The Green Path Company » outdoor activity

The what, where, when and how of composting

admin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:57:27 +0000

The answer to the why part of the composting question is the easiest to address. Americans throw out around 25% of the food we make and table scraps account for 12% of the trash in our landfills. It is a waste to waste this waste, especially when you can put most of it to a much better use. Composting can help create a natural, beneficial additive for your garden soil and allows you to bypass using chemical fertilizers and soil enhancers. It’s great for plants, shrubs and for organic gardens, so if you have been thinking about starting a garden now is a great time to do so and composting is a great place to start.

Anybody can start a compost pile but most of us don’t know the first thing about where to begin or what to do to manage the pile. It is actually a fairly simple process to get started and it begins with your compost bin. There are a variety of different methods you can use to construct your compost “home”, ranging from building your own to buying a commercial tumbler. The benefits of a store bought bin are that they are clean, neat and an attractive way to manage the process. The downside is that they are usually small and only make a small amount of compost and are expensive.

You can also go rustic and build your own from a few pieces of scrap wood and chicken wire. Build a 3 sided box that is 4 to 5 feet wide and high with an open front. Wrap the 3 sides in chicken wire to keep creatures out and voila, you have a composting bin. You can get step by step instructions from Bluegrass Gardens and BackyardGardeners.com.

Once you have a bin you’re ready to begin composting! Here are some simple steps you can take to create your masterpiece.

A. Choose a shady location that is out of the way BUT still in view so you don’t forget about it.

B. Add “brown” material for the 1^st layer. Build a 6 inch high layer of hay, straw, old leaves and/or sawdust in the bottom of the bin. Add water…

C. Add “green” material. Build a 2 to 3 inch high layer on top of the “brown” layer using green grass clippings, manure and table scraps. Add water…

D. Repeat this layering process until the bin is full. Make sure you moisten each layer prior to adding the next layer.

E. Wait a few days and then “turn” the layers using a pitchfork or shovel.

F. Cover with a tarp to keep the rain out and preserve the moisture you added during the layering. This is important to help the compost pile “cook”.

You now have a compost pile and it is important to manage the pile to insure that the natural process takes place without many complications. There are few “do’s” and “don’ts” of composting that you need to be aware of beginning with what and what not to add to your pile. You can add:

1. Natural things like hay, straw, pine needles, leaves, flowers, weeds, and trimmings from trees and shrubs.

2. Kitchen scraps like egg shells, old bread, vegetables and fruit scraps and some animal manure.

3. Wood chips, sawdust and shredded black and white newspapers

You should never include things like meats, oils, fish, dairy products or bones as they attract unwanted creatures to the pile. You also want to avoid diseased or insect-infested plants, grass or weeds treated with herbicides or feces from dogs, cats, pigs or humans.

It is very important to have the right mix of these items to make sure the pile heats up and decomposes in the most efficient way. The general rule is to use the C/N ration. This is the mix of carbon based products to nitrogen based products. The “brown” layers you built in the initial process are your carbon products and the “green” layers contain the nitrogen products. A 25:1 ration of carbon to nitrogen is considered the correct ratio for your compost pile.

The final step is managing your compost pile. You can handle this either of two ways depending on your time table for useable compost. If you don’t want to exert much effort and don’t need the compost for a while then go through the initial process of building and turning the pile and then let it go. In about a year you will have compost for your garden or flower beds. If you want the process to move along more quickly then you will need to tend your pile.

After about a week you should check the pile for moisture and heat. Just dig down a foot or so to see if the pile is moist, if so let it go, if not then water it thoroughly. There is fine balance to this so make sure the pile is not soggy as this will impede the process. The rule of thumb is to keep the pile as moist as a wrung out sponge.

In addition to the moisture level it is important to keep the heat on. A hot pile means that the natural process of decomposition is working. If the pile feels as cool as the outside air you will need to turn the pile and add more nitrogen based product like grass clippings, kitchen scraps or manure. You can “turn” the pile using a pitch fork and removing the top and outer layers, set them on the ground and then remove the inside and lower layers and place them on the ground as well. Then put the top and outer layers in first and the cover with the lower, inside layers.

