What did you do in the garden today?

[Smokerbill]

I used to burn lots of cardboard, then I sent cardboard to the recycle center, but for the past year I have been shredding up our cardboard and using the shreds in the chicken coop as deep bedding. When I clean out the coop, the paper and cardboard shreds get tossed into the chicken run to compost in place. The shreds compost pretty fast and then they get put into my raised garden beds as finished compost in 4-6 months.

I have a big manual scissors, but it was getting too hard for my old hands to cut heavy packing cardboard without getting cramps. So, I bought a power cutter which cuts the heavy cardboard without any effort.

View attachment 3734631

Now I can cut up our heavy cardboard packing boxes we get from Amazon into 2-3 inch wide strips and feed them down my paper shredder at home. Makes gets shreds for coop bedding litter and later as finished compost for the gardens as I mentioned.

Just wanted to mention that option because I find shredding the cardboard to be more useful to me than when I used to burn it.

I'm going to try putting paper and cardboard pieces into one of my plastic trashcans, then cover it all with water to soak. After it's all waterlogged and soft it would be dumped into the compost pile. I bet it would break down pretty fast that way.

 

[akroberts1085]

I'm going to try putting paper and cardboard pieces into one of my plastic trashcans, then cover it all with water to soak. After it's all waterlogged and soft it would be dumped into the compost pile. I bet it would break down pretty fast that way.

That's a good idea. I will try to do that as well.

 

[gtaus]

I'm going to try putting paper and cardboard pieces into one of my plastic trashcans, then cover it all with water to soak. After it's all waterlogged and soft it would be dumped into the compost pile. I bet it would break down pretty fast that way.

I watched some YouTube videos on taking paper and cardboard pieces, putting them in a bucket with water, letting it breakdown into a slurry, and then pressing the paper into bricks for burning. Homemade DIY fire logs.

Here is just one such video...

I have read that worms love to eat the glue that comes off cardboard. For composting, the smaller the shreds, the faster the composting. If you experiment with soaking the shreds before you put them in the compost, I would be interested to know if the paper breaks down even faster - or if the paper dries out into a glob in the compost pile and might take even longer. That would be interesting, I think.

Before I had chickens, I used to grind up my kitchen scraps in an outside garbage disposal unit with a bucket underneath. I would toss browns, such as leaves, in the compost bin and pour the slurry from the bucket on top to activate the composting process. When you do that layer by layer, the slurry is gone in only days and the compost pile heats up really fast.

Of course, now I feed the kitchen scraps and leftovers directly to the chickens. They process the kitchen scraps and leftovers, give me eggs, and make compost for me. Of all the composting methods I have tried, I still like running everything through the chickens best.

 

[gtaus]

That's a good idea. I will try to do that as well.

Just remembered that you can get an inexpensive drywall mud paddle for your drill and use that to rip and blend up the paper, cardboard, and water into a very fine slurry. Beats doing it by hand.

I bought a couple of those paddle mixers when they were on sale. I primarily use them to mix up chicken scratch from leftover grains that I might have laying around at the end of a winter. Just dump a bit of each grain into a 5-gallon bucket and use the mud paddle to mix everything well. Works great.

IIRC, I got my mud paddles at Menards for next to nothing after rebate. Here is the normal everyday price...

 

[saysfaa]

No, I suppose not. Are you talking about the pollution related to the mining and manufacturing of the minerals for batteries? If so, as I stated, we need safer and more environmentally friendly minerals for batteries in the future...

Yes. And what happens with the batteries after.

If you have a link to any stories of problems with cobalt mining in Minnesota, I would like to read about it. No doubt, we will never see it in our local news or newspapers.

https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/o...nt-buy-alternative-facts-on-mining-near-bwcaw

https://apnews.com/article/twin-met...s-wilderness-5005340ca31c10e0fe5eed4076ae8421

Edit to add:

I've been paying more attention to DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) lately because my son's fiancée is Congolese. She came to the US when she was a young adult.

Cobalt is usually associated with copper mining.

Lol, and she had an eyeopening when she planted a garden in the US. It needed to be watered!?! She had gardens when she lived in DRC. She said, you just plant seeds, wait, and harvest. Maybe weed a little. There was no need to think about water or temperatures or anything else.

 

[gtaus]

Yes. And what happens with the batteries after.

https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/o...nt-buy-alternative-facts-on-mining-near-bwcaw

https://apnews.com/article/twin-met...s-wilderness-5005340ca31c10e0fe5eed4076ae8421

The Duluth News Tribune article was blanked out unless you pay for a subscription. The AP News article was free to read. From what I see, the mining of those minerals has been halted under court order because of the impact on the environment. Seems like an issue that both parties look at differently.

