My Failures in Composting

I've been keeping a compost pile going on six years now and I don't think I've ever had a good batch that I can use in my garden.  I'm so frustrated I'm about to give up.  I just had the last straw when I went to go turn over my (spinning drum style) composter and saw that I have an entire ecosystem of fruit flies flying around it.  Gladly, it's in an out of the way part of my yard, but it's a nuisance and a reminder that composting is an art, not a science.

Composting experts will tell you to have a 50/50 ration of "dry or brown" to "wet or green" ingredients. I tend to put more green ingredients, my kitchen and garden scraps, and forget to put in more brown ingredients, such as shredded bills, newspaper or leaves.  The result is an anaerobic mess that never quite cures and attracts pests.

But as much as I want to, I'm not giving up.  In fact, I'm doubling down and getting a cute little crock that will sit on my counter when I have kitchen scraps (instead of a plastic bag out the back) and I'm going to go dump a bunch of leaves in the composter.  Then I'll cross my fingers and hope that history does not repeat itself and I have usable compost by the time planting season begins.

An idea for entrepreneurs out there - start a composting service.  Green minded folks with no ability to compost (me) will sign up.  You can pick up our kitchen scraps once or twice a week, compost it, and then sell us back our waste in the form of local, organic garden soil.  I know the awesome community Prairie Crossing has a similar service in Gray's Lake, Illinois.  Someone needs to start one in my town.  But for all the reasons mentioned above, it won't be me.

Multi-Functional Design

Recent one page report on Life's Principle to be resource (material & energy) efficient, focused on the sub-principle to design multi-functionally.

8 Easy Ways to Eat Sustainably

(excerpted from What I Learned from Dan Barber and Tom Colicchio About How to Eat Sustainably by Lauren Matison)

1. Shop at the greenmarkets as much as possible.
2. Buy only what foods are in season. (Tom: “Don’t create a demand for strawberries in winter!”)
3. Eschew processed foods. (Tom: “Wage war with the supermarket.”)
4. Eat what has been produced within 100 miles of where you live or vacation. (Dan: “You’re in pursuit of flavor. Go directly to the source.”)
5. Take yourself and your children to be educated at a nearby farm.
6. Support environmentally-conscious restaurants, and subsequently the farms they work with.
7. The ultimate sustainable experience: Attend a farm-to-table feast in the middle of a farm. Good sources: Outstanding in the Field or Sustenance on the Farm
8. Find sustainable reminders: Pick up a copy of Edible magazine and read it, cover to cover.

Urban Agriculture: Resources

Links

• The Land Institute. Natural Systems Agriculture as quoted in Biomimicry.
• The Biomimicry Institute.
  

Interviews

Articles

Books

• Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature
  

Urban Agriculture: Research Outline

Introduction

• premise. why locally raised food is good for the environment and customers
• the problems associated with centralized, conventional agriculture (introduction, not lengthy)

History

• Midwest early agriculture - native americans and the pioneers
  
• The beginning of modern agriculture and centralization
• Victory Gardens
• Permaculture and Natural Systems Agriculture
  
• Midwest Aquaculture
  

Types

• Suburban Yard Gardens - backyard and frontyard
• Rooftop Gardens - large and small scale
  
• Vertical Gardens
• Community Gardens
• Small-Scale Aquaculture
  

Lessons Learned

• tbd
  

Midwest Case Studies

• tbd
  

References

• links
• interviews
• articles
• books
  

Quarterly Research Projects

While I am on "motherhood sabbatical", I've decided to assign myself quarterly research projects. Balancing the time to do this should be interesting while watching my two young children as well as fulfilling the continuing education requirements of my architecture license. But, as I've always told other people - it's important to keep your head in the game! So, here I go...

These research projects will focus on a subject I am interested in and, ideally, coincide with a seasonal theme.

Fall - in keeping with the harvest season, i will focus on a topic dear to my heart, "urban agriculture in the upper midwest"
Winter - in chicago, this is the heating season, so i will focus on "residential energy efficiency"
Spring - biomimicry in practice
Summer - tbd

i will use this blog as a record of the research and then synthesize lessons learned. this research is given away free of charge with copyright rights reserved. i welcome feedback and references. when reposting, please cite my blog in addition to my sources.

thank you and enjoy!
amy