Help my Compost Pile - I Don't Have Leaves

Last week I talked about what you needed for your compost pile. Compost is composed of the following elements: green plus brown plus water plus air over time = compost. The green component is your kitchen waste. The leaves are the brown component. But you don't just need a little leaves, you need a lot of leaves. A huge amount. Tons. 30 parts for every part green. But I don't have that many, you say. Can I use something else? Please.

Okay, enough begging. I'll tell you what I know. Straw works well. Brown, woody stems from perennials work best in the spring after they've wintered over. Wood mulch or wood chips from a shredder can be used.

Make sure you rake up as many of your own leaves as you can. If you can shred them before using them, then you will have speedier results when everything else is equal. If you don't have enough, you could borrow your neighbor's or your whole street's leaves. On your way to or from work, take the road less travelled and go through neighborhoods where people like to bag up their leaves. Go ahead. Pick those bags up from the curb. The garbage men will thank you.

If you use straw for anything, like mulch, to grow potatoes, or for autumn hayrides, hang onto it. Keep it somewhat dry or let it dry out. Or you could volunteer to take your neighbor's chicken laying box straw. Last resort, you could buy a square bale of straw from a variety of places. The last option works well if you do not have too much to put into your compost pile. Make sure the straw you are using doesn't have nasties in it like Bermuda grass.

Some perennial stalks to use could from day lilies, cannas, cone flower, bear's breeches, coral bells or sedum. Of course they are many options in this category. You are not actually completely confined to perennials. You could also use corn stalks and sunflower stalks left over from the winter. You would probably prefer to shred or cut them up first. Plan ahead and be sustainable. When you plan your flower beds, make sure to include taller perennials with stems and brown matter you can use. As you do your fall or spring cleaning in your flower beds, set the brown stuff aside in its own pile for later use.

As you trim and prune your trees and bushes in the spring, you can take the wood and shred it. A shredder for branches no bigger than two inches in diameter should be sufficient for what you need. Be frugal in your purchase, as well. There is no need to purchase the biggest, baddest Tool Time super-mega-horsepower shredder for this. A good used one will do. Shred right into your brown bin.

A little pre-planning and ingenuity will go a long way toward good soil when it is time to mulch. You want to use compost before anything else. A healthy plant means less disease, less pests and more fruit. Good Luck!

Operation Clean Sweep Starts Next Week

To paraphrase Julius Caesar, " All of Cheatham County is divided into three parts." Three quite littered parts.

The high schools in the county serve to illustrate the divisions. The northern part is served by Sycamore High School, the central by Cheatham Central and the southern end by Harpeth High School. A distinct feature of our county is the two rivers, several large notable creeks and numerous small tributaries. Cheatham County is crossed by the Harpeth and Cumberland Rivers. Two notable large creeks are Sam's Creek which used to a be a resort area and Sycamore Creek. Coming up from the Davidson County line on River Road we have Pond Creek, Sam's Creek and Brush Creek.

You would think that with all this water surrounding us, we would have a fairly wet farm. Not so. Mule Shoe Farm is located just off the flood plain in the limestone hills which are also a feature of the county. While we have numerous wet weather springs and seepage from the hills, we don't actually have much of a water supply. Many wells in the hills have dried up or were not much use in the first place having either very hard water or sulphur water.

This means that the main water supplies for the county come from the Harpeth and Cumberland Rivers and Sycamore Creek. As I noted last week, there is lots of trash all over the county which often makes it way down the various banks to the rivers and streams. Another matter for consideration is the large number of sink holes in our area. In the past, people quite often would throw their trash in sinkholes and down hillsides. Now we have dumps to hold our trash.

It is still a concern that there is so much trash laying about. Recently the county picked up trash along my road. That was maybe two weeks ago. Today as we about our errands fro the day, my daughter made up a little diversion of saying litter each time she saw trash by the side of the road. Need I say, she talked the ENTIRE trip. Litter, litter litter litter litter litter, etc. for 20 minutes. Yikes!

