converting the food waste into worm castings that are added to their garden to produce more vegetables! It is a marvel!

Sikh temple ( Gurdwara ) north west part of FremontCalifornia

How do you find "redworms" (Eisenia foetida)? Compost worms are often called “red worms” or “red wigglers.” You can sometimes find them in fishing bate stores - but not all fishing worms are red wigglers. You can get a start from another "worm com poster" or buy them from a worm farm - easy to find on the internet. Start with one half to one pound of worms, or two nice big handfuls. You will come to think of your worms as little red friends!

A different perspective...

Seeing Stinson Beach from the mountainside, the town shows itself to be built on a sandbar at the mouth of the Bolinas Bay … Between the open ocean and the estuary, a long salt water lagoon has been formed with homes built on both sides.

Overview of Bolinas town and Bolinas Bay

Driving here, north from San Francisco, we leave the freeways and travel a country road through wild heath land with a thick low growing jumble of California Lilac,Coyote Brush, Yarrow, Seaside Daisy, and Monkey Flower ... and other such plants as can withstand this sometimes moist, sometimes dry, often windy, often swirling fog rising from the ocean. Travel takes less us about 90 minutes… but it is a world apart in the pace of life. Here, the flow of time in set by the pulse of the breaking surf and the call of sea birds…

7AM - looking east across the inner lagoon

We have spent this week with Judy’s brother and sister and spouses in an elegant rented home perched on the edge of the lagoon - We wake each morning to lapping water sounds, clouds on the mountains above us normally melt away by mid morning… Summer daytime temperatures remain in the low 70's. Our days are spent in conversation, walking excursions, exploration of the surrounding area, reading, and eating – a lot of good healthy eating! My wife Judy has been the only one bold enough to swim across the lagoon – and yesterday she swam three cycles, over and back, with form and grace…

Judy - swimming the lagoon

So how does this fog form? - When air is cooler than the water (or soil) over which it passes – fog forms. Think bathtub fog on a cold morning. California coastal summer fog at first glance seems a puzzle – it starts to form at about 1000 ft., but not at sea level. Air sweeps eastward from the cool Ocean surface – The sea is colder than the air, thus, no fog at sea level. But when air is forced to rise up the coastal slope it undergoes a process called adiabatic cooling – Think of a large balloon filled with air at sea level –the pressure of the atmosphere pushing inward is in balance with the normal attempt of the air mass to expand outward. The air mass is in equilibrium as long as conditions stay constant.

Some days the fog persisted

Suppose the balloon rises 1000 ft – the pressure of the atmosphere is now less and the internal air pushing outward is able to expand the air inside the balloon – this outward expansion uses up energy removed from the air mass– losing energy results in reduction in temperature. “Adiabatic Cooling” is equal to -5.5F/1000 ft. The ocean airmass, rising up the mountain slope, has now been made cooler than the ground over which it is passing - and fog particles form – hence clouds/fog.

2000 ft - The fog zone - By traveling higher we later broke into bright sunlight again!

My brother in law, Donald, and I drove up the mountain side of Mt. Tamalpais – up into the fog zone and I saw a phenomenon I have only read about – Fir trees at about the 2000 ft level have adapted to the Pacific coast foggy summer conditions by developing a needle shape that provide surface area for the fog to coalesce. When enough fog particles have collected, a drop of water slides off the needle… the effect under the tree is that of a steady rainfall of fat raindrops. The trees "milk" the fog... Coastal redwoods can also do the same.

Fir trees "milking moisture from the fog

This reminds me a story…Years ago when Judy and I were camping in the country parks in Hawaii we had a partly empty air mattress on the back seat of our car – we drove from sealevel to the top of Mt. Haleakala on the island of Maui. We reached the top, and when I looked in the back seat, the air mattress had expanded almost to the busting point – Expansion due to elevation change and change in atmospheric pressure…

In the moist fog zone the growth is some thick it forms a jungle

Sunday Don, his daughter, two friends and I returned to Mt. Tamalpais – but now the sun was brilliant and the forest was filled with green leaves, sunbeams, and bird songs – it was a marvel! Tracy and her friends are young adults, very comfortable in their San Francisco life style – but with an impressive worldview – We share a deep love of nature, of wild green places, of lichens, and ferns, of the myriad forest plants and creatures… it is such a pleasure to see the forest through their eyes.

