Agreed completely. I set up a humanure system a couple years ago and it’s simple as can be. I get wood shavings for free from a local furniture shop, mix it with biochar, and use that as cover material. My bin hasn’t gotten hot enough to kill all pathogens, so once it’s full I’ll just use it on my bushes & flowering perennials.

I’m currently renting, so unfortunately I’m not able to set up a greywater pond/rain garden for sink and shower water, but that’s the end goal when/if I get a place of my own.

Ticks move into lawns as well, and while I haven’t found studies comparing the density of ticks in shorter grass vs. flower beds, I would assume it’s a wash; even if there are less ticks in turfgrass, you’re walking/lying on that grass, allowing more opportunities for them to latch onto you. Whereas you’re not walking through flower beds, so even if there’s a greater tick population, you’re not coming into contact with them as much.

Read the article; it’s not abandonment, it’s intentional cultivation. The former is more beneficial to wildlife than maintaining a pristine yard, but in most cases it’ll just end up with your yard being taken over by invasives. The latter is managing your yard in a way that encourages native, pollinator-friendly (and beautiful!) plants.

My yard used to be hard-packed clay where only the most tenacious weeds could survive (field bindweed, burdock, thistle, dandelion), so my first step was putting down multiple layers of heavy cardboard to smother them, then covering that with about a foot of wood chip. That killed the latter three and helped to start softening up the soil (worms move in when organic matter is present), but bindweed just pushed through the cardboard and wood chip, so I had to hit that with (selective, judicious) applications of herbicide. It was a hobby for the first year, but now my yard is weed-free and the soil is turning more rich and loamy!

I’ve mostly used starts/seedlings to fill in my beds, but now that the weed pressure is lower I’ve started putting soil & compost over the mulch to encourage my plants to self-seed. I’m also filling in all the “blank spaces” with ground cover, to provide an additional barrier against weeds. A mature garden will require a little weeding now and then, but for me that’s something I enjoy (it’s a break from work, and time in the sun), and it’s definitely not as intensive as vegetable gardening.

Water is essential to human survival, so I would consider that a primary problem. Trace pharmaceuticals in drinking water aren’t great, but I would consider that a secondary (or even tertiary) problem, and a solvable one at that.

To start, the vast majority of water use is agricultural (nearly 90% in Colorado, for example), and soil & plants provide 2 more layers of biofilters for any contaminants that might remain. This paper delves into that, although from the cursory glance I gave it’s not clear whether the concentrations are anywhere near an effective dose. My guess is no:

Diazinon, enrofloxacin, florfenicol and trimethoprim accumulated also in leaves of lettuce, while florfenicol, levamisol and trimethoprim in carrot roots (Boxall et al. 2006); according to the author, the results of research carried out so far show a low risk of exposure to these substances through the consumption of vegetables.

If recycled water was used purely for agriculture (drawing on watersheds & aquifers for drinking water), I imagine that would solve the scarcity issue while further diluting pharmaceutical contamination. When it comes to recycling drinking water, Harvard Health Publishing says that not much research has been done in this area, and I do think that’s important to look into if (when?) water recycling becomes more of a necessity.

Is the city just going to fine each building $25 every time an inspector checks?

From the city’s website, it looks like a fine of $300 can be assessed for buildings with more than 9 units (and for multiple infractions).

I assume this would incentivize owners to inform their tenants of the policy, and make composting more easily accessible to them. I can think of a dozen loopholes and unforeseen consequences of this law, but however imperfect, I still believe it’s a step in the right direction. Food waste is a massive issue, as is nutrient loss from our soils, and ultimately I think that inconvenience is a small price to pay for addressing that. I realize that not everyone feels the same way, which is why incentives are needed.

This law is a negative incentive, so I would hope that some positive incentives could be implemented as well.

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I love linking this story in composting subs when people ask if citrus peels are OK! Great demonstration of the power of adding organic matter.

That said, it should be acknowledged that moisture and heat probably played a big role in how quickly the peels broke down and fed the soil; I don’t think you’d get similar results in a dry/desert ecosystem.

Beautiful! I’m hoping I can get some established as well.

I’m on my 4th year with my pollinator garden (Colorado), and the goal from here is filling in every square inch of uncovered earth with ground cover and spreading plants. I love Western Sunflower for that purpose, and I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to get Violets established (I know, right? They’re considered a weed in most places) so I’m going to give that another go.

Trying out Blue Flax, Wild Strawberry, Lanceleaf Coreopsis, Wild Garlic, Wild Geranium, and Wild Phlox this year as well. Learned about Figwort’s amazing pollinator benefits last year, so going to plant out more of that in the side yard!