0:05

Welcome to leafing

0:05

out Episode Six podcasts about

0:09

gardening. I'm Gabe.

0:11

I'm Rebecca.

0:14

And we're not

0:14

experts. We're amateur

0:16

podcasters and amateur gardeners

0:16

sharing what we learn as we

0:19

learn it on our gardening

0:19

journey. And today we're talking

0:22

about, we're talking

0:23

about first signs of

0:23

spring. And composting,

0:28

composting gates favorite

0:28

subject. If you want to have a

0:33

lot of fun at a cocktail party,

0:33

you just get cornered by Gabe

0:36

and let him talk to you for 30

0:36

minutes about composting whether

0:39

you like it or not. That's right.

0:40

Um, all right,

0:40

Rebecca. Well, I feel like you

0:44

have a really great love of

0:44

spring. I mean, who doesn't love

0:47

Spring, but I feel like you have

0:47

given me a new appreciation of

0:51

it. And you You talk a lot about

0:51

the way the light changes in

0:56

February and how that's sort of

0:56

the first little inklings of

0:59

spring for you. So I'm curious,

0:59

what are some of your favorite

1:02

things about spring water,

1:02

things you're noticing right

1:04

now?

1:04

It's true. I really

1:04

love springtime. I think it's

1:07

because my birthday is in late

1:07

April. And when I was a little

1:09

kid, I used to always know when

1:09

the daffodils were blooming.

1:14

This was in New Jersey, when the

1:14

daffodils were blooming, I would

1:17

think now it's almost my

1:17

birthday. It was like a romantic

1:20

notion that I had as a kid or

1:20

something. It's, they're here,

1:24

they're signaling that it's

1:24

almost my birthday. But it is

1:27

fun to have a birthday around

1:27

like cherry blossom season and

1:31

when things are starting to

1:31

really get showy, and it's full

1:35

on spring. But today, we're not

1:35

quite there yet, at least not

1:40

here in New England right now.

1:40

As we record this, we're just a

1:44

few days before the first actual

1:44

day of spring, the spring

1:48

equinox, which is March 20. I

1:48

was just researching the the

1:52

equinox. And I'm so bad at

1:52

science that I always forget

1:56

this kind of stuff. And every

1:56

time I Google it, I'm like, ooh,

1:59

all over again. But for those

1:59

who don't know, Equinox, what

2:04

does Equinox translate to gay

2:04

people night?

2:07

Equal? Equal is equal

2:07

and Knox is night in? I'm going

2:11

to go with Latin, maybe Greek?

2:11

I'm not sure.

2:13

I think that would

2:13

probably be Latin on the spring

2:16

equinox. They're equal amounts

2:16

of daylight and sunlight,

2:19

daylight and nighttime. Oh, my

2:19

goodness. It's the day that the

2:26

northern hemisphere actually

2:26

starts tilting toward the sun.

2:30

So on March 20, if you're where

2:30

we are in the US, the sun is

2:35

going to rise due east and

2:35

actually set do West, which it

2:39

doesn't do year round. I just

2:39

thought that was kind of cool. I

2:44

don't know. It feels kind of

2:44

witchy or something. Oh,

2:46

totally, you know, totally. But

2:46

yeah, it's just a nice time of

2:50

year. I really love seeing the

2:50

first snow drops come up, out

2:54

back and I didn't realize that

2:54

the snow drops have a really

2:57

nice scent. You really have to I

2:57

only notice this because one as

3:01

I was like trying to brush the

3:01

leaf litter off around them, I

3:04

broke off one of them and picked

3:04

it up and it has like a really

3:09

lovely, floral, clean smell. But

3:09

you would have to if you don't

3:14

want to break off a flower you'd

3:14

have to really get on your hands

3:16

and knees ease your nose in

3:16

there because it's not very

3:20

potent but it is really lovely

3:20

smelling.

3:24

What are your other

3:24

first signs of spring that you

3:26

love? I mean, the Witch Hazel's

3:26

the thing that comes to mind.

