Cardboard Journey Into Green

Cardboard Journey Into Green

There are times where finding enough “browns” for compost can be a tall order. That is why in this post I discuss the use of cardboard and the cardboard journey into green. Cardboard is an amazing resource from carbon, but it requires a bit of prep and some understanding of how it is produced.

Most people do not realize that the paper used to make cardboard is actually pretty high-quality. The inks that are used are all required to be soy-based inks, and the glue that binds cardboard together is often corn-based. The difficulty with cardboard is the tape and the glues and adhesives that OTHER companies might use.

Tapes! And Why I hate them.

A quick word on tapes. Tape on cardboard is the bane of my existence. It is unusable, period. It will NOT decompose, it will destroy your shredder, and it is toxic in that it’s adhesive is usually made of tolulene which contains heavy metals.

The processing strategy I have outlined below will make removing tape a breeze, as the tape will EASILY separate from the cardboard with ease. There is no good tape – even black Amazon tape which uses a soy-based adhesive has strings in it that will clog your shredder.

White Labels

Shipping labels are another issue. They are paper (usually) but sometimes they are plastic. Almost always they are produced from thermo-responsive paper that uses a compound known to be a hormone disruption factor. The UV radiation probably destroys this compound but I do not have data on that.

A good rule of thumb is do not try to recycle cardboard if you are not willing to deal with and manage tape and white labels. White labels are usually temperature responsive thermal print paper which contain hormone disruptor chemicals. Best to avoid both.

The Tape! Remove it!

There is nothing more annoying than finding tape in your compost. It makes you feel like your compost is substandard and it is annoying to collect it piecemeal. Remove it from the waste stream early.

Not All Cardboard Is Alike

Cardboard is a remarkable, high quality source of paper and carbon. It also comes with some limitations that one must understand. Not all cardboard is alike so here are three classifications I find useful in discussing cardboard.

  • Traditional Plain Cardboard (Amazon, moving, plain brown affairs)
  • Bleached or Dyed Cardboard (ny box that has color – especially white boxes)
  • Wax-Coated Cardboard (This is shiny and covered with a thin sheet of plastic printing or such)

The paper and glues used in most cardboard boxes in use today are all either soy or corn-based adhesives. So they are naturally organic. Here is a quick video on just how cardboard is made from pulp to package.

The issue with cardboard is that it is not always clear if the final glue joint is also a corn-based adhesive. Sometimes it is made from a resin, and you have to be mindful that the end user might also use a strong resin-based adhesive. But the cardboard itself is entirely organic.

The glossy printed boxes pose another problem. While the paper is organic as is the ink, the two degrade at vastly different rates and respond to water and UV radiation differently. To make the glossy paper degrade quicker, recyclers use heat and select chemicals to return the glossy paper to pulp.

Since most gardeners do not have that luxury or equipment, I suggest we stick with brown, unbleached boxes just to be safe. The real issue is cardboard that has been bleached white. I am not certain what process is used, and I just try to find another use for that.

The Minor Inconvenience of Readying Cardboard

Cardboard stock is DESIGNED to be durable. Therefore you cannot just process cardboard and use it. It needs to undergo setting in the sun and rain for a short period of time. Chlorinated water is not sufficient for breaking down the bonds and glues of cardboard. Rain and UV work best.

That means a week or two in the elements. This looks bad, but pays dividends. A fantastic and virtually limitless source of browns at your disposal and delivered to your home. You can’t beat that.

Processing

After your broken down boxes (yes, you should break them down to expose as much surface area as possible) have weathered outside it is wise to break them down to pieces that actually fit beneath a lawnmower. The lawnmower is the final step in this process.

Lawnmower Prep

First make sure your lawnmower is at least 3/4 HP and your blades are sharp. If you are not sure, it is best to look at the blade first. If you can, remove the blade, clean it and hand sharpen it yourself, or better yet, buy a blade specifically for this task.

Slow and Steady

When you are ready, stack the cardboard in a pattern. The pattern should have air in it so that that as much edge of the boards are exposed against each other as possible. Then slowly mow over them to shred them.

I suggest using a bag on your mower and a semi solid surface as even though the cardboard is wet and weakened it will fly everywhere. You’ll want to be able to collect that confetti, and your bag will clog quickly. But you will have perfectly small and highly shredded cardboard on demand.

Cardboard in a compost pile or garden bed is ideal because it holds water well and breaks down quickly in acidic soil conditions. But it must be smaller to increase the edges that microorganisms can chomp on and hide between. You’ll find this breaks down quite quickly.


