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Monday, June 10, 2013

Share The Spare Day


Father’s Day Gift Ideas?


 

On June 8th we enjoyed our second Burlap Sack Giveaway at CACG.
 
 About 400 used coffee bags were repurposed. These bags would have become landfill if not for the diligent recycling efforts of Marie Knutson recycling coordinator for Allied Waste Services and our own recycling maven and Cindy Lauper lookalike (although I don’t think I can say that here) Jennifer.

 

 Other previously owned items also showed up for sharing in the true spirit of “Sharing the Surplus”

We asked people what they planned to do with their sacks.

Over 90% said they would use them for gardening in some way.

Art and crafts were also mentioned. Use with chickens and beekeeping was listed a few times. One person took 30 sacks for use in classroom sack races. Should that be listed as sports?
 

If someone wants a large number of sacks in Contra Costa County Marie Knutson is the person to contact at 925 671 5814
 

Thank you Jennifer for initiating these sack giveaways.

 
Jennifer is also working on a regular monthly ‘Crop Swap’ at CACG.

More details soon.

Another doyen of the local recycling world is Doug. He recently made this seed box out of recycled wood and added a fine burlap handle. If you want to find recycled, free stuff talk to Doug. I give him A+ for creativity on his use of burlap.

 


 
 
Happy Father's Day to all.
 
David
 

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Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Sequestration News

This time it's carbon returned to the soil under the guise of our Huglekultur bed.

We were able to complete the second phase of our Huglekultur bed construction thanks to Terry and his Tractor plus a wonderful group of students from the New Leaf Project in Martinez  Also not forgetting a small group of people that just like to dig from time to time.

The fully Excavated 12'x12' hole

Left to Right: Terry, Bob, Doug and Jim adding perimeter logs



The New Leaf Folks adding soil and wood

 


You can find out more about the concept of Huglekultur at http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/
Perhaps you could use this technique in your own back yard with seasonal trimmings and so keep them out of the green waste bin?
We will go on to add more soil and wood over the summer. We will probably reach a height of around 5' above ground level.  Because no rain is expected for several months decomposition will be insignificant and so we will wait for the Fall rains to plant a cover crop of peas, beans or kale.
Local Heroes