Of Yoga and Lemons

Once upon a time, I was doing Yoga regularly. I would head to the studio religiously after work and there were even a couple of times when it was only the Yoga teacher and me. That was super fab, with just me to focus on, I got a real workout! But these last few years, I've been getting lazier and lazier, age not helping, so this morning, with the second day of school and a new routine to get used to, I decided to reconnect with my inner self and long forgotten muscles. I found this Yoga for Beginners by Adrienne on Youtube and it was a real treat, just perfect to ease me in. So I'm really hoping I will stick with Adrienne for the week. Like she said, the hardest part of this routine is showing up.

So here's to a week of Yoga with Adrienne!

Making Lemons

After getting my compost bin all set up (which I talked about here), I started preparing for plants that will eventually need the natural fertilizer I'm making. I love fruit trees and I've wanted bonsai fruit trees since forever. And like my yoga, once upon a time, I had a collection of bonsai trees - which I left to my brother. So for my new collection, I wanted a lemon tree from scratch. I got a couple of organic lemons from the local grocery and I carefully cut one on the lower bottom so I don't accidentally damage the seeds. From what I've read, lemon seeds are better to plant fresh than dried. Trying to germinate from seeds that have dried seems to be harder and is generally a hit and miss affair. After I got the seeds out, I saved the lemon juice for cooking.

Got more than a dozen good seeds from that one lemon. I discarded the small, scrimpy looking ones and gave the rest a quick wash and placed them on a tissue paper. The seeds have a slimy outer coating that needs to be removed to help them germinate. To do this, it helps to hold the lower part with tissue paper so it doesn't slide off, then grab the tip with a tweezer and pull down. 

Tadaaaaa!

Nice and clear of the outer coatings, you can now see the golden yellowish color of the upper part of the seed and the brown bottoms. 

And this is purely because I like seeing if seeds germinated or not, I sandwiched the seeds in a couple of thin tissue paper, put it inside a zip lock bag and sprayed water on it, just enough to keep the paper moist but not dripping wet. That was back in August 3. The seeds needed to be in warm place so I kept mine near the computer's tower CPU which emitted some warmth. After seven days, I came back and saw those welcome sprouts trying to force the tissue open. 

All seeds is a go! Repeat, all seeds is a go!

All of the seeds germinated -- I was so excited! But I decided to wait a few more days till the sprouts were bigger before I planted them. 

This is the Root. Root goes in the soil.

Now, here's how NOT to plant them. Silly me, I planted the sprouts root side up.  This is actually the root I left exposed! Good thing they still grew. I watered it once and kept the pots in DIY greenhouses - which is a fancy way of saying I put a clear plastic bag (from reused grocery packagings) over the pot and kept 'em indoors a few inches under a lamp.

It's so gratifying to see them grow. They look so green and healthy and from what I read, they emit a very fresh lemony (naturally!) scent which I'm really looking forward to.

I do want them to grow bigger because I am planning on turning them into bonsai trees so I replanted two in a bigger pot and placed it outdoors with a bigger sheet of plastic to act as a greenhouse and protect it from the turning weather. So far it's been doing well even with the rain these last few days. So psyched!

Seedling

I am obsessed: I want to garden again. In what used to be my bachelorette's pad, I had a compost bin under my kitchen sink (and friends can testify that there was no stink usually associated with composting) and a window garden. I grew tomatoes, basil, sweet bell peppers, ficus bonsai, holly bonsai and some other plants. But it's been two years in this new apartment and I have not yet tried my hand at growing stuff.

Okay, to be totally honest, I did impulse buy a couple of herbs during last winter season but they quickly died from exposure. But that urge to plant plus this growing, nagging guilt about throwing biodegradable items in with general garbage has really made the itch to practice my green thumb so bad!

Like a seed trying to sprout, this urge grew out of dirt or thrash to be exact. Without any conscious plans to start a garden yet, I started segregating biodegradables again. And because I did not have any gardening materials at hand, save for a set of garden tools which my uncle gave me, the segregated wastes quickly turned into a stinky mess. So I had to get a sack of soil to cover it up. Luckily, my mom gave me a shredder a few months back, so I also had shredded paper that I could toss in to control the smell. More brown materials in the compost like dried leaves, paper and dirt helps avoid stink. If you're interested to get more information about it, here's a very nice infographics about what you can or cannot put in the pile. You can view the full version here.

Since I lived in an apartment complex, I was very concerned about the compost bin becoming smelly. I took extra precautions, specially since I did not (and still do not) use any special bins designed for this purpose. I placed my compost in a garbage bag inside a garbage bag, inside a plastic bin. This makes it possible for me to tie up the first bag to contain the smell, tie up the second bag over it for a second layer of protection and then close the plastic bin cover over the whole set-up. I'd go in, check moisture, add water if needed and try to rotate everything at least once a week. Though mostly anaerobic, the compost turned into dark, moist, rich soil.

This time though, I am using a standard bin composting design because we have a balcony where I can store the compost. I used a cheap plastic bin from the hardware store, punched in some holes for air circulation and filled it up with browns and greens.

If I have the space, I would love to make this DIY rotating composter. This would give my compost that much-needed aeration. A quick Google search led me to this simpler bucket project: DIY on using Home Depot buckets.

Some composters would have a pretty tub that they'd leave by the sink where they can deposit their biodegradable materials before dumping it in the compost pile, but if you're not finicky, then any tub would work. If you don't leave it too long, even a small open top dipper would do. I use an old coffee tin can with a plastic cover.

This waste segregation reduced our garbage immensely! In the first week, we only threw out a couple of small bags of thrash, mostly product wrappers. It was a huge difference to see how much less garbage there is.

Unfortunately, I don't have that much space. I've already started storing some biodegradables in the freezer. I read that freezing them first then thawing and placing in the compost bin helps degrade them faster. However, I would need to stop collecting compostable materials soon.

There's a vast difference between the amount of brown (carbon-rich materials) versus green materials (nitrogen-rich) you can throw in. The Compost Guy says the ratio range of Carbon to Nitrogen (called C:N ratio) is 20:1 to 40:1, so that's a lot of browns (which are my paper, soil and errant dried leaves that drop in the balcony) versus greens (my kitchen scraps). That math just means one thing to me: everything adds up to a full bin and I have no more space. A backyard would be lovely, fairy godmother.

It will definitely not be quick. Composting guides say compost can be ready in three to four weeks (I wish!) because normally compost is ready to use in six months to a year. And I do like to err in the side of caution. I left my first apartment compost in the previous residence for a year before I started using it.  I'm also considering vermicomposting to get it done quicker.  In the meantime, I can start germinating seeds and arranging the space for our burgeoning garden, which right now is just a compost bin and some seeds.

I do wish my apartment community has vegetable gardens or pea patches. Found out recently that Liv Apartments, one of the newer apartment communities in Redmond offers pea patches and for me, that's a stroke of genius! I've often mentioned it to hubby, that with all these landscape grounds around apartments, offering residents vegetable gardens and composting space should be a staple. I hope it works out for Liv Apartments so that hopefully, the trend will catch on.

Recycling, composting, gardening -- ahhh... it feels good to be back in touch with earth.