Fall is here — leaves are flying and clear plastic bags full of them are piling up at the curbs.  Some of those leaves have made their way to our compost piles, thanks to some happy volunteers raking in our neighborhood, and one of our crew members, Brandon, who filled his van full of bags and brought them for us to (re)use.  Leaves are great fuel for the compost pile — they’re an excellent source of carbon (see below) to feed your compost pile, bin, or bucket.  Having a compost pile reduces the amount of garbage you generate, and using the fallen leaves you rake helps take a bit of the burden off the street sweepers and garbage collectors, providing you with some “black gold” for your garden and good Karma for reusing your waste.  Putting compost in your garden soil improves its structure and its ability to hold water, and also provides essential nutrients and beneficial micro-organisms to the soil and the plants you grow in it.  Still not convinced that you should start your own compost pile? Wait until you see how easy it is…

Here is the new compost bin we setup at our garden to help us reuse our garden waste and the leaves we have been raking up.  The container that you use for a compost setup can be just about anything, or nothing — 5 gallon buckets, straw bales, an old garbage bin with holes drilled in the sides (for air circulation), a circular frame of “chicken wire” (welded wire), or a simple, large, static pile right on the ground.  In the picture, we used a forklift pallet and some reclaimed 2×4′s and slats to build a frame, and closed up the front with a bit of welded wire mesh.  Every container may have a slightly different process to how you compost in it, but you’ll figure it out as you go.  Compost is a great learning experience because of just that — there isn’t an absolutely “right” way to do it, but you learn ways to do it better as you go.

When choosing or building a container, important things to keep in mind are the amount of space you have to work in, the amount of materials you have to work with, air circulation, and where the container will go.  If you have, for example, a small upper apartment, you might be better off going with an indoor worm bin or a Bokashi composter. Also, the 3-bucket compost system utilizes three small containers (like 5 gallon buckets) to quickly decompose small amounts of waste at a time in a small space — and it’s especially helpful in winter.

Compost is the product of nature’s decomposition process.  You can make it scientific or simple.  Bacteria, mold, and fungi break down waste with a little help from their friends — the worms.  As they break down the materials, it consumes oxygen, carbon and nitrogen, creating heat and releasing water.  Having a good balance of oxygen, moisture, carbon-rich and nitrogen-rich materials creates an ideal atmosphere for the beneficial bacteria and other decomposers hard at work making your compost.  Learning how to get that balance is part of the experience.  It’s not completely necessary (anything will break down over time), but it helps reduce odors, speeds up the process and makes a better product.

When you begin your pile, and while you build it, try to balance the kinds of ingredients you put into it by adding a layer of one when you add the other.  If you put a layer of kitchen scraps in your bin (primarily “greens”), put a layer of leaves or shredded paper or wood chips (“browns”) to even it out.  You can get very technical, but you don’t have to — it’s your compost pile.  Compost 101 has a good article to reference for carbon-rich and nitrogen-rich materials.  They have a very rigid, technical approach to balancing the carbon to nitrogen ratio (25:1 C:N) — which is a bit over-complicated for the beginner — but is helpful to think about.  They also have some great tips to consider as well.

There are two types of ingredients for your compost: browns and greens (or carbon-rich and nitrogen-rich).  Browns include: paper, ashes, cardboard, cornstalks, leaves, and wood chips.  Greens include: grass clippings, garden waste, coffee grounds, vegetable scraps, and weeds.  See the link above or google for a more complete list. AVOID Adding: meat scraps or bones, sawdust from treated woods, grease or fatty foods, domesticated animal feces, clippings from chemically treated lawns, etc.  Think about what you add to your pile before you add it.

Aeration and moisture are the only other elements that you may have to provide, depending on how you establish your compost system and how you maintain it.  If you purchase a bin composter, or build one from a old garbage can, you may need to turn it every now and then to give it some air.  If you build a large static pile, you may only turn it over once or twice.  If you add too much nitrogen-rich materials, you might end up with a wet, stinky mess — and too much carbon leaves your pile dry and cold.  My suggestion is to keep it simple: start small and add a little bit of brown every time you add a little green, and experiment with different kinds of compost techniques to learn how the materials work.  As your experience grows, so will your pile (and vise versa).

ReUse is participating in World on Your Plate this year!  Brad and I will be teaching a workshop on Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening Method on Saturday 4pm, but there are lots of other great workshops and speakers too!

Message from Jordana Geist:

The 7^th Annual World on Your Plate Food ForumFriday, October 8, 6 to 10 p.m.
Saturday, October 9, 9 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Daemen College,
Charles J. Wick Campus Center,
4380 Main Street,
Amherst, NY 14226.

Friday night includes:

• Vegan dinner reception and the screening of the documentary Living Downstream, a trailblazing and inspiring scientific exposé, based on the book by Dr. Sandra Steingraber

Saturday’s program includes:

• Morning keynote address from bestselling author of Diet for a Hot Planet, Anna Lappé

• Afternoon address from Dr. Sandra Steingraber, internationally recognized expert on the environmental links to cancer and reproductive health.

