Written by Barbara Eisenstein,
Horticulture Outreach Coordinator
Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden

Each year I look forward to the burst of spring wildflowers in the planted strip along the sidewalk beside my house. I await the towering sunflowers that follow in the summer. The blues of the sages, ceanothus and penstemons calm me, while the bright orange and reds of the mallows and monkeyflowers bring excitement. The coolness of the woodland garden with its rich, deep greens is comforting.

The Compost Pile

But the compost heap is the wildness of my suburbia. It is teaming with life, with hunters, grazers, scavengers, and decomposers. They take the form of mammals, lizards, insects, snakes, spiders and unknowns. It is my favorite garden spot.

The rear corner of my backyard is where I put most of my yard waste. It is not a pretty sight. A black plastic bin contains household vegetable waste, hopefully keeping the rats from the sweet, succulent food they so enjoy. Leaves, twigs, branches, and grass clippings are piled high.

Beautifying The Compost Pile

Though it is my favorite place, I realize it is not much to look at, and so I planted a tree mallow (Lavatera assurgeniflora) to keep it from view. Within about six months the mallow grew from six inches to four feet tall and at least 6 feet wide, effectively screening the pile of debris.

Easy Composting

I am a lazy composter. I throw the yard waste into a heap, spreading grass clippings over layers of twigs, branches and leaves. This ensures that the mound does not compress into an air-tight, anaerobic, rotting mess. I do not turn my compost, rather, I dig into it whenever the need arises.

What to Layer Onto Your Compost Pile

On top are the least decomposed leaves and grass. Slightly below is the partially decomposed material, perfect for mulch in my woodland gardens. Digging in a bit further I come across deep brown, rich organic soil. Occasionally I sprinkle this over my turf instead of using fertilizer. It has seeds from weeds, but on balance my lawn is dense and healthy with a tolerable quantity of weeds. I add perlite (available at most garden shops) to this rich organic soil to make potting soil. Again, my pots have some weeds, but for the most part, my container plants do well. I incorporate extra perlite for succulents and other plants requiring excellent drainage. This mix has worked well for pots of dudleyas, sages, and even a woolly blue curls, now two years old.

Native Species Habitat In The Compost Pile

Whenever I climb the mound to add more greens, I see thousands of spiders scurry away. Digging into the pile I uncover large, juicy translucent grubs, and slender pink earthworms. Millipedes slither on. A startled lizard slides away as I turn over a log. Earwigs, sowbugs, snails and slugs join the mix. The compost heap is always warm as bacteria, in concert with all of these other critters, go about the everyday work of recycling organic debris into rich soil. It has a rich earthy smell.

And if all of this activity were not enough, now when I go to the pile, I see a carefully excavated hole, with a neat pile of fine soil beside it. My imagination goes wild trying to visualize this meticulous excavator. I don’t have gophers. Maybe it is Mole from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows.
 

About Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden

RSABG is the largest botanical garden dedicated exclusively to our state's native plants. Visitors are welcome to enjoy the meandering pathways of this 86 acre natural setting which offers panoramic mountain views throughout the year. Self guided interpretive brochures are available at the California Garden Shop and enable visitors to fully enjoy the three distinct areas of the Botanic Garden: Indian Hill Mesa, the East Alluvial Gardens, and the Plant Communities.

The Botanic Garden is a private, non-profit organization, open to the public daily from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is free; a donation of $4.00/person and $8.00/family is suggested.

Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden
1500 North College Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711-3157
Telephone: (909) 625-8767
www.rsabg.org

Learn! Explore! Take Action!

Celebrate the vital importance of wetlands to the Nation's ecological, economic, and social health.

May, American Wetlands Month is also a great opportunity to discover and teach others about the important role that wetlands play in our environment and the significant benefits they provide - improved water quality, increased water storage and supply, reduced flood and storm surge risk, and critical habitat for plants, fish, and wildlife.

In organizing its activities this year, EPA is placing special emphasis on encouraging Americans to:

1. Learn about wetlands. This is a great time to better understand what a wetland is, where wetlands can be found, and the importance of wetlands. Activities may include reading and studying about wetland areas, drawing maps or illustrations of wetlands, and identifying native species found in wetlands. Information on wetlands and the important benefits they provide is available on this website, through EPA's wetland fact sheet series, or by visiting the websites of our partners.
2. Explore a wetland near you. Unless you live in the most extreme climate zones, there is a good chance a scenic wetland exists nearby for you to visit and explore during American Wetlands Month and throughout the year. To find a wetland near you, consult your local parks department, state natural resource agency, or the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (http://www.fws.gov/refuges). If you live in the Washington, DC area, a guide has been created to highlight wetlands and wildlife sanctuaries.
3. Take action to protect and restore wetlands. Support and promote wetlands informing community members about wetlands' vital roles, "adopting" a wetland, joining a local watershed group, or participating in a wetland monitoring, restoration, or cleanup project. There are many other actions Americans can take to help conserve wetlands.To learn more about what you can do to help protect and restore these valuable natural resources in your state or local area, visit http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/awm/#you.

