Home Grown
This semester I wanted to do something that I could see some results from. I am really interested in our relationship with food: where it comes from, how it gets to us, how we eat it. So, I decided to try to have a little more of a closed circuit then the industural monoculture farm to supermarket to fridge to landfill model. I aimed to make a garden-dinner plate-garden version.
I built a compost bin first. It was relatively easy. All you need is a 55 gallon drum, a board about as big as the drum, a miter saw, drill, 4 non pivot wheels, four bricks, two hinges, two locks, and some bolts and screws. I got my barrel for free and the rest was about 30 bucks.
To assemble it, just cut a hole as big as you want in the barrel (has to be big enough to get the compost in and out). Attach it back with the hinges at the bottom and a lock on either side. Dill a few holes in bin so your compost can vent. Attach the wheels to the board evenly spaced, and make sure they run on the outside of where you made your door. The board gets set on the bricks to keep it elevated off the ground and the bin itself gets placed on the wheels.
Wallah! You have a compost bin. To make some compost you need green stuff: fruit and vegetable remains, grass clippings, fresh leaves, stuff like that and brown stuff: dead leaves, shredded paper (no magazines). Make sure you add equal amounts of green and brown stuff otherwise the green stuff will smell and attract bugs. All you have to do is roll the bin once a day if possible and you should have nutrient rich compost in a few months! Put in your garden.
I also built a raised bed to grow produce. For this you need 4 equal sized boards (mine are 6ft long by 12in wide) and four posts (2 foot sections of 2×4). I cut points into the posts and drove them into the ground with a hammer. I also made a little trench for the boards to sit in and hammered them in as well. Then just screw the pieces together. That’s it, fill it with a mixture of topsoil and compost and you are ready to start planting.
I also found this weird organization fridgewatcher.com while I was doing research. It is just a collection of peoples fridges from around the world. I am going to post a before and after of my parents fridge (its their land that the garden is built on) to see if it has any effect on what their diet looks like.
-Michelle