The day also offers participants their choice of two workshop sessions, from choices including Community Gardens, Organic Apiculture, Living Roofs, Holistic Health, Raising Organic Beef, Raw Foods and more!

Also presenting in the afternoon are featured speakers:

• Margaret Mitchell, MD, Functional Medicine Specialist

• Caesandra Seawell, Dir. of Community Programs at Buffalo ReUse

• Michael Schade, PVC Campaign Coordinator, Center for Health, Environment and Justice will be bringing Betty, the Be Safe Ducky, an inflatable 25-foot rubber ducky that’s been making headlines coast to coast, in support of a PVC-free and toxic-free future.

Cost is $25 with pre-registration and $30 at the door.

Students with ID are admitted free but must pre-register.

Registration includes both Friday and Saturday programs, as well as a Friday night light vegan dinner, Saturday organic lunch, and ongoing access to local vendors and information tables.

For more info. or to register, visit www.worldonyourplate.org

The City of Buffalo owns the most properties in Buffalo–most of which are vacant. Every October the City holds an auction on foreclosed empty lots, vacant commercial buildings and vacant houses. Many property owners who shop at The ReSource have successfully bid on properties and rehabbed the structures to live in themselves or to earn income as landlords. Maybe this is something you’ve thought of yourself but don’t know where to begin. I encourage you to attend our info-session October 2nd at 2pm. Megan McNally, Cassie Wilson, Michele Johnson, Harvey Garret and Diane Wray will be present to provide strategies, share their personal experiences and answer questions. There are a lot of options for acquiring property in Buffalo–this just one, but it might be the method that works for you.

Join us at 298 Northampton St.

There’s a need from Grace Community Church (175 Potomac Ave) for rides and/or carpooling to this event–not sure how many people. If anyone can assist, please coordinate with Matt Kauffman of the Homebuyers Club–maybe meet there at 1:30pm and then head over to ReUse before 2pm.

If you’ve been following the blog and facebook, you know the reason we’re hosting tonight’s Talent & Treasure Auction is so we can raise at least $6,000 toward our stipend for our two current Americorps Members, Brad and Scott. But what you might not know is how much more that 6K gets us. For almost 2yrs now we’ve been truly blessed to work with Americorps WNY and the 6 members who have served with us, Michele Silberman, Matthew Lapennas, Ben Kaiser, Rachel Mathews, Scott Kozak and Brad Kujawski.
There is no way we could have started all we have been able to accomplish with the Tool Library, all of the community gardens, the free DIY workshops, volunteer coordination, store maintenance, neighborhood improvements, tabling events and our other events and shenanigans without them–we couldn’t have even done as fabulous a job with the Extreme Demo or the Extreme Premiere!
Although we have had hundreds of hours from volunteers, this crew has provided the necessary volunteer training and support and filled in the gaps when we were short on volunteers and staff.  Their service has been crucial to this organization.

In my opinion our Americorps Members have done more to create ReUse’s positive reputation in the community than any other single person in our organization. We cannot maintain our high level of activity or grow without them.
I hope that if you do support the mission of Buffalo ReUse, you will come to tonight’s auction. It is absolutely a worthy cause. If you cannot make it to tonight’s event, but you still want to make a donation toward our Americorps stipend, please click here to go to our secure Paypal page or you can also mail a check.   Please put “Americorps stipend” in the memo section.  I also invite you to click on the photo which will take you to hundreds of other photos that prove just how much our Americorps Members have done for Buffalo, our neighborhood and this organization.
Thank you for your support.

I wouldn’t ordinarily tell someone to go out and buy a book, but this one is definitely one I think should be added to every household.  It’s a great book for newlyweds or college kids or folks who are starting out on their own.  Why?  The book is full of useful, practical, environmentally friendly tricks and tips for day-to-day house keeping.
It’s a compilation from Reader’s Digest–I know, I know–Yes, that book your gramma has on the little shelf in the bathroom.  But think about all the stuff your gramma knows how to fix and organize and DO.  Think of how we have changed our mentality of thrift to going out and buying convenience or buying all kinds of single purpose tools.  Yet, we already have tons of stuff in our pantries and cupboards and junk drawers that could do a lot more if we only thought differently about their uses.
If you try to read it cover to cover in one setting, you’ll be overwhelmed–there’s over 2300 tips!  Instead, read it a little each night or thumb through it and read whatever bits strike your fancy.  There’s tons of photos, drawings, and sidebars which break up all the concentrated information.  You will be a greener Know-it-All in no time.  It has everything from cleaning to cooking, storage to organizing and repairing– making play-dough and more.  You will save money, buy fewer tools, you will use (and flush) fewer harmful chemicals down the drain, you will be more useful to others and you’ll be richer in experience!  Unfortunately, the library won’t let you keep it forever, so get it used from a used book store instead.

For two years now, I’ve been sharing a little kooky idea to create a fleet of trikes that have the capability to water the newly planted trees, flower beds and planters throughout our neighborhood–using rain water! (see kooky napkin sketch at left).
The necessity of this hit home yesterday as I was driving up Dodge and noticed too many of the new trees look dry and knowing I don’t have an easy way to fix the problem.
We haven’t had much luck getting the Hydro Buffalo idea funded. I thought maybe “if I could just get it started” with a prototype–at least ONE trike, then riding that suped-up trike around could prove to everyone that it’s not just a kooky idea–it’s a GREAT kooky idea! and eventually we’d be able to expand the fleet.