Containers are...and aren't... natural growing mediums for plants.  That's a puzzling way to look at containers, but in nature, you find small containers such as a tree growing in a little pouch of soil on the side of a cliff, and you find watersheds which are really huge containers snuggled into the subsurface rocks of the earth's very infrastructure.

So...let's talk containers on a human scale.

Pots on a porch are the simplest form of container gardening.  Then come larger potted trees indoors.  And porch boxes to decorate Mediterranean windows and railings.  And even larger concrete pots that are lavish planters for corporate entryways and shopping centers.  And indoor gardens infused with water gardens and even waterfalls.

Containers are practical ways to bring living plants up and close to where we spend our time.  And I'm assuming you've already heard that Americans spend as much as 95% of their time indoors...

Customized Container Gardens

A new trend in landscaping is to plant customized containers in their final location.  Add professional skills to create professional results -- and reduce the amount of transportation and injury to plants as they are moved from distant growers to retailers to final destination landscapes.

Just plant them in place.  What a novel idea! 

The novelty is really that local nurseries can grow these pre-designed pots in their well-tended facilities and then move them in one piece, with specialized lifting equipment, of course, to their home without any transplanting, trimming or damage from poor care.

Container Gardening for Scale

A hanging basked just doesn't provide the scale necessary for today's larger buildings.  Whether the third story loft apartment or the three story office building...or towering entryway to a MacMansion, larger plantings fit better. 

Environmental Impact of Container Gardens

LARGER CONTAINTERS:  A potential benefit of larger plantings is that larger, more mature plants also provide more greenhouse gas and clim ate change benefits.  Mature trees provide more air filtration than saplings, so the larger the container and the longer-lived the trees and shrubs, the "greener" they can be.

Larger containers also hold moisture better than small containers.  Less exposure to air reduces evaporation.  Mulching containers with decorative rocks, bark or other natural materials can also reduce water use. 

SPECIES SELECTION:  Some species of plants provide more air filtation and less water use than others. And desert plants such as cacti also require less water use.

RECYCLED MATERIAL:  The containers  themselves can be manufactured with recycled  content:  crushed concrete, rubber tires, recycled glass, etc. can be mixed into the container materials to use some of the landfill materials that cause problems in the wider community.

 Waste is the largest contributor to climate change -- be it wasted construction debris (C&D), used tires, wasted green materials that are put into landfills instead of composted back into the soil...or wasted water.

Many green solutions provide multiple benefits in this complex, interwoven world of ours.  Recycled content is one of those multi-benefit solutions...and large container gardens are a perfect application to not only use recycled materials in a beautiful way, but use them to grow environmentally hard-working plants! 



 

A recent discussion about composters on the GreenYes news group brought the following recommendations about composters.

In my experience, tumblers do not work as well as the manufacturer would like you to think they do !

A couple of reasons, for composting to really happen you need 4 basic needs; Brown (carbon), Green (nitrogen), Water (40%- 60%) & Air. But you also need a strong back a microorganisims. The tumblers is suspended in the air, with air flow all around the bin - this tends to dry the compost out, you will need to monitor and add water more often. I like the fact that a compost pile directly on the ground is in contact with soil micro & macro organisims, which play a huge role in the process of decomposition.

For composting to speed up or excellorate, you need enough material in the mix (critical mass) to get the pile or microbs going (heat up -131 F- 150 F optimum). At those temperatures the organic material is broke down very quickly, also plant pathogens and weed seed are distroyed in the center of the pile. This heat is generated by the microbs (thermophilic) that when comsume or break down a carbon molecule, it releases that energy stored in that molecule. Along with heat they respire water, which then dries the pile out further.

The other problem that will be incountered is the dead weight. When you have 60 gallons of material in a drum, most of the weight will settle, this tends to squeeze out air and all the weight is at the bottom. In order to mix & aereate the pile or the bin, you have to tumble or get that weight at the bottom of that pile, up to the top, several times to mix thoroughly. This can weigh quite a bit and can be hard work. Not to say turning a pile on the ground with a pitch fork is not hard, I just find it difficult and more time consuming to monitor, maintain and a rotate a tumbler.

