Electronic Pruning

In an effort to reduce my carbon footprint while growing a market-ready orchard, I am developing a process by which a local pruning expert can digitally advise me (and eventually any homeowner) on proper pruning cuts for any given tree or shrub. The idea grew from the fact that I live out in the "country" and I only have one mature tree in need of pruning. When I used to live in the city, I could easily get a pruning expert to swing by for an estimate, even for one tree. Now it hardly seems worth it for me or for the expert to make the journey. Also, I like to do the work myself, so any estimate would probably not result in any work for the expert. I thought that if I could get the advice for less money out of my pocket, a reduced amount of time travelling for the expert, and still get a healthy tree in the end, why not?

So far I have an expert on board ( Corva Rose, the magic behind Divine Earth Aesthetic Pruning and Restoration; www.divineearthnm.com) and an experimental Apple Tree. The first thing to do is take pictures of the tree from four directions, i.e., north, west, south, and east.

Looking north...



West...




South...




East...





This will give the expert a sense of walking around the tree to assess it. Next, I will submit additional photos from the same vantage points but taken in winter when the leaves have dropped and the branches are visible. The hope is that the expert can then use a computer program (I am sure one exists already) to overlay arrows and comments on where to prune for the best possible growth and production for the years to come.

My hope is that more people take personal responsibility for their gardens and trees, get out and enjoy their gardens more, understand plant growth and needs, generate business for experts in the horticultural business, and reduce automobile use.

Stay tuned for the next set of photos and an update on progress made toward this innovative new pruning technique.

Permitting Influx

Today, on the way to work, the tule fog was back after several months on hiatus. The cooler weather and moist air even brought a mist over the swimming pool. It evoked a change, in seasons to be sure, but I couldn't help thinking a change in something grander, too.

Not to be overly dramatic, but the change is here. In the last week alone, Soilutions and it's neighbors have been inspected and in some cases fined by: NM Environment Department Ground Water Quality, NMED Hazardous Waste, OSHA, Bernalillo County Fire Department, and the EPA. The way things feel, I am sure the City Dust Abatement Department as well as god knows who all else are on their way.

I don't have any complaints about being compliant. It keeps every Tom, Dick, and Harry from getting into the lucrative composting business. There is a certain validness with ground water protection, employee safety, and fire hazards. But what gets me, or rather one of the things that gets me about the whole thing is that they don't offer alternatives, reasons, or, in some cases, legitimate fire prevention practices. You are supposed to do as they say. If you try to correct the violation, but do so incorrectly (because they don't care to offer any insight into what they mean by "approved" containment, for example,) no credit for trying. In fact, it appears that a failed attempt will get you a fine.

Soilutions has been in operation for over 13 years. Within that time, we have NEVER had a work related injury, NEVER had a fire, have ALWAYS had a certified facility operator on staff. We have NEVER had a customer accident, injury or even an unpleasant experience (well, I shouldn't say never an unpleasant experience. More like overwhelmingly favorable). We are kind, courteous, respectful, and helpful. We play by the rules and expect others to do so as well. When we opened shop, we asked the Bernalillo County Fire Department for an inspection. They did not come for 12 years! When they did finally show up early this year, the fire marshall finished the inspection by handing over a $70 bill to pay for it. I thought that's what taxes paid for!

And the inanity of it all. Because a neighbor had a fire along the ditch bank caused by a burning butt tossed by a passerby, we have to take temperature readings every week. We don't have to file those temperatures with any one at any time, but they do need to be available for review at the whim of the FD. Why? Anyone who knows about combustion, should know that the biological process inside a compost pile is vastly different than the combustion of a carbon source. But the point is, how does temperature readings deter fire hazard in the first place? If my pile is going to spontaneously combust, won't it do that regardless of my temperature readings? And, the pile most likely to burn is the pile of brush that will read ambient all the time. I feel like the boys with badges are just trying to boss us around. Granted, not all the departments coming by to inspect our operations have been adversarial. But "to a hammer, everything looks like a nail" and just by having to host these curious eyes we are risking fines that, in all honesty, even the best of compost companies can ill afford to pay.

