If you really want to plant a garden, but you are staring at a bunch of green grass and thinking, “That’s going to take a long time,” take heart.  Sheet composting can come to your rescue.  I first heard about sheet composting when I took a Permaculture design course fifteen years ago.  I fell in love with it and I’ve been using it ever since.

The basic idea behind sheet composting is to put down a layer of mulch to discourage the grass or weeds from growing up through and then forming a planting bed on top of that with manure, straw, and compost.  First, decide where you want to put your garden, and then collect all your materials.  Once you have everything together, the sheet composting process moves very quickly.

The easiest and most readily available mulch material for sheet composting is cardboard.  It is available for free in many stores.  My favorite place to get it is at appliance stores, because the boxes that refrigerators, washers, and dryers come in are really big and cover a lot of area.

Once you have your cardboard, find a source for fresh manure.  That’s not a problem for me, because I have livestock, but it can be a challenge if you live in a city.  If you have a vehicle, you can visit horse stables in your area and fill some bags or buckets (ask first).  Some cities still have police horses and when I lived in Seattle, we collected buckets of manure from the police stables.  Zoos often will part with their doo doo, as well.  If you don’t have access to any of those sources, you can use kitchen scraps, but that will take a bit longer.  Dump things that you would normally add to a compost pile–fruit and vegetable peels and waste, grass clippings, coffee grounds, etc.–on the cardboard in a layer about six inches deep.  It will take a little longer to create your bed, but this is also a good option for people who object to using animal products.

Next, cover the manure or kitchen scraps with a layer of straw about a foot thick.  If you are using scraps, I’d recommend covering them with straw every time you add to your bed to keep odor under control.  Straw is readily available at garden centers.

The final thing you will need is some finished compost or top soil.  If you don’t make your own compost, both of these are available in bags at home and garden centers.  The beauty of sheet composting is that you don’t need much soil to plant in these beds.  Pull the straw away along the top of the bed all the way down to the manure layer, then add the soil on top of that until it is level with the straw.  This is where you will plant.  The roots of the plants will work down through the soil and into the manure layer for nutrition, but the plants won’t be burned by the fresh manure.

Some things work better in sheet composted beds than others.  Anything that is transplanted into the garden, such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, or broccoli, will do well in a sheet composted bed.  Things that are directly seeded are more difficult to grow in these kinds of beds, because they can be washed away when watering if you are not extremely careful.  It might be a good idea to grow the lettuce and carrots in containers instead.

The bed will dry out more quickly than soil, so keep up with the watering.  At the end of the season, just leave the bed in place after harvesting.  In the spring, your eighteen inch bed will have shrunk down to three or four inches of lovely soil.  After several years of repeating this process, you should have created enough soil that all you will have to do is add some new compost and plant.

The 9th annual Alternative Building Materials and Design Expo, dubbed the AltBuild Expo, will take place this Friday and Saturday (May 11 and 12) from 10am to 5pm in the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. AltBuild is one of the most established and robust green building expos in the country.

Exhibits at expo will feature green building and design materials, energy efficiency, water conservation, landscaping, waste management, and more. There will also be hands on demonstrations and free expert consultations. 

Find out more at AltBuild’s website or fan page. 

Last month, localblu featured the Back to the Roots grow-at-home oyster mushroom kit – an innovative and socially-conscious product that uses recycled coffee grounds to grow delicious gourmet mushrooms.

Looks like urban farming is getting cooler and cooler.  Last week, it was announced that Back the Roots Co-Founder, Alejandro Velez, will be one of 25 males to be featured on the upcoming season of The Bachelorette.

Thanks Alex for making this industry a bit more trendy for all of us! More details here.

This Friday May 4th 2012, as part of the Food Revolution Summit, food activist and author Raj Patel will be speaking about food policy and the politics of healthy food.

Raj is the bestselling author of two groundbreaking books discussing the world food system: The Value of Nothing and Stuffed and Starved: The Battle for the World Food System. Both of these books were fundamental to my personal awakening about the intersection of food, politics, trade, and economics. If you’re looking for a thorough understanding of how government and corporations are shaping our food system, I highly recommend both books!

Raj has degrees from Oxford University, the London School of Economics and Cornell University, and is both a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeleys Center for African Studies, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of KwaZulu Natal, in Durban, South Africa. He is often referred to as a rock star of social justice writing.

