Re: It's over!/compost

There's a UF hort professor, an arborist, who holds CE courses in pruning trees for landscape architects at public parks around the state. After a lecture, each student gets a tape of colored ribbon and goes into the park, picks a tree, and ties ribbon on the branches that he or she thinks should be pruned. The prof then critiques the choices and has the park maintenance crew prune the tree at his direction. I talked to two of our architects who recently took the course--they said no one got it right the first time.

On Sunday, March 6, 2005, at 10:03 AM, Kitty wrote:

It's still cold here but a bright day. I like timely topics. March is
pruning time for many things in my yard - maybe not this early in the month,
but coming up soon.
Kitty
neIN, Z5
----- Original Message -----
From: "Zemuly Sanders" <zsanders@midsouth.rr.com>
To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
Sent: Sunday, March 06, 2005 9:28 AM
Subject: Re: [CHAT] It's over!/compost


Yesterday the president of our MG group, a retired professor in
horticulture, invited us to his home for a pruning demonstration. It was
so

much fun, and I learned a whole lot.  It was also a great day to be

outside
(low 60'2 and windy), but it was warm in the sun.

I am one of those people who has to be constantly re-educated on pruning
techniques. :-)
zem
zone 7
West TN

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kitty" <kmrsy@comcast.net>
To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2005 11:24 PM
Subject: Re: [CHAT] It's over!/compost


Zem,
Our MG presentations are all advertised as a list, no one talk

advertised
more than another. I attended the 6:30 one tonight, the latest it ever
is

and it was more sparse - maybe 20 and most of them MGs.  I knew the
scheduled speaker had bowed out at the last minute and the HortEd was
going
to take over his subject, so for me it was a triple attraction. 1) it

was
after work, so I could get there, 2) I did want to hear about pruning,
and
3) I'm well aware that the Hort Ed is a very good speaker, so it would
be
entertaining. However, most folks weren't aware of anything more than
that
it was about pruning. He has his own scheduled talk tomorrow that I'll
also
attend.

We try to select topics of interest, but some titles must not sound
interesting to the general population. Did you think your Fri-Sat
topics
were of equal interest to those earlier in the week? And I wondered why
he
didn't have later presentations during the week for people who come
after
work, but he said people don't come later. I noticed, being there for
all
sessions on Friday, that the largest attendance was for the first pres
at
noon and each one after had fewer. Was it the subject? Was it the time
of

day?  Was it the type of people who come at certain times of day?  I

don't
know. But I think daytime presentations draw people who have plenty of
time
and wouldn't mind sitting down for awhile. While weekenders and evening
folks need to cram more into a few hours and spend it at the trade show.

You are right, the Hoosier ReLeaf site only deals withthr tree project.
I
think he's just so busy he hasn't gotten the composting on the web. He
has
made videos with partners who do landscaping and they show how they
slavage
all the scrap from a wooded lot, save specific trees, AND rope off the
area
for home building to prevent heavy equipment from compacting tree roots.
They take all the scrap produced in building the home from the trees
they
remove to the drywall waste, compost it in 6-12 weeks and then return it
to
the building site to spread and then sow grass. He says grass grows
green,
fast, and klush in the compost. He owns Ringgenberg's Garten Haus, but
I
couldn't find anything on the web about it except that it's a state IDEM
location.

Kitty

Kitty
neIN, Z5
----- Original Message -----
From: "Zemuly Sanders" <zsanders@midsouth.rr.com>
To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2005 7:22 PM
Subject: Re: [CHAT] It's over!/compost


Kitty, that is wonderful news about your talk. Our MGs worked at our
Home
&

Garden show last weekend.  I worked at the booth and had lots of
visitors,
but the speakers didn't have any audience on Friday and only a few

people

on
Saturday. Was your talk heavily advertised?

I went to Hoosier Releaf's website, and it didn't have any info on the
compost project -- just planting trees. :-(
zem
----- Original Message -----
From: "Fort Wayne, IN" <4042N15@nationalhearing.com>
To: "chat" <gardenchat@hort.net>
Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2005 5:27 PM
Subject: [CHAT] It's over!/compost


Dear Friends,
I just wanted to write and thank all of you for your support,

information,
and treasures some sent, to help me with my presentation at the Home
&

Garden Show.  It went well.  I had an audience of 77; the MG who

assisted

me
stretched out my 60 booklet handouts by only giving one to couples.
The
powerpoint presentation I had on a borrowed laptop connected to a

provided

projector and it all flowed seamlessly - except for the time I

dropped

the
microphone. I was happy I had samples of materials and bulbs to show
as
most of the other speakers simply relied on slides and I think some
of

the

attendees enjoyed the opportunity to actually see and touch the

materials.

Thank goodness it is over, though.  On to real gardening.

The last presentation yesterday was on composting so I thought I'd

see

if
the speaker had anything new to say. Well, it was nothing like what
I
expected. He is the president of Hoosier ReLeaf and he showed videos
of
his
38 acre composting site. They compost absolutely everything -
drywall,
sawdust, manure, all building materials, leaves, etc. He began this
in
conjuction with a local construction company when Indiana was pushing
to
reduce yardwaste going to landfills. Then the state decided it
didn't
care,
so of course, the construction company didn't care either and dumped
the
project. This man, owner of a nursery, was able to scrape up enough
money
to buy just one of the machines. And now he does it himself. It is
soooooooooo amazing! I haven't seen the website yet, but you might
like
to
look at it:
www.hoosierreleaf.org
He explained how, if McDonalds changed just their straws, he could
compost
all their waste. If Pizza Hut changed just their pop lids, he could
compost
everything. But he can't get in to talk to the right people. He
sells

his
compost for about $70 a ton.  He says they do the same thing in CA,

but
there they get $400 per ton. When he worked with the county, he was
able
to
do 26 times as much as he can on his own, but he still keeps 14 rows
of

compost going all the time.  Unfortunately, he said the state is

making
some
new zoning restrictions and they pay force him down to only one row,
which
would put him out of business.

How can Indiana be so incredibly stupid? Separating yardwaste isn't
difficult and the benefits are from here to the moon. Instead,
everything
goes to the dump.

Kitty

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Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.0 N, 82.4 W
Hardiness Zone 10
Heat Zone 10
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
Maximum 100 F [38 C]

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