Community of lichens:(click to open) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichen

They are involved with a group of young urbanites that in addition to their professional lives enjoy the process of creating community within the midst of the city – It is part of a movement found in other urban areas. I have heard it called “localism”. At regular times, the group gathers as a person's garden and working together, they give it a total creative redo – training and empowering the owner/renter to maintain the garden as a place of beauty and perhaps practical food production. Then after working together they enjoy good food and continue an on-going Kendama competition. To learn about Kendama - go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendama.

Sunday afternoon we collected samples of windfall lichens and mosses to be used in gardens or terrarium construction. I love the form and variety of lichens and so I have a lot in common with them.

Crustose Lichens growing on an exposed rock

Later in the week Judy and I drove past Muir wood: http://www.nps.gov/muwo/index.htm– It is a beautiful stand of coastal redwood trees only a short hop from the urban centers of the Bay Area … What we saw was unbelievable! It was 10AM, a weekday morning, and the parking lot was full – the large overflow parking area was full – the street parking for a mile in each direction was full. This is a statement about the human desire to relate with the natural world. (The area is quite small so I fear that with these many visitors the pathways would be as crowded as a city sidewalk).

A large bolder of serpentine rock - slopes of Mt. Tamalpais (detail view)

It is also a statement about human population and how it has grown. I think of redwood forests as landscapes where the only sounds are raucous scrub jays and the gentle rustle of wind in the top branches. It is a place of bright yellow 8 inch banana slugs and a whole ecosystem of small plants and animals dependent on the shade and moisture that are part of this environment. I wish all of these people could experience the real beauty and peace of the wild forest in a more leisurely setting...

Pacific Sideband Snail (Monadenia fidelis )

Links of the week;

1. Our national crisis is still unresolved - I recommend the daily New York Times editorials for a helpful perspective: Here is a sample: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/opinion/27wed2.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

2. The budget debate, these past weeks, has sucked all the air out of the news cycle. We are so on overload with one issue that a number of critically important news topics have slipped past us. The issue of changes to our environmental controls can affect our environmental and health for years to come:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/28/science/earth/28enviro.html?_r=1&hp

I think Mr. Murdock is also thanking his lucky stars that the budget debate took the spot light off him...

3.We are so democratic in this country that we feel that all sides of an issue should be given equal hearing - even when knowledge and reason are lacking from one side... Read this: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/opinion/krugman-the-centrist-cop-out.html?hp

Summer Notes: Five unrelated items...

1. Economic Disaster: Why is it that (almost) everyone understands - even the writings of Ronald Regan have it right - that not raising the debt ceiling will have catastrophic effects on the US and world economies? The very same people in Congress that have routinely passed the debt ceiling 74 times since 1962 - have decided that this time they will create a national disaster for their own uncertain political reasons. There are in Washington a group of inexperienced junior Congess representatives that believe that seeing the great "train wreck" would bring them great satisfaction. We need responsible legislation - we deserve not to be held hostage to false patriotism... Our tea party friends are ready to let us go up in smoke... Lets hope that before its too late, before next week, cooler headed sanity has returned to Washington!

2. Bay Area Summer Weather:

Rule #1 in the Bay Area - If you dont like the weather - travel five miles and it will be different. On a typical July day on the coast it will be a foggy 58 degrees and in Fremont it will be sunny and clear and 80.

A geography lesson for those who do not live in the SF Bay region...Fremont where we live is inland

San Francisco is on the ocean coast and the coast of the Bay and has large variations.

Rule #2 "The coldest winter of my life was the summer I spent in San Francisco!" (Attributed to Mark Twain)

July morning - Alameda Island in SF Bay .. fog and cold...

Fremont Hills - same day

3. Walking Stick Insects:

One of the master teachers with whom I work, offered me two small walking stick insects three years ago – She told me that they are easy to care for, being vegetarians. She fed hers a few rose leaves each week (rose plants do not go dormant in our part of Northern California. I purchased a small plastic terrarium and it stands on my desk.

My desk-top walking sticks

All that first year my walking sticks grew larger each month – then one died during the winter- early in the summer my one remaining insect died. But this was not the end! Walking sticks are parthenogenic – they can produce viable eggs from one parent. And before dying mine produced eggs! Soon eggs hatched and my terrarium was once more full of walking sticks! I am now into the third generation. These are the ideal pet for the undemanding – they sit perfectly still – doing a good imitation of a stick – and every once in a while they move one of their six legs just a twitch.

Wild living walking stick

The are not the sort of pets you want to give a name or take out and relate to… I have had some concern regarding the legality of owning walking sticks – might they decimate California agriculture if released? Today I saw a county Ag guy collecting insect traps looking for pests – and so I asked about walking sticks – he said that while they are not endemic they are not a problem…go ahead and enjoy them!