The Food Revolution Summit is a series of 21 interviews with leading food experts that will be broadcast online for free from until May 6, 2012. Sign up for the Summit online!

In March my friend Iesha and I started a new business in Pasadena and Altadena, California, where we live. It’s called 5Mi Radius. Think Fresh Vegetables, Hyper-local, Sharecropping. In short, we grow food in community member’s yards (while transferring skills and knowledge and distributing workload), share the abundance of produce, and sell it at the farmer’s market or on our gypsy cart bicycle, all within a five mile radius of the Pasadena Central Library.

Last week one of our growing companions, Shannon, contributed red and green okra seeds and a package of holy basil, also known as Rama Tulsi, Ocimum sanctum, from Horizon Herbs. We planted the okra together in her garden on Wednesday evening, and this evening I planted the holy basil seeds in six small pots as I sat on the back patio.

Sown Rama Tulsi the next morning after a light night drizzle.

Holy basil is a very special plant. I have had a love affair with basil (Ocimum basilicum) ever since my first summer farming in 2007, when I wwoofed on Zephyros Farm at the foot of Mount Lamborn in Paonia, Colorado (where Chacos are born), but I didn’t fall in love with holy basil until 2010 when I stumbled upon her as I was researching adaptogens (this is another wonderful subject, altogether).

Zephyros Farm Summer 2007

I have used tulsi as a fresh herb, dried for tea, in capsule form, or infused in alcohol as a potent medicinal tincture. It is hard to pin-point the exact health effects tulsi has had on my system. All I can say about it is that it helps me feel balanced and strengthens my core energy, but its reported actions are nearly endless.

According to Merriam-Webster, an adaptogen is a nontoxic substance and especially a plant extract that is held to increase the body’s ability to resist the damaging affects of stress and promote or restore normal physiological functioning. Tulsi has this affect on the human system; although it can have a specific impact, it also works to balance the system as a whole. In our culture and environment of pervasive stress, I recognize this herb as a must-have daily support.

In the Hindu tradition, tulsi is revered as a goddess and is prized in the ayurvedic tradition as “the elixir of life.” A sacred and blessing presence, called “The Incomparable One,” a tulsi plant is placed in the center of the entrance of every home, and watered and sung to each morning. In this cantation, Lord Shiva tells the sage Narada of tulsi’s power:

“Oh Narada, wherever Tulsi grows there is no misery. She is the holiest of the holy. Wherever the breeze blows her fragrance there is purity. Vishnu showers blessing on those who worship and grow Tulsi. Tulsi is sacred because Brahma resides in the roots, Vishnu resides in the stems and leaves and Rudra resides in the flowering tops.”

There are 108 tulsi mantras and, following the tradition, only women are allowed to do the watering. As dusk fell tonight and birds waved above my head, I mixed rich worm compost from my friend Laura, The Worm Queen, and organic potting soil in a cardboard box, watered it and put it in pots. After I finished filling the pots with soil and transplanting genovese basil, dill, mugwort, motherwort, and kale, I ran water over my hands and sat quietly as they dried in my lap, preparing myself for the sacred sowing.

Six soil-filled pots, and a paper envelope full of seeds. Small dark orbs. I am reminded of Leah’s art from Dharma Comics and a verse from the Bible:

Nature Knows, Dharma Comic by Leah

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit. (John 12:24)

And with this trust in the seed and the growing forces in all of life, I share a heartfelt prayer:

Salutations to Thee, Tulsi! I am so thankful for your presence and your wonderful healing powers!

You help me feel GOOD and work in powerful ways on this earth! May you grow happily with me and thrive wherever you are sent.

 I love this plant. In this love is the recognition of divine blessing and herein lies a portal into the understanding that the earth abundantly gifts us from her fertile lap and supports us in our healing. It blesses me, and provides a bounty to share with my community. I am thankful for the opportunity to grow food and reap in its medicinal benefits.

1. Homegrown food tastes better. Plain and simple. Here’s why: the food you grow at home is fresher, and in season, which delivers better taste. And then there’s the “oh, so THAT is what this is supposed to taste like” moments.

2. You will be healthier. You can eat foods at the height of their nutritional value – just picked! You will also find yourself eating more veggies. If it’s growing right there at home, what’s to stop you from throwing it on your plate? Gone are the days, when you gazed into the fridge, saying, “We’re out of kale. Let’s just have cake.” 

