A "Whole" new magazine...

I may have a new favorite magazine! Whole Living, a Martha Stewart publication (I have always secretly, or not so secretly, loved Martha...) may be my new mecca!

Apparently Body+Soul magazine changed to Whole Living in June 2010 but the former publication has been in print since 1974. I think I picked up a copy of Body+Soul on a plane trip once or twice but was never convinced that its content was anything more than fluff until I saw its rebirth as Whole Living... and now I have a subscription! I just received September's issue today so I thought I would share a little about the last issue before I dive into a new one...

After perusing the Whole Living website, I found their ten tenets of Whole Living and you can see why I like the magazine's content (at least the content that adheres to these tenets!)

Ten Tenets of Whole Living

1. Happiness is a choice. Make that choice today and every day.
2. Good health isn't a gift; it's a habit you cultivate.
3. A healthy, fit body is not enough--true fitness engages the spirit.
4. Think more about what you should eat than what you shouldn't.
5. Laugh at yourself. You're funny.
6. Nurture your spirit. It's your source of strength.
7. Stay connected to the natural world. It will feed your soul.
8. Believe in yourself. Your intuition is rarely wrong.
9. It's never too late to take the first step toward your aspirations.
10. What you pay attention to will thrive.

Here's a quick rundown of what I loved and disliked from the August 2010 issue of Whole Living:

LOVED: Cute little blurbs on low-VOC paint, gardening, healthy snack foods, etc.; barefoot running; article on cutting out sugar (though, the author eats packets of raw sugar... that's a little more excessive than most); blueberry recipes; summer canning article; healthy sustainable eating tips and recipes (even if some of the tips were a little obvious...)

NOT SO MUCH: Ads (not more than usual in a women's magazine, but still... ads...); first person editorials posing as articles (not terrible, but not amazing...); working out outdoors article (it was just your average Cosmo workout article... we know how to work out triceps on a bench/chair/couch/curb now... thanks... they look awesome...); several articles/blurbs on lack of self-esteem (maybe we could focus on self-actualization instead of hating ourselves? Or skip it all together?); a financial horoscope (Ugh...) and again... ADS! For things that have nothing to do with health or whole living! Annoying...

Overall, 3 stars out of 5 thus far... I will post an update after I read September's issue. Happy Reading!

Grounds for Your Garden

Yes, we all know that Starbucks (like Wal-Mart) is an evil cooperate giant and we should shun them whole heartedly. But you know what? Everything in moderation of course, but when I am stranded in some airport, my flight six hours delayed, no sweater to protect me from the incessant AC chill and all of my family and friends a million miles away and completely unreachable on the phone... honestly, the only thing that can instantly calm my soul is not a glass of wine, it's a toasty grande chai with a sprinkle of cinnamon on top. Oh... or that amazing caramel apple cider that they make that transports me instantly to fall in Seattle with my best friend, Rachael. So, yes, I know Starbucks is the devil. And, yes, a couple times a year I do give them my hard earned dollars to fund their cooperate empire. I am an enigma.

Anyway, one thing I do love to see when I go to Starbucks to steal free Wi-Fi or to Target (with the Starbucks conveniently located inside) is their "Grounds for Your Garden" program. According to the Starbucks website,

We introduced Grounds for Your Garden in 1995, which offers customers complimentary five-pound (2.27-kilogram) bags of used coffee grounds to enrich garden soil.

Now every time I am in Starbucks or Target, I pick up a few bags of their used grounds and throw them into my compost bin with the other "green" material and let them go. You can also add the grounds directly to the soil around nitrogen and acid loving plants. When I went to get a bag to take photos for this post, our local Starbucks only had the little bags sitting out (of course!), but I went yesterday to another store and scored 15lbs of free grounds! Whoo-hoo! The "instructions" for use can be found on the label of the Grounds for Your Garden, shown above. Happy hunting!

Home Composting: Common Problems & Troubleshooting Tips

Now you have a compost pile and it is up and running... but is it successful? Here are a few common problems and some troubleshooting tips...

#7. My pile has a strong odor, what am I doing wrong?
There should always be an earthy smell to your compost (due to the decomposing matter) but the smell should be livable and shouldn't "hit you" until you open the lid. If you can smell it outside of the container, you have a problem... Turning your pile can do a world of good, but determine what type of "bad smell" is coming from your pile before turning it.