3:28

Yeah, I mean, our Witch

3:28

Hazel has been blooming since

3:31

what mid February and that is

3:31

just such a gift like everyone

3:34

should have a witch hazel. They

3:34

there are a bunch of which I

3:37

should say there are a bunch of witchhazel is that bloom at different times? I think the STS

3:39

native blooms in late fall,

3:43

right? Oh yeah. But well, the

3:43

one we have is Hama Melis

3:48

hammer, MLS intermedia Arnauld

3:48

promise. But the witchhazel is

3:53

just such a gift. Because it's

3:53

like the only thing blooming in

3:56

February and it must kind of

3:56

bloom as soon as as soon as

4:00

there starts getting to be

4:00

enough light. I'm going on a

4:04

total tangent here. But we were

4:04

recently doing some work at a

4:08

local farm. And they do all

4:08

their farming in greenhouses.

4:13

And they were talking about how

4:13

their plants kind of, you know,

4:17

wake up and start really the

4:17

growing season for them really

4:20

starts around February 15. Is

4:20

that what they said? Yeah, 15th

4:26

Because that's the point at

4:26

which there starts to be the

4:28

days start to be long enough

4:28

that the plants are like all

4:30

right time just trying to get

4:30

started. Which was cool to hear

4:35

just because like we think about

4:35

it, those of us who are not

4:39

farmers, you know, think about

4:39

spring coming when the weather

4:42

gets really warm and we

4:42

associate the warmth with the

4:45

plants waking up. But so much of

4:45

it is actually about the amount

4:50

of daylight in the day. I

4:50

thought it was just comforting

4:53

to hear that and think about the

4:53

like micro seasons within

4:56

seasons and how even kind of

4:56

what we think of as the middle

4:59

of winter During terms of the

4:59

freezing weather is a time when

5:04

the light is changing so much

5:04

that plants are able to start

5:07

growing in a totally different

5:07

way. I just thought that was so

5:10

cool.

5:12

Yes, I've heard

5:12

farmers refer to the period when

5:16

there's fewer than 10 hours of

5:16

light per day is the Persephone

5:20

period, because that's when,

5:20

even in a greenhouse regardless

5:23

of the temperature, growth

5:23

really stops, so you can keep a

5:27

plant alive, but it's not going

5:27

to grow, it'll just sort of

5:29

survive at whatever size it's

5:29

at, and then get coming out

5:33

February 15. And beyond, it

5:33

starts to regrow.

5:36

So I love the like

5:36

romantic pneus of of that it's

5:40

like, supports my, my feeling

5:40

that gardening and farming and

5:47

agriculture is like a very

5:47

nostalgic work full of and selja

5:55

for me anyway, what else am I

5:55

noticing right now with our

5:58

plants and stuff. I mean,

5:58

there's no drops are coming up.

6:01

And they're beautiful. And just

6:01

like so cheerful and friendly to

6:05

see. I also was looking up at

6:05

some of the trees and noticing

6:09

that the shapes of the very tips

6:09

of the trees is a little bit

6:12

different because they are

6:12

starting to starting to produce

6:16

buds a tiny bit. And it's cool

6:16

to see there that like gnarled

6:19

spiky, little tiny bits that you

6:19

wouldn't notice unless you were

6:24

really looking for them. But

6:24

it's happening. I also was

6:28

noticing that our Magnolia has

6:28

fuzzy buds. And I just learned

6:32

something that I thought was so

6:32

cool. The fuzz of course has a

6:35

purpose. And that the fuzz is

6:35

actually protecting the flower

6:39

inside like insulation. It's

6:39

like a tiny

6:42

fur coat. Yeah, of

6:42

course, that makes so much

6:44

sense. It's cool.

6:45

Let's keep them from

6:45

freezing. Yeah. So when Magnolia

6:49

actually blooms, we can like

6:49

appreciate the fuzzy capsule,

6:52

yeah, again. And the other thing

6:52

I was gonna mention is just that

6:56

we were away last weekend,

6:56

visiting Gabes parents who live

7:01

like 40 minutes south of us. And

7:01

it's only 40 minutes. It's like

7:05

a quick drive down there. But

7:05

because they're so close to the

7:07

ocean, they're always a couple

7:07

of weeks, kind of ahead of us in

7:11

the spring. And it was so nice

7:11

to see that the forsythia is

7:14

already blooming down there.