4. Brass: Brass instrumental music usually brings to mind loud blaring Souza marches or Christmas music… Judy and I this last week attended a concert of the Bay Brass in the Stanford Cathedral. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_Memorial_Church. The group is a labor of love by the musicians involved – it is made up of the top brass musicians from the major symphonies and ballet orchestras in the SF Bay Area. They have no formal director but make decisions together. They seek to explore the wide range of music available to brass instruments.

Stanford University Church

The concert was amazing with a range of compositions from many periods, composers and styles of music. They are a leading supporter of the music program at Menlo School in Menlo Park Ca - and for an entire week the professional musicians provided workshops and support for the music students. This concert was the Bay Brass demonstrating to the students the range of music that could be performed with Brass Instruments – much of it was the gentler side of brass... On other nights during the week there were various student brass groups performing in concert… It is amazing to me to see high school age students performing with such poise and skill!

Brass concert we heard in Oaxaca - Sorry no photo of this event in Palo Alto

5. Genetic manipulation in Corn: Need another complex moral dilemma? Suppose someone spent two years developing a new mechanical or electronic device – something brand new… Do you think that person should be able to apply for a patent to protect his or her intellectual property? Suppose the product is produced by splicing genes from different species or different varieties of the same species to produce a totally new genetic product. Once developed it can be bred true each generation. Same two years – same hard work… Should this be patentable? Suppose the product is special high yield corn?

Corn varieties with wide range of genetic variations - hardy, but low yield

Traditionally farmers grow a crop and save seed for the following year – Ah – but now that is enfringing on the copyrights of the owner… The farmer is now required each year to buy the high priced seed if he want to grow the high yield crop.

Because this corn is high yielding it also requires more fertilizer to grow –The costs may be prohibitive if the farmer if in the third world. Corn is fertilized by the wind – and so the prize corn pollen drifts over to neighbor fields and they get the genes for free – Does the holder of the patent have rights to that corn too? The genes can even transfer to non corn grasses and then be passed on.

Mono culture of genetically similar corn

What and how far does it go?One of the common genetic alterations to corn is to make it resistant to herbicides so that the field can be doused with chemicals – how much of those chemicals end up in our food – either directly or through the meat we eat? Same is true of introducing genes that produce natural chemicals resiastant to predatory insects.The proponents say “ it is a hungry world out there – and we have to increase our production of food or face greater famine. That’s very true. But we are primarily benefiting large corporate farmers who can afford the additional costs, to grow these high yield crops, to make the maximum profits.

Wild grass is similar enough to corn that genes can be transferred to grass

and passed on in later generations to corn

Trying to grow the same crop can be devastating for third world farmers due to extra expense for seed and fertilizer or possibly less than ideal habitat. The bottom line is that we simply don’t know the long term effects of altering the herbicide and pesticide proderties of our grain crops… Imporatant issue – stay tuned! (This section triggered by an article and conversation with my cousin Laverne who lives on a farm in Kansas)

6. Links of the Week:

a. "History of stuff" has developed a series of short videos that help us consumers to understand the materials we buy in common products and their effects on us and on our environment. Excellent!! This is their latest production: http://storyofstuff.org/cosmetics/

b. Southern Poverty Law Center: Take some time to learn about hate groups active in America today. Educate yourself to human rights issues. http://www.splcenter.org/?ref=logo

Notes – July 17

Note: Photos this week are a random selection from my archive ( with two from Wikipedia ) - more or less related to the topics...

Topic 1. Some things, if they weren’t so common, would be great wonders! When the morning is still, reflections of woods and hills upon lake water look so real! - it is as if you could walk into them… Shadows that grow as the day progresses until they are much longer than I am tall...

Roxy and her shadow - late evening

...calls of birds and children that seem to linger in the twilight air... a parade of 19 geese, swimming one after another, where are they going? The sound of a cock pheasant, on a warm summer afternoon, awakens long distant memories...the communication skills of a flock of red breasted linnets noisily plucking seeds from spiny thistle heads..

...the communication of bees within their community...

Topic 2. Someone said to me recently – “I’m not sure if I believe in evolution...”. There is confusion in America today, much of it fed by talk-show hosts that faith and science are somehow interchangable… We all have things that we believe in that cannot be tested. I believe in government of the people, by the people, for the people! I believe in the power of loving relationships… I believe that knowledge is better than ignorance… my religious beliefs are an important part of my life.

James Watson and Frances Crick: The first to identify the structure of DNA - the carrier of genetic code found in most life on earth...

