It's Easy Being Green

Cruising the backroads of western Kentucky and making deliveries these past couple of days after Christmas, I’ve already seen some scattered Christmas trees thrown into the drainage ditches.  Some have been carelessly tossed on the front porch as if waiting for a magic ride to the dump or perhaps waiting for a hitch to the next rural ditch somewhere.  While some could argue this is redneck composting at its finest, this is not the preferred way to recycling your evergreen tree.

Here at the half-acre homestead, we usually keep our tree up until January 2nd, when we are finally all but drained of festive holiday feelings and yearn for the return of our living room.  Well, maybe the return of one, little used corner of the living room but the though is the same nonetheless.  In years where we’ve lived in a house with a fireplace, the Yule Log will get stripped of its branches and be left to dry for burning next year.  The same can be held true for the outdoor firepit.  True the romance isn’t quite the same but the novelty can ring out for all your neighbors to see.  I know what’s coming next because it is by far a Midwestern specialty.  No, I don’t think burn barrels or burn piles qualify for the same appropriate disposal of Ihren Weihnachtsbaum.  For all of you non-Germans in this pro-German area, that’s “your Christmas tree” in deutscher Sprache.

If you don’t have a neighbor handy with a chipper or shredder you can borrow, simply take advantage of one of two drop-off locations on either side of the Ohio.  In Evansville, you can drop your tree off at Newman Park near where the nature trails begins.  The city parks department says there are signs already posted and even some trees which have already been dropped off.  The Christmas trees will be chipped and mulched for use in the local parks.  The last day for drop-off is January 7th.  In Henderson, you can drop off your trees at the Newman Recreational Complex on Sand Lane through January 8th.  Don’t forget to remove as much tinsel and ornaments as possible because those items don’t beautify the forest floor or local tree trunks anymore than that Styrofoam thirst-quencher cup tossed out the window.  Most of all, please don’t ditch your tree in a drainage ditch, farm field or other illegal dump site.

Do you know of another Tri-State Christmas tree recycling drop-off point?  Leave a comment and share with our other readers so the word can spread!  Happy mulching!

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These are the composting coffee cups and sleeves used by one of my favorite local coffee shops and made by World Centric

Back in November I wrote about how one of my favorite local coffee shops switched their paper to-go cups to a cup that can actually be composted when you’re done with it.  World Centric, the company that produces the cups, claimed the cup would break down in a home composter within 2 to 4 months.  Some commented on my original post and said it was hogwash.

Several weeks ago when I began building my square foot gardening space, I had to relocated my compost bin.  I had to empty the entire thing of compost, move it over and re-fill it.  While doing this, I sifted through the compost looking for the two composting coffee cups and sleeves I dropped in back in November.

My two used coffee cups dropped in the composter. They ended up disappearing over the winter in just 3 months time!

I’m pleased to announce they were gone, at least in the sense that they no longer looked like a coffee cup.  There wasn’t even a single piece of cup that I could detect in the compost after about 3 months of sitting.  That was over the coldest months of the year too, so I imagine they’ll disappear even quicker when the compost really heats up this Summer.  Kudos to World Centric for this development and producing a product that really does break down after use!

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I am a coffee fiend.  Notice I did not say that I’m a coffee addict although I’m sure my friends and family would make a very different testament regarding that label.  My everlasting search for a good “cuppa joe” exceeded my expectations at my favorite local coffee shop yesterday.

Yes, I said a local coffee shop.  I do frequent Starbucks and am a fan when I can’t locate a local barrista to pour me the perfect cup.  My favorite local shop here in Evansville, Indiana is the Penny Lane Coffeehouse. Located in the historic downtown arts district, Penny Lane is an eclectic collecting place for people seeking art, organic vegan eats and of course organic, fair-trade coffee drinks and tea.

These are the composting coffee cups and sleeves used by one of my favorite local coffee shops and made by World Centric

My cup of coffee sent me over the moon yesterday when I realized they had switched up their paper to-go cups.  Emblazoned across the bottom of the paper cups are the words “100% Compostable – Paper with BioPlastic Lining”.  If you read my blog regularly, you know I have a compost heap going in our tiny backyard and divert most of our organic garbage to that oasis of renewal.  Paper coffee cups and drink cups have always bothered me when you think about the amount of waste involved and that’s why I always try to take them home and put them in the recycle bin.

With these new cups though, the environmental impact becomes even easier because I can simply toss them in my composter when I get home, only to feed my garden several months down the road.  I wondered how truly compostable these paper coffee cups were, so I visited the manufacturer’s website.  World Centric claims their cups will break down in a home composter in just 2-4 months.  While most paper cups are lined with polyethylene, a plastic that isn’t recyclable or bio-degradable, World Centric’s paper cup is lined with polylactic acid or PLA.

That PLA lining is made with starch (e.g. corn, potato, tapioca etc), cellulose, soy protein, lactic acid and other ingredients that are said to break down without any hazards or toxins left behind.  The cups are made with sustainably harvested fibers and they say they use Elemental Chlorine Free bleach to whiten the cups.

I’m going to see just how long it takes for World Centric’s paper cups to break down in my compost pile.  I’ve tossed them in and I’ll let you know what kind of results I notice.  Meanwhile, I do like the fact that someone is trying to produce to-go containers with less of an environmental impact than Styrofoam, plastics or non-recyclable papers.  Maybe I’m going to see just how long it takes for World Centric’s paper cups to break down in my compost pile.  I’ve tossed them in and I’ll let you know what kind of results I notice.  Meanwhile, I do like the fact that someone is trying to produce to-go containers with less of an environmental impact than Styrofoam, plastics or non-recyclable papers.  Maybe Starbucks can jump on that bandwagon and really evoke some world change with their cups of joe!