7:14

It's just it's right around the

7:19

corner, even though it still

7:19

feels like yeah, winter. So the

7:23

other thing I wanted to mention

7:23

in terms of like, right where we

7:25

are right now, in early, early

7:25

spring, late winter, is just

7:29

about not cleaning up leaf

7:29

litter, which maybe you can

7:34

speak to, but we've become big

7:34

believers in not cleaning up

7:38

your leaf litter right away,

7:38

there's like this big move to,

7:42

things start getting a little

7:42

bit warmer. And it's like, Oh,

7:44

we got to go out and clean up

7:44

the garden to get ready for the

7:47

season. And we got to cut down

7:47

all of the brush and dead plant

7:51

matter. And inevitably, some

7:51

leaves have gotten blown around,

7:54

I got to clean up all those dead

7:54

leaves and make everything nice

7:57

and tidy. Don't do that. If

7:57

you're doing that don't do that.

8:00

It's really good to wait until

8:00

the temperature is consistently

8:03

above like 50 degrees. Right?

8:03

Yeah. I said you should talk

8:06

about it. And I talked about

8:08

No, that's great.

8:08

I'll put a little asterisk on

8:10

there. It's interesting, one of

8:10

our favorite podcasts, plant

8:14

Rama just mentioned this in

8:14

their episode. And I'm just

8:18

going to kind of repeat what

8:18

they're what they're saying in

8:21

terms of I think there is you

8:21

know, can be hard to go all or

8:25

nothing as far as clean up. And

8:25

we have a bunch of our backyard

8:30

that is lawn and if you leave

8:30

big, you know piles of leaves on

8:34

the lawn, the the clover and

8:34

other sort of grasses will die

8:38

underneath it. So they'll come

8:38

back in the spring, you know,

8:41

but you're not doing them a

8:41

great service but leaving whole

8:45

leaves on the lawn. So I would

8:45

say as much as possible. Yeah,

8:50

save your leaves, rake them into

8:50

your garden beds. They're great

8:54

mulch as they break down. And

8:54

yet, particularly with cutting

8:59

things back even whatever dead

8:59

stocks you have still sticking

9:04

up, just leave those like leave

9:04

those until you see you know,

9:07

the new growth coming. There's

9:07

there's sort of, I guess, in my

9:10

mind, overwinter those stalks or

9:10

something for the snow to land

9:15

on. And in the spring, I feel

9:15

like they give real structure to

9:19

your garden. I guess it's a

9:19

matter of aesthetics. But I feel

9:23

like there's really no downside

9:23

to leaving those because there

9:26

are so many insects that bees

9:26

and other insects that

9:30

overwinter in those dead stocks

9:30

and then like you're saying it's

9:33

only when it's above 50

9:33

consistently that they start

9:37

moving around and you can clean

9:37

that way out. Yeah,

9:41

yeah, we think about

9:41

pollinators as honey bees often.

9:46

And honey. These are wonderful

9:46

honey bees are not native to

9:49

North America, though. They're

9:49

wonderful and they're supportive

9:52

of our environment. But the

9:52

native pollinators to North

9:57

America usually make their Homes

9:57

in, in the ground over winter,

10:04

and in like dead plant material

10:04

like hollow stocks if you have

10:08

like an elderberry shrub or lots

10:08

of shrubs have this, you can

10:11

look at the shrub in winter

10:11

while the material is dead and

10:18

you if you break a stock, it's

10:18

hard. It's like a straw. And

10:21

insects are using that space to

10:21

overwinter. Plus it's just nicer

10:26

to do the cleanup when it's

10:26

nicer out. But I also relate to

10:30

wanting to

10:30

get started. Started

10:30

well I'll give a Getting Started

10:34

joy for today, which is that I

10:34

just planted tomato seeds in the

10:39

basement. Not in the backyard.

