Archive for the ‘Composting’ Category

Have a look at the map of Ground to Ground cafes

http://tiny.cc/leyyc

Ground To Ground

Map of participating cafes returning used coffee grounds to the soil.
Great for the garden!
For more information about this program visit http://groundtoground.org

Transition Towns Hobsons Bay

Are you a South Kingsville gardener or know someone who is?

Transition Hobsons Bay want to connect gardeners, and their compost bins, to local cafes, and their food scraps. A nearly unlimited resource! We’ve lined up a cafe in South Kingsville already, so now we’re looking for local gardeners to be part of an organised roster…

Email transtionhb@gmail.com for more information or pass this message on to someone you know in the area.

FREE workshop tomorrow on Effective Composting and Wormfarming at the Seabrook Community Centre?

Workshop details are:-

Effective Composting and Wormfarming

Location: Seabrook Community Centre
15 Truganina Ave Seabrook (Mel Ref 208, B4)
Date: Tues 12th April
Time: 1-3pm
RSVP: 9395-3010

Children are welcome

Have you seen a new sticker on the espresso machine at your local cafe? If it’s the Ground to Ground logo it means the cafe owner is happy to give away used coffee grounds, meaning –

* Free nitrogen boost for your compost!
** Making use of an abundant local resource!
*** Diversion of landfill, so curbing methane gas pollution!

Transition Hobsons Bay has been asking cafes to participate in the Ground to Ground program. Since we started in Williamstown & Yarraville, the earliest adopters have been:
• Feedback Cafe & The Corner Store in Yarraville
• The Picnic Table & Novel Kitchen in Williamstown

A google map of participating cafes (including some in the eastern suburbs) is available at groundtoground.org or Ground to Ground Map

Get along to one of these cafes and support their efforts to divert coffee grounds from landfill*!
Most likely if a cafe doesn’t have a magnet up, its because they don’t know about the program…
So ask Transition Hobsons Bay for a Ground to Ground magnet for YOUR favourite local cafe. (transitionhb@gmail.com)

* We suggest picking it up in a bucket.

Transition Hobsons Bay wants to develop a community composting scheme along the lines of Glenda Lindsay’s fabulous Compost Mates. Neighbours organise a roster to pick up all food scraps from a local cafe. Individuals compost at home. Ground to Ground is envisaged to be the first stage of this scheme that all cafes and everyone can participate in.

Cheers to the Cappucino

Sustainable October workshops

Droughtproofing your garden
Prepare your garden for summer and learn how grow an abundant garden. Topics include garden design for shelter, water tanks, irrigation systems, working with slopes, greywater systems, and water-hardy plants.
Presenter, Dan Palmer, a permaculture designer and teacher who has worked on projects worldwide, is the founder of the Permablitz movement and co-directs Very Edible Gardens.

Avondale Heights Library and Learning Centre
Thursday October 7, 6pm
Free, but bookings necessary. Call 8325 1940

Recycling: Minimise Waste
This workshop explains the practical side of recycling, including what can be recycled in Kerbside Recycling Bins and at the Council’s Holmes Road Transfer Station. It highlights the resource recovery services that are available to Moonee Valley residents and explores other options offered by services such as Byte Back, MobileMuster, Detox, Hard Rubbish, Green Waste and RENEW.

Niddrie Library
Tuesday October 12, 6.30 pm
Free, but bookings necessary. Call 8325 1925

Composting with Vasili
Learn how to re-use your kitchen scraps and how to turn waste into rich organic topsoil, producing a healthy luscious garden. Vasili, from Channel 31’s popular Vasili’s Garden, will give you practical tips on dealing with common compost problems, and a hands-on demonstration on compost making.

Sam Merrifield Library, Wednesday October 13, 7pm
Free, but bookings necessary. Call 8325 1950

Ethical Shopping with Nick Ray, Ethical Consumer Group
Find out more about the products, companies and related issues that are part of your weekly supermarket shop. We will explore practical ways to making more ethical choices and lighten your impact on the environment. The session includes a visit to the local supermarket to find the most sustainable purchase options. Then join a discussion about everyone’s shopping experience while enjoying some of your well-chosen purchases.

Flemington Library
Saturday October 30, 10.30 am-1.00 pm
Cost: Be prepared to spend $5 to test your ethical shopping skills. Food purchased will be shared for lunch as part of the workshop.
Limited Numbers. Bookings necessary. Call 8325 1975

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Hi there,

Can anyone at POW provide some ideas for recycling Christmas Trees?  Especially to answer my  specific questions -

* Can the needles go into the compost bin?
* Are the needles allopathic?  Or can they be used for mulch?  A search on google shows that someone has concerns about them being acidic – so are they ok for under the blueberry bush?

Imagine how many Christmas trees there are out west that will be put into our bins to be carted away ‘out of sight out of mind’.

Use as Food
In addition to its traditional cultivation as a bio-fertilizer for wetland paddy (due to its ability to fix Nitrogen into the soil), Azolla is finding increasing use for sustainable production of livestock feed.[9] Azolla is rich in proteins, essential amino acids, vitamins and minerals. Studies describe feeding azolla to dairy cattle, pigs, ducks, and chickens, with reported increases in milk production, weight of broiler chickens and egg production of layers, as compared to conventional feed. One FAO study describes how azolla integrates into a tropical biomass agricultural system, reducing the need for inputs.[10]

Use as a Larvicide

As an additional benefit to its role as a paddy biofertilizer, Azolla spp. have been used to control mosquito larvae in rice fields. The plant grows in a thick mat on the surface of the water, reducing the rate at which oxygen dissolves into the water, effectively choking the larvae. [11]

Climatic paleontology

Main article: Azolla event

Azolla covering the Canning River
A study of Arctic climatology reported that azolla may have had a significant role in reversing a greenhouse effect that occurred 55 million years ago that caused the region around the north pole to turn into a hot tropical environment. This research conducted by the Institute of Environmental Biology at Utrecht University claims that large dense patches of Azolla growing around freshwater lakes formed by the climate change eventually consumed enough carbon dioxide for the greenhouse effect to reverse.

Composting is the most well known use for old coffee grounds. You can add your grounds, filters and even used tea bags right onto your compost pile. As they decompose, they will add nitrogen to your compost. You can also add your old grounds directly into the soil around your plants, or in your flowerpots. The old coffee grounds will increase the acidity of the soil so you’ll want to be careful about the amount that you use.
Regards Madeleine

There are a number of composting methods. They can be classified as either hot or cold. All have in common the ratio required for successful composting: 1/3 nitrogen, 2/3 carbon
Hot composting is where you build a pile that purposely generates heat, and is fast. The fastest I’ve seen is a 21 day composting system that I learn’t about from Geoff Lawton.
Cold composting is a pile where it may take 12 – 18 months to give you the finished product.
There are disadvantages to both methods.
A variation of cold composting is the no dig garden.