Rotting Meat: If the smell is a disgusting rotting smell, animal proteins or fats have probably accidentally gotten into your pile through meat scraps, cooking fats & oils, butter, dairy products, peanut butter, etc. If the item isn't on the top where you can see it and pick it out, it's best to just scrap the pile and start over, because rotting animal proteins will draw scavengers like flies, rats, raccoons, etc. Then of course there will be snakes to eat the rats... and eventually your yard is overrun by pterodactyls picking off the neighborhood pets... just kidding - sorta. Seriously though, depending on how big the item decomposing in there is (a pat of butter or a full raw T-bone) is going to effect how long the smell lasts... leave the pile for a few days before you decide to trash it and if the smell has lessened, use your own judgement on waiting longer or scrapping the pile completely.

 Ammonia Smell: If the smell is more like ammonia than rotting meat, it is most likely a nitrogen problem in the pile. Nitrogen is produced by the "green" matter decomposing in the pile (veggie & fruit scraps, grass, coffee grounds, pretty much any of the wet, moist material that you place in your pile). Even out your pile with more "brown" matter (such as dry leaves, paper, straw); experts recommend 30 parts carbon ("brown") to 1 parts nitrogen ("green") but I feel like that is a little excessive and a little over analytical. It's an art, not a science... and when in doubt, tinker around with the parts a bit to see if you can fix the problem easily without pulling out a calculator to figure out what to put in.

#8. I want to keep my compost 100% organic so that I can use it on my vegetable garden... how do I make sure that it stays pesticide/chemical/contaminate free?
Creating 100% organic compost is relatively easy if you eat organically, because most of your wastes will already be organic. If you have a mixed diet (i.e. some organic and some conventionally processed goods) you can create two compost piles to keep one 100% organic and still not trash your non-organic food wastes. Some other items to consider are the non-food items that you put into the pile... if you are putting in paper and fabric scraps, ensure they come from organic sources as well. If you (or your neighbors) use pesticides or fertilizers on their grass or trees, those chemicals will be in your compost if you decide to place those in the pile as well. I have read that most pesticides will decompose in an active compost pile in one year, but I have no proof that this is the case. Now, this blog and my lifestyle is all about moderation, so this risk may be negligible for you and if so, your compost will still turn out wonderfully! But if you are trying to ensure 100% organic compost, the key to success is thinking through every item that enters your compost pile before you toss it in.  

There you go, you've started your compost pile, you've kept it going and you've solved all of its little compost problems (which were all just petty decomposing drama anyway). You are a sucessful compost pile parent! Congratulations!

Home Composting: Maintaining Your Pile

So you've got a compost pile, eh? Once you've followed our tips to get your compost pile up and running, how do you keep it working for you (i.e. producing amazing compost for your garden and significantly cutting your household waste production)? Here are a few tips on proper care of a compost pile (and what we do as well! :P)

#4. Does it matter which compostable items I put in my pile or what order I throw them in?
If you follow Rule #3 in Home Composting: How to Get Started about what items are able to be composted you can pretty much dump any and/or all of the eligible items in the pile in any order that you would like. Just make sure you keep your balance of "green" items in the composter (grass clippings, veggies, fruit) high enough as compared to the "brown" items (leaves, paper, cotton scraps) that the decomposition in the compost heap generates enough heat to keep the pile at about 150F. Heat speeds decomposition and if your "brown" levels get too high, decomposition can stall to a snail's pace without additional "green" items and/or oxygen from turning the pile. If your compost hasn't begun to generate heat within 24 hours, add more green items until you can feel heat coming from the pile when you hold your hand close to the decomposing matter.

#5. When will I have usable compost for my garden?
By the book, the more you turn your compost pile, the quicker you will have compost. If you are out there daily with a pitchfork or a shovel and fully mixing up the pile (digging all the way day and pulling items up, mixing the new items on top into the middle and the bottom) avid gardeners tell me you can have usable compost in as little as 3-4 weeks! Keep in mind, outdoor weather plays a role as well so during the winter your compost pile will decompose more slowly than the summertime and (in areas of extreme cold) may go dormant completely until everything thaws out in the spring. Here in the deep South, however, a year-round compost pile is very doable. But, as you see in my discussion in #6, even if you are a lazy gardener like me and do not turn your pile you should have usable compost in 4-6 mths. My compost pile sat with zero help from December-May one year while I was out of the country and when I returned in June to plant, everything had been fully composted while I was gone (including all of my Christmas quilt fabric scraps!) with the exception of a few corn cobs (notoriously slow to decompose) and a few stumps that my husband had thrown in, somehow convinced that 6in chunks of wood would vanish in the pile overnight... what can I say, he's an optimist!

