Permaculture Tip: What to do with Autumn Leaves?

http://www.littlefloweryoga.com/wp-content/uploads/fall.jpg

I had a question "from the audience" the other day, and I thought I would share it with my answer.

What would you do with your fall leaves if you were extremely short on time? I just purchased a home and don't have much time to work outdoors before winter sets in. I have a lawn that is covered in both deciduous leaves and conifer needles, but no dedicated garden beds, Permaculture projects, or compost bins going yet. Bottom line: How would you use those leaves to maximize next year's usage?

Short answer:
Save them all!

Long answer:
Loosely pile the leaves and run your lawnmower over them, or put them in a large, plastic garbage can and run your weed eater (a "whipper-snipper" in the UK) like a large kitchen blender. Then pile the leaves in one of two spots. The first location would be an out of the way spot that you may use for future compost bins. The second location would be in the general area where you will want to plant garden beds next year.

A few things to consider...
If your leaves are mostly dried and brown, consider adding some vegetable scraps from your kitchen or fresh lawn trimmings to the leaf pile. Dried leaves are high in carbon, but low in nitrogen. To get them composting well before the cold of winter hits, adding nitrogen-rich material will help. The alternative is also true. If the leaves are all green, then the addition of carbon-rich brown material would speed the composting process. However, there will likely be a mix of both, and these will eventually compost on their own without any help from us. Just like in a forest.

Pine needles take a long time to compost. If you can shred them with the lawnmower, it will help.

Freezing and thawing will help the leaves break up and decompose as well. Make sure there is enough moisture in the pile as you build it (AFTER the leaves are shredded!).

Other Options...
If you have any existing trees or shrubs that you are planning on keeping, you can pile the leaves underneath as natural mulch. Doing this after the leaves are shredded will minimize wind distribution.

If you plan on keeping chickens next spring, consider saving some of the leaves in a dry area. Maybe just piled high and covered with a tarp. These can be used as a deep litter source for a henhouse. A deep litter plan is the only way I would recommend keeping chickens unless they are being pastured. The book that best describes this is The Small-Scale Poultry Flock.

I have also heard of people filling a bunch of garbage bags full of the leaves. The bags were stacked against a poorly insulated wall in a partially-exposed basement wall. This natural insulation dropped the owner’s heating bill. I imagine bags could be placed in attics or crawlspaces as well. They may be viewed as ideal nesting sites for rodents, but they could be removed easily.

A Permaculture Tip is an idea that is derived from observing and interacting with nature.  It is simple.  It is safe.  It is effective.  It helps build a sustainable system of agriculture and life in general.  If you have any Permaculture Tips you would like to share, please let me know.  I will post it here, give you the credit, and post a link to your blog or website if you have one.  Email me here: kitsteiner@hotmail.com

Harvesting Seaweed

Collecting seaweed from the coast, with my boys and my dog.

 

I have written in previous articles about always being ready to grab what is on hand for your home vegetable garden or forest gardens. With the passing of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Nadine, one of the beaches in my neighborhood became inundated with seaweed. So I went out with my boys, dog, garden cart, bucket, and shovel in tow to the beach. I did wonder how the locals would react to me walking the streets with a large wheeled cart full of seaweed; however, I ended up meeting three groups of people who were collecting seaweed as well in just my brief twenty minute shoveling session . I think they were more surprised that a foreigner was out there with them than I was. 

 

Seaweed is a great compost addition (I'll talk more about that in a day or two). Everyone was gathering it for their gardens, orchards, and vineyards. One local man, in his 60's, told me that he had never seen this much seaweed washed up at one time. The boys loved running in the feet deep seaweed. To them it was like a super-sized trampoline. The dog was acting like it was a field of brown snow. Fantastic memory.

 

 My boys playing on the bed of seaweed.

 

 

A Simple Compost Bin

Click here to learn how to build this compost bin.