A friend and I recently stood over my kitchen counter which was cluttered with just-picked veggies, and we were snacking and catching up. We both oohed and aahed as we spoke, insisting the other try THIS Bloomfield spinach leaf or THIS Deer Tongue lettuce. That never happens over a bowl of chips. It can happen over a beer sampling. Thankfully, vegetables and beer samplings are not mutually exclusive. But countertops of veggies trump a bag of chips, for sure. 

3. You can rub your friends’ faces in it. You will be a superior human being. Your friends will coo with admiration and jealousy. You will know you are doing your part for mankind, heck…for Mother Earth herself! Make sure you post photos of your harvests on Facebook. 

4. You will experience diversity. You also get to experience the nuances of flavor across different varieties of the same vegetable. You can also try vegetables you didn’t even know existed!  You can pick and choose unique vegetables for increased nutrition…for different micro-climates…for prettier flowers…for better eating. Support veggie varieties that aren’t bred simply because they can sit in trucks for long periods of time.

5. You can connect with history. You can plant seeds with a story. Heirloom and non-conventional varieties of vegetables come with a history…histories that are threatened by GMOs. One of my favorite stories is of an heirloom variety of “Fish” Pepper. It was a variety invented by African-American slaves who wanted to grow a spicy pepper that mimicked their native foods. It was called a “fish” pepper because it was made into a white paprika spice for fish and seafood dishes. And I grow that same hot pepper at my house. Go search out your own story! 

6. Gardening will make you a better parent. Your kids will eat veggies willingly and enthusiastically right before your very eyeballs. Kids love to eat veggies from the garden. (Fun fact: radishes by seed are easy and quick-growing giving kids a quick veggie payoff.) There’s something thrilling about planting a seed, watching it grow, picking its fruit, and consuming it, that kids really connect to. They quickly gain an appreciation for what it takes to grow food. They also learn the value of hard work and get a life science lesson in one fell swoop. Just think how GOOD you are gonna feel about yourself as a parent! This vegetable garden really does pay for itself, doesn’t it? 

Actually it does. 

7. You will save money. Money, like the Earth, is green and it deserves some saving. That said, let’s not put too much pressure on ourselves to pull in a profit the first time out. You may be new at this. Your garden will not save you money the very first year but in time, it will. And as you know, WHERE you spend your money is of the upmost importance. That’s how we invest our money everyday. I’d rather you send your dinero to Territorial Seeds for Fish Pepper seedlings than McDs for Filet-o-Fish. 

8. Homegrown food is safer. Local foods are handled less, and have less exposure to contaminants than supermarket and restaurant foods. Comparatively, local foods are also stored for shorter periods of time. Taking that to the next level are foods grown in your own yard. Homegrown foods are the LEAST handled and the LEAST exposed and almost never stored. Usually you pick what you need. Homegrown is the safest food you can eat. No E. coli on you my friend. That bod is a temple!

9. Shrink your footprint. Has your foot lost weight? No…you’re just creating less pollution. Homegrown food has nada nill NO negative environmental impact. It doesn’t have to travel long distances in a stinky truck, use up energy and causing pollution. You can control your growing environment so you don’t need to use poisonous pesticides and fertilizers. You can green your plate, your yard, your neighborhood and your world. You really are a garden warrior! 

10. Get that temple in shape. Hauling dirt, shoveling compost, pulling weeds…this is good, hard, respectable work. Do it well and do it often. Do it for your schools and your friends and neighbors. Next thing ya know, even your biceps will have biceps. And if you are wondering if you are in your garden enough, check your nails. If there’s no dirt under there, you better get out in your garden. Green thumbs are brown thumbs.

11. Take a stand. For local food. Fresh food. Organic food. Non-genetically modified food. For farmers. Clean water. Clean air. Citizen rights! It’s kinda sexy.

12. Homegrown gardens are beautiful. Even when surrounded by a raccoon-deterring fence. Gardens are a boon to your eyes and to the beauty of all your other plants. Permaculture is veggie-friendly and vice versa. Enjoy the eating and the view.

I held an event last year at the Los Angeles Eco-Village where we screened the documentary film Dive!: Living off America’s Waste, which is about dumpster diving and food waste. After the film we had a discussion about how to lessen food waste in the United States, where we throw away 50% of food we produce. One of the key strategies that everyone emphasized and agreed to is that more community gardens should be built, more people should start growing their own food, and we should start building more edible gardens in schools.

