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.

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(Images: Landis Carey)

The first spotlight in what I’d like to see as a series, the Seattle University Compost facility is one I can see other Universities model for it’s simplicity and efficiency. This was the first compost facility I had the opportunity to tour, needless to say my expectations were heightened. Having composting on a campus should be mandated, and Seattle U is a great example of how to get started with pure simplicity.

Walking in you realize just how simple a composting facility can be. It really reminded me of 3 big compost bins that you consequently fill up, walk away from, and by the time you go back to the first bin you filled up- everything is composted! Of course there are a few technological improvements to keep things churning and burning without the need for human touch.

Learning about large scale composting on a “permitting” basis was quite fascinating. Due to city ordinances -  dairy, meat, and post-consumer food (off the plate scraps) make for some pretty serious paperwork and financial hurdles. No bueno!! So the University doesn’t allow it in their compost to keep away the headache. What it amounts to  is pathogens. E-coli being the most common.  Regardless, Seattle University  sends soil samples to a testing facility in Oregon to make sure they stay pathogen-free.

Although not the route they are currently taking, the University’s setup is ready to take on post-consumer foods.  Currently at peak times they are running at half capacity so if they decide to turn that switch on it is within their means of being able to uphold. What it really comes down to is how much of a University’s budget can they put towards composting? The fact they put down $185,000 to get this program off the ground means they’re willing to go far, but permitting really takes the costs to the next level.

• University Compost Spotlight - Seattle University

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• Compost is initially brought to Seattle University from their kitchen in big red bins and then thrown into a large raised mixer.

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• Wood chips are donated to the school from foresting and lumber organizations in the community. This is the Pacific Northwest after all! These woodchips are mixed in with kitchen scraps for the brown component of the compost.

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• Tyler Dierks (right) was our guide for the tour. He and one other run the facility. This shed has 3 rows to fill compost into, they currently run at about 60% capacity.

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• This row at the far end of the shed holds finished compost. Once a row fills up they move onto the next. Each holds enough that there is always a row with fully finished compost. No stirring required!

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• Fresh compost gets added to this pile. The temperature gauge was at around 125 when I checked it.

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• As we all know, aeration play a huge role in compost. When buried beneath compost, these vents suck in air to keep a constant flow going through the piles. What's needed for this?

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• Piping! Some serious piping I might add. Each vent is tubed into a single system.

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• Once combined in the major vent it is then pushed out through a huge pile of woodchips that filters out carbon dioxide and smells.

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• This is the heavy piece of machinery that is keeping those pipes working and sucking a just plain old being one mad mother.

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• Here's a closeup of some unfinished compost in bin #2. Any of this look familiar? Pineapple tops, melon rinds and avacado shells seem to be the bain of SU existence :)

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• Before getting the finished compost out of the building it goes through a final screening process. So that's where the term comes from! Duh!

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• MMmmmm Can you smell it? The Finished Compost shown here is very woody. Sinc ethey don't have an industrial grinder their woodchips can only break down so much. But the perfect mulch!

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As you can see with how the compost finishes up in some of the slideshow pictures, a grinder would be very useful to create a finer and more rich soil-like end product. If those melon rinds, pineapple tops, and woodchips were ground, they would allow for a much hotter pile and much quicker turn-a-round. Since they are using the compost as a mulch and aren’t near capacity they don’t need this expensive piece of the picture just yet.

One major benefit of having an on campus compost facility is for the environmental education majors. For that matter, anyone going down a more agricultural route (in my opinion the majority of students!). This allows for caring and interested volunteers on hand to make sure the facility runs smoothly.

With any large program, understanding operations is key. Seattle U has 4,000 undergrad and almost 2,000 graduate. The costs are kept pretty low, with 2 part-time staff, free woodchips, Bobcat gas (maybe $400/year) and some electricity for the blower which runs 24/7.

The compost doesn’t ever get “hot hot” but it always gets above 131 degrees Fahrenheit which is the sweet spot for PFRP, or the Process for Further Reducing Pathogens. Remember that one when you want to get your commercial compost license :). They also never have an oxygen content less than 5% which keeps things cooking, this is in great thanks to the ventilation system (seen in the slide-show). With the amount of oxygen constantly pumping through their piles, Seattle University starts their piles moist, and after seeing the water runoff I’d even say wet.

