Thank You EPA Once a month I add up how much foodwaste we’ve intercepted from local Albuquerque businesses for our compost heaps and translate that into greenhouse gas emissions savings. I use tools provided by the EPA to do this. The WARM (Waste Reduction Model) calculator converts tons of foodwaste composted into Metric Tons of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent, allowing us to put a number to the quantity of greenhouse gas that we have prevented from Read more…
The Art of Leaving Your Leaves One of the most common questions I get asked here at Soilutions is how do I keep mulch clear of leaves during the fall. After I stifle my desire to remind people that they are working with nature, not with a living room rug, I tell them the truth – there is no quick answer. When you commit to using organic mulches (e.g, wood and pecan), you are subscribing Read more…
Our Desert Home Below is a portion of a conversation currently occurring in our office circles. For someone who struggles almost daily to inject a small bit of beauty into my life, I found the truth, the passion, and the elegance of this to be inspiring. “The desert is beautiful, Paraíso sin agua. It’s our home, yeah? What have we done to it? Why? The way we treat our home, you’d think we hate Read more…
Is There Such a thing as Organic Compost? A friend of mine wanted me to address a question she fielded one day: “Is there really such a thing as organic compost?” There are two kinds of organic: one is biological, one is a fabricated label. The former refers to the carbon content of a material, the latter refers to the method and the level of chemicals used in the growing process. In terms of the Read more…
Rain Ruminations So I got a little bit of rain last night at my house. It was all the things that rain in the desert are: cooling, aromatic, tempestuous. Rain in the desert is also strengthening, alleviating, and magical. Rain has some effect on us that opens the creative spirit. Of all the things rain in the desert may be, substantial it is not. I awoke thinking how unbelievable it is to me how many Read more…
Chemical vs. Biological Last week I attended the annual Organic Farmers Conference held at the Marriott Albuquerque Pyramid. The conference offers a chance for me to see and thank the many local farmers that support us year ’round. I always feel humbled when farmers who, in my eyes, are rock stars, go out of their way to thank us and tell us how much they appreciate what we are doing. There is always plenty of Read more…
Harvesting Worm Compost I was asked the other day if I had any pictures of my worm bin. After a resounding mental “DUH!”, I checked my photo back log and in fact hadn’t any younger than ’09. So I went out yesterday and screened my worms…had to do it anyway. Here’s my bin. It is an 8 foot hole, 12″ deep and lined with plywood that I scavenged from another project. I lined it with Read more…