10:39

Not all backyard. No, no, but I

10:42

planted peas a couple of weeks

10:42

ago. And you know things are

10:47

growing. I think that's the

10:48

other like, hint of

10:48

spring thing is, is I like

10:52

imagining all of the like

10:52

activity happening in people's

10:55

basements and people's weird

10:55

little closet corners of the

10:58

Grow lights starting there

10:58

little tiny seeds and

11:01

everybody's doing their little

11:01

project. Yeah, getting it ready.

11:05

Yeah, there's a sweetness to

11:05

that. The other Okay, one more

11:10

cool this time of year thing is

11:10

that it's not just our outdoor

11:15

plant friends that are enjoying

11:15

more light our house plants are

11:18

changing their life cycle is

11:18

adjusting to based on the amount

11:23

of daylight during the day,

11:23

which I never knew until like,

11:27

yeah, last spring or something.

11:27

But um, if you have some

11:32

houseplants, now's a good time

11:32

to fertilize them start, you can

11:35

start fertilizing them now that

11:35

we have more hours in the day of

11:39

sunlight, because they've been

11:39

overwintering themselves, even

11:43

though they're in a temperate

11:43

climate controlled environment,

11:48

they kind of go dormant because

11:48

of that date, 10 hours of

11:51

daylight thing that he was

11:51

talking about. So now is the

11:54

time when you can start fussing

11:54

with them. And you know, it's

11:57

it's a nice time of year to

11:57

remember to change the soil and

12:00

fertilize if you

12:01

want to cut them back a little bit. If you want to reshape them, they're going to

12:02

have new growth soon. So it's

12:05

good, you want to know

12:07

that Yeah, you don't

12:07

really want to want to trim back

12:10

your houseplants too much in the

12:10

middle of winter, because not a

12:13

good time for them to grow. So

12:13

now's a fine time to do that.

12:16

The other thing that these

12:16

farmers were talking about, they

12:19

have like a whole greenhouse full of house plants that they're cultivating and stuff.

12:21

And they were saying that their

12:25

advice to people about their

12:25

house plants is you have to

12:28

really fertilize your house

12:28

plants because you have to think

12:31

of the dirt that your house

12:31

plants are started out in as

12:34

like one meal for your house,

12:34

plant the world like a big bowl

12:38

of food because that dirt that

12:38

it's in contains all of these,

12:42

you know, minerals and all this

12:42

nutrition for the house plant,

12:46

that's that plant is going to

12:46

consume all of that nutrition.

12:49

And it's going to need more, you

12:49

can't just expect it to live

12:52

with like one big bowl of

12:52

spaghetti and meatballs forever.

12:55

So the fertilizer that you're

12:55

doing is renewing that and you

12:58

also want to like change out the

12:58

dirt. Sometimes we've got to

13:02

Yeah, and it's not a

13:02

bad idea. You know, just to look

13:05

at the roots of your plant. Like

13:05

that's something that with house

13:09

plants, you know, it is this

13:09

sort of pretty artificial

13:13

environment. So you get a sense

13:13

of oh, is it really rootbound?

13:16

Does it you know, does it need a

13:16

larger pot or their you know, if

13:19

you've got an orchid and it's

13:19

not doing well you might see

13:22

that the you know, maybe the

13:22

roots are brown the overwatering

13:25

and rotting the roots, you can

13:25

get some information by taking a

13:29

look at those roots.

13:31

Okay, I think now is a

13:31

good time to hear from our

13:33

sponsors. Just kidding. We don't

13:33

have any sponsors. We don't have

13:38

that many lists because the

13:38

native pollinators in our

13:42

backyard. Yeah, I'm Gabe, do you

13:42

want to talk about compost? I

13:46

would love nothing more than we

13:46

only have like 10 minutes for

13:52

you to talk about compost game,

13:52

not all day and night.

13:56

Right? Well, I

13:56

thought I would start just by

13:59

giving an overview. I feel like

13:59

composting is something that

14:02

people are very passionate

14:02

about. And they're really like

14:05

camps of like, oh, you compost

14:05

this way the greens and the

14:08

browns. You do it that way this

14:08

way that way.