...and opinion two:

Several years ago, when I worked for the County Extension Office, we established a compost demonstration area with several types of home built and manufactured composting devices. This included a tumbler.

As a general rule, the home built bins worked better and were easier to use than the manufactured ones. We had more problems with the tumbler than any others.

Composting can be as simple as green manure in which you bury food scraps in the soil of a flower or veggie garden, or it can be a large, scientifically designed operation to handle leaves, hay and food scraps gathered from restaurants, etc.

Either way, a little experimenting helps. And asking questions at your local County Extension center can be enlightening. Many of these Department of Agriculture offices also offer instruction sheets and classes to help you get started. Just look up "agricultural extension agent" and your county on search engines to find your local office. They are located in every state (US), and in most counties. Large cities also have offices.

Very helpful information centers!

Manage Risks and Opportunities Arising from

Ecosystem Degradation

Global warming may dominate headlines today. Ecosystem degradation will do so tomorrow.

To prepare businesses for this new landscape, three organizations have launched a set of guidelines designed to help companies proactively develop strategies to manage risks and opportunities arising from ecosystem degradation.

The guidelines, called the Corporate Ecosystem Services Review (3.5 MB) were developed by the World Resources Institute (WRI) in collaboration with the Meridian Institute and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). Five WBCSD members - Akzo Nobel, BC Hydro, Mondi, Rio Tinto, and Syngenta - "road-tested" the methodology and provided input to its design.

"The world's forests, wetlands, and other ecosystems are under tremendous pressure due to climate change, land conversion, and many other factors," said Jonathan Lash, President, WRI. "As ecosystems degrade, companies will face operational, regulatory, and reputational risks while those that offer solutions may find new business opportunities and new sources of revenue."

Ecosystems provide companies with a wide variety of benefits or services including

• Freshwater
• Wood
• Pollination
• Climate regulation
• Protection from natural hazards,

...to name a few.

"Ecosystem services are often unacknowledged, yet they underpin many corporate activities," said John Ehrmann, Managing Partner of the Meridian Institute. "I am pleased with the feedback from company managers who are finding the guidelines helpful for developing strategies that improve both corporate performance and ecosystem stewardship."

Guideline Benefits

The road-testers found that the guidelines can provide a number of other benefits as well.

• They can help companies anticipate new markets and government policies that may emerge in response to ecosystem degradation.
• They can strengthen corporate environmental impact assessments by adding considerations traditional methods may overlook.
• They also can help companies better manage conflicts over resources, identifying options for better trade-offs between ecosystem services.

"The Corporate Ecosystem Review helped us to better understand how a number of emerging environmental changes are likely to affect our business and how our company might best position itself to respond to these changes," said Steve Hunt, Senior Vice President, Asia-Pacific, Eka Chemicals, a division of chemical giant Akzo Nobel.

Some road-testers, such as Mondi and BC Hydro, used the guidelines to gain insight into the direct implications that ecosystem trends pose for them.

Other road-testers, such as Akzo Nobel and Syngenta, applied the methodology to understand the risks faced by a segment of their customers due to ecosystem degradation and, in turn, discovered opportunities for new products or services that address these risks. The guidelines profile these and other road-test experiences.

"We're going to be hearing a lot about the Corporate Ecosystem Services Review. A couple dozen more WBCSD members are already taking it up this year," said Björn Stigson, President of the WBCSD. "Leading companies realize that they need to be prepared for the business challenges posed by ecosystem decline."

Download Corporate Ecosystem Services Review"

Southern California Edison will install 250 megawatts of solar panels on 65 million square feet of roofs - that’s two square miles - of Southern California commercial buildings at a cost of $875 million. That project will be the nation’s largest solar cell installation.

Enough solar to power 162,000 homes.

In the initial phase of the program, SoCal Edison will lease 607,000 square feet of roof space at ProLogis’ Kaiser Distribution Park in Fontana, California. The area will be used to install and maintain solar panels with the potential to generate enough electricity to power 1,426 households for one year.

At the conclusion of the start-up phase, which will include five to 10 additional installations and is expected to be completed by the end of 2008, the utility will launch its full renewable energy project, aiming to complete 50 megawatts of solar panel installations each year for a total of 250 MW. Each individual installation is expected to comprise one to two megawatts.

“I urge others to follow in their footsteps,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “If commercial buildings statewide partnered with utilities to put this solar technology on their rooftops, it would set off a huge wave of renewable energy growth.”

SCE hopes to have the first solar rooftops in service by August. The company says it will install at the rate of one megawatt a week.