The Manure That Infected Mars

#ProjectMartian really worked well. Especially during the COVID19 isolation. Last year every bit of manure and green and brown for compost went through the #Bioreactor. I was mocked for using it. I was chastised for calling it that. But it did work. This year I used compost from the bioreactor in all of my 24 garden beds. But in eight of them I got cocky and amended the beds with horse manure. That was a good idea in theory except for one important fact; there was life in the manure. Bugs and weeds to be exact. I placed a layer of diatomaceous earth on every bed as a last step. In the outside manure beds, the life came from below the layer of diatomaceous earth. The system worked perfectly when I used “Eden’s Ghost” and just compost from the bioreactor. I was stunned to find all these weeds beneath the burlap today.

This is the design cycle in action. This is a failure that is going to drastically curtail my productivity. Along with the weeds came a whole class of pill bug and centipede that LOVE rich, wet, dark, organic environments. And now I have to sterilize the top 6cm of the infected beds. But I learned a valuable lesson; on Mars you have to use what you have. Had I stayed true to that mission I would not have discovered this flaw in my system. Lesson learned. Cook all manure before you add it to a #ProjectMartian bed. I am glad I learned this here and not on Mars.


The Rule of Sustainability – 3 and 5 Strategy

The Rule of Sustainability – 3 and 5 Strategy

The Rule of Sustainability – 3 and 5 Strategy

Sustainability is a really important topic in the world right now. We need more of it, but we need better metrics to define what “it” is. Like the word, “nice” sustainability means many different things to many different people. At Mezzacello I have developed a rule of thumb that helps me better define sustainability. I call it the Three and Five Strategy. It is really quite simple.

  • Incorporate at least three other ecosystems or resources from Mezzacello.

  • MUST provide at a MINIMUM five new unique resources to Mezzacello.

  • Three in — Five out and all within one 18 month period of time.

This has eliminated all precious things from my farm. Nothing withers or remains alive through hard labor or constant vigilance. No extraordinary measures need to be taken. If one input is compromised, it can be substituted but only temporarily and not constantly; never constantly. If the systems cannot sustain that ecosystem, then that ecosystem lacks merit. Let me provide two examples. One from the natural world and one from Mezzacello.

Natural World: The human nose

Inputs:

  1. Allows the sinus cavity to exist and remain at atmospheric pressures
  2. Allows air to be purified through the cilia and mucus membranes
  3. Provides protection via the senses (proprioceptor and Olfactory Nervous Systems)
  4. Incorporates the lymphatic and immune response factors readily as a first line of defense

Outputs

  1. Provides the sensation of smell and taste
  2. Pressurizes and maintains the esophagus and bronchial cavities
  3. Provides mucus for multiple parts of the respiratory system
  4. Preserves moisture to the body
  5. Allows the eyes to remain equidistant and focused for bipedal vision
  6. Gives the human face character
  7. Keeps the cartilage and skin of the face under tension
  8. Holds glasses on your face
  9. Secretes fats and toxins from the body
  10. Cools/heats the brain cavity directly
  11. Allows the palette to remain dynamic and flexible
  12. Home to beneficial bacteria and immune response factors
  13. Serves as an early warning system in the case of impact to the face
  14. Allows the lips to purse and tense by providing cartilage and structure

Mezzacello: The Formal Gardens

Inputs:

  1. Provides biomass seasonally on demand
  2. Gives shelter, food and attraction to beneficial pollinators and birds
  3. Provides shelter, privacy, and protection to all the inhabitants of the farm
  4. Gives a sense of beauty and place to the neighborhood
  5. Attracts interest in our mission here at Mezzacello

Outputs:

  1. Biomass
  2. A carbon sink for compost
  3. Flowering shrubs and flowers
  4. Shoots and berries that are edible
  5. A place for the poultry to forage for pests
  6. Shade and moisture
  7. Cooling drafts and whimsy
  8. Succor for the mind and spirit
  9. Attracts beneficial microbial life, bacteria and fungus to the surrounding ecosystems
  10. Improves the diversity of compost and fertilizers
  11. Provides a sense of pride and purpose
  12. Deflects noise from a busy main thoroughfare
  13. Increases the amount of molecular oxygen and moisture to surrounding ecosystems
  14. Provides protection from the east, north, and south from pathogens in the wind stream

So now when I plan any new system at Mezzacello, it MUST incorporate at a MINIMUM THREE inputs and FIVE carefully chosen outputs/benefits to all of the six systems at Mezzacello. If any one of those 14 benefits seems frivolous to you, I ask that you re-examine your priorities. During COVID19 lockdown, every single one of them became incredibly valuable and obvious to me. Through reflection, effort, and application, sustainability thrives.

Count your blessings,
but remember blessings are positive
so never divide or subtract;
just add and multiply.