14:11

And then you also have the camps have, you can't compost in a city you're going

14:13

to get rats, there's no way to

14:16

do it. And then I feel like a

14:16

lot of people we talked to are

14:20

like either composting and

14:20

having it picked up. Or they're

14:24

like I really would love to get

14:24

into composting but what maybe

14:29

you could give us some advice

14:29

for like, what would you do if

14:31

you were starting right

14:31

interested in starting out

14:33

composting.

14:35

So I would say to

14:35

like the beginner composter

14:37

never composted anything before

14:37

and this is a good season to be

14:40

to be thinking about it if you

14:40

want to, you know, take that on

14:43

as a new project for your garden

14:43

this year. All composting is is

14:49

just any sort of organic

14:49

material breaking down. And that

14:54

is a natural process that you

14:54

honestly don't need to help

14:57

along. I mean, you think about

14:57

you know the body drawer of your

15:01

fridge when you leave the

15:01

lettuce in there too long like

15:03

it. It's a very sort of

15:03

artificial clean environment and

15:08

that lettuce is gonna break down

15:08

no matter what you do. And so

15:12

that's the process that's going

15:12

to take place with any organic

15:15

material that you have outside

15:15

and everything that people who

15:19

compost talk about as far as

15:19

Yeah, ratios of green to browns

15:22

or doing this doing that, that's

15:22

all about gaining some advantage

15:27

for that process. Whether it's

15:27

speeding up that process, that's

15:30

what the ratio is of green to

15:30

Browns is is getting that

15:33

process to move faster.

15:35

What do you mean to say greens to browns?

15:37

Sure. Okay. So greens

15:37

and browns, you hear a lot

15:40

talked about in compost,

15:40

basically, greens are things

15:44

that are high in nitrogen. So

15:44

your kitchen food scraps, or

15:48

freshly cut grass, which would

15:48

literally be green, like living

15:52

green. Yeah, living plant

15:52

material that still has like

15:56

it's going to have water in it,

15:56

it's going to have nitrogen in

15:58

it. And then browns are sort of

15:58

dead things. So dried grass, dry

16:03

brown leaves, newspaper,

16:03

shredded cardboard, those sorts

16:07

of things.

16:08

What about like, when I

16:08

finally do trim back my dead

16:13

perennial order that has like,

16:13

you know, dried, decorative

16:18

grasses and hydrangea blooms and

16:18

stuff like that. Yeah,

16:23

all of that would be

16:23

those would all be browns, and

16:25

those can all be composted. I

16:25

guess we're getting off track

16:28

here a little bit, my point was

16:28

just that you can compost just

16:33

by taking I mean, again, like

16:33

it's all about sort of how

16:37

pretty you want it to be how

16:37

fast you want it to go.

16:40

Obviously, you want to avoid,

16:40

you know, rats and other pests.

16:43

But basically, you can take any

16:43

organic matter any, any sort of

16:47

thing that's not like plastic or

16:47

rock or metal and put it outside

16:52

and it will create compost. So

16:52

you know, maybe if you're

16:55

beginning compost, or you're,

16:55

you know, maybe you don't have

16:58

an ideal setup, try just taking

16:58

a bunch of your leaves that you

17:03

know, around your yard and

17:03

either just put them in a pile

17:08

and you know, sort of in the

17:08

corner where they won't blow

17:10

around too much you can if you

17:10

have some sort of bin, you can

17:12

use really any kind of Bin.

17:12

chicken wire is really good if

17:17

you just go and get some chicken

17:17

wire and make a little cylinder

17:21

out of that. And you can put a

17:21

bunch of leaves in there. If you

17:24

want to add in just some, you

17:24

know, simple vegetable scraps,

17:28

your whatever the cut ends of

17:28

your celery and broccoli and you

17:32

know, lettuces kind of put some

17:32

of that very basic stuff in

17:35

there. That will break down over

17:35

time and it'll create like a

17:38

good compost.