So I suggest that we "inspect" some departments of our own. I'll start with the Bernalillo County Road Department. If I have to call one more time to have that pile of illegally dumped tires picked up from down the sreet, I'm gonna pick them up myself and dump them on their front steps. And how about the Sherrif's Department patrolling the road in the first place to stop the illegal dumpers; or the bums stealing copper from our yards every other freaking Tuesday afternoon!

Anybody else have a Department they wnat to put on notice?

Backyard Vegetable Gardening

I ended my last posting with a comment about having a long way to grow before organic growing is properly understood by all, even those practicing it. I think the same can be said for home vegetable gardening.

Check out his article from NPR the other day.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111721631

The gist of the article says that somebody planted vegetables in their front yard and that, even though the height was within the stated covenants, they were fined because the plants were vegetables, not ornamentals.

The hulabaloo is mimicked in the outcry earlier this year regarding the Obama's organic vegetable garden. Rumor had it that there was legislation under consideration to hinder the proliferation of back yard vegetable gardens citing potential salmonella/fecal coliform contamination.

While groups quickly embrace "Green Building" Technology in structures, they continue not to embrace the simple notion that to be truly sustainable you must also treat the supporting infrastructures in the same way. In many cases this is the first and least expensive step that should be taken.

Organic vs. Conventional

A customer forwarded this article to me the other day.

http://health.msn.com/nutrition/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100242535

I found it interesting that the article made a distinction between conventionally grown food and organically grown food. Up until 70 or so years ago, wasn't the conventional way to grow food similar to organic growing nowadays? Didn't the farmer grow his own food, rotating crops and using chickens as both fertilizer and pest control? If food traveled more than 10 miles from where it was grown it was because one family was visiting another and bringing along homemade pie.

It is only during the last century that food producers have experimented with non-conventional methods: taking all the nutrients from the soil with no thought of replenishment, modifying plants so that they accept only one type of pollen while being immune to the herbicides broadcast randomly, planting mono cultures, tearing down forests to plant crops with no value. As I see it, the organic movement is a trend towards the old ways, not a new fangled idea.

I found it also interesting that the article focused only on the nutrient value of the food from the two types of growing methods. That too, is incompatible with the whole idea of organic growing. Organic growing comprehensively addresses the entire process of growing food. We don't just look at the nutrient value of an individual vegetable; we look and consider where the food was grown, how it was grown, in what it was grown, how it was harvested, where it's sold, farm management...the list continues.

At the compost site I often discuss the "cost" of material. Most frequently it stems from a customer trying to decide between decorative gravel and our organic mulches. After I point out some of the true costs of gravel, i.e., mining (environmental and aesthetic) and it's equipment (diesel fuel and exhaust), transportation costs(including wear and tear on roads and highways), labor to move it, the effects of added heat to the our dry city and its surroundings, a customer begins to see the value in using a recycled product in their landscape.

While it's exciting to see MSN approach the subject of organically grown food (I don't think we would have seen an article like this even five years ago), we still have a long way to go before the subject is addressed fully and comprehensively.