In response to this discussion, I have started a vegetable garden at the school where I work. The amazing thing about working with plants is that once you start the process, you start noticing plants in your environment much more and recognizing edibles and useful plants in your vicinity.

I have a classroom where I tutor kids and have a homework hour for them, after which we garden. I recently noticed that there is a box outside of my classroom overflowing with Aloe Vera.

The photo below is the plant I will be giving away!

Ro has covered how to cut, prepare and consume aloe vera in detail on localblu.com. If you are interested in the numerous health benefits of aloe vera but don’t want to go out and buy a plant, let us know if you want one for free by leaving a comment on this blog post. We will pick someone at random to give the plant to.

Unfortunately, the free giveaway is only for those who live in the Los Angeles area. I am located in the vicinity of Downtown LA and you can come pick the plant up.

Also, I am posting below a great video shared with me by Reuben of Rancho Reubidoux on how to separate aloe vera babies from the mother plant, which is the method I will use for your new plant. Check the video if you have a moment, it is rather calming

The Food Revolution Summit is a series of 21 interviews with leading food experts that will be broadcast online for free from April 28 to May 6, 2012. Some of the experts that will be interviewed include: 

• Dr. Joel Fuhrman, best selling author of the book “Eat to Live”
• Dr. Vandana Shiva, word renowned environmental leader and thinker
• David Wolfe, leading nutritionist and raw foodist
• Raj Patel, leading food activist, author of “Stuffed and Starved” and “Value of Nothing”
• Morgan Spurlock, creator of the film “Super Size Me”
• Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org
• Dennis and Elizabeth Kucinich, leading champions of the label GMO movement

The interviews will be conducted by father and son, John and Ocean Robbins – heirs to the Baskin-Robbins ice cream fortune. John Robbins could have inherited the Baskin-Robbins empire, but he walked away from all the money and the power because he simply didn’t want to devote his life to selling ice cream after realizing it makes people unhealthy. So he decided to make a change. Over the last 25 years, his books about healthy eating and healthy living (including bestseller “Diet for a New America”) have sold millions of copies.

During this summit, you will get answers to important questions like: Does the organic label mean your food is safe? Is the raw food diet legitimate or just a fad? Is it safe to consume soy? What’s the truth about grass-fed beef? Which fats are healthy for you? And more. 

Sign up for The Food Revolution Summit online!

This Saturday go on a tour of the most local farm in West Los Angeles at EVOFarm. EVOFarm uses aquaponics – a system with ancient origins that was once used by the Aztecs in Latin America, as well as cultures in Southeast Asia.

Aquaponics creates a symbiotic environment between fish and plants. Put simply: aquaponics uses the nutrients from fish poop to feed plants. The plants naturally clean the water, which allows the fish to thrive. EVOFarm is growing organic heirloom varieties of greens, herbs, and fruits. And at the same time raising edible varieties of fish. 

Farm tours are open to the public but reservations are required. Space is limited and available on a first come first served basis. Not to worry, if you miss this one, they will have tours throughout the year. Find out more details about this event here. And show your support for EVOFarm by liking their fan page. 

First questions for urban homesteaders often have to do with access, which is not a simple issue. Undoubtedly, the widening gap between rich and poor will continue to reinforce the problem of access to private property in all of our cities. Owning or renting the place where you live impacts the kind of choices you’ll make there. Ownership usually makes it easier for people to invest time and energy in a long-term project like a garden, and people tend to commit more fully to places where they feel they can stay for a long time, or where they imagine their energy, money, and time will not be wasted.

Ideally, people make investments in the places they inhabit because it’s how they live and not because they own it, but that’s not how the renter’s dilemma plays itself out for many people. And some landlords just don’t want gardens in the backyard, or greywater systems alongside the house, or composting toilets anywhere at all, which can limit our capacity to live ecologically.

It takes a lot of time and love to make a commitment to a garden or to other sustainable systems, like greywater or rainwater harvesting. But homesteading is about giving more than taking—nothing is lost in your commitment to loving the place where you live and rooting your life there for the duration of your stay. Cultivating this attitude of reverence toward the place where you live may give rise to a desire to grow food, or harvest rainwater, or conserve energy whether or not you own your home. I garden at a community garden, and in a friend’s backyard because I don’t have enough space where I live. I grow plenty of food, and have made lots of friends doing it.

