Exhumed (Compost Lesson #15)

Many tea bags will break down in a backyard compost bin. Kirkland /ITO EN green tea bags won't.

Compost Lesson #14 (@Coolhaus)

@Coolhaus cup: Say hello to decomposition.

Animated Compost

Compost Lesson #13: You Can Compost Birthday Cake

Compost Lesson #12

Lining of biodegradeable food container, after some months.

I am drawn to photography of deteriorating cities, but closer to home, I'm fascinated with how things break down in a backyard compost bin.

This post isn't a compost lesson, really, but maybe it is.

Compost Lesson #11

Gingerbread houses are, of course, compostable. And so it all comes full circle, almost like a Hendrik Hertzberg essay, but messier. Happy Holidays!

Compost Lesson #10

Strange life forms under the surface.

Recycle, Compost, Landfill

Life and work have gotten in the way of this photo blog of late. And that's good. I'm not one of those people who values wedding photos over weddings, and if life wants to step forward and assert its primacy, well, by all means.

But I'm back from a trip to the Bay Area and have a picture or two to share, something I hope to do with more regularity in the near future.

For starters, here's one from the California Academy of Sciences. I can't wait to go back. Along with almost everything I saw at this ultramodern museum, these waste bins really show the thoughtful design (and money—oh so much money) that went into making this institution light years better than anything we have in L.A.

Recycle. Compost. Landfill.

Compost Lesson #9

Straw is available wherever people in jodhpurs and velvet helmets ride horses. It is the brown to your kitchen waste's green. Add it to a compost bin to keep things balanced and unsmelly. Smelly = Out of Balance. Bales of straw are also great for mulch in the garden and as benches for outdoor summer screenings. And they're cheap.

Compost Lesson #8

There's no such thing as away.

Compost Lesson #7

The optimal temperature of a backyard compost pile is between 135 and 160 degrees Fahrenheit. But don't bother buying a thermometer. Decomposition only goes in one direction. Let it.

Compost Lesson #6

Smith & Hawken is going out of business, after 30 years. You might still be able to find one of these bins in an S&H store, but they're no longer taking online orders. I've had this one for about 10 years; it's not pretty but it does what it needs to: enclose compost, let it breathe, keep it hot. If you can find one on sale, it's a worthwhile buy.

Compost Lesson #5

Borrow some leaves from your neighbor.

Compost Lesson #3

You'd think your composting would produce enough to replenish your garden soil. But in reality compost cooks down more than Swiss chard, and if you want enough to spread around even a small garden, you'll have to seek it elsewhere. Equestrian centers or rhyming craptonite couriers are your two best bets for buying large quantities of compost for cheap.

Compost Lesson #2

Corn husks break down slowly. There's no hurry.

Compost Lesson #1

[This is the first installment of what will be an ongoing, irregular series here.]
I wanted to post this photo as a counterpoint to the image in the previous post. I enjoy beauty as much as anyone—and sweets, of course—but I also enjoy compost and bugs.
The sectioned larvae pictured here will grow up to become soldier flies. They're quite welcome in my compost bin for two reasons: they assist with decomposition (precisely our purpose for having a bin) and they attract phoebes.
Phoebes will sit on a low perch near our compost bin and swoop down to snatch up emerging soldier flies. Phoebes are charming.

Break It Down

Fruit stickers don't decompose. I say do away with them.
On a compost-related note, our friend Brent made a video describing worm composting, which seems great but perhaps labor-intensive, and with a narrower margin of error than the standard Throw-It-In-A-Bin-And-Let-It-Become-Soil method.

Decomposing Cutlery

Anyone know how long it takes compostable cutlery to break down?
I get curious and check in on the progress from time to time. I think this one has been cooking for about three months.

Of Course

This fancy bag that once contained fancy coffee from Whole Foods, by way of Ethiopia, says it's 100% compostible. It is. So are all brown paper bags whether they tell you they are or don't.

You Can't Compost Concrete on KCET.org

The Echo Park Film Center curated a collection of short films called Sustainable LA for the Silver Lake Film Festival last year; I made a short called You Can't Compost Concrete to be part of the program. Making the film--with much editing help from Lisa at the EPFC--was very fun, and it made me appreciate that much more what she and Paolo and the other supercool folks over there do for the community teaching filmmaking to kids and seniors for free and others for almost free. They also have a wonderful microcinema screening noncommercial gems you simply could not view anywhere else.
If you weren't one of the 15 or so people who got up on a Sunday morning to watch the Sustainable LA program when it was shown on a big screen in Los Feliz, now's your chance to catch a bunch of green-themed shorts, including You Can't Compost Concrete and How to Build a Self-Watering Container by my heros at Survive LA streaming at KCET.org.