A Good Day Ruined

The other day was one of ups and downs. The first good thing to happen to me was commencement on a project that I had been putting off for quite some time. I am building a work bench. Sounds simple but it has proven not so. Most of the difficulty comes from the importance of the project; once I get the work bench built, then I can effectively use my planer and router, allowing me to build my gates to the south courtyard. Once the gates are built, it will be winter so I can focus on making and eventually installing my recycled pine flooring. I determined that I can work on the bench in the morning before I go to work. The garage is far enough away from sleeping quarters that the noise won't disturb the sleeping members of my family. But I digress.
So I got to the compost site feeling satisfied with a good mornings' work already. I haven't figured out how to work in the morning on the building projects and still keep up with work on the garden but I wasn't letting that bother me just then.
A good cup of coffee and an extra spirited future planning meeting at the office bode well for the day.
I should have known things were brewing, but we never do, do we?
"The boys" showed up to work. On their way in they had hit a hawk by car. Evidently the bird swooped down in front of the vehicle leaving no time to avoid it. It was a beautiful bird, one that we had all watched grow up with his siblings over the last couple of years.
Then, we decided that Misch should do some meet-and-greets while the weather was hot and business was slow. So we plotted his route and sent him on his way. (With some trepidation, I might add. Everytime Misch leaves, some piece of equipment goes on the fritz.) Without much phone traffic in the office, and the computer tied up, I decided to tour the ditch that borders our property. We battle thieves down here routinely and like to monitor suspicious activity when we can. Driving down the ditch, I noticed some large tractor tires, used to build up the ditch bankas a barrier, had been moved to create a passageway for a small vehicle. It looked like there were tire tracks going into the yard. I determined which company was affected and went over to notify them. (As a side note: have you ever noticed the reaction of people when confronted with someone that wants nothing from them, just to help them out, unasked?)Once they realized I wasn't trying to sell them land in Florida, they were very appreciative and had the breach repaired by the end of the day.
But by the time I got half way down the return road, things started to unravel.
I got a call from the office asking about a commercial tipper; what's their billing routine, etc. I thought they were a reliable customer, and explained it as such, but by the time I pulled in they had tipped and gone with out payment. The driver was not able to communicate with our office, so we were left holding the bag until I track down someone with authorization to pay.
While dealing with that, Phillip comes into the office to state that the our delivery truck is broken. "What do you mean broken?" I ask. Apparently, they broke the clutch (or the transmission, or the axle) trying to pull a full load out of the loading pit.
Within the following hour, our water pump quit. Just stopped. It had been leaking oil and we've had issues with the pull-cord but we could always nurse it back to operational. Not so today.
Before noon that day, we were completely incapacitated, dead in the water. Without our screen (down for regularly scheduled maintenance) we can't process product for sale. Without our delivery truck we can't deliver our products. Without our pump, we can't make product.
I like to say that in the compost business, if it gets done in six month, it is fast-tracked. Small hiccups here and ther are not really a problem in the long term scheme of things. If we can't get to it today, then we'll find something else to do and get back at it next week. Equipment fails, that's a fact of materials production. But there is something unnerving about being stopped suddenly on so many fronts.
So we all had a long lunch and will look forward to a better week forthcoming.

Garden Pests du Jour

Here are a couple of little guys currently in my garden.

Quite lovely really.


This one was resting in the tomatoes one morning (look closely). I left him because I was hunting a much bigger critter, i.e.,...







Then there are these creepy crawlers. They are very similar to the squash bugs: same shape, size, and ability to reproduce alarmingly quickly. They are on the Brussel Sprouts, though, and do not kill the plant nor ruin the fruit.

The Devil Wears Green

The last couple of years I have been having problems with my tomatoes; no wilt or other viruses, just poor growth and minimal fruit. It was bad enough that this year I decided not to grow any tomatoes (all the neighbors grow them anyway and always have enough to share). But my child brought home a bunch of seedlings grown in a Dixie cup for a class project. As I am a sucker for any plants, I could not let them wither no matter that decision. We planted them and, lo and behold, about three took root. This crop has been big, lush, and setting fruit like crazy. Tomatoes seem to be the bell weather for a garden and I was watching them anxiously. Yesterday afternoon I decided the first cherry tomatoes were ready to pick.

So this morning out I go with my coffee and dogs as companions. The air was cool, the ground dewy--perfect for a ceremonial harvest. You can probably see what's coming; the top half of the bushes were completely defoliated! I've seen this before. I expect it in fact. Tomato Horn Worm. Able to strip a plant in a single day. The only caterpillar to eat so voraciously it's audible. Perfectly camouflaged to be nearly invisible.