Your response to your need to live ecologically can be as simple as growing something in a small pot outside your window, or learning to recycle your kitchen scraps, catching water in a bucket, or scattering seeds in the backyard. And for many people, it will mean finding ground to grow that isn’t necessarily where you live. Much urban homesteading happens off-site, in community with others. Especially in marginalized and impoverished communities, many people do not have access to any kind of soil, or places for growing, and it can be challenging to remediate the soil in some inner city landscapes. In these places, available land is often used for community-based projects, including community gardens, food security projects, gleaning opportunities, youth leadership and job training programs, as well as school gardens.

Work within your limits and your means. Many urban dwellers are renters, and many renters want to be part of the solution. Gardens can be constructed in raised beds, or in moveable barrels and pots. You can even grow a garden in a bale of straw on the median between sidewalk and street. Small structures you build on your homestead can come with you when you go, especially if you build them on wheels. And sometimes it’s okay to build something or plant something knowing you’ll leave it behind. Don’t wait until you own your own home to get started. The energy you put in will not be wasted; it comes back to you as joy.

The first factor to growing asparagus successfully is the soil. (P.S. It’s ALWAYS the soil). Asparagus like sandy, composted soil that has a pH that is close to 7.0. If you should have rock or clay in your soil try and remove as much as you can and fill in with compost.

Asparagus have very fine roots and so weeds can really get stuck in there. Keep your bed well weeded. Another key factor is moderate watering. Water your asparagus about twice a week. The goal here is just-moist soil.

This is my asparagus bed. It is made of cypress and is 4’ x 4’, 12” deep.

Do not buy asparagus seedlings at the store. Asparagus simply does not grow like this. You need to buy crowns.

Pretty, aren’t they? Asparagus crowns can be bought online, just make sure the company ships to CA. I have had success ordering from Asparagusgardener.com.

Asparagus crowns can be bought 1-year old, 2-years old and sometimes 3-years old. Asparagus needs to be able to grow and die back without being harvested for 3-4 years so the crowns store enough energy to come back year after year. So basically, you cannot eat your asparagus for 2-3 years depending on the age of your crowns.

The asparagus in my bed above have gone to “seed.” The ferny tops are the flowered asparagus heads. The tops grow quite tall and as you now know, they will be camping out for a few years in one spot, so asparagus is best grown in its own space where it will not shade or overpower other plants.

I dig an 18” deep trench then mound the soil up in the center of the trench. The crowns will be spread out so the top/middle of the crown will be about 6” below the ground. Then spread the tentacles out evenly around the center. Plant crowns 8-10” apart.

I mulch mine with compost 2x a year and apply an asparagus fertilizer 1x a year which I got from the site I ordered my crowns from. A basic organic veggie fertilizer will work too. Never ever use Miracle Gro. On anything. It’s chemical, poisonous to ground water, only lasts in your soil for a couple weeks and can potentially burn your plants. Sea Magic is my favorite liquid fertilizer.

Happy Planting friends! For more info on veggie planting, www.yourhopegarden.com

Back to the Roots is a young and innovative company that offers a grow-at-home oyster mushroom kit. The mushrooms grow on a base of old coffee grounds – a byproduct of the coffee-making process which is normally discarded. This part of Back to the Root’s closed loop business model – they are turning what was once a waste product, into delicious and nutritious gourmet food. The mushroom kit is great for kids, foodies, and aspiring urban farmers. It yields about 1 to 1.5 lbs of mushrooms in as little as 10 days.

Back to the Roots was founded by two UC Berkeley students. A former Berkeley student myself, I remember being on campus in 2009 when founders, Nikhil Arora and Alex Velez, first launched their business. In the 3 years since then, their product has evolved and their company has grown organically. Back to the Roots is leading the way for a new breed of businesses that are taking social and environmental responsibility to a whole new level.

Buy your own mushroom kit here. And show your support by liking Back to the Roots’ fan page.

It’s been a suspense-filled few weeks, waiting to get the go-ahead from Slow Food USA, but good news arrived just yesterday for the dedicated founders/board members of a proposed new local Slow Food chapter. Slow Food S.G.V. is to support all that is on the flip side of today’s fast paced food and culture.