This trash will eventually make its way into our water - our DRINKING water. That's it. Clean Sweep Week starts on October 22, 2007. Use that week to make an extra effort to clean up your trash and better yet, don't throw it on the ground in the first place. All during clean sweep week, you will be able to take all sorts of trash to the dump without paying the dumping fee. Take advantage of this opportunity to improve our county's greatest resource by starting to pick up your trash this week. Also remember to securely fasten and tarp your loads on the way to the dump. That way the trash won't distribute itself along the road on the way to the dump.

Remember Operation Clean Sweep starts on October 22 and runs through October 27.

The Big Size Does Not Fit.

Fridays are devoted to writing about all aspects of nutrition.

Call me a restaurant snob if you want, but I would like to have a reasonable amount of food at a restaurant when I eat out. I guess I got spoiled when I was travelling to Europe and the like as a computer engineer. In France, I noticed that eating out was definitely not the same as in the U.S. For one thing the service was noticeably better. But the main thing that stood out right away was that when I was finished with the meal, I wasn't stuffed. But I wasn't hungry either. I had just the right amount.

I attended a support group meeting last night devoted to families with children who have congenital heart defects. Our speaker was a young lady whose occupation is all about getting children to eat their food and get the proper nutrition. She was a food therapist. We discussed everything from the steps to introduce foods to children to how to supplement nutrition for children.

One of our topics was portion size. She noted that often we overwhelm our children with the amount of food we put on their plate. Her guideline was 1 tablespoon per year of age up to three or four years of age.

The food therapist also pointed out food groupings that parents could use to ensure that children receive the proper nutrition. These groupings are protein, starch and fruit/vegetable. In the case of a two year old, the child would receive at each meal: 2 Tbsp each of protein and starch. Then 2 TBsps of fruit/vegetable.

At age four, the parent would use the new food pyramid to allocate portions. Simply put, children need to take in at least as much as they expend to stay the same. Most children need to take in a little more calories than they obviously expend because growth and activity levels must be accommodated.

The size of the bowls and cups into which we put our child's food will influence how much they want to eat. If our regular size cup is 12 or 16 oz, that is how much we will drink at one sitting. If you buy 9oz. cups, you and your family are far more likely to consume 8oz. of liquid at a time. That allows you to properly portion out high calorie items like juice. Which by the way, your children should have no more than 2 glasses (8 oz. glasses) of juice per day.

Why does it work like that? Wouldn't the kids just get another bowl of whatever. Not necessarily. It depends on the environment in which your children eat. Since the body signals fullness after about 20 minutes of eating, a child may not feel hungry if they take their time eating the sweet cereal.

Eating environment is another area where parents must take charge. Studies have shown that most people will eat more if they eat while watching television. Children get distracted by things like television and radios playing in the other room or the same room while they are eating. If they eat sprawled on the floor or the couch, they digestive systems have a harder time receiving their food. These two factors indicate that sitting up at the table while eating with the family can have a profound effect on your child's eating habits.

Although childhood obesity rates are on the rise in the United States, we have the opposite problem at my house. My daughter must be convinced to eat an adequate amount of food. She will eat nearly anything you give her, but she will more than likely not eat all of it. She also takes a long time to eat. This causes her to feel full when she has not consumed enough calories.

The same problem works in reverse with an overweight child charging through a bag of Doritos in 10 min or less. The body hasn't signalled it is full, so the child grabs another bag of chips. How many calories are in a bag of Doritos? I'm scared to look plus I don't have any in the house. Think about how many two bags might have. Yikes. Then child doesn't go out and play to burn off those calories. It is more than likely that the kid will either watch TV or play video games. Watching TV burns less calories than sleeping. Yikes again.

If we, as parents can give our children a consistent eating routine that is balanced and proper, we will do them a huge favor. If you are curious about the new food pyramid, check out http://www.mypyramid.gov/ where you can find explanations, online tools and guidelines.