It is so big and fleshy that it borders the grotesque.

Yet beautiful and almost elegant; apt, as it is the larva of the swallowtail butterfly.


As with all of my garden nemeses, it does have an Achilles heel. I have learned that by following the large black droppings, and by practicing patience and stillness, I can discover them clamped to a branch. This morning I found five resting peacefully. I composted them. And still got my ceremonial harvest.



Yumm.

Fun with Recycling-- part 2

Although not nearly as easy to make as the swing set in the previous post, here is a beautiful garden bell made from an used acetylene tank. After cutting off the bottom with a torch, the artist sanded the inside and out. If you look closely, southwestern icons are welded to the outside. A professional powder coat of paint was then applied for durability.

This bell has no clanger; a deep rich tone is achieved by rapping it with a wooden mallet.

This bell is a valuable piece to our garden puzzle, all the more so because the material was diverted from the landfill. We ring ours to summon the kids to dinner, to summon the spirits to tea, to welcome the sun and to bid the day goodbye. We whack it when we're angry, we rub it when we're pensive.

Fun with Recycling

From this




comes this



in just four hours and $20 for hardware.

Improvements at the Site

We are always trying to offer our clients a better product. In the early days that meant perfecting our process. Then we had electricity installed. After 13 years we have picked the low hanging fruit and are now able to work on some of the minutiae.

One of the ongoing issues for us is trash. From day one, we have worked to educate people what constitutes contamination. Whether through ignorance or maliciousness, we battle trash every day. Part of the problem comes from our permits: we are registered with the NMED as a composting facility, not a solid wasted facility. Technically, if we accept trash, we are in violation of our permit to operate. But the more realistic reason for curtailing trash is that it presents visual, and to an extent, actual evidence that we don't take the care that we claim to take. And lastly, trash pisses me off. This is my home away from home and to have people not see that and treat the site like a dump bums me out.

So, Misch has been working on a trash vacuum to remove trash from the product as it goes over the screens. The screening process is the last piece of the puzzle for our finished Premium Compost. But screening is the just the beginning for other products: Forest Floor Mulch, Topsoil Blend, Screened Mulch, new piles of Premium Compost, etc.



Basically what we have now is a vacuum, connected on one side to a vent, and on the other side to a cyclone that separates air from trash. The vent side is located below the conveyor so that just as the "overs" shoot off the conveyor, the vacuum sucks the lighter stuff, i.e. plastic, out of the stream. Plastic then goes into the cyclone where air is jettisoned out the top and the captured contaminates drop out the bottom to be disposed of in a conventional fashion.

A very simple concept really. But it has taken aver a year to design and build, countless man- hours and thousands of hard earned dollars. It is one way of reducing our costs so that we don't have to raise our prices. Enjoy.

Lillies in Bloom

Down here at the compost facility, we are near many empty lots, junkyards, equipment yards. There is an former meat packing plant for sale. I drive by it every day and ponder the destination of all the crap that has collected over the years. It depresses me really. So much good stuff once upon a time. But after years of neglect and disuse, it has become unsightly, dangerous, and worthless.

But there is also a lot on the way home that makes me smile. Nine months of the year it looks like all the other lots around here: cluttered, junky, a hodgepodge of dusty disorderliness. Around the end of March somebody starts tilling rows and I get to thinking that it's going to be a vegetable garden. Looking at the place, why would anybody plant anything else but something to eat. About mid May, what looks like corn is sprouting and I nod in recognition. Corn: stable, sure-fire, useful. I am always a little jealous about how high it is so early on.

But in June, it hits me. It never creeps up, it is never subtle, it always hits. This lot is growing daylillies! Row and rows of daylillies. It is so incongruous to me. The blooms aren't harvested as far as I can tell. I 've never seen them at the local farmer's markets.

When I see it enough times to get over that disconnect, it dawns on me: flowers feed the soul like corn feeds the stomach, or some such. I think if I lived in squalor, I would need something beautiful to drag me through each day. Heck, I've got it made and I need something beautiful to drag me through each day!