Before you ask–YES, Blue Bike and Riverkeeper are aware of this idea, and we hope our collective audience is excited to help–we’re all in the same boat though. We need one adult trike to get us started! If anyone out there can donate a solid adult trike we can then weld a cart and get this thing rolling.  If you think you can help–please get in touch with Caesandra at volunteer {at} buffaloreuse(.)org or call 716-885-4131

Here’s the other part of the proposal if you are “People who know People”
Read the rest of this entry »

Peter and I visited a few of the Delevan Avenue gardens during the Garden Walk a couple weekends back. We were both super impressed with the gorgeous plants, colors, creative designs and SKILL of the gardeners who shared their beautiful spaces.  We also found a few resourceful urbanites who were sharing their reuse ideas!  One example is Jeff Wilson’s back yard patio space that gave broken granite slabs some knew purpose!  If you click on the photo link you’ll see some other great ideas. I know there are lots of clever examples of reuse in your gardens too; I hope you will share those ideas and photos with all of us.

You are probably seeing more and more rain barrels popping up in gardens, driveways, and backyards — if you haven’t found one for yourself yet, look no further.

And if you do not yet know: rain barrels can make a huge impact on our local ecology by conserving rain water, slowing water runoff, and preventing pollution and debris from being carried into our waterways and municipal systems.  Installing a rain barrel allows you to catch clean, untreated water that has fallen from the sky and hold it there until you need it — taking a bit of the burden off your tapwater, and the municipalities that make it.  If everyone in the city did this, think of the difference that could be made!!!

You will most likely see rain barrels all over if you are out and about for Buffalo’s Garden Walk this weekend, so if you get jealous and have the urge to keep up with the Joneses (or just want to water your garden or wash your car), you can get yourself a rainbarrel from our store at 298 Northampton for just $30.

Please don’t get me wrong, we love the Garden Walk–I love anything that gets people out into the sidewalks and talking to one another about color and veggies and sunshine. And I realize that with 355 gardens on the Walk–it makes it difficult to map a larger area; however, there are many gardens east of Main Street that I think are worth visiting–namely those in our neighborhood:

• Our Rain Garden at the corner of Northampton & Michigan is very new! It was installed by National Grid employees as a corporate service project this past Earth Day 2010. The garden was designed by Matthew Dore of Buffalo Horticulture. Matt regraded the vacant double lot to guide rain water into the middle (like a shower drain) where a pergola was built surrounded by blueberry bushes. The lot also features a privacy fence using reclaimed flooring. The perennial flower beds have a backdrop of foundation stone.  Planters built from reclaimed hemlock floor joists double as seating along the sidewalk.
  Keep traveling down Northampton and
• You’ll discover a Bee Sanctuary which was once a vacant lot, but is now a warm blanket of yellow, amber, and bronze with summer wild flowers. (In the spring the lot was dotted with blues, pinks and purples). The wild flowers are native to the North East and are helping to fortify a sagging urban bee population.
• Our Children’s Vinery is truly unique!  It has an apple tree and six arbors supporting a variety of pole beans, melon, squash, tomatoes, eggplant and chard.  We have Mobile Victory Gardens donated by artist, Stella Maars which are growing herbs and pumpkins.  We’re just adding a teepee of morning glories.  We have experimental containers for growing potatoes and a strawberry patch which has delighted people of all ages!
• The Patchwork Garden is also a sight–50 different beds which neighbors, volunteers and groups have adopted!  Folks plant whatever they want in this community garden and they enjoy having a place to grow their own food and relax.  We host events like movie nights, cooking demos, art, performances and free gardening workshops in the garden.
• Just around the corner there is another style of community garden, The Cold Spring Community Garden on Southampton and Masten, managed by Dan Ash and Jessica Lang.  Their garden is a site where five houses once stood, but now there is an 8foot wall of tomatoes, several rows of vegetables and raspberry vines.  There are also fruit trees which will mature into a mixed bowl of cherries, plums, peaches, pears and apples!  Volunteers and neighbors work in the garden and are able to eat what they harvest.

Thousands of volunteer hours have gone into building these gardens and the whole reason is so people can come and enjoy them. We hope you’ll visit them soon.  Over the next 2years we hope that Northampton will showcase greenspace development and neighborhood stabilization.  It will be like a red carpet–only greener!  If you have questions or would like to get involved, please stop by our table at the Garden Walk/Talk this weekend!

We hope you’ll join Michael Gainer and others as we share really inspiring examples of community building and neighborhood improvement efforts from around the country–even some from other countries!

This is an opportunity to throw off the cynicism and see how regular people lead the way in creating thriving neighborhoods.  You are the best person to start making a difference because you know your neighborhood and the kind of neighborhood where you want to live.

Gracious Hostess, Prish Moran, is allowing us to meet with you at her cafe, Sweet_ness7 –from 6-8pm Tuesday, July 20th.  We really hope you can make some time to be inspired–bring a friend or a new face!