The local chapter strives to be a unifying force behind all the communities and organizations in the SGV which are working to promote a local, sustainable, and fair food economy. Through their various initiatives they hope to educate and inform the community we serve about the benefits of good, clean, fair and slow food.

“Slow food” in itself is an idea, a way of living, and a way of eating. It is part of a global, grassroots movement which links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment. Fair food is a belief that food is a universal right. Food that is fair should be accessible to all, regardless of income, and produced by people who are treated with dignity and justly compensated for their labor. Clean food is talking about nutritious food that is as good for the planet as it is for our bodies. It is grown and harvested with methods that have a positive impact on our local ecosystems and promotes biodiversity. Good food means enjoying delicious food created with care from healthy plants and animals. The pleasures of good food can also help to build community and celebrate culture and regional diversity.

Slow Food SGV will also be working to help other local groups and organizations to connect and share ideas. Organizations they are hoping to connect with one another include but are not limited to community gardens, seed libraries, urban farms, food banks, and so on. A resource list is being developed for that very purpose.

Slow Food USA has a rich history and a strong tie with the international movement. They have over 250,000 supporters, 25,000 members and 225 chapters nationwide. Slow Food USA advocates for food and farming policy that is good for the public, good for the planet, and good for farmers and workers.

Together the international, national, and local Slow Food organizations are cultivating the richness found in both old and new food traditions. Please stay tuned for all their upcoming events and volunteer opportunities. Be sure to become a fan and ‘like’ them on Facebook.

The filmmakers who brought you Food Matters, an insightful documentary looking at modern medicine and its alternatives, are hosting a free worldwide online premiere of their latest film Hungry For Change. This film presents some of the world’s prominent authorities in natural medicine and nutrition to empower you to take health into your own hands. See the trailer here.

You may already be familiar with some of the experts in this documentary such as Dr. Joseph Mercola and David ‘Avocado’ Wolfe. Dr. Mercola is a pioneering champion for alternative medicine and a great resource of health information. David Wolfe is a raw foodist and master of superfoods. Ro Kumar, localblu.com founder, and myself had the fortune to watch ‘Avocado’ do a live demo at ExpoWest.

Hungry for Change showcases many of the tricks the diet, health, and beauty industries use to get you hooked and make you a long-term loyal customer – resulting in an onslaught of chemical damage to a biological human body. However, stories of change are told throughout along with tips on self-help. Additionally, the film explores ways to avoid these pitfalls and enable you to work with nature during your health journey.

From now until the 31^st watch the entire documentary for free at this link!

Rainwater harvesting is the accumulating and storing of rainwater for reuse. Given the dwindling supplies of fresh water, groundwater contamination, and lack of clean water in many parts of the world, rainwater harvesting is becoming increasingly important. 

Rainsaucers are a simple and innovative way to start rainwater harvesting – wherever you are. The saucers are made from food-grade plastic and cover about 11.25 square-feet of surface area. With just 1 Rainsaucer, you can harvest 6.75 gallons of water per-inch of rain. The RainSaucers is a great addition to any urban garden and a step towards truly complete sustainability.

Rainsaucers CEO, Tom Spargo, has plans to launch RainSaucers in the global South as a solution to shortages of clean drinking water. He has already conducted successful trials of the products in Guatemala.

Find our more at Rainsaucers’ website and fan page. 

This video details 4 Tips on Plastic-Free Gardening:
1. Use biodegradable containers
2. Use seed balls to plant your seeds
3. Use raised beds made from lumber
4. Use a soil blocker to start your seedlings

Composting is confounding to a lot of people. Let’s see if we can clear the air and get everyone composting by answering some common questions.

Will my compost bin smell?

This is the most common question I get. There are people who dedicate the better part of their lives to their compost bin. They take its temperature, strictly regulate its diet, feed it expensive activators. For me and my ten jobs and my lackadaisical ways, composting is generally a gaseous affair. It has its own unique smells (rotten eggs) and occasional un-refined sights (slugs, cut worms, maggots). But the result is free, gorgeous, alive, nutrient-delivering soil that keeps my vegetable garden thriving, and my kitchen and yard scraps working for me. There are definitely ways to contain the sweet smell of success to the bottom of the bin and that leads us to the next question:

Is composting a lot of work?