Insectophile's Dilemma

Here's a dilemma: I was out pulling weeds this morning and came across a ladybug. It was cruising for breakfast on a tumbleweed. Permaculture says quite a few things about weeds. One suggestion applicable here is to consider them as pioneer plants helping to control erosion while adding to soil tilth. I am a lazy gardener and don't mind weeds around so I like that idea. But another suggestion is to pull them when green and use the nitrogen to fire up a compost pile. That sounds good, too; I am all about composting.

So I got to work late this morning because I couldn't decide what to do. Do I pull the weed and move the ladybug to another plant? or do I keep the tumbleweed because it obviously is attractive to both the aphids and their predator?



A favorite joke around the campfire had the punchline, "Patience, Jackass." So I'll wait and see what the ladybugs do, what the seedheads on the weeds do, and what I feel like doing manana.

Score one for Organics

I heard on NPR last night that Monsanto saw a 40% decrease in sales last quarter.
Monsanto is the company that makes the herbicide Roundup. They also happen to be the biggest driving force behind the Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) movement. Has anyone else taken notice of their "Sustainable Agriculture" advertising push on the back of magazines such as the New Yorker? While no one likes to hear that 900 or so employees will be out of work at this difficult junction in our economic climate, I can't help but cheer for the populace's decision to restrain from purchasing their chemicals.

Los Lunas Farmer's Market

Tuesday June 16 marks the first day of the new Los Lunas Farmer’s Market. I hope everyone comes to support this long awaited market. For more information try going to this link:

www.news-bulletin.com/news/89538-06-10-09.html

I am beginning to learn that Los Lunas is full of good people who feel stranded by others' the notion that we are too far away from Albuquerque to warrant any real consideration as a viable option for healthy food. La Montanita Co-Op at last conversation has no plans to investigate the possibility of opening up down here. Forget about Whole Foods or Sunflower Markets.
Never mind the “coals to Newcastle” idea. While many people have vegetable garden plots and the Valencia County Community Gardens organization is growing like a weed(pardon the pun), it is often too difficult for someone for whom farminig is not a full time job to grow a comprehensive, family-sustaining vegetable garden.
So I think a Farmer’s Market is a welcome addition to our booming little life in the country.

California Dreamin'

This cool overcast weather reminds me of home. I am sure a lot of us used to call some place else home before we got to the Land of Entrapment.

I used to call the Cental Coast of California home, and before that, Northern California. There is an old phrase oft bantered about: "the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco". I miss the fog and the dew. I miss the sudden swath of sunshine at 11am as the fog clears out for awhile. I miss feeling like a local. So when the state flower, a poppy, bloomed the other day in my back yard, I couldn't believe my luck.



New Mexico has so much to offer and I don't want you all to feel like I am here unwillingly. But I do miss some things about the Golden State. Most of all I miss submerging myself daily in the Pacific Ocean. That's probably why we sponsor a polar bear swim every January 1st. To that end, I offer a link to video produced monthly by an old friend of mine. I hope you enjoy. http://surf.transworld.net/2009/04/17/nellys-magic-moments-part-4-santa-cruz/

Call For Photos

I am always curious about the projects on which people use our products. People seem so excited when they leave here; their excitement is contagious.


So, I am making a call out to our customers to send me photos of their projects.














It could be a photo of a bountiful harvest.


Or a favorite plant responding to compost tea















Maybe a photo depicting potentialities.

We love to see projects getting installed, too.

Regardless of the photo, let me know if you want credit for the photos. I look forward to seeing what wonderful and creative things you all are doing.

Pretty trash

This is a picture of food waste soon to be composted. I thought it was pretty.

Delivery Trucks

I am often asked what size dump truck will deliver our products. Although we have access to all sized trucks, here are the three trucks that deliver our products most often.