Jim Bruner


Spring 2021 at Mezzacello

Well it’s nearly Easter in this year after COVID19. My enclosed sustainable ecosystem is readying itself to come back to life. I decided this cold sunny day was the perfect day to record Mezzacello.

This is right before it goes through it’s next big expansion. So here is a little slideshow from April 1, 2021. Let me know if you have any questions. There is some bit of trivia or an active experiment going on in everyone of these photos.


Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth

Diversity

Diversity in an ecosystem is always a good thing. I produce high quality compost and fertilizers from various sources. But the poultry and rabbit manure have limits. And it takes time and energy to synthesize them to where the garden beds actually need those minerals and soluble nitrogen. What I need is manure from a larger herbivore with a more selective diet. Cows are OK but their manure is hit or miss and cows eat anything. Seeds can remain intact. No, what I need is horse manure. And I found some! Thanks to Facebook, Columbus Area Homesteaders group, and Abigail Santorine and her lovely little pony, Ginger. My niece and I ran over to Abigail’s house and collected manure on a Monday night after work.

Community

I rarely mention this side of being an urban farmer. It takes a village to become a knowledgable urban farmer and it takes a village to get all the resources one will need to get an enclosed ecosystem sustainable. It takes work and community.

I am from Los Angeles. I started “farming” in 2014. I have gotten A LOT of help. And it’s from a community that spans the globe and is right in my back yard. The Facebook group “Columbus Area Homesteaders” is a terrific group! Everyone on there is so empathetic and helpful (even me). If you are interested in Urban Farming, definitely check them out! Also, remember, a community is a garden as well. It needs tended, it requires care and attention, and you have to be willing to replace what you take out. Abigail, I want to support your passionate mission at Tiny Horse. I’ll post details in the comments on this post! Thank you!


Changes, Evolution, and Chicken Coops

I love the play house chicken coop.
It represents my innocent and playful heart. I meant well;Now I know better.

I was at a party last year (just before the #COVID19 pandemic changed the world) and I was discussing farming with a colleague. Their position was that it was impossible to be a farmer (based on my experiences) they couldn’t manage the shame of failure. Straight face when they said this, by the way. There was a version of me that existed at one time that would have been horrified at this sentiment. That version of me craved convenience over confidence. I am a product of failure; I feel zero shame at my failure. What I feel instead is a desire to keep evolving, learning, and sharing. I am a product of the very culture I want to transform. The person who looks at a grocery store as the ENTIRE story of food. Thanks to modernism, technology, and capitalism this is true of many people these days. But an idea is not truth. It is a story that you create and use to describe what you can see. The trick is to always be willing to ask better questions. Yes, those questions will most likely lead to failure. But the truth is that wisdom nurses at the teet of failure. We grow very little from success; but we grow most at the hands of failure. This is a hard but necessary lesson. There was a time when seeing someone else succeed at something I was trying would make me feel shame. I burnt that nuisance weed down to the ground – with a flamethrower. My success is DEPENDENT on seeing what others do and learning from THAT. Case in point; my chicken coop.

Precious, naive me believed this was a good idea at the time. In fact you can see the very evolution of this idea in this photo. You gave the “winter coop” and just behind it the larger coop. When I engineered these coops I believe I was engineering g from the perspective of the chickens. Small and scaled for one purpose; housing for small animals. I had not yet factored myself into their ecosystem. There did not need to be room for me to coexist in what I thought of as their “space”. But that was a failure of imagination. The enclosed ecosystems of Mezzacello I now realize need to be gracious enough for all components of that ecosystem to interact. That includes the humans.

i feel zero shame that it took me five years of continuous failure, evolution, and modification to discover this truth. I documented it all. I can point to specific moments like this and help others avoid these mistakes. There is a calculus to life that has variables of ease of use, integration, cost, and wisdom. You must be ready to factor for all of these when you make plans. My plans are changing – yet again. But they will make it easier for me to coexist in the worlds of these animals, these systems, these plants, microorganisms and fungi. As we should. I love the play house chicken coop. It represents my innocent and playful heart. I meant well; now I know better.


Spring 2021 and the Brunerform

Spring 2021 and the Brunerform

Spring 2021 and the Brunerform
Almost Spring!

It was 14C in Ohio yesterday and this is my observation of spring 2021 and the Brunerform. Rick and I decided to go out and talk to Mezzacello and see what she might be needing. We saw a lot of trash (hidden beneath the snows) and many signs of life! It was a nice little jaunt.

Rick checked on all of his formal garden beds to encourage them. I checked on the pond, the potager herb beds and my #ProjectMartian beds. Oof! They need love, but they are thriving.

