Bringing Sustainability to Sonoma County one Workshop at a Time
COMPOST HAPPENS, was created by an 18 year old Jessica Jones who was inspiried to take action and teach sustainability to her fellow community members, businesses and local insitutions.
For her Senior Thesis at Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm, Jessica Jones explored the concept of the health of the earth and of humans. Through her studies she found the direct correlation between the sickness of the earth leading to the wide range of sickness' to human beings and animals. Reading Rachel Carson's SILENT SPRING, it occured to Jessica that in order to heal both realms, human health and the health of the land that she would have to heal the land, for once the land was healed, human sickness would slowly vanish.
To heal the Land Jessica is working with her Parents and creating workshops with local buisnesses, and neighbors to teach the public about composting. Composting, along with giving back to the soil, providing nutrients to plants and holding water up to five times its own weight also teaches people a whole new perspective about their relationship to the land. It is easy to take from the Earth, but it takes respect, knowledge, trial and error to give back, and that is what composting gives people, a new, healthier relationship with the land, education on decompostion and the power to heal not only their own land but also themselves.
How to Compost
“To manure the earth is to make it alive, so that plants may not be brought into a dead Earth.”-Rudolf Steiner
Picture from: : www.umext.maine.edu/
Here are some tips to help you out when it comes to composting. Don’t think of composting as being difficult, time wasting or just messy. With the right mindset compost can be your greatest teacher, teaching you about decomposition and fertility and in turn more about yourself.
Site
When choosing a sight to build compost bin/ pile make sure to check,
Sun and shade orientation, it is preferable that the compost receives about an equal share of shade and sun.
A well drained area, putting compost in a muddy/ watery zone is not a good idea.
Have a water source nearby, from time to time compost needs to be sprinkled with water, plus if you have a bin or bucket that you had your compost in, you can wash it out and bring it back into the house.
Composting Layers
Think of composting, like a recipe, a successful compost pile has a balance of carbonaceous and nitrogenous materials in it.
Examples of Carbon
Dry Grass
Straw
Paper (cardboard, to an extent)
Examples of Nitrogen
Animal Manure
Meat or fish
Blood Meal
Hoof & Horn Meal
Lawn Clippings
Young plants (basically anything green)
* (From, Handbook on Composting and the Biodynamic Preps, by George Corrin)
Methods of Composting
Worm Composting
Compost must be bottomless
Good Drainage & Aeration
Warm and moist conditions favored
In a shady spot
Shallow
2:1 Ratio
Worm Castings
Spreading the Sustainability
* (From, Earthworm Breeding, Building populations for Healthier Soil & Compost, by Vaughan Jones)
Biodynamic Composting
Rudolf Steiner 1924
Farm as an Organism
Preps
Layered Composting, Lasagna Composting
Carbon and Nitrogen
Turning over
Cover with straw
Aeration & Moisture
Hot Composting
Aerobic
Constant turning over
Temperature check
Fast
Cold Composting
Anaerobic
Easy
Long process
More Fertility
Mulching
Suppresses Weeds
Holds in moisture
No need for fertilizer
Keeps soil soft and easy to work with
* (From, The Earth Manual, How to work on Wild Land w/o Taming it, by Malcolm Margolin
Pit Composting
Easy
Out of sight, out of mind method
The Final Product
“The fertility of the soil is the future of civilization.”
-Sir Albert Howard
Humus
A buffer to acidity & alkalinity
Retains water up to 6 times its own weight
Prevents soil erosion
Promotes soil fertility
For More Composting Information
Please Look
At these Websites
California Integrated Waste Management Board
Alameda County Waste Management
http://www.stopwaste.org/- A informative website with a composting hotline, free brochures and a movie on composting. Based in Alameda County.
To buy finished Compost check out these local sources
Sonoma Compost
550 Mecham Road Petaluma, CA 94952
Grab N' Grow
2759 Llano Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95407
For classes on sustainability look into
Occidental Arts and Ecology
15290 Coleman Valley Road, Occidental, CA 95465
Sonoma County Conservation Action
540 Pacific Ave, Santa Rosa, CA 95404
http://www.conservationaction.org/index.html
The Story on Stuff
NEED HELP COMPOSTING, HAVE
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS,
INTERESTED IN
HAVING A COMPOST WORKSHOP
AT YOUR
BUSINESS?
email Jessica