This is our truck. It is a standard sized dump truck although has only one rear axle. Most gravel trucks have two rear axles (aka tandem) allowing them more weight capacity. Our truck needs a 10’ width clearance and about 18’ height clearance. We can dump on driveways without fear of cracking the pavement. It is fairly agile and can dump in most places. If you look under the rear doors, you’ll notice a bar. This bar hinders our ability to dump over anything (such as a wall, or even a high curb).




We have started referring some smaller deliveries to New Mexico Earth Adobe. This is their truck. It is about 7’ wide and can carry up to 6 cubic yards of our material. Weight is not an issue for this truck either. It is even more agile than our truck. The smaller truck allows it to run more efficiently. It does not have a minimum required quantity.






Southwest Express has been handling our long distance hauling for close to 10 years. One of the largest trucks at our disposal is their 30 yard end-dump. It is a full sized tractor/trailer measuring about 52’ long. The dump bed raises about 30’ in the air and is fairly unstable when raised. For this reason, a delivery of material in this quantity requires a large turn-around space and a FLAT, SOLID surface to dump on to. But, if you need a lot of material, and have the space to receive the truck, this is the most efficient way to go.


Now you know.

The Strawberry Theory

I was out this morning picking strawberries for breakfast when it occurred to me that my small patch offers a valuable lesson. Based on the KISS theory (Keep It Simple Stupid), I am developing what I call the Strawberry Theory. Mind you, I am developing it as I write and I came up with it over a cup of coffee, a handful of ripe fresh-picked berries, and a cool moist NM spring morning. Briefly stated, the theory says: If it’s difficult, you’re doing it wrong.

When I look at the instructions for planting, propagating, and harvesting strawberries, I find pages addressing proper spacing, watering, and planting depth techniques. A typical entry reads

“…most gardeners set plants 2-3 ft. apart in rows 4-5ft. apart, let runners fill in until plants are 7-10 in. apart, then keep additional runners pinched off. Keep the rows 20-30 in. wide. “

Huh? How did strawberries ever survive without us? And don’t get me started about adjusting the pH! If it’s that difficult, you’re doing it wrong! For my own patch, I was given three plants which I stuck in the ground and watered. That’s it. Two years later I have a 10’ x 10’ patch that produces well enough to fill my early morning stomach every couple of days. I don’t see any difficulty in that. I don’t see any reason to complicate a process that has worked successfully on its own for millennia.

I am painfully aware that everything in life will not adhere to the strawberry theory. It takes timing, effort, creativity, and finesse to deal with a day. Just getting a half hour of uninterrupted face time with my wife is a three day endeavor it seems. In the garden, there is always a pest to fend off, the heat or the hail to prepare for. My kids love to pull weeds but can’t tell a goathead from a tomato.

But at work, I’ve hit that groove where it’s a safe haven. It must be the combination of fresh air, ingested microbes, and good customers. The enthusiasm of most customers can’t help but buoy me out of the desiccative denseness of daily life. I am surprised when I get bombarded daily by exasperated newcomers to the gardening scene who ask incredulously “That’s it? I don’t have to add blood meal, bone meal, vermiculite, fertilizer ever third day unless there’s a tornado in Iowa?” or some such. I try to calmly explain that the soils here in NM are pretty good, only lacking in organic material. A little addition of compost is really all you need to grow a luscious crop of berries.

I can’t help but wonder if I took a few lessons from the garden, though, if my life outside of work wouldn’t fit somehow better into the theory.

life at soilutions

There is so much life here. Cranes, crows and nesting ducks have gone. Coyotes and stray dogs, too are now replaced by squirrels and rabbits. There are swallows, sparrows, hawks, lizards and aphids. Soon there will be bees, flies and ladybugs. The trees are the green that only spring offers, not yet beaten by the heat. The iris bloom now, too. Ah, iris. What better symbol of spring!
It is no wonder I find simplistic ease here. Here things are natural and obvious to me. I am carried like a leaf caught in the rising current of a running ditch.