 

Here is a rather simple compost bin design created and explained by Lee Reich in an article from Fine Gardening. Reich is the author of a number of gardening books that I have read and enjoyed. As I am about to build a compost bin, I have been searching for a good design. I may use this one with some modifications... I'll keep you posted.

For more information about composting, you can read my previous article.

Humanure How To

Due to the popularity of my previous post on Humanure, I wanted to share a few videos on the subject.  These videos make it clear just how easy it is to compost humanure.  I truly think we need to overcome our quite recently developed (in human history) fecophobia.  We need to be cautious that we properly handle human waste, but, as I have said previously, wasting clean drinking water and all the energy used to purify it just to flush away something that could easily and safely be recycled is a travesty.

Starting a New Humanure Compost Pile

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BWc-RjuWbs

Emptying Humanure Toilet Receptacles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZTZTVv6kYs

Making a Humanure Compost Toilet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPg-n4czGE0

Permaculture Projects: Composting

The Classic Compost Bin

http://www.composting101.com/images/compost_bin.gif

I received a comment on Facebook asking me for resources on composting and vermiculture (worm composting).  My initial thought was that I would write a quick post on composting.  I would then do some more research on vermiculture before I wrote that post since I have yet to do any vermiculture myself.  However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that what I have done and know to do is more complicated than just a simple post.  Instead, what I thought I would do is share some of my basic thoughts on composting, and then share some of my favorite resources on composting.

When I have time, I will go back and write about what I have done specifically with composting, the variations/experimenting I have done, and the lessons I have learned.  I will also write a post soon about vermiculture - it is really cool!

There are a couple of things I want to point out first...

One of the many modern (and pricey) compost tumbler designs.

http://www.4seasongreenhouse.com/images/Compost-Tumbler-Back-Compact.gif

Mesophilic Composting
Mesophilic (ME-zoh-fill-ick) composting is composting done at temperatures that are warm but not too hot.  This is what most people think of when someone says "compost pile".  This is how most backyard composters expect to run a compost pile or bin.  Certain things that can be pathogenic (disease causing) should not be placed in a mesophilic compost pile.  These are things like meat, bones, cooking oils, animal and human feces, diseased crops, etc.  The temperatures typically do not maintain a high enough temperature for long enough to kill the pathogens potentially found in these items, so they should be avoided.

Thermophilic Composting
Thermophilic composting is composting done at very hot temperatures.  Thermophilic composting has been proven (over and over in many research studies) to kill all known human pathogens (parasites, bacteria, viruses, etc.), all known plant pathogens, and all weed seeds.  All home or "backyard" composters have the ability to easily make their mesophilic compost pile a thermophilic compost pile.  You just need a bit more space, plenty of moisture, plenty of aeration, a good C:N ration (that's carbon to nitrogen ratio - read all about this in the links below), and plenty of time.  A thermophilic compost pile should sit for at least a year before it is used.  If you have the time and the space, then this is the type of composting I would highly recommend.  You can truly recycle all organic material.  Period.  It is the most efficient and resource conserving method of composting.  The Humanure Handbook, which I highlighted a few days ago here, extensively discusses thermophilic composting.

Composting and Permaculture
As this blog is about Permaculture, I need to say that composting is a no-brainer when it comes to Permaculture.  Permaculture Principle One (Observe and Interact) and Six (Produce No Waste) dovetaile nicely in composting.  If we observe nature, we see that in nature there is no waste.  Everything is recycled.  If we are trying to emulate nature, we should compost as much as we can.  This is just one way to be truly sustainable.

Get out and start composting!

Finally, if you are thinking about starting a compost pile, just get out there and do it.  You can learn as you go.  It is so easy.  You will feel good about doing it.  You will end up with a great resource that your plants will love!

