Ah, Kermit. I loved the Muppet Show -- Animal was my favorite. I wonder what that says about my personality? Are you all singing the theme song in your head along with me?
Working in the earth (okay the potting soil) has made me think about what we do with our garbage. I'm embarrassed to admit that to date we really haven't been recycling much more than our newspapers. Cans, bottles, etc. have gone into the 50 gallon garbage cans willy nilly with little guilt. We've been throwing most of the yard waste behind the big shed into this enormous pile:
VPH calls it his bastard garden because he's usually the one in charge of throwing debris in it and he takes a great joy in seeing weeds (pardon me, native plants) starting to grow on top of it. Since there's so much poison ivy and God knows what else in there, we don't plan to actually try and use it for anything. From what I read, even if we don't turn it, wet it, or look at it sideways, it will eventually decompose on its own. It shouldn't get too much bigger because we've done all the brush clearing that we plan to -- remember it isn't our property -- and I like the woodsy edges which give us a little privacy from the neighbors (allow me my illusion, people).
Gardeners seem to be a pretty laid back group until you start talking about gardening organically. Then they aggressively try to convert you to their side. (Or at least they do on-line, I've yet to meet a gardener in person who has waxed poetically about the satisfaction garnered from organic gardening.) I like Miracle Gro, it makes me remember working on the roses in our yard with my mom when I was little. Making the green water and carefully splitting it between each bush, then watching them miraculously bloom more...good times. The organic gardeners win -- I'll start composting, recycling, and I'll try to wean myself from Miracle Gro. Does that mean I can't use their potting soil? I like their potting soil.
Step one in going greener (imagining us living completely green is impossible and frankly laughable as I sit on the couch in front of the air conditioner, typing on the laptop, and watching TV) was giving up bottled water. This one made sense. We have city water here and it tastes disgusting to this girl who was raised on tasty well water. We've been spending gobs of money on 5-gallon fridge dispensers and refills for the past 9 years. Recently I sat down to do the math. We were conservatively spending $180 a year on bottled water -- probably more. A water filter for the faucet in the kitchen plus a year's worth of replacement filters was under $90. Guess who's loving their new water filter? Thank you, Dooce, for the motivating post. And this all transpired before Live Earth and every news program started harping daily on bottled water being the new evil. I love being on the cutting edge.
Step two is recycling. My excuse for this one was ignorance. When we moved into this house (again, 9 years ago) there was a blue recycling bin with the trash cans, but no instructions. Okay, so if I really cared, I would have called town hall and asked what could be recycled. Better late than never, I did a little research and they now have a great website that answers all the questions you could ever have about garbage, recycling, and composting in our town. It's ridiculously easy to recycle, of course I say that as the person who neither cooks nor brings out the garbage, but VPH has promised to give it a shot. To date, he has recycled at least 5 things!
Step three -- we've decided to give composting a try. Since it's just the two of us most of the time (we've been lucky if we see the boys once a week this summer -- you'd think that working 30 hours a week was a fate worse than death), I think we can get by with the garbage can with holes drilled in it method of composting for now. If we find that we can really stick with it and it goes well, maybe we'll graduate to a large container. I'm also terrified that we'll attract all the raccoons that have so far left my garden alone (praise your deity of choice here).
We have some ratty old garbage cans hiding behind the shed that I don't mind drilling holes into, but VPH declared that they are inappropriate for this purpose. Something about not being sturdy enough and the lids are in pieces, which wouldn't allow for rolling the can. So we bought a cheap metal metal garbage can and a 1/2 inch drill bit for my cordless drill. That drill was the best 30th birthday present that a girl could receive -- at her request from her father no less. I can't count how many projects over the past couple of years would have been impossible without that drill. Really, between the drill and my $6.99 tool set from IKEA, I can do just about anything!
I used my powers of plotting for good and figured out how to secure a lid on the garbage can to 1.) keep the varmints out; 2.) keep the lid on while we roll it daily (or more realistically every few days); and 3.) allow us to open the lid one handed and throw in our kitchen scraps. We just threaded a bungee cord through the handle on the top and the handles on the side of the can. Pretty easy really.
After I took this photo we lifted the can up on a few bricks left over from the retaining wall so the bottom wouldn't rust. We threw leftover mulch in the bottom of the can -- some of the composting directions we found told us to put wood chips or sawdust in to help with drainage -- and layered in our kitchen scraps, garden debris, and shredded newspaper. VPH threw in a bunch of worms from the "bastard garden" -- I don't do worms, I know they're awesome and I want them in my plants, but I just can't bring myself to touch one barehanded, though I'm okay in gloves.
Though VPH was adamant about "not keeping garbage on his kitchen counter top," I found this really cute container that matches the flour, sugar, coffee, and pancake mix canisters already on our counter top (all from W-Mart, and come to think of it, we haven't made pancakes in at least a year, so maybe it's time to put something else in that canister). It is airtight and has a handle, so I think it's even intended to be a compost pail:
VPH is happily using it and very cutely asked me "what we are we going to do with the compost when it is done." After much internal debate, I decided that it's going on the bare spots on the lawn where the contractor didn't get any top soil over the asphalt he buried out there. As will the soil from my many containers in the fall. That should be a fun weekend project.
So now we just have to keep at it and roll the can once a day, which kind of makes no sense to me. Why put stuff in the bottom for good drainage if you're going to roll it around and mix it up? I'll report back on our progress.
So there you have it, our 3 easy steps for being greener. Have you been inspired to go greener or are you shaking your head that it's 2007 and we're only just starting to recycle?
Does anyone know what this mystery vine is? We had it last year too. I'm going to keep an eye on it and post more photos as it flowers. I don't think it bore any kind of fruit last year. It looks like a member of the squash/pumpkin family to me just looking at the leaves. And my recollection is that the seed pods are star-shaped. I'm glad it came back, it's a lot prettier than looking at the pile.
Zucchini count to date: 7, but only 1 female blossom coming and I'm really thinking that I need to pull them and plant beans and peas. I may just do it this weekend if I can tear myself away from Harry Potter Book 7!
Recycling is a huge issue for me. As a ?permanent? FL resident I am happy to report that we recycle absolutely everything. And, the cost of trash pick-up is included in our very reasonable tax bill.
At my NC summer home,the residents not only throw all kinds of trash (including building scraps)in their bins, but also BURN it in their yards,even though taxes are tiny and include trash pick-up.
Wonder why my astronomical CT small town taxes don't do the same? Do you think the 'mob' recycles?
Back to gardening - I think your Zukes have root-rot.
Posted by: Mummer | July 21, 2007 at 07:36 AM