If you take an active part in the composting process you should have usable compost in three to four weeks. You just need to decide which method suits your needs best and begin.

The “art” of composting is a complicated skill to learn and can only come from experience and researching the process. The Compost Guide is one of the best resources for a complete guide to composting, including troubleshooting, where to buy bins, how to use compost and much, much more. Now it’s up to you to make the decision and get started. We will!

Green Kids

admin — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 23:09:15 +0000

I have been reading alot about how to raise “green” kids, “green” parenting and educating our children to grow up green. There are some very innovative ideas covering a wide variety of subjects from recycling, to composting, to reusing “trash” for art projects and many, many more. We know we need to educate them on the 3 R’s, CFL bulbs, water conservation and energy conservation but I don’t think we put enough emphasis on being outdoors, teaching respect for nature, animals and in the case of my granddaughter bugs! She is 2 1/2 years old and loves bugs and creepy crawly creatures like ants, beetles, lizards almost anything that plays or crawls outdoors. We have a cabin in the mountains in northern Arizona and when we take her up there she spends every waking hour outside. She wants to look for lizards, loves to watch ants crawl on the rocks and dirt and is enthralled by the numerous beetles that gather around our porch lights. The first thing she wants to do when she wakes up is go out “into the garden”, that’s what she calls the area in front of our cabin. She likes to fill the bird feeders and then sit on the porch and watch the woodpeckers, humming birds and blue jays that feed on the “breakfast” she provides. She likes pine cones, running in the woods and looking for squirrels and is so excited when one runs up a tree. Her parents take her hiking during the winter and spring and she loves looking at the cacti, birds and rocks along the trail, basically being outside. Well enough about her but my point is that children are never to young to learn and the best way to teach them respect and love for nature is to get them involved. Let them play outside, expose them nature and teach them not to be afraid of what nature has to offer. It has been a great learning experience for me as well. It is an amazing opportunity to see the world through the eyes of a child and nature is much more interesting when you experience it with them. So take the time to look at a bug, pick up a pine cone and sniff a flower with a child, you will rediscover what’s really important in life!

Whistler, BC

admin — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:21:07 +0000

I just got back from a week long trip to Whistler, BC and it was an impactful reminder of why I love it there so much. It is nestled in the mountains about 70 miles or 140 km north of Vancouver and is a spectacular setting if you like mountains, waterfalls, lush green forests and a myriad of outdoor activities at your finger tips. You can walk or bike to almost anywhere in the town and most people do, even the tourists. They are very eco-friendly as well with trash bins everywhere seperated for paper, plastic, glass and of course just plain old trash. Their new buildings are green built including the roofs that support native grass and flowers, an interesting site. People love and live in co-existance with nature and make a concerted effort to protect the beauty that surrounds them.

There are hundreds of miles of bike and hiking trails, you can even take a trip up the mountain in a gondola to hike up to glaciers or just find a small mountain lake surrounded by wildflowers, waterfalls and streams. There are several companines that provide a variety of eco-tours that include kayaking, biking, zip lines… you name it, you can find it there! I rented a bike for about $20 Canadian and rode for 2 hours through maintained single track trails that are well marked and well traveled so you are never alone. The scenery is breathtaking and diverse with a variety of pine, aspen and maple trees, ferns, moss covered logs and wild mushrooms growing along the trail. I had to take several breaks along the trail just to make sure I took it all in and didn’t miss anything. There are several lakes in town that serve as swimming holes in the summer and the grassy areas around them are packed during a hot summer day with tourist and locals enjoying the water and scenery.

All in all Whistler is a great place to visit for the beauty and if you are interested in enjoying the outdoors through a variety of activities, it has it everything you could ask for!