17:40

So are you saying like,

17:40

you have all your leaves in the

17:43

in this, say you're using a

17:43

chicken wire, like bent into a

17:47

cylinder shape. If you throw in

17:47

some kitchen scraps, some like

17:51

carrot peel or rotting celery

17:51

from the bottom of the fridge,

17:55

that is not going to speed up

17:55

how fast all that stuff breaks

17:59

down?

17:59

It will Yeah,

18:01

I always feel like you

18:01

should combine it just because

18:03

it like seems like a good idea.

18:03

Yeah, I don't know. Yeah.

18:08

So there's a lot of

18:08

different ratios that are thrown

18:11

around about that balance

18:11

between greens and browns. But

18:14

in general, you want way more

18:14

Browns than greens. You know,

18:17

I've heard like tender ones, I'd

18:17

be like, Oh 32 ones that people

18:20

are 321, whatever. But you want

18:20

by volume, a lot more of that

18:27

brown material than the sort of

18:27

wet fresh material for a couple

18:33

of different reasons. One is

18:33

just smell. I mean, if you

18:37

imagine like taking a bunch of

18:37

sort of banana peels and

18:40

squeezed out lime halves and

18:40

whatever, and you put that in a

18:43

pile, it's gonna it's gonna

18:43

smell like rotting food, right?

18:46

If you have that mixed in with a

18:46

whole bunch of shredded leaves,

18:50

then you're it's not gonna smell

18:50

or it'll smell a little, maybe

18:54

you'll get sort of on a hot day

18:54

like an earthy smell, but you

18:57

won't get that sort of, like,

18:57

putrid rotting smell, I guess.

19:02

Yeah, I would say that there's

19:02

sort of any number of, of roads

19:08

to go down. But as with so many

19:08

things in gardening, I think

19:12

that so much of it comes it's

19:12

sort of your own recipe that you

19:16

need to develop a little bit as

19:16

far as like, what kind of

19:18

organic waste? Are you actually

19:18

producing? What are you

19:23

comfortable with? What might

19:23

attract pests will kind of pest

19:28

you have in your area. So all of

19:28

that leads to in my mind, the

19:33

best way to get started is start

19:33

with something like leaves and a

19:37

few sort of like kitchen scraps

19:37

and you'll get a feel for it.

19:40

You can you know, there's tons

19:40

of resources online as you sort

19:44

of get into it. You know, the

19:44

metaphor I always come back to

19:46

is cooking. You know, somebody

19:46

says like, oh, sear the steak on

19:49

both sides. And if you're, if

19:49

you've never cooked before, you

19:52

know maybe look up a video of

19:52

that or whatever, you're gonna

19:55

come across some different

19:55

problems that are kind of unique

19:58

to your situation, but you

19:58

basically will Want to have that

20:00

organic matter somewhere where

20:00

it's going to be getting some

20:03

air? You don't want it in like a

20:03

totally closed container?

20:06

Because then if it doesn't have

20:06

enough oxygen, it will get kind

20:10

of Gross. Gross. And, and a

20:10

little. Yeah, putrid. And you

20:17

want to get

20:19

some because of like

20:19

good bacteria versus bad

20:21

bacteria? Um,

20:23

yeah, I mean, it has

20:23

to do with basically aerobic

20:27

versus anaerobic environments.

20:27

If it's aerobic, meaning that

20:31

there's oxygen in it, the types

20:31

of bacteria you get, the waste

20:36

products from those bacteria are

20:36

less stinky or something,

20:41

there's sort of it works better

20:41

to create compost,

20:43

bacteria difference in

20:43

oxidized and oxidized I don't

20:48

know what I'm talking about with

20:48

anaerobic. Yeah,

20:51

anaerobic means

20:51

without oxygen. And that's where

20:53

you get that sort of, you know,

20:53

bottom of the vegetable drawer

20:58

like sludge, right? Right,

20:58

right, right, it's breaking

21:01

down, but you get these nasty

21:01

smells, you get sort of a lot of

21:05

liquid that's building up. So if

21:05

you have a container, and you

21:09

have things that are breaking

21:09

down and sort of smashing down

21:12

on themselves, then there's not

21:12

going to be any air at least in

21:16

portion of that pile. And then

21:16

it's creating that anaerobic

21:19

environment. So

21:20

this might be why people talk about turning your compost. Exactly. Yeah, I am

21:22

learning things.