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When it comes to gardening, I’m like a mint plant:  rogue and rambling throughout the landscape, putting down roots wherever I see fit.  I guess that’s just how I roll and I kind of like it.  I’ve learned you can’t really be prim and proper with a vegetable garden anyway because inevitably, the darn things grow in ways you never expected and couldn’t contain even if you tried.  That’s why I go rogue.

I got my first vegetable bed planted earlier this week and two nights of soaking rain have helped to water it in good.  I planted 10 tomato plants all together: 4 roma, 4 cherry, 1 heirloom orange oxheart and 1 unknown plant that already has a tomato.  I also planted two zuchinnis and an eggplant in that tiny plot.

Last night I took advantage of the cool weather and finished my work with the pitchfork, overturning another plot of the backyard to plant in.  It’s supposed to dry out this week which will make it much easier to work the heavy Ohio Valley clay soil that I’m learning to wrestle with.  I’ve never seen soil so thick and claylike in my life, now imagine trying to figure out how to grow stuff in it!  After living in Arizona though, another poor soil condition, I’m just learning to deal with it and hopefully ramp up compost production so I can begin enriching and lightening the clay in our garden beds.

I also ended up coming upon quite the stack of free seeds from a fellow gardener who just had surgery and won’t be planting this year.   Last night I started rampling about the yard, poking seeds in just about every spot imagineable.  My thought is why not use every available inch of space or bare ground to grow some food for us.  So I followed the fence line, scratching a trench in the clay and planting Alaska peas, Henderson lima beans, Cherokee Yellow wax beans and Golden Bantam sweet corn.

The method would probably throughly confuse any “classical” vegetable gardener who likes to have everything in nice little neat rows.  That’s not me though!  I hilled up the sweet corn and planted about 6 plants to a hill and am hoping the line of bush beans and peas will just grow up against the fence at the edge of the lawn.  We’ll see how my rogue method works.  I can’t wait!

Meanwhile, I still have dozens of seed packets waiting for some bare earth and have work to get to.  My seed collection is verging on old, so I think I just need to plant everything that’s old and get it out of rotation.  I know a lot of it is already past prime and won’t germinate.  I’ve had some of these packets for at least 10 years if not more (I know, don’t judge) and most seed has a shelf life of only about 5 years.  It’s time to purge!

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A sunflower left for the birds

If you live in a cold climate, you’re garden has probably seen the effects of the first major frost or snow by now.  The dead foliage and flower stalks might look terrible but you should think about leaving them just the way they are until early spring.  That’s because birds that overwinter in your areas could enjoy the dead flowers and plants throughout the harsh winter.  They’ll pick at the flower seeds and maybe even disperse them throughout the garden only to surpise you when things begin to sprout again.  When it starts to warm up and you begin to prepare your garden for the spring and summer months, chop back the dead and throw it onto your compost pile!  The birds will thank you.

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This weekend I watched oodles of neighbors wrestling with the falling leaves.  Whole lawns have disappeared beneath carpets of red, orange and gold leaves as they tumble from the trees lining our streets.  I think it’s beautiful and shows the changing seasons but it seems most think of it as an annoyance.  This weekend neighbors up and down the block dug out their noisy leaf blowers and moved all the leaves either into the street or onto the lawn for mowing.  Not only is it noisy but it’s also kicking a lot of emissions into the air and for what?  This morning most of the lawns have disappeared again.

I’m taking the wait until the tree is bare approach to leaf raking.  I’ve gone out a couple of times in the last month and created a couple of big piles to compost.  I like that idea instead of piling them into lawn and garden trash bags to be hauled off to the dump.  Then I can use the compost around the garden beds and in the lawn to add beneficial nutrients into the soil.  If you don’t have the room to compost in your own yard, you might want to think about giving the material to a local yard waste recycler.  Usually your local dump or transfer station will know of someone in the area who can help.

Composting isn’t that difficult though.  Even if you’ve got a little corner of your property you can dedicate the process, you can do a lot.  I’ve simply created a large pile of dead leaves in one corner of my yard by the garage.  It originally was well over 4 feet tall but as they have started breaking down, the pile has shrunk down to about 2 feet tall and half as wide.  Once a week, I head out with my pitchfork and turn the inside of the pile outward.  That mixes the dry, whole leaves into the middle where they can begin to break down.  I also keep the pile moist, like a rung out sponge.  So, if it hasn’t rained during the week spray your pile down with the hose.  Over a few weeks you’ll begin to notice the leaves breaking down and turning into black gold, compost!

For tomorrow:  How you can continue your fall cleanup while reducing the environmental impact

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Have you ever thought about the environmental impact of all those paper coffee filters you might use to make your pot of coffee every morning?  Our last coffee maker required a special kind of paper filter.  But we tried to make the environmental impact of those as little as possible by purchasing unbleached filters and composting them, complete with the coffee grounds when they were done.

Reducing that impact can be simple and save you money in the long run.  You can buy a reusable hemp or gold coffee filter to fit your coffee maker’s filter basket.  They range from as little as $3 on up to about $15.  You could even to make filterless coffee by picking up a french press, a fun way I’ve found to make an unusual cuppa morning joe!  Do you have a reusable coffee filter?  If so tell us how well it works and any challenges you’ve faced!

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