Compost experiments update – 8 months

Last July, I started a couple of compost experiments. As I was using up one bin full of compost today (four heaping wheelbarrows full), I realized that these two experiments have been officially completed.

First, I spread partially-completed compost on my back garden as mulch last July. Since I put everything from our kitchen, absolutely everything organic (in the original dust-to-dust meaning of the word), into our pile, I was curious to see how quickly it would break down when finished as mulch. I was also a tad worried about the neighbor complaining about the not-perfectly-neat appearance of some of the larger bits. I’m happy to report no complaints (well, about the compost anyway) and also that the recognizable bits weathered away very quickly. I’m very happy with the rough compost as mulch concept, and did it again today.

Here is my baby grape vine, waking up from winter dormancy, with a fresh bed of compost mulch:

I spread it all in the back garden, fruit trees, elderberries, mountain laurel. I didn’t have enough for the entire garden, but most of it. Ours has to be one of the few companies that shreds and composts our old office documents. That’s privacy, folks. You can see some clumps of Starbucks coffee in there, too.

My second experiment is the one I’m really excited about. Eight months ago, I added a good bit of cotton fabric to my pile (see picture and explanation in the first post). I had almost forgotten about it, until I encountered a few scraps in the middle of the pile today. Just a few! Almost all of the fabric has broken down into small enough bits that I didn’t notice it among the other chunks. The few larger pieces that I did notice got tossed back into an active pile today for finishing. So I can confidently say that my fabric + coffee grounds recipe is a keeper. That’s good to hear because I’ll be starting work on some organic cotton canvas shopping bags for this year’s farmer’s market tomorrow (yay!).

So today was a good compost day. Now that we’ve been in the house for almost two years, we are really starting to create some materials flow. I pulled out the final bit of the fall garden and filled up one compost bin to overflowing:

The wheelbarrow is full of materials from my neighbor’s fence bed, to start the new active bin. I weeded and gathered leaves from her driveway. Ain’t I nice? She said if we move, she’s following us. Heh. Anyway, we’re still not a closed-loop system. I buy hay from the Feed and Seed to mulch veggies and to balance the greens in our compost piles. I also buy finished compost in bags (organic cotton burr compost) every time I plant a new crop. We just don’t make enough yet. I’m not sure we ever will, on this size lot. But the pace is definitely picking up. I’ll check in next spring and see if we hit a plateau.

Compost experiments

I am currently running two compost experiments. Well, they’re new to me.

First, I’ve started using partially-decomposed compost as mulch. I am desperately in need of mulch in this heat. And I don’t want to use anything too woody at this stage for a couple of reasons. First, I never use anything woody in my veggie beds, because I want to be able to dig the mulch into the soil when I harvest one crop and plant a new one. So I normally mulch with compost. But these beds are just eating compost so fast that it’s not acting as a mulch for more than a couple of weeks. I could use hay or straw, but I’d like something that looks a little more “mulchy”, since the beds are in my front yard. Second, even my ornamental beds are still in need of lots of soil-building, having been recently lawn, for the most part. So I am loathe to put down anything that won’t improve the soil in the short term. Woody mulches take too long to break down for the short-term improvements that I need.

So, out came the unfinished compost. This stuff is coming out of my middle bin. The only recognizable bits are egg shells, corn cobs, and the odd peanut shell. Oh, and some hay that I added when I turned it into the middle bin. The pile was a bit too “green”, so I added hay at that time, to balance with “browns”. It worked, and now the pile is nice-smelling and foresty. But still, I wasn’t sure if my next door neighbor would see the egg shells and give me a hard time. Or something. I don’t know, I just had this sense that maybe someone would call me out on a non-federation move. But no. Not a peep. Check it out:

That’s my new turk’s cap, with a nice, thick layer of unfinished compost cooling the roots. Just be very sure not to dig this stuff into the soil if there are plants growing already, or will be soon. When the soil life are busy decomposing large bits of plant matter, it ties up nutrients that the plants rather need. So as a mulch, this is a good idea, but not as a soil amendment, unless the bed will sit empty for a season while the compost breaks down further.

I’m happy with how this worked out, so I’ll give it a go in the front yard, next.

My next experiment is in response to the fabric scraps that we have at work. I haven’t been able to find a scrap fabric recycling facility that deals with small inputs like ours. So I’m going to see if I can compost the stuff. It’s all 100% cotton, most of it organically-grown, and smaller than 2″. I donate the larger scraps to quilters. Then Jan came home with four big bags of used coffee grounds from Starbucks. It’s free. Get it. It’s really good for our alkaline soil. Anyway, very dry brown fabric + very green coffee grounds = (hopefully in a timely manner) compost!

I’ll let you know how long it takes . . .

Block printing/stamping

My primary focus at home, besides the fam, is gardening. But my primary focus at work is manufacturing baby products. During the last five years, I’ve realized that I have a passion for textiles. My current obsession is embellishments. Specifically, I’d like to master as many different embellishment techniques in our own production facility as possible.

Some techniques require either lots of hand-work or very expensive machinery, like embroidery and appliqué. Some techniques can be done very economically, even with homemade equipment, like screen printing. And some techniques seem to have been almost completely lost in the U.S., most likely due to expensive labor costs, like block printing.

So, the way my particular brand of logic works, I really want to start with the simplest method. I know the labor costs are high, but I have come to value human-powered work over all others in my daily life. They are the most satisfying personally, as well as in a work environment, as a manager of people.

Unfortunately, there is very little useful information about production block printing (or stamping, as it is more commonly referred to in a domestic, U.S., setting). I’ve tried approaching the only other firm I know of that is doing it domestically, but they declined to share any of their experiences. They said they are too busy, which I guess is a good sign. So, I wing it.

My first step was to see if I could come up with an ink that I don’t have to heat-set, which is usually necessary for wear- and wash-fastness. It’s not that heat-setting is all that difficult in a production setting. But if I can simplify the process in the beginning, I’d like to. I finally found one at Dharma Trading Company: Dr. Martin’s Craft Inks. Then I ordered a rubber stamp from Rubber Stamp Champ. They make custom rubber stamps in a variety of types and sizes. I ordered one for our care labels, thinking I can use twill tape and the stamp to make care labels as we need them. Or we can even stamp the care label directly into the item, if there’s a good spot.

I stamped some scrap canvas a bunch of times, then washed sections of the fabric after 24 hours and after one week:

The variations in the darkness of each iteration are due to my stamping, e.g. the darkest stamps were made first, then I stamped again without re-inking. But overall, the ink held up perfectly even after only 24 hours. The canvas I used is too course to take the stamp well, so it’s coming across rough and uneven. But overall, I’m very happy. I can see using this combination of techniques for any small-scale printing we want to do, including logos. Next I will experiment with something larger and a tad more artistic.