Every time I plant a tree, move a seedling or divide bulbs, as I’m doing this week, I wind up buying bags of soil amendment and resenting every penny when I know I could be making my own compost for free.
But every time I read an article on how to do it, I’m daunted. Do I have to buy one of those rotating things that umble the stuff, or rough it and turn the stuff myself with a pitchfork? Do I have to buy a power chipper to grind up fallen branches and dried brush? I’ve got weeds the size of Buicks. And if I mulch with weeds, will I be growing bigger and better weeds? I have no lawn, hence no lawn clippings. Do I need some? And how many bags of mulch equal the cost of a chipper and a compost bin? Death to anyone who tells me, “You do the math.”
Just in time to solve my dilemma, I get a call from Victoria Hand, who is a real pro at reducing the waste stream clogging our landfills. She tells me to come to the Malibu Farmers’ Market on Sunday where L.A. County experts will give free classes on backyard composting. They also will be selling compost bins at cost.
All of this is part of an Environmental Expo hosted by Malibu Agricultural Project’s Cornucopia, as an adjunct to its regular Sunday sale of local organic produce.
OK. I’m interested. I want a preview. So I pay a visit to Cornucopia to see their demonstration garden, a hillside densely planted with California native plants that attract butterflies, birds and bees, which requires very little water and has stabilized a slope that had serious erosion problems.
Cornucopia co-founders Debra Bianco and Remy O’Neill give me the tour and patiently answer my questions about the many varieties of plants, which I notice are allowed to set seed–for the birds to eat, I’m told.
To think I’ve been wasting hours deadheading the salvia, yarrow, lupine and penstemon. What did I know? I thought I was prolonging the bloom.
They also have two of those worm farms where the little critters live on vegetable and newspaper scraps. Needless to say, I have enough of that to feed half the worms on the planet.
Composting, we all know, helps cities and counties reduce the amount of refuse that’s hauled to landfills and helps Malibu reach its state-mandated goal of reducing by 50 percent the tons of trash carted to the Calabasas landfill.
Kim Collins, the city’s recycling coordinator, says composting can reduce a home’s refuse by about 600 pounds to 750 pounds a year. This may not sound like a big deal to those who enjoy curbside recycling, but I have to haul all my trash and recyclables in my little pickup to the local transfer station (on the site of a landfill that got filled up before we got wise to recycling). That’s 600 pounds of stuff that I don’t have to load and sort and unload. I’m hearing you now. This is a good thing.
So what else can I learn at this expo? Well, my current project of lining the garden paths with bark or gravel or something that’s good to walk on and discourages weeds is stalled because I need to edge the paths with something to keep the bark or whatever from washing away in the rain. But I’m opposed to using those chemically treated logs and the other edging materials I’ve seen look too fake. Well, a company called US Plastic Lumber will be at the expo with picnic tables, benches, playground equipment and all sorts of stuff they make from recycled high density plastic bottles (laundry detergent containers mostly). If this stuff looks as good as it sounds, I’m sold. And I’ll actually get to see it up close and personal, which is a major step above ordering it from a little picture on the Internet.
The TreePeople are making the trek from Beverly Hills to enlighten us about integrated watershed management practices, tree planting programs and prevention of storm water pollution. We see more of that in Malibu than they do in Beverly Hills, but I think they’ve had lots of experience doing something about it. The TreePeople will be giving out tree seed tubes that we can take home and plant-after we get our soil composted, that is.
Real Earth, a Malibu company, will bring its earth-friendly products: non-toxic, biodegradable cleaning products, recycled and tree-free papers and stationery. And The Jankovich Company distributes America’s Choice, certified 100 percent, re-refined motor oil. Now this is really interesting to me because my son-in-law runs a motorcycle shop and is always grousing about having to pay to get rid of used motor oil. Recently, some of the racecar drivers were promoting this stuff and trying to get local auto parts stores to carry it. We may solve all our problems from garden to garage in one fell swoop. Malibu Farmers’ Market, City Hall Parking Lot, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. For free transportation, call Malibu Shuttle 3171992.