Live in a small space and are looking for some strategies and ideas on how to best utilize it for growing your own urban garden? Check out this article about Basil Lee who takes advantage of his rooftop space in ways that might make you think differently about what’s capable.

From dirt filled gutters to container gardens to unusual trellises, he’s able to grow things like strawberries, peppers, sugar snap peas, dill, lettuce and much much more.

Check out the article

(Images: Landis Carey)

I just discovered for the first time (thanks to craigslist and my girlfriend) Walkscore! Which as can be imagined, gives you a score for your location’s walkability! Pretty damn cool.

Gives nearest grocery stores, coffee shops, movie theatres, restaurants etc… How well do you score for being able to do everything you want without hopping in your car? Find o

The following is from BalconyCompost fan Alex of Toronto. She is new to the composting scene and made her own custom features to the Simple Style Composter. An early spring in Toronto means some cold compost, here’s what she had to say:

“There has been a bit of a stall due to cold weather the last week or so. I went to add green material yesterday and change buckets, but everything was frozen. Good thing I haven’t bought the worms yet. For brown material I used the shredded paper from my document shredder after doing some research into whether or not it was a good source. Turns out that it is, and I have an abundance of paper shreddings. To turn the bucket once a week, I just dump one into the other. I’ve been doing it after carrying a batch of green material out in the small plastic ice cream bucket I keep on the kitchen counter for food scraps. It serves as a scoop to help transfer material from one bucket to the other.

The buckets are white, but I just painted them black to help them absorb the sun’s heat the compost and cause it to break down more quickly. Sadly, I am running out of room already! I hope the warm weather we are getting now will cause the process to move faster. I would hate to have to dump my green material back into the garbage bin.”

I let her know that running out of room is one of the number one concerns of the Simple Style Composter. Once you fill up one of the buckets you are down to just one bucket without being able to turn it unless of course you go with a third bucket. Time to become friends with a gardener and share your bounty for barter! Also it is a good time to start looking at worms a secondary output for your kitchen scraps. It’s always good to have your buckets for easy drop off access and any composting experimentation you can think of. Not to mention how nice they are to keep your worms safe over the winter!

I moved out to Seattle within the last week from Denver and it’s so far been quite a trip. I’m out living with my uncle in Preston of all places, about a half hour outside of Seattle. I’ve got a ridiculous amount of boxes I fear to ever look into and have found myself in yet another household without a setup compost system. And with such a beautiful yard it’s amazing that it’s going to waste!

Luckily there is a farm next door that I plan on going to to see if they have extra chicken wire to setup a nice outdoor freestanding compost setup. Maybe even some chicken poop to get it started!! I’ll pick up some free range organic eggs while I’m out it. Since I’m interested in setting up my own chicken system within the coming years I’m sure I’ll be fascinated enough with it to do a photo blog of my time over there for all my beloved readers.

One big reminder of the importance of a composting system here is the septic system. This means no garbage disposal, and thus a massive amount of loose organic material just asking to be composted! I’ll feed them to my worms for the time being but space is running out!

I’ve been uber excited about creating a new front piece for the website for quite sometime, and now I’ve finally gotten off my butt and did it! I created the little bugger in Flash and realized how simple it is to create web friendly flash applications that serve a purpose. Tres chic!

So the name is still up in the air on the new mascot, and anyone out there reading this blog PLEASE HELP. The options are: Wormy the Worm, or Reggie. Please let me know!

I’m thinking about adding him to numerous other sections of the website to help move people in the right direction. Let me know what you think! Thanks

Perhaps my new favorite field of study, Biomimicry, where learnings from the natural processes of life and nature can be implemented into business and technology making a seamless and sustainable…anything! And you can imagine how well balcony compost fits into that arena. Very exciting.

I recently read an article in Treehugger all about some current practical uses of biomimicry making a seamless cycle from restaurant cardboard boxes, to compost, to worms, to fishes, to caviar, to restaurants. How cool is that? Honestly. Why aren’t these business practices being figured out about everything? It gets me so inspired it’s ridiculous, and it should be getting you inspired as well. This website is just a small piece of it. Vegetables, to compost, to dirt, to plants, to new vegetables. Where can you start implementing these ideas into your life in the most valuable ways? This IS sustainability. This IS practical and world changing. Start your brainstorming.

A few days ago I was posted on the Elephant Journal blog!

For all of those compost fans who want to know where the concept and spark of balconycompost.com began it’s a definite read. Please rate and digg if you can!

I’m on the Denver Urban Gardens mailer and here is a question that was asked:

Okay, I’m kind of struggling with composting. I had mushrooms growing a few weeks ago, and now I have fleas that are getting to be a problem. I add green and brown to the bin, water, stir once or twice a week — what am I doing wrong? Also, I have not seen a single worm in there. Help!-JH

Here’s my response:

Well for starters I don’t view mushrooms in your compost as much of an issue. Just means you’re doing something right keeping good healthy soil and staying toxin free!

As far as your flea issue is concerned, there will always be plenty of bugs in your compost, it’s a good thing! They help break down kitchen scraps etc… into compost hummus. But if you’re sure you have fleas (which as far as I’m aware is not a natural compost bug) you may have your compost a little too soggy. It should be as moist as a damp sponge, no wetter. I would dry it out for awhile until the fleas go away. Remember your green/brown ratio should be 40/60 which will help with your moisture level. Also to help get rid of the fleas: they don’t like garlic very much, try composting some of that on your pile.

And as far as your worms are concerned, if you’ve got a big bin (3×3′+) the compost may be too hot for worms to want to get in there. This is good. If you’re doing more of a passive style compost you can jump start your worms by picking up some red wigglers from City Floral or other garden centers. -CP

Perhaps this can answer some of your questions as well!

Exciting time in the land of Balcony Compost.com! First off my lovely newsletter participants may have noticed some issues during the email of the last newsletter. Mainly the header image and well…the site being down. So I’m changing hosting companies to SliceHost, but that’s a little tricky since the server needs to be setup correctly before any transfers can happen. And also before any newsletter. So in between backpacking trips I’m trying to get that all worked out.

Also, the DNC is going on for the next week here in Denver, and I have the opportunity of working it! I get to work with the “VIPs” making sure they get from one location to another securely and with AC. So maybe I’ll make some good urban composting connections while I’m at it!

In compost news, my compost bin is filled with amazing worm castings and I’m nearing their final stages of being ready to extract it. Need the upper bin on before that happens. Once you’ve got a bunch of finished compost the rest of the materials thrown in compost much much faster. Very handy.