The Green Lady Thing

Well, it has been two weeks of unemployment now, so far it has just felt like vacation. Odd thing is I had a vacation planned for this time along with several summer parties and a wedding reception. The one topic that seems to come up everywhere is the economy and of course me loosing my job. So inevitably everyone wants to know what I am going to do now, so, I tell every one who will listen about my blog. I am amazed how excited everyone gets, and then I get the questions.

The number one questions concerns how I recycle or reuse everything. So I thought I would start there. I tell people if I found a way to reuse dryer lint and junk mail than anything is possible. The way it works in my house is reuse it in a different way, recycle it in to something else on our property, or last resort is to put it in the “City” recycling barrels.

Every one knows how to put a soda can or bottle in the recycling bin, but did you know in most areas they take many different types of plastic, paper, cardboard, and metals. You need to check with your local city or Trash Company. I was surprised to find when I visited my mother in Oregon that the rules for her trash on what they would and would not pick up were so different than mine. Also some areas do not do curb side pick up, so you need to collect it and take it to a recycling center or transfer station.

For the sake of my blog I am assuming you are not a newbie to recycling, so lets get started with stepping up the process.

Composting

Here are the basics on Composting; I will go more into detail in a later blog.

You want equal parts of Carbon (the brown/dead stuff) and Nitrogen (the green/alive stuff) mixed with water, air and time. This recipe is so simple, because if you mess it up all you need is more time to fix it. Soon it will render the fabulous fertilizer you would have paid money for.

Here goes that cheap side of me. Why through out something you will later pay money for.

Kitchen trash, I am talking about the stuff you put down your garbage disposal. Kitchen scraps less the bones and fat can be collected in a container next to the sink and emptied in to the compost pile. If it smells empty it more often. (green/alive stuff)

This category includes many things that will surprised you, apple cores, orange peels, banana peels, egg shells, avocado skins and pits, peanut, !– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –>

Pistachio and sunflower seed shells, oyster shells, onion skins, potato and carrot skins, Hair - human or animal, coffee grounds, tea bags and even the stem cutting from the flowers your husband gave you on valentines day, and then the flowers themselves when they die. Just think before you use the garbage disposal or put it in the trash.

Almost every body has a shredder now days, and if you do not you should to help prevent identity theft. Just run your junk mail through it and add that to your compost pile. (brown/dead stuff)

If you use paper towels in the kitchen, they can also go into the compost pile, provided you did not use them cleaning up something that should not go in the compost pile. (brown/dead stuff)

Dryer lint has a few good uses, it can go straight in to the compost pile (brown/dead stuff) or you can put it on a branch of a tree or shrub for the birds to use when building their nests, but my personal favorite is to feed it to my worms.

Instead of filling up that green barrel that gets picked up once a week add it to your compost pile. If you do not uses a mulching lawn mower put the grass clippings and leaves on the compost pile.  This will be your biggest supplier to the compost pile. (One is green and the other is brown) Other yard trash like clippings take longer to decompose, but they will given enough time. You can run them through a shredder, just not the same one you use for your mail.

I could write a book on all the things that can go in a compost pile, and many have been written, but by using these simple rules and thinking before you through something out you can figure it out. I could write another book on ratios of green to brown, layering , mixing methods, and maintaining moisture, but the truth is composting is a process that can not be stopped.  All the tips, trick and recipes you here are all ways to speed up the process.  There are 5 things you need to make compost - Green, brown, air, water and time.  Time is the great equalizer, if any of the other things are out of balance it just takes more time.

Your reward will be shown in what you grow, bigger and healthier, vegetables and flowers. The healthier and stronger your plants are the less susceptible to insects and disease they will be, so the less work you need to do.

Being green should cost you less…not more

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