The program would give a big boost to California’s Million Solar Roofs program and help SCE meet a state requirement to get 20 percent of its energy from renewables by 2010.

Financing Solar Installations

Yesterday, Environmental Leader reported that solar companies are becoming financial intermediaries, leading companies to install solar power that wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford it.

Using a “power-purchase agreement” model, many solar power companies take on the cost of installing solar panels on customers’ roofs. In return, customers pay the solar power company for the panels’ output, generally at a lower rate than they would otherwise pay.

The power purchase model is also attracting bankers - Morgan Stanley, G.E. Energy Financial Services, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and MMA Renewable Ventures have all arranged financing for recent solar energy projects.

Besides the financing, state incentives and a federal investment tax credit (worth up to 30 cents on the dollar) are also driving adoption.

Small companies have to act smarter and more effectively -- not just to green themselves, but everyday. Their tight resources of time, talent and money require that every action have a realistic ROI and maximum impact.

Some small facilities' voluntary green and sustainable projects are quite significant. And when they are compounded by an industry-wide strategy to make their shared industry more sustainable -- Katie bar the door!

Golf course greening opportunities include restoring natural habitat acreage for native populations of plants and wildlife that can also contribute to the conservation of water -- which can be a substantial green contribution!

Saving energy on lighting and clubhouse mounts up, too, and waste reduced through greenwaste composting and kitchen procedures can be accomplished on a scale proportionately greater than most multinationals who undertake green operational strategies.

Sustainable landscapes reflect a high level of self-sufficiency that once established, mature and flourish virtually on their own as part of their natural ecosystem. The resulting benefits can include added aesthetics, lower maintenance costs, more effective use of water and chemicals, enhanced open space and more effective wildlife habitat value.

Site inventory is a critical step in designing any landscape, including a golf course. By minimizing earthmoving, the natural ecosystem is preserved, along with water flow through the watershed -- which extends far beyond the golf course's boundaries.

Biosolids are nutrient-rich organic materials obtained from wastewater treatment and the word itself is an emotionless word frequently refers to several families of materials:  sludge, green waste and certain food processing wastes.

There is a growing battle between biofuels and composting for these source materials.  The compost advocates want to return these bio-materials to the soil to ensure longterm nutritive value and humus to the soil.  Biofuel advocates want to burn the biosolids to produce biodiesel and other fuels to reduce our dependence on petroleum and foreign sourcing.

Watch for this battle to play out in political regulations and the media.  One example of a diversified agricultural company who has been converting biosolids to both compost and biofules is McCarty Family Farms in California.

McCarthy Family Farms was established in 1991 to provide beneficial reuse Biosolids and Green Waste Management services to cities, municipalities, and special districts throughout California.

Liberty Composting, located in Kern County, California operates the worlds largest biosolids composting facility, permitted for more than 2,000 tons per day.

Biosolids are combusted at a temperature of 1,700 degrees in the preheater/precalciner. The combustion process releases ammonia which reacts with NOx in the gas stream, producing nitrogen and water. All ash and other residues are incorporated into the cement product. During periods when the cement plant is unable to co-fire biosolids, material is diverted to Liberty Composting. Co-firing biosolids with other fuels significantly reduces N0x emissions.

Water sustains every community... from the most basic needs of its citizens to the very lifeblood of the community's economic growth. In both urban and rural areas across the U.S., water rights, allocation, treatment, delivery, and supply issues are increasingly subject to legislation and regulation. Frequently, measures are passed in reaction to a crisis and without a comprehensive plan. As the focus on our water resources increases, so does the need for equitable policy and progressive water management practices.

The Irrigation Association® has developed Turf and Landscape Irrigation Best Management Practices (BMPs) for policymakers and professionals who must save and extend our water supply while protecting water quality.

Irrigation Best Practices

The five Turf and Landscape Irrigation Best Management Practices include:

1. Assure Overall Quality of the Irrigation System;
2. Distribution of Water;
3. Install the Irrigation System to Meet the Design Criteria;
4. Maintain the Irrigation System for Optimum Performance; and\
5. Manage the Irrigation System to Respond to the Changing

Read more about Irrigation Best Management Practices

In one year, the average blower emits as much pollution as 80 new cars, each driven 12,500 miles. In contrast, the STIHL model leafblowers are nearly four times cleaner than the California Air Resources Board's standard for new blowers. Exchanging 1,500 older blowers will reduce nearly 14 tons of smog-forming pollution a year. Replacing leaf blowers with new models designed for emissions-friendly, quieter operations will help protect residents’ and gardeners’ health by reducing harmful emissions.

Read more about California's leaf blower exchange program.