Composting Resources:
www.composting101.com:  This is a good site for the simple basics of composting (also has a page on vermiculture).

www.epa.gov - Composting: This is the Environmental Protection Agency's information page on composting.  It is well organized and very extensive.  Excellent information.

www.epa.gov - Where You Live:  This is the Environmental Protection Agency's link page to each state's composting page. Yeah, pretty much every state has a composting page!

www.howtocompost.org: A really good site on composting.  It has a lot of its own information, but it also has a bunch of links to other pages on the internet.  Not as well organized as it could be, and some of the links are dead, but overall, there is a lot of good information on this site.

Book Review: The Humanure Handbook

 

  The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure

Now let's just dive in to the topic that is sitting right in front of us.  The topic no one wants to talk about, ever.  Poop.  Crap.  Stool.  Whatever you want to call it, everyone does it.  But no one ever wants to discuss it.  The Western world is very fecophobic.  No, I did not make up that word.  But the fear of our own poop, or someone else's, makes this a topic that most people would rather avoid.  Let's avoid, rather, the verbal constipation of this subject.  As a Family Medicine physician, I talk about bowel movements all the time, so this is not uncomfortable to me at all.

A quick definition for those who are a bit slow:  Humanure = Human Manure

Where to begin... I guess I'll start off with my impression of this book.  It was fantastic.  Never would I have thought that a book, a whole book, about composting human manure would be such a great read, and yet it was.  I kid you not.  Joseph Jenkins has given us a very well written book.  It combines history with biology with agriculture with up to date science, all in an interesting and fun to read format.

I firmly believe everyone should read this book.  Even if you have no desire to ever compost your own crap, this book will break down a lot of misconceptions about this normal body function.

For those who are ecologically minded, you may be shocked at the amount of environmental damage and waste of water we commit to by pooping in drinking water and flushing it away to be chemically treated and released.

For those who are interested in the concept, either out of curiosity or out of a desire to actually implement this, but who are fearful of disease and contamination, you will be delighted to know how safe and easy building and maintaining a humanure compost pile really can be.  You will read in the book who building a thermophilic compost pile will reach temperatures of over 160 F (71 C), and this is hot enough to kill all known human pathogens (diseases) within 24 hours.  But to ensure safety, the recommendation is to let the pile stand for a year before using it.  For those who are really paranoid, he recommends letting the pile stand for two years.  By the time you actually use the compost, the material is really just like a high fertility soil.  Another point to ponder for those who are fearful that they will die from some deadly disease because they composted their poop... if you are healthy (i.e. NOT SICK), then where are the deadly bacteria that will kill you going to come from?

For those who are just freaked out by the gross factor, this book causes you to challenge your personal biases against a normal human process.  I find it humorous that most gardeners jump at the chance to pay good money for composted, or even fresh, horse and cow manure, yet will stare at you as if you had a third arm growing out of your head when you mention composted humanure.

I will probably talk more about this topic in the future, since I truly think it will be a growing trend across the world, especially when the world starts to realize how little fresh water we have left on the Earth.  But I will save that for another day...

Let me end this post by listing some of the reviews about this book:

"This is a cult classic which might strike those without an outhouse as disgusting. But the methods outlined within have the potential to change the ecological fate of the world."

- New Yorker Magazine, May 22, 2009

"The handbook contains a lot of hard information taken from the author's humanure composting experience." "Jenkins provides a convincing case that human waste can and should be a safe composting material." 

- Mother Earth News

"We think the Humanure [Hand]Book ranks right up there with Rachel Carson's Silent Spring as one of the most important environmental exposes of all time." 

- HortIdeas

"...outrageous humor and brilliant, diligent research." "This is one book that could save the world!"

- Permaculture Drylands Journal

"...almost certain to become a classic in its field." "This book should be required reading...and not only for homesteaders." 

- Countryside Journal

"...a good read for anyone who is ready to entertain the possibility of more fully integrating him or herself into the ecosystem." "Replete with bad jokes, provocative queries, and practical suggestions."

- The Natural Farmer