Smelly old shoe

admin — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:39:18 +0000

If you are like me you probably have several pairs of old athletic shoes, running shoes, cross trainers and just plain old athletic shoes. I usually rotate these shoes from current running shoes, to yard work shoes to the trash and on to the next new pair. That was until I found out about this cool program sponsored by Nike. Nike has a program called NikeGO that helps promote healthier lifestyles for kids by encouraging physical activities. As part of NikeGO they have a program called Reuse-A-Shoe that recycles old athletic shoes and turns them into sports courts covered with a surface called Nike Grind. This program began in 1993 and has built more than 170 sports courts in communities around the world. This benefits us in several ways the least of which is to provide safe surfaces for kids to play on and keeps hundreds of thousands of old shoes out of landfills, overall a win for all of us.

You can learn more about the NikeGO program and Reuse-A-Shoe at the following websites and can also find a drop off location in your area for your old, smelly shoes: www.nikego.com and www.nikereuseashoe.com

You can also send your shoes to Nike at the following address:

Nike Recycle Center c/o Reuse-A-Shoe 26755 SW 95th Ave Wilsonville, OR 97070

Let’s do our part to help out and start sending our old, smelly shoes to Nike, they won’t mind!

“Trailer” trash

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:16:27 +0000

I was out trail running last week and came across a new use for plastic grocery bags. I was out on a trail close to a city park and stumbled on a 1/4 mile stretch of garbage ridden trail, really a disappointment! There were several plastic bags stuck on cacti, in creosote bushes along with empy water bottles, beer and soda cans and a variety of other trashy items. I stopped and took one of the plastic bags and used it to collect as much trash as I could and by the end of my run I had a completely stuffed plastic bag full of trash. So, the next time you go out on a trail run take a plastic bag with you and multi-task. You can get exercise AND do some trail restoration. Use the plastic bag to pick up trash while you run and when people see you maybe they will do the same or at least think about not littering the trails.

PS – to dog owners who scoop up their pets “poop”, put it in a plastic bag designed for that pupose, and then leave it on the trail, STOP IT! It’s better if you just move the mess off the trail and leave it to naturally decompose versus putting in a bag and leaving it there. If you don’t plan to take it with you then at least have a clue and save the bag.

Try a trail

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:28:58 +0000

I went for another trail run last weekend and was thinking about why I like to run on uneven, primitive trails versus the safety of a treadmill or city streets. The main reason is that when you are running outdoors with nature as your guide you don’t think about running, you don’t need music or audio books to help pass the time or take you mind off the boredom of going nowhere. You have beauty all around you! I used to run the trails with my head down and never took the time to see whats around me but I’ve changed that recently and make frequent stops to just look around. I run in the high desert in Glendale, Arizona and the variety of plant life and animals is amazing and inspiring. There are views of Phoenix from some of the peaks I climb that are stunning, you can see downtown, clearly from over 20 miles away. I can see many of the major landmarks in Phoenix, Camelback Mountain, South Mountain, the new Phoenix Cardinal stadium and it is cool to stop and look. In addition to what you can see at a distance there is an amazing landscape right under my nose, Saguaro cacti, coyotes, rabbits, desert wild flowers all along the trail and there are hundreds of other people out enjoying the same thing. I guess what I am trying to say is “Stop and smell the roses”, sounds cliche but it’s true. If you don’t take the time to get out and enjoy what nature has to offer you’re missing a great joy in life. You don’t have to run like I do but you can hike, have a picnic, bike ride or whatever but do something. Take your kids or grandchildren out and let them learn to appreciate nature and it will be a gift they can enjoy forever.

Even the desert has joined the Green movement!

admin — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 13:53:36 +0000

We have had lot of rain here in the desert the last month, at least a lot for us! The last storm came through last last weekend and as I made my way out for my weekly desert trail run I noticed a change. The desert has joined the GREEN movement!

The hills and trails that I run at Thunderbird Park in the northern part of Glendale, Arizona are usually brown, dry and really kid of boring. Not now, everything is green! All of the native bushes and plants are green, grass is growing on the desert floor, everything is green.

It only gets better because when the weather heats up a little all of the spring wild flowers bloom. That is an amazing sight, white, yellow, purple flowers growing everywhere.

If you are ever in the Phoenix or Glendale area and want to see the desert up close and personal, give me a shout. I would love to take you out on an adventure. My final thought is if the arid desert can make the effort to join the GREEN movement why can’t we?