Monday, April 25, 2016

Try This Green Thing at Home

Our Try This Green Thing at Home Family Challenge
for this week is to Compost!

We have all heard the environmental trilogy of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. But there is another—Rot! By composting our fruit and veggie scraps, our newspaper, staple-free tea bags, coffee grounds, dryer lint and more we can save a great deal of garbage every year (even every day!) from going to the landfill.

You may think, well food is biodegradable so why can’t it just be thrown away to rot? When food is disposed of in plastic bags in a landfill, it is compressed and deprived of a healthy environment to naturally decompose. Trash releases methane gas into the atmosphere which contributes to the greenhouse effect. Composting our food is a simple way to provide a huge benefit to our environment and planet.

Choices of compost bins abound and anyone can search online for the best system for their home. One tricky part is managing the ratios of greens and browns, also known as the nitrogen and carbon, in a compost bin. This balance is known as the Nitrogen-Carbon ratio. The nitrogen materials are the fresh and moist materials, and the carbon materials are the dry materials. Composting microorganisms require the correct proportion of nitrogen for protein building and carbon for energy. A good balance is 1 part nitrogen to 30 parts carbon, 1:30. As you can see composting microorganisms need much more carbon than nitrogen. Too much carbon and the composting act slows down, too much nitrogen and the compost begins to release ammonia gas
and smell.

Many people collect veggie and fruit scraps in crocks in their kitchen to eventually transfer to their compost bins. An easy way to provide more carbon than nitrogen when you make this transfer is to re-purpose egg cartons! Tear up a half or whole egg carton into your empty crock, add a touch of water, and then add your produce scraps. When you empty your crock into your compost bin you’ll have a healthy nitrogen-carbon ratio!


Seeds, Soil and Sunshine

















Spring is here in all of its glory and so begins the gardening season. To prepare our own spring garden students strategically planted seeds, dug small holes to drop in infant seedlings, and learned all about the soil in which we are growing our garden. With water, sunshine and careful nurturing, our spring garden will grow steadily and provide a bountiful harvest in just a few short months.

Students learned the difference between planting by seed, which is called direct sowing, and planting seedlings that have had a head start in a greenhouse. They learned which plants like to be directly sown and which like to be transplanted from a small container to the garden bed. Some plants are very particular to their planting method, and some are flexible and can successfully grow from either seed or transplant. Leafy greens are examples of flexible plants, and root vegetables are examples of plants that must by directly sown.

Students planted root vegetables at one meeting which included radishes, carrots, sugar snap peas, turnips, and beets. At the following meeting students planted leafy greens, herbs and flowers including lettuce, kale, chard, arugula, onions, tatsoi, spinach, and nasturtiums. Farmer John Wilson from New Earth Farm, our consistent mentor and farming consultant, came out to plant with the students and tell him all about his chemical-free and sustainable farm. Farmer John’s visits are always highly anticipated, fun and educational.





















The quality of our garden plants depends heavily on the quality of our soil. Healthy soil equals healthy plants. We are fortunate to be able to acquire nutrient-rich compost from New Earth Farm to amend our soil each spring to give our plants a huge energy boost. Students received a basic understanding of the mini eco-system that makes up our soil—like microbes, insects and other organisms—and gained an appreciation for the delicate balance of nutrients the plants need. While they now know that it takes time to develop this healthy soil balance, we can help our soil along the way by adding nourishing amendments like compost.

Students learned about vermi-composting and how to set up a worm bin. Worm bins are great ways
to turn trash into treasure and a sustainable way to dispose of our food scraps, instead of having them rot in a landfill releasing methane gas. Worm castings make an excellent compost for a
chemical-free garden.

















The importance of water and proper irrigation for a healthy garden was also covered at our Green LIONS Garden Group meeting. We are fortunate to have a drip irrigation system in our garden. While using city water is not the most sustainable way to water, a drip irrigation system allows our garden to be watered regularly since it is in a school setting and not, for example, at someone’s home where they could easily water whenever it is convenient. A drip irrigation system is more eco-friendly and efficient than say a sprinkler system, because the water drips slowly and there is a 90% absorption rate instead of high evaporation.

















Students learned about how we also collect water in our rain barrel and they are able to use watering cans with collected water to water the garden at our meetings.
Did you know that 3o% of water used in our urban area is used to water lawns and gardens? 
Did you also know that 35% of municipal electricity is used to treat that water?
Collecting water through rain barrels or using well water is a much more sustainable way to grow healthy lawns and gardens without depleting our natural resources. Of course, rain is the best irrigation of all! And if we received one inch of rain in a week we should not have to water established vegetable and fruit plants at all. Now that would be convenient.