the snow must go on...Denver workshop
With current economic conditions being what they are, many of us are reevaluating “necessary.” I was passing through one of those generic big-box, infill malls the other day (no point in saying what city I was in because every one of those malls has the same stores anyway) and I noticed that the grounds maintenance person was so diligent in tidying the walk in front of a shop that he was using his gas-powered blower to blow the few remaining leaves from the tree branches. I would have loved to post here a video of this, but I was too slow on the draw — you’ll have to take my word for it.
This was just one of many recent “is this really necessary?” moments I’ve paused to consider. Those leaves would have fallen regardless of human intervention. The season is even called fall. It seemed a strange allocation of resources: time, gasoline, effort to do what nature would have done in short order anyway — and for free (!) without payroll tax, without petroleum use, without grinding blower noise. Is it time we all take stock of our homes, our businesses, our habits and identify those places that we can save resources without even compromising outcome? And, in doing so, we may find we even improve our quality of life.
I’ve been thinking this fall, too, about composting. This is one area in which, nature will do it for us — but our little bit of effort and forethought can greatly increase the beneficial results. Leveraged resource use is how we should all be thinking.
Will Allen, MacArthur genius grant award-winner and founder of Growing Power, was recently in Denver sharing his insights about enriching soil through vermiculture (worms) and composting. Although other soil-builders have differing philosophies and methods, Mr Allen sees composting as the critical Step 1. No one can argue with his results. He’s not only built up soil quality to increase garden yield, he’s even seen his methods increase grades and graduation rates (though that’s food for another post!).
Critical to a good compost is alternating layers of carbon and nitrogen, that is: pulpy woody matter and fermenting green matter. Lawn clippings, pine needles, wood chips, sawdust, vegetable food waste, weeds, even paper and cardboard are all beneficial contributors to backyard composting. Although meat and dairy can be composted, in a dense urban setting (such as I write about) these high-protein materials may cause odors less amenable to backyard enjoyment and problematic to neighborly relations.
Tomorrow I’ll post images for a step-by step visual primer in the assembly and filling of a backyard, no-turn compost system. If kept adequately watered to promoted beneficial organism growth, the full box will result in valuable, rich compost in approximately 8 months without needing to be turned over manually. To harvest finished compost, simply remove one side of the pallet frame. We assembled the pallet using just baling wire. Although not demonstrated in my photos, be sure to line pallets with hardware cloth (a tough wire mesh) and build a cover with mesh and 2×4’s. The hardware cloth will keep out animal pests — a critical consideration for composting in the city.
Here’s another person’s version of a slightly different approach to building with pallets:
[Note: Please get permission before taking a business’ pallets. Most businesses reuse their pallets but may let you take broken or otherwise unusable ones. Just because they are set outside, doesn’t mean “finders keepers.”]
Urban Green 