21:26

Mm hmm. So yeah,

21:26

turning your compost is another

21:28

thing that can be useful. I

21:28

think it's, I hesitate to sort

21:33

of say, like, yeah, turn your compost, just because it's another thing that sort of

21:35

intimidates people of like, Oh,

21:38

if I don't turn my compost, it's

21:38

going to turn into like this

21:41

sewage heap? And it's like, no,

21:41

no, no, you do need some air in

21:45

there. That's why the chicken

21:45

wire can be good. But the

21:48

turning is, is off as long as

21:48

you are not, you know, in some

21:54

sort of extreme scenario with

21:54

what you're putting in there. As

21:57

long as you have plenty of

21:57

leaves, whatever it might be

22:00

that sort of light and fluffy

22:00

and brown, you're you don't

22:04

really need to turn your compost

22:04

that will increase the amount of

22:07

oxygen in there. It'll speed up

22:07

the process, but it's not a

22:09

requirement. It's sort of this

22:09

additional thing that you can do

22:13

to make it move faster.

22:14

So do we have compost

22:14

in the basement that we're going

22:17

to use in our garden?

22:19

Yes. So we have a

22:19

very complicated, some would say

22:24

overly difficult system of

22:24

composting and Goldberg system,

22:28

we really do. But maybe I'll

22:28

describe it and maybe in its

22:34

describe it in like two sentence

22:34

excessive corners, there might

22:36

be there might be something

22:36

useful. So what we do is we take

22:39

basically all our food scraps,

22:39

including, you know, small

22:43

amounts of meat, oil, all that

22:43

stuff. That's another thing.

22:47

This is a slight tangent, but

22:47

people are always like, oh, you

22:49

can't compost meat. It's like,

22:49

no, of course, you can compost

22:52

me, what do you think happens to

22:52

me, you know, breaks down the

22:55

risk with meat, oil, food

22:55

leftovers from a plate is pests

23:01

that that is, you know, has a

23:01

lot of calories in it. It smells

23:05

like something that has a lot of

23:05

calories in it. And as a result,

23:09

it's very attractive to rats and

23:09

raccoons and that sort of stuff.

23:13

If you take a piece of lettuce

23:13

and you throw it out in your

23:15

backyard, that's not

23:15

particularly more appealing than

23:19

just a leaf off of a tree,

23:19

right? There's not

23:22

here. But if you're in

23:22

the country, and you have like

23:24

rabbits and deer and stuff like

23:24

that might be a little bit

23:28

different depending on like,

23:28

what volume you're talking

23:30

about, and what your

23:30

circumstances are, right

23:33

circumstan of what your point is

23:33

about, like, you got to kind of

23:36

figure out what works for you.

23:36

This is where it comes. Yeah,

23:38

come in with like, the barrels

23:38

that are closed, that you can

23:42

like, turn and stuff that are

23:42

like they're protective, and all

23:45

of that.

23:46

Yeah, it definitely

23:46

depends on your circumstance.

23:48

But in general, you what you're

23:48

what you're looking at is, is is

23:52

the thing that you're throwing

23:52

out there really different than

23:54

what's already available. So

23:54

even, you know, deer or

23:57

something, are they really going

23:57

to come looking for that one,

24:00

you know, the end piece of the

24:00

lettuce that you cut off, you

24:03

know, I think probably not,

24:03

especially if it's mixed in with

24:06

some leaves and some other

24:06

things anyway, so we take all of

24:09

our we put all of our food

24:09

scraps in a little container on

24:12

the counter. Those go into a

24:12

Bokashi system in the basement,

24:16

which is an intentionally

24:16

anaerobic environment. It's

24:21

inside a sealed bucket and you

24:21

pour like a little bit of this

24:25

brand that's inoculated with a

24:25

specific set of bacteria. That

24:29

begins the process of breaking

24:29

stuff down. And then after a few

24:34

weeks, there's kind of this mush

24:34

in there. And then that goes out

24:39

to bins outside where it

24:39

finishes the composting process.