Compost needs maintenance. It needs to be watered and aerated. You need to gather brown materials regularly to cover your kitchen scraps. But everything worth doing is worth doing well, right?

I find composting to be a real return-to-the-earth encounter. The only thing I’ve found to be a more humbling experience than turning the compost bin has been cleaning the kids’ hamster cage –whose soiled bedding, by the way, goes right into the compost bin! (The hamster’s, not the kids’!)  Sure, some folks will tell you they just roll their compost around in one of those plastic ball bins and it comes out perfect, but that has just not been my experience. Compost takes effort, but the effort is well-rewarded.

How do I get set up?

I like a wooden 2-bin composter (a 3-bin is great too) that sits directly on the ground. It needs to be within the reach of a hose and close enough to the house that you can easily carry your kitchen scraps to it. You will need a closeable container to store your kitchen scraps in. You also need to have a source of brown materials (fallen leaves, for example) and I recommend some bins/trash cans/a wheelbarrow and a shovel to help you transfer the materials to and from the bin during “turning.”

What is compost exactly?

Compost is a mixture of natural (organic) ingredients that heat up and then break down into a perfect planting mix. Those ingredients can be quite varied and there is an extensive list at the end of this blog, but for the purpose of explanation (and to keep expectations realistic) we are going to stick with the basic materials.

Your first main ingredient will be “green” materials. These are your kitchen scraps, coffee grounds and fresh grass clippings. I think of these as “new” materials; they have not quite begun to break down yet. Do NOT put meat or dairy in your compost. This breeds maggots. I do not put any cooked food in my bin, just to make sure no meat or dairy sneaks in there.

The second main ingredient will be “brown” materials: fallen leaves, cut branches, plant debris, old soil and old grass clippings. You need much more brown materials than green. A 4:1 ratio is ideal. Brown materials are best when slightly wet. Some people soak their brown materials…especially brown paper bags.

Hint: to keep a steady amount of brown materials available, I keep a big pile of leaves in the corner of my yard. I just keep raking more leaves on top of it. When I water the compost, I also soak the leaf pile. What’s great is that this big leaf pile is just over there in the corner, doing its thing, composting away, ready whenever I need it.

What’s the process?

I have a small bin under my sink for my kitchen and household waste. When this little bin fills up, I take it out to my compost bin and toss it on top of the “new materials” side of the bin.

Then I put a couple wheelbarrows-full of brown materials on top of the scraps. This is where the 4:1 ratio comes in. I try to put 4x as much brown material into the bin as I put green materials.

It’s best to cover your scraps immediately if you can. That way vermin (animals and flies) don’t start investigating your compost. This practice also keeps your compost bin from becoming smelly. Then I finish it all off with a good soaking from the hose.

What about the turning?

This is where the two-bin system comes in to play and makes “turning” so much easier and effective.

The main benefit of the double bin is that older compost can live on one side while the new scraps get dumped on the other. This way, your older compost breaks down and cures at the same rate, and when you dig it out, you won’t have fresh decomposing scraps to deal with.

So, when both sides of your bin are full of compost (one side more decomposed than the other), you dig out your finished compost.  You will need to sort through it with your hands and throw un-composted stuff back into the compost bin.

Hint: I keep a bunch of those home improvement store paint buckets around to store compost in until I’m ready to use it.

After you get your finished compost out of there, you will then move your newer compost to the now empty bin. You will accomplish this by muscling aka shoveling it out.

Since the compost is not broken down yet, the digging is quite challenging. Some people like using a garden fork. Sometimes I use my gloved hands. (You will quickly learn why it is important to break down long sticks and twigs. Your compost is impossible to move when filled with these cobwebbing through your pile.)

With your shovel or fork or hands, you will move the entire bin of compost  to the other side. This way your fresh scraps that were on the top of the pile will end up at the bottom of the bin, exactly where you want them, to speed up the process, and that will put your soon-to-be-finished compost back at the top. And now you have one bin empty bin ready for your freshest scraps. This is how I “turn” my compost. I try to do it every couple months. I give my bin a good soaking at this point.

What about bugs?

Some of you are a little squeamish about bugs.You will need to put on your big boy and big girl garden gloves and remove slugs, snails and cutworms from your compost. A word on cutworms. These are not earthworms (which receive a place of honor in the composter and the garden) but the larvae stage of the black moth. Cutworms are destructive in your vegetable garden, they attract vermin and they are totally disgusting.