Science is not about belief. Science is about collecting unbiased information about a natural phenomenon and then forming the best interpretation possible– then testing that conclusion in the toughest ways you can imagine. Scientific conclusions continue to be always open to further testing and refinement. A scientists may have an emotional leaning toward an idea – but other scientists in the same field are also testing and evaluating results.

One of thousands of galaxies in our "neighborhood of space" - similar to our own - our sun is a relatively small star on an outer arm of our galaxy

Opponents of science seek a lone dissenter and then may say – “See – not everyone agrees!” Science as a field of inquiry will ultimately settle the issue as investigation continues. It is not the nature of "beliefs" to be continually tested in this manner…

For example, the wealth of data supporting evolution as a natural process is enormous and continues to grow. Data also shows that there is a strong relationship between carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere and climate change on our earth.

Curious that the general shape of the galaxy and this hurricane system appear somewhat the same - A scientist would ask if their is any reason why they have similar patterns.

Early man thought that the sun travelled around the earth. …They thought that disease was caused by evil spirits. …And that the best treatment for most human maladies was to remove "bad humors" from the body through “bleeding” or leaches. It is thanks to scientific inquiry that we now have a clearer understanding… In the time of Galileo the church was strongly opposed to the idea of a sun centered universe – Anyone who supported the idea was considered a heretic, open to severe punishment.

Seen at Montera Middle School - Oakland CA : A reminder of how to behave in the midst of disagreement

When scientific conclusions are suppressed in an attempt to uphold an untestable conclusion – then we are in danger of sinking into an “age of ignorance”…it has happened before in human history.

Standard garb for a Plague Doctor in the 13th century - each part of the costume was designed to protect the doctor...

It is up to each of us to separate those beliefs we take on faith and what knowledge we have that is supportable by scientific inquiry... The uncomfortable part is that sometimes scientific conclusions are not what we want them to be - and then we must decide how we will deal with the facts. We must either accept the results before us or retreat into myths that may appear more comfortable.

Massive dust storms, similar to the 1930's dust bowls, recently blew into Arizona and Nevada

Topic 3. Only in Niles (our part of Fremont) … Today as I was walking the dogs I met a delegation of seven Tibetan monks wearing long reddish brown robes, walking down the trail. Their sect has purchased the land adjacent to the regional park where I often walk, and they were on their way to the middle of their land (which is grown high with wild oats and wild radish) where they have created an open-air meditation space.

Tibetan Buddhist Monks

They were very pleasant when we met and we exchanged greetings and pleasantries all around. One of the senior monks has just completed a weeklong meditation on these grounds, with other monks coming at intervals to provide for his needs. Today they erected a pole with Tibetan symbols in the midst of their property.

Topic 4. This past year those Americans who have been speaking up for lower taxes and smaller government are getting a taste of what they say they want. As a result of tax reductions that have already occurred in cities, counties, states, and federal offices – we now have fewer jobs - even secure positions like Teachers, Fire fighters, Librarians, Policeman, Military budget, State parks have been cut. Reduced tax revenue - less government - translates into less support of those least able to care for themselves, less maintanance of our infrastructure, and less support for those programs leading to our growth and stability of our future health and stability. If the cuts that are being demanding were to be adopted we would become a smaller less effective nation... A nation with an even wider separation between a small wealthy class and "the masses". Signs of this change are already evident.

Depression era WPA painting of American farm life circa 1932

According to economist Janet Yellen "the growth [in real income has become] heavily concentrated with the top 1 percent of American earners. The data revealed that reported income increased by 9% in 2005, with the [average] for the top 1% increasing by 14% and that for the bottom 90% dropping slightly by 0.6%. Americans have the highest income inequality in the developed world and over the past 20–30 years Americans have experienced the greatest increase in income inequality among rich nations. The puzzle to me is why poor people in America support a political party that is working against their own best interests.

A word of hope

4. Links of the week:

a. Grooveshark.com http://grooveshark.com/ is a free music site that seems too good to be true. You can request almost any singer, instrument, genre of music, style or national music… you name it – and then down load it to your playlist. You must start by creating a free account. One limitation is that you can not listen to the music and them leave the site – Ok if you are writing a document on your computer, but not OK if you want to surf the net…They make their money by when you find something you like you will pay to have it downloaded to your computer…. I wondered if it is legal and I checked - it is. If you find the posted announcements distasteful, you can pay a small fee to view the site without the ads – but I just ignore them.

b. Daily Kos: http://www.dailykos.com/ One of my favorite sources of political information - updated frequently during the day - often one of the first with breaking news.