Inner City Farmer

If I were to be more precise, I would add a question mark to the end of the title. Because I’ve never made a spiral herb garden before. But that didn’t stop me from trying.

Using an amalgamation of tips pulled from several different websites, I succeeded in making a serviceable herb garden this morning. Like sheet mulching, I started with a piece of cardboard to repel the growth of unwanted weeds. On top of this I added a layer of rough sand for drainage, and here is what the result looked like:

Next I started adding the rocks that would form the actual spiral. For some reason I can’t recall, it is important that the spiral flow clock-wise here in the northern hemisphere, just like water down a drain. I used chunks of urbanite, the remains of the back steps I jackhammered to oblivion several years ago.

Then I added a layer of dirt mixed with Revitalizer Compost from the Natural Gardener:

Next I continued with the spiral of rocks and added more compost and dirt:

Finally, I planted my herbs. Proper placement is important. I planted rosemary on the very top because it can handle dry soil and mint at the bottom because it likes wetter conditions. I also put basil and oregano in the ground. I am keeping this garden small to see how it does. If it’s successful, I may build another one in the front of my house. All this took about half an hour to do. I know there are far more elaborate ways to build such a garden, like adding a compost tea drip system in the very middle, but I was looking to make this job as simple as possible, and so far I have succeeded.

I started a vermicomposting bin this weekend. It’s a project I’ve been meaning to do for a long time mostly for two reasons. One, it’s going to save me from having to haul my kitchen scraps out to the compost bin every single day, and, two, worm castings are the creme de la creme of plant fertilizers.

There are a zillion websites that walk you through the process, including this one and that one, but, all in all, it’s fairly straightforward. I got the worms from PetSmart of all places (I had to balance gas consumption vs. giving money to a big box store, and post-Ike it made more sense to stick close to home.) I used an old plastic bin that had no greater purpose. I lined the bottom of the bin with leaves, straw, a little dirt, and a little sand. I wet the whole thing until it was moist. I dumped the worms on top. Then stuck a lid (with lots of holes punched into it) on the bin and shoved it under my kitchen sink. The next day I added some coffee grounds and a little vegetation. That’s it. Done

The big payoff will come months down the road when I can start harvesting the bounty all these worms have produced. I’ll let you know how it goes.

This is my neighbor Tony’s compost bin. On top you can see coffee grounds he obtained from a local coffee shop. His scavenging inspired me to do some of my own. This morning, I headed on down to Epoch, my neighborhood coffee house, and asked if I could take some of their used coffee grounds home with me. The barista I asked was accommodating, yet, at the very same time, a little annoyed. I sensed that she knew recycling the “trash” her workplace produces in copious amounts each day was a good thing… but also that her having to do it while customers were waiting in line wasn’t part of her job description. Next time I think I’ll bring my own bucket and do the dirty work myself. Or, perhaps, I’ll visit the nearest ‘Bucks to my house, the one on 45th and Lamar where two of my friends work. One of them, Rudi, has informed me that they get requests for their spent grounds all the time and that late morning is the best time to ask. Not only could I use the grounds in my outdoor compost bin, but I am contemplating setting up a vermicomposting bin, using red worms to break down my kitchen waste, later on today.

Compost_D responded to my last post with a couple questions about the legality of “humanure,” that is, composting your own feces, within the city limits of Austin, and what follows is pretty much everything I know on the subject.

In Section 15-5-8 of its City Code, the City of Austin basically passes the buck on the subject when it states that it follows the “applicable state law penalty provisions related to on-site sewage facilities” as provided by the Texas Health and Safety Code. Article 5 of Section 341.011 of the state code forbids “sewage, human excreta, wastewater, garbage, or other organic wastes deposited, stored, discharged, or exposed in such a way as to be a potential instrument or medium in disease transmission to a person or between persons.” A little further down the page in Section 341.014, it says that “human excreta in a populous area shall be disposed of through properly managed sewers, treatment tanks, chemical toilets, or privies constructed and maintained in conformity with the department’s specifications, or by other methods approved by the department.”

That all seems a little vague to me, but I do know that, according to Austin’s Building Code, if you’re building a house that’s within 100 feet of a sewer line you must by law connect to it. But as far as I can tell there’s nothing that says you actually have to use it. What’s to stop an intrepid humanure enthusiast from composting his own “excreta” as long as he does so in a way that doesn’t endanger the health of his neighbors?

I’m just a simple farmer so all this legal mumbo jumbo is a little over my head. However, I do know that the same rules that are designed to protect the public health are also hurting the environment we live in, which in turn will be negatively impacting the public health in the every near future. It’s high time that we as a society get over our Victorian priggishness about shit. According to Joseph Jenkins, author of The Humanure Handbook, “nearly a third of all household drinking water in the U.S. is used to flush toilets.” Which in a time of drought such as we’re experiencing right now seems absolutely absurd and will only grow more absurd the closer we get to experiencing a global crisis a hundred times worse than Peak Oil, and that is Peak Water. Add to this the fact that we as a society are also rapidly depleting the fertility of our soil, and the fact that we flush away so much rich organic material, i.e. shit, becomes almost laughably ridiculous, except I’m not laughing. Are you?

In today’s world it’s easy for an environmentalist to get frustrated and say the whole world is going to hell—Bush lifting the ban on offshore drilling immediately comes to mind. But there are places that prove that it doesn’t have to be that way. If you look hard enough, you can find little pockets of hope.

One of them is the Danish island of Samso, which acclaimed environmental author Elizabeth Kolbert wrote about in a recent New Yorker article. Since 2005, the island has produced more energy than it’s used, and most of that energy has come from renewable sources like wind turbines and heating plants that run on biomass. In less than a decade the island’s residents went from heating their houses with oil brought in by tankers to earning an international reputation for living on “the renewable-energy island.”

Another example is Kamikatsu, a small town in the hills of southeastern Japan, which prides itself on producing “Zero Waste.” Residents have to compost all their food scraps and sort the rest of their garbage into 34 different categories for recycling. The one flaw in the plan, critics point out, is that residents have to drive their recyclables to Kamikatsu’s Zero Waste Centre.

For all its talk about being a Green City, Austin has a long way to go… but, seeing the change that’s starting to take place all around the world, I remain hopeful.