24:45

I mix the indoor material, the

24:45

food scraps with leaves, grass,

24:51

you know, whatever sort of

24:51

garden stuff that we have

24:55

available, that'll add some air

24:55

into it and kind of create some

25:00

Something of a balance between

25:00

greens and browns, even though

25:03

I'm very unscientific about

25:03

that. And it does, we do get

25:06

compost quite fast as a result

25:06

of that quite in depth system.

25:11

You love a project.

25:12

I do love a project,

25:14

I'll tell you this, the

25:14

best thing about compost to me

25:16

is that when we started

25:16

composting, I was absolutely

25:20

shocked at how much our levels

25:20

of garbage that our household

25:24

was producing went down. I could

25:24

not believe how much of our

25:29

garbage production was just food

25:29

scraps. And like even just

25:34

composting, the green matter is

25:34

a huge change. Huge, huge, huge

25:38

change. For us, we take out the

25:38

trash, I don't know, let we need

25:42

to take it out less than we used

25:42

to mine kind of a lot. And

25:45

between recycling and

25:45

composting, the amount of

25:48

garbage going out of this house

25:48

is pretty low, which feels

25:51

really good.

25:52

And getting back to

25:52

that question of the aerobic and

25:56

anaerobic that is actually a

25:56

pretty significant thing about

25:58

composting. Not only are you not

25:58

taking up space in a landfill

26:01

and taking out extra trash and

26:01

all of that, but when you have

26:04

food scraps that go into a

26:04

landfill, they're packed into

26:09

that landfill and in in a oxygen

26:09

free anaerobic environment. As

26:13

they break down, they create

26:13

methane, which is of course an

26:16

incredibly powerful greenhouse

26:16

gas much more powerful I think

26:19

10 times four times more

26:19

powerful than carbon dioxide. If

26:23

those same food scraps break

26:23

down aerobically, so breaking

26:27

down in a compost pile that's,

26:27

you know, has some oxygen they

26:31

create a very small amount of

26:31

carbon dioxide but no methane at

26:36

all. So yeah, composting is

26:36

good, but I feel like there can

26:40

be an intimidation I guess my

26:40

maybe I'm leaning too hard into

26:43

this but I think there can be an

26:43

intimidation factor of like, oh

26:46

composting, that's such an

26:46

intense that you know, it's like

26:49

can I compost Am I good enough

26:49

at gardening to compost it's

26:53

like a science experiment. Yeah,

26:55

I again like just

26:55

take some leaves throw it in a

26:58

cylinder of chicken wire. The

26:58

other thing that you do need is

27:02

you need a little bit of water

27:02

so if it's you have to have a

27:05

little bit of a balance between

27:05

the amount of air and the amount

27:08

of water don't just put those

27:08

like under the edge of your roof

27:12

where they get no water at all

27:12

if the the water

27:15

just like helps things

27:15

rot faster basically yeah the

27:18

water your compost need to get

27:18

rained on you wanted to get some

27:21

rain yes

27:21

all you don't have to like water. You don't need to water it. You know, as you get

27:23

into this, then yes, you sort of

27:26

like manage how much water is in

27:26

there, this and that. But at the

27:30

outset, yeah, put it out where

27:30

it gets some rain. You're good

27:33

to go.

27:34

We love composting.

27:34

Write to us with your composting

27:37

questions. Yeah, and Gabe will

27:37

answer them on the air. I will

27:40

answer every single one. If you

27:40

need to be talked into

27:42

composting if you're intimidated

27:42

about composting, we would love

27:46

to talk about it. We love this

27:46

stuff. I think that is going to

27:50

conclude our episode for today.

27:50

Thank you so much for listening.

27:54

Thank you for listening and for

27:54

being out. If you have a

27:56

question about composting or

27:56

anything else you want answered

27:58

on the podcast. You can email us

27:58

or even better send us a voice

28:02

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28:11

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28:13

Could you just go over to Apple

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28:16

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28:25

you out there. Out there.