Political administrations come and go, but sometimes those industries that pollute the environment can last longer than a lifetime to clean up. I guess I'm more on the side of a clean and safe environment than temporary jobs provide by extracting toxic materials and polluting the environment for years.

Where I live, we used to have lumber mills that used heavy metals in their process. Those companies and all those jobs are long gone, but we are still paying for cleanup of their mess. There are a number of lakes around where I live that the fish are toxic and you cannot eat them. Even after 50+ years when the lumber mill packed up and moved elsewhere.

My grandfather was a great outdoorsman and hunter. He believed in a clean, safe, and healthy environment for the fish, birds, and game for hunting. I think the most popular "charity" in our area is still "Ducks Unlimited." But every hunter I grew up with was always concerned about the health of our planet and the ability to pass on a hunting tradition to their kids and grandkids. You never left garbage out in the field when you hunted with my grandfather. In fact, you might end up with a small bagful of trash someone else left behind because it was expected you would clean it up if you saw it.

Even in my gardening today, I don't use chemical fertilizers. I use natural chicken run compost and that seems to work great for me. I'm not against others using process fertilizers, I just chose not to. But I know everything that is natural and healthy that goes into my chicken run compost. I can't say I'm organic certified, but probably pretty close in most respects using only natural stuff for my gardens.

 

[Sally PB]

My local HD has a battery recycle bin. Our local recycling plant has bins just for batteries. I just don't have much confidence that any of those batteries go anywhere but to a landfill. So, I agree battery disposal is an issue I hope we solve.

I wish we had a battery recycling location.

I think most of us are for cleaner environments. It's easy to see how much we pay for electricity on our monthly bills, but it's harder to see how much we "pay" for living in a dirty environment. As I said, my lungs were damaged in my military service, so I can feel the cost of living in an area with air pollution as I will be hacking up my lungs as a reminder.

It's our children/grandchildren who will be footing the bill. I might not live to see it get really bad, or a lot better.

Lol, and she had an eyeopening when she planted a garden in the US. It needed to be watered!?! She had gardens when she lived in DRC. She said, you just plant seeds, wait, and harvest. Maybe weed a little. There was no need to think about water or temperatures or anything else.

 

[saysfaa]

The Duluth News Tribune article was blanked out unless you pay for a subscription. The AP News article was free to read. From what I see, the mining of those minerals has been halted under court order because of the impact on the environment. Seems like an issue that both parties look at differently.

Political administrations come and go, but sometimes those industries that pollute the environment can last longer than a lifetime to clean up. I guess I'm more on the side of a clean and safe environment than temporary jobs provide by extracting toxic materials and polluting the environment for years.

Where I live, we used to have lumber mills that used heavy metals in their process. Those companies and all those jobs are long gone, but we are still paying for cleanup of their mess. There are a number of lakes around where I live that the fish are toxic and you cannot eat them. Even after 50+ years when the lumber mill packed up and moved elsewhere.

My grandfather was a great outdoorsman and hunter. He believed in a clean, safe, and healthy environment for the fish, birds, and game for hunting. I think the most popular "charity" in our area is still "Ducks Unlimited." But every hunter I grew up with was always concerned about the health of our planet and the ability to pass on a hunting tradition to their kids and grandkids. You never left garbage out in the field when you hunted with my grandfather. In fact, you might end up with a small bagful of trash someone else left behind because it was expected you would clean it up if you saw it.

Even in my gardening today, I don't use chemical fertilizers. I use natural chicken run compost and that seems to work great for me. I'm not against others using process fertilizers, I just chose not to. But I know everything that is natural and healthy that goes into my chicken run compost. I can't say I'm organic certified, but probably pretty close in most respects using only natural stuff for my gardens.

Do you see the conversation I started? I pasted the text there.

I agree with all this (in your quote, I mean). I don't want the mining polluting the Congo either - I edited my last post to add that I've been paying a lot more attention to that country since my son met his fiancée who is Conglese.

 

[saysfaa]

...

Yep. An advantage living nearly on top of the equator. And, probably, having other factors there. But really does rain often enough but not too much. It took me a while to understand - it is such a paradigm shift from here.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I actually got to spend a few hours in the garden today... It's practically a swamp because of all the rain we've had but that makes pulling weeds easier. I got last season's tomatoes, asparagus, lemon balm, etc all cleared out. I also started working on clearing out the corner of the property next door (belonging to the medical clinic) that's full of scrub and weeds. It always comes across the fence and I end up fighting to keep it out of my beds along the fence. So my goal this year is to clear it out and try to sow a wildflower plot over there. Anyway, I got about 80-90% of it cleared out. Now there's a huge pile of brush. I would LOVE it if the landscaping crew that mows would take care of it for me but unlikely. I'll probably have to burn it or figure out how to get rid of it. There's TONS of vining weeds over there so I'm a bit concerned that it'll just come back tenfold over the summer.