Episode Transcript
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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
memo at leafing out
28:02
[email protected] Or you can DM us
28:07
on Instagram we're at leafing
28:07
out pod over there too. And you
28:11
know it'd be so great if you're
28:11
still listening at this point.
28:13
Could you just go over to Apple
28:13
podcasts and rate and review us
28:16
that really would help us and it
28:16
would help other people who are
28:20
interested in gardening find our
28:20
podcast. Happy gardening. See
28:25
you out there. Out there.
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