Pick them out of your bin (and your garden) and leave them somewhere far away from your garden, bin or yard in general. If you leave the cutworms or their innards (don’t squish them) around your bin or garden, possums and raccoons will thank you by digging around where you don’t want them to.

If you have a lot of ants in your compost bin, use Diatomaceous Earth. I had a major ant infestation and so I did more turning, added the DE and added more brown materials to my bin. After about three cycles of this, the ants were gone.

What makes you such an expert?

I actually don’t get this question although I do pose it to myself on occasion. Well, the proof is in the compost pudding.

This is a great pic of my finished compost. This cross-section lets you see the levels where kitchen scraps were layered with brown materials. Those brown materials could have used more water. This always seems to be the case. As you can see, the doors to the composter are on hinges so I can access the bottom of the pile more easily.

“True” compost is a year, or even two years, old. I have my own veggie-planting business so I need a constant supply of compost for my clients. With care and regular maintenance, I can turn my kitchen waste into compost in 3-4 months.

Hint: it is ideal to let compost “cure” for a few weeks before you use it, but we do the best we can, don’t we? The same goes for adding compost (and fertilizers and amendments) to soil. The ideal situation would be to amend your soil and let it sit for 2-3 days. Compost can be used as a growing material, as an amendment to growing material and as a mulch.

The city of Los Angeles still distributes discount composters. Here’s a list of upcoming events. The Earth Machine composter that they sell for only $20 is a good bargain, takes up little space and can segue you into the habit of composting. I much prefer a redwood affair but something is definitely better than nothing.

Calling all vegetarians!

As you may know, organic vegetable fertilizer is made with animal feces, as well as animal by-products such as blood meal and bone meal. These additives are excellent fertilizers: rich in nutrients, organic and slow-release. If you do not want by-products of the meat industry in your garden, the only vegetarian and non-GMO fertilizer available is your own compost!

Reap the rewards…

There were some moments over the course of the four hours it took me to dig out my finished compost this week when I thought: isn’t there an easier way? But then it occurred to me…and this was very comforting… not everything should be done faster, easier or cheaper. Some things are still accomplished with the passage of time, hard work, water and sunshine. I like that kind of world and I’m glad I live in it. And I’m glad I get to share it with you.

What all can I put in my compost bin?

So much!

-wood ash
-leaves
-grass clippings
-coffee ground and filters-
-teabags
-dishwater
-aquarium water
-feathers
-vegetables and fruits (I suggest cutting up anything with a tough skin like cherry tomatoes or citrus. Don’t put in too many oranges as they are toxic to earthworms.)
-garden waste (I throw weeds into the city’s green bin)
-wood chips and twigs (broken up to shorter than 9”)
-dryer lint
-sawdust
-pet hair
-human hair (save some to spread around your garden to keep vermin out)
-gum
-toothpicks
-pet bedding (rabbits, hamsters and other herbivores only)
-paper egg cartons
-paper drink holders
-tissue, paper towels, cotton balls
-shredded paper bags, paper and cardboard
-toilet and paper towel rolls
-nuts shells
-matches
-wine corks
-wine
-dry dog food
-old spices and herbs
-old uncooked pasta
-spoiled flower bouquets and their water
-dust from sweeping and vacuuming

If you get really crazy about composting, visit farms, orchards, factories, city agencies, stables, feedlots, supermarkets, hair salons, restaurants, florists, carpentry shops and lumber supply houses for compost items. An in-depth book to read is “The Rodale Book of Composting,” c. 1992, Rodale Press, Pennsylvania.

Erin Riley is the owner and main muscle of Hope Gardens, a company dedicated to encouraging people to grow more plants. Hope Gardens specializes in designing, installing and maintaining organic vegetable gardens as well as native, drought-tolerant scapes. More information at www.yourhopegarden.com

Last week, Greenstart, a San Francisco-based startup accelerator took big step. In addition to the $15,000 in seed funding the incubator already provides, startups now also have the opportunity to receive a $100,000 convertible note – adding up to a possible $115,000 in funding.

Greenstart gives startups access to office space, discounts, mentoring, discounts, and recently launched an in-house design practice, led by new COO David Merkoski, the former Executive Creative Director of frog design. 

Greenstart just opened up applications to its Fall 2012 program today – the deadline for submission is April 11th.