I let the poultry into the potager vegetable beds. They went crazy and TURNED everything over for me. Thanks! Mental note: Don’t spend $50 on mulch to make the walkways between the beds look clean. Those birds turned EVERYTHING over. LOL!

But that is a natural sustainable system for you. The compost beds look terrific! I have 2,000 Liters of additional compost cured in the #ProjectMartian BioReactors. That will be added into the potager beds and into parts of Rick’s gardens.

It’s only fair, since his gardens provided a lot of the biomass. I snapped this quick photo of Rick and I. As per usual I am in my “Brunerform”.

The Brunerform

One question I get asked a lot about sustainable #AppliedSTEM bio-engineered gardens is why I am always wearing a dress shirt and bow tie while I am gardening. It’s an important question that deserves an answer; It’s because I want to.

Everyone assumes that I wear expensive clothes. WRONG. That bow tie costs more than everything else I am wearing in this photo – including the hat and shoes. I wear Thrift Store clothes.

I prefer natural fibers that can be shredded and added back into the system or at the very least, re-donated. I am not insane. I am just aware that nature recycles everything, even beauty.

This is what I fondly refer to as my “Brunerform” You’ll rarely see me out of it. In fact, amongst my friends and neighbors, they loudly complain when they see me out of it. It is my style and it has become my brand.

Every time I use the Hashtag #GentlemanFarmer I mean it. What is your impression you want to make on the world? Mine is classy and always #BattleReady in a boardroom or in a garden room, take your pick.


The Aquatic Ecosystem in 2021

It’s winter, 2021. This is the fourth winter in the aquatic ecosystem for the fish at Mezzacello. If you’re not familiar, start with this nightmare or this, or this. I have busted my gluteal muscles trying to learn what Mother Nature needs to create a #Sustainable aquatic ecosystem and make it manageable for a 21st Century life style. It has been a rewarding journey. So much #Physics #Biology #Chemistry #Ecology #Hydrodynamics #Stats #Mathematics #Topology #Geometry and #Legal issues. All of this. From having the police called on me for digging a six foot grave, to mastering hydrology and pump technology and #Backup Systems to the magic of getting handwritten poems in the fence written by neighborhood kids. This particular ecosystem at Mezzacello has been a wonderful journey. Recently I went out and looked into the clear 1.7m abyss at the perfectly content fish I was reminded of the Haiku that one of my summer camp kids wrote to me on 2018:

Sky of clear water
Dug deep down into the ground
Warm in winter, sound

That’s the aquatic ecosystem in a nutshell.


The Foodist: Pork Raclette with Brie and Applesauce

Dinner tonight at Mezzacello is a recipe taught to me during my visit to Normandy, France in 1992. So simple and delightful. I serve it with fresh haricots vert and roasted potatoes.


Ingredients
:

  • 4 pork chops (bone in or butterflied)
  • 1 cup applesauce (I used homemade)
  • 1 cup Brie slices
  • salt and pepper

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  2. Thaw and dry the pork chops. Sprinkle both sides of the chops with salt and pepper.
  3. Arrange the chops on a flat sheet.
  4. Place the chops in the oven close to the top burner. Bake for 5-6 minutes.
  5. Remove the chops.
  6. Spread applesauce on the chops.
  7. Arrange the Brie pieces stop the applesauce.
  8. Place the chops back in the oven close to the top burner. Bake for 4 minutes until the cheese melts.
  9. Remove from the oven.
  10. Serve hot!

Winter Soldiers in a Garden

Food is complex. The types of food I grow at Mezzacello are optimized mostly for three things:

  1. Caloric Benefit
  2. Rate of Growth and Yield
  3. Seasonal Duration

Today’s blog post is about 2 and 3. The vast majority of crops that I grow are root crops or squashes. They grow well in my #ProjectMartian beds and they can last three seasons with proper precautions. Then there are the “super crops” or “winter soldiers” like chard, kale, leeks, and green onions. Root crops sweeten, but don’t continue photosynthesis like green onions, leeks chard and kale do. They may not be strong on the first optimization strategy, but they are great for flavor and reliability.

The other intriguing component of leeks and green onions: they are essentially immortal. The leeks and green onions you see in this garden in 2020 I planted from either seed or cutting in spring of 2017. If you mound dirt (or compost around leeks and green onions, they will root well. Then when you harvest them, leave the cut root in the ground and a new plant will replace it. Three generations of green onions in 2020 alone. And the leeks were bought at a NC garden stand on highway 12. I kept the bottoms moist in paper towels and brought them home. They lived in a five gallon bucket of water all winter of 2019 (I wanted to move them and replant them and forgot) and yet they persist. These are my winter soldiers!