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May. 9th, 2020
Composting, pathway
May. 9th, 2020 01:34 pmThis is behind a paywall, as a NYT article
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/climate/new-york-coronavirus-composting.html
I was excited to learn that one can compost easily in one's house without worms. I have known people who have a worm composting set-up, but one of them told me that it's like having pets - if you go away for a long time, you have to have some way for the worms to get food, or they'll die.
If/when we have to move somewhere without a yard, I'll do it the Japanese way described in the article, which just requires a cardboard box, coco peat, and kuntan, which I had never heard of, but one can substitute horticultural ash available in the US.
In the meantime, I have the generic sold-by-the-DPW composter as seen in the first segment of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7qlAFPlmfo Janet (compost team #1) is a friend of mine. I do even less work than she describes. It's in a far corner of our back yard. I put stuff in it all year round, which sometimes means slogging through mud or snow. For years, I've been thinking of making a path from the driveway to the bin with paving stones. It would also satisfy my not very scientific idea of having a fire break along the edge before the little bit of woods we have. I can't imagine that it would really be effective, but feelings matter. By chance, during a conversation at zoom knitting on Wednesday, I found out that a friend had pulled up her old patio and stacked the squares by her driveway. She was happy to have me take some away, but warned me that they are ugly. That is not the sort of thing I'd mind, or even agree with, but I guess I know what she meant - they are red clay like a brick, somewhat crumbling with age, and at some point she painted them gray on the top. Unexplained was why some of them have what looks like white spray paint lines as well. It took two car trips to get enough to make the path, a total of 24 15X15 squares, heavy enough that I only tried to lift one at a time. It was pretty easy to lay them out, and now I have my dream path. When I was finishing up, a robin ran the length of it. I imagined it thinking "what the heck! what the heck!" but I hope that I have not caused damage to the backyard biome by making my little two inch tall wall. The Wall at our southern border is definitely an environmental disaster.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/climate/new-york-coronavirus-composting.html
I was excited to learn that one can compost easily in one's house without worms. I have known people who have a worm composting set-up, but one of them told me that it's like having pets - if you go away for a long time, you have to have some way for the worms to get food, or they'll die.
If/when we have to move somewhere without a yard, I'll do it the Japanese way described in the article, which just requires a cardboard box, coco peat, and kuntan, which I had never heard of, but one can substitute horticultural ash available in the US.
In the meantime, I have the generic sold-by-the-DPW composter as seen in the first segment of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7qlAFPlmfo Janet (compost team #1) is a friend of mine. I do even less work than she describes. It's in a far corner of our back yard. I put stuff in it all year round, which sometimes means slogging through mud or snow. For years, I've been thinking of making a path from the driveway to the bin with paving stones. It would also satisfy my not very scientific idea of having a fire break along the edge before the little bit of woods we have. I can't imagine that it would really be effective, but feelings matter. By chance, during a conversation at zoom knitting on Wednesday, I found out that a friend had pulled up her old patio and stacked the squares by her driveway. She was happy to have me take some away, but warned me that they are ugly. That is not the sort of thing I'd mind, or even agree with, but I guess I know what she meant - they are red clay like a brick, somewhat crumbling with age, and at some point she painted them gray on the top. Unexplained was why some of them have what looks like white spray paint lines as well. It took two car trips to get enough to make the path, a total of 24 15X15 squares, heavy enough that I only tried to lift one at a time. It was pretty easy to lay them out, and now I have my dream path. When I was finishing up, a robin ran the length of it. I imagined it thinking "what the heck! what the heck!" but I hope that I have not caused damage to the backyard biome by making my little two inch tall wall. The Wall at our southern border is definitely an environmental disaster.