Of all the issues coming from the municipality the major one is most definitely…*drum roll*…smell. This as noted in the slide-show is somewhat deterred from the 8 foot high cedar wood-chip filtration setup of all air being sucked through the compost. One other main issue is the runoff of liquid from the piles, mostly from fresh piles when they are still at their wettest. There are drains and collectors that keep it from running off into the water systems. Yet another necessity for a permit free compost facility.

The quickest meanest hottest way to make compost humus.

Hot composting is also known as active composting due to the high activity you’ll be committing. A compost pile doesn’t get hot by dumping kitchen scraps into a smelly unorganized pile. Preparation is where the concentration of your activity will be. You’ll need organization, preparation and consistent effort to get hot composting to happen the way it should, but the effort is worth it!

The formula is simple- equal Greens and Browns, keep it hydrated, keep it aerated, make it big. (G+B)(H)(A)/V or something like that (if you’ll pardon me creating equations on the fly!).

What allows the heat to really build is the surface area of every particle that goes into active composting-small pieces of green mixed with small pieces of brown. The green feeds on the brown through microbial activity, so the more little green guys gobbling up little brown guys the more heat! Once the pile starts cooking a whole new species of microbes come in and really go to town making compost quick quick quick.

The thing to keep in mind with brown ingredients, the ones high in carbon, is that they’re dead, and dead things are dry. Paper products, dead leaves, fallen blossoms, coffee chaff, wood chips are all perfect examples of dry/brown compost components. You need to aim for a slight moistness like that of a “wrung-out sponge”, a saying any Master Composter will remind you of. If you go too wet you won’t allow any air in. The microbes will be less happy and the stench will be epic. A calculated balance and mindful moderation are key.

The last component here is volume,which can be a tricky one for apartment dwellers. Hot composting may potentially be possible only in an out- of -the -building location. The key size I’ve heard over and over again is 3 feet by 3 feet. Measure it out, it’s a lot of space!  Contact me if you have any ideas or experience in making hot composting possible in apartment/space-limited setups.

• Hot Hot Hot Compost!

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Wait, you’re not done yet! Good work but once you’ve hit the hot zone it’ll only last about 2-3 days. Afterward it needs your attention again. The minimum here is flipping and turning once a week. And do so mindfully! The stuff on the outside should now be going on the inside, and likewise.

Keep it up and you’ll have some mighty fine compost in 5-6 weeks or less.

Let me know if you successful made hot compost and I might publish your story. Cheers!

I have gained a new appreciation for mulch. I guess I never truly understood it so it was hard for me to stand up for the cause. I can now stand up.

What is mulch? It’s what lays on top. Lays on top of what? Lays on top of your garden bed, your pathway, a tree-well, playground…you get the idea. Why is it so great? Glad you asked.

• Moisture. It keeps moisture in the soil where the roots of your plants can use it. Otherwise it could just evaporate away!
• Warmth. Many types of mulch are dark, thus attracting light and keeping the soil warm and active for microorganism activity. Mulch is also a protective layer from the elements, keeping things stable, comfortable, and yes, warm.
• Habitat. Beneficial bugs and critters make homes in your mulch!
• Weeds. The little buggers will think twice about sprouting where there’s no room to do so!
• Decoration. Experienced gardeners will pay more notice to this. But experimenting with colors and textures and patterns and plants, mulch has great value in all visual garden creation.
• Nutrients. Depending on the mulch you use you can even add beneficial nutrients back into your soil. For example, having a high in nitrogen mulch would make some very happy veggie starts. As your mulch breaks down, the soil is replenished. Woody mulches are best for your woody plants.
• Erosion. Heavy rains can create many issues on your garden soil. Adding a mulch protective shell saves the home of your plants roots from being washed away. Or burnt away by the sun for that matter!

But “What to use as a mulch?” There are numerous options of what to use for your mulch. Most of which are free and organic! First off- compost :). But also, leaves, wood chips, newspaper, leaves, coffee grounds, straw, cardboard, pine cones. Once you understand the rules you can play the mulch game any way you’d like. The key is to get started right away.

The phrase to know here is “Fear no mulch.” The chances are is that no matter what you end up choosing you’ll more than likely be alright.