#6. How much work is a compost pile?

As discussed above, turning your pile really speeds decomposition and compost production. Here is where I admit to being a bad compost mom. Truly, I put zero effort into that little pile and I just harvest its yummy little contents every spring when I go to add fresh soil and till my garden before the spring planting. I never turn my pile... seriously, never. I tried the first year; it was June when I started so it was hot out and the mosquitoes were wicked out by the shed and I just thought, "Oh well... that's not going to happen" and it didn't. The good news is that, even if you can't afford one of these nifty compost barrels that you can just crank and flip to turn your pile, turning your compost is not necessary to it's survival. If you leave it long enough while it is producing heat, everything will compost and you can always help it along with a compost activator (we use CompostAlive!) after you add a big chunk of brown or green matter (i.e. after a whole yard full of fall leaves or a mid-summer's cut of you and your neighbor's lawn). You just dump a few scoops of activator on top of the pile and then soak with a garden house until water comes pouring out the bottom (a minute or two) and let it work its magic!

Having issues with your compost? Check in tomorrow for some troubleshooting tips to solve several common compost problems. Enjoy!

Home Composting: How to Get Started

Compost... the solid gold of gardeners and the true measure of a dedicated green household (okay, maybe not the true measure, but...) Composting is very easy, no matter the size or type of your household and you can put as much time and money into composting as you would like and your results will reflect your efforts (more effort = faster digesting compost). There are so many varieties of composters (from entirely self-sufficient, indoor units to simple piles in the backyard) I will give you a general overview and show you what we find works the best for our family. We have been composting for over two years so we are by no means experts, but composting is definitely an integrated part of our lifestyle now!

#1. Why Compost? In an attempt to clean out a bunch of old veggies in my fridge that were about to stage a coup (because they were already in the process of turning) I salvaged all that I could for homemade vegetable soup (the red bowl) and all of the parts I couldn't use and the veggies that were too far gone went into the yellow bowl. It's obvious which bowl is more full!

     I ran this experiment to illustrate that composting greatly reduces the amount of household waste that needs to be disposed of. In a commercial dump, many compostable items (including these new nifty, but loud, Sun Chips bags!) are unable to decay properly because the conditions for decomposition (air circulation/heat/etc.) aren't favorable. Those same items, in a simple home compost pile, can turn into usable compost in weeks! Plus, the items you compost become the best fertilizer for your garden that money can't buy... it's win-win!

Atticus, ravaging the empty compost bin after

I emptied it this year to spread the contents on the garden.

It is very light when empty and terribly tempting to a bored spaniel...

once it gets a few weeks of contents in there, the bin is pretty solid and heavy.

#2. What do I need to compost? As I said before, there are many types of compost bins from the high end to the common leaf pile, but here is what works for us. I didn't want to have to bother with worms (though I hear great things about worm compost piles!) so I went with a simple black standing compost bin. To collect scraps in the house (and to avoid leaving rotting food on the counter until I have a moment to take it out back) we purchased this counter top compost keeper for the kitchen that we empty into the outdoor bin once a day.

#3. What can I add to my compost bin? Pretty much any organic items that are not (and haven't touched) meats or fats. Meats and fats decompose differently than other organic products and adding these to your compost bin will immediately draw critters. Be mindful of organic items that have touched meats and fats as well, such as last night's salad already covered in olive oil vinegrette (plain lettuce leaves are fine, but once they are coated in oil, go ahead and put them in the normal trash can instead). But other than that, most anything goes: vegetables, fruits, moldy bread, clumps of hair from cleaning out your hairbrush, eggshells (rinsed), leaves, grass clippings (try to avoid weeds as their seeds will live on in your new soil for a LONG time and can take root in your garden when you use the soil if you aren't careful), cotton fabric scraps, old paper, dryer lint, shredded cardboard, fall leaves... the list goes on and on.

Once your compost bin/pile is started, tomorrow's post will tell you how to keep it up and running smoothly! Enjoy!