There is also the wonderful living mulch of Cover Crops! Great for use during the over season (winter). Cheers!

Compost and peat moss have long been well known collaborators in making a good garden bed. And although this may still be the case, I urge you to look for other alternatives if you care more about the earth than a quick fix for your garden.

The reasons are as follows: Peat extraction from the earth causes a tremendous amount of co2 to be released into the atmosphere. “Around half a million tonnes of carbon dioxide is emitted each year as a result of peat extraction from UK sites for horticultural use.” (source) And that’s just in the UK! “The destruction of peat bogs in Indonesia, partly to grow supposedly “green” bio-fuels, releases more carbon dioxide every year than all of India or Russia, and three times as much as Germany.” (source)

Another major reason is that peat-bogs are an ecosystem that is slowly being destroyed due to our harvesting. Many birds and wildlife live in these areas that after harvested turn into wastelands. This is causing a growing number of endangered species and turning these thriving locations into wastelands.

Peat moss is a non-renewable resource, and we know how we feel about those :)

Some alternatives: Leaf mould, when it’s old and falling apart, is a perfect alternatve, although do not use evergreen needles. Tree bark that has been shredded down. Look at your local urban gardener/farmer store for some peat-free alternatives, there are plenty of products out there.

Remember, peat is used to help aerate and retain moisture without need or worry of pesticides. It’s used to pot plants, as a mulch for garden beds, and to help seedlings grow. You can blend compost with many things to recreate these solutions

They’re everywhere I know. You start with an acceptably clean and organized kitchen…used-looking like a good kitchen should be. After cooking one evening you leave a heaping mound of sweet dumpling squash peelings, onion skins, and purslane ends topped over with some steaming decaf coffee grounds scooped from the french press with a rubber spatula. And now miraculously fruit flies evolved from a mold spore in your bathroom and they have created a Utopian society in your most sacred place.

Dealing with them must be done qiuckly and efficiently! First off, dead fruit out, clean the kitchen once again, and check for stale plant water in your vases and other areas that might have still water. Defenses laid let’s tackle the compost.

Lid your compost. Fruit flies are tiny and can get through tiny holes, they’d have to get into that compost somehow, don’t give them any openings.

Setup traps. After clearing out the causes we need to eliminate the issue. I am into animal rights as much as the next gentleman but for one reason or another fruit flies don’t fall into my pity category. The best way is to drown them. They can sense smell and like damp things (ie. fruit gone bad) so let’s recreate that where they enter through a tiny opening and lured into deathly liquid where it’s difficult to escape:

1. Bottle of Wine, 1/10 left of bottle left out, uncorked
2. Rice Vinegar, pour some into an old wine bottle and let sit out
3. Fruit at the bottom of a 16oz soda bottle. Make a funnel with paper and make the small part have a tiny hole big enough for a few flies and stick that down the bottle’s top. Tape funnel in place.

Now that we’ve got the traps set it’s purely a waiting game. The first night should be the true difference but it may take a few days to finish the issue. It feels good to breath again (without the added protein.)

Alternate strategy #1: Vacuum.
Alternate strategy #2: Venus fly trap. (the family with multiple heads)
Alternate strategy #3: …spider web?

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

“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!

PLU Stickers! (short for Price Look Up stickers) You know those glossy tiny stickers with the 4 to 5 digits on them describing in a standardized way the type of produce they are stickened upon. Before getting into their compostability let’s learn! (since I just learned myself)

paraphrased from: earthfriendly.com

When it’s just 4 digits they are conventionally grown. When it’s 5 digits and starts with a 9 they are organically grown. When it has a 5 digit code and starts with an 8 – genetically modified.

So they’re on every piece of produce, and those happen to be some super compostable household items. I know I’ve thrown countless stickers into my compost bin, but I’ve also seen those countless stickers in what would be brown composted material. Why aren’t they breaking down?

Half of the PLU stickers in the US come from the same company. When asked about the material components of those stickers they are a “water-resistant polyethylene” aka, not compostable.

My suggestion, peel ‘em off and throw ‘em away. Or else you’ll be picking them out of your compost so you can have pretty garden soil. Worms won’t touch them too, but they won’t hurt them either. So it comes down to an appeal question, do you care about little red yellow glossy stickers in your garden?