Free compost from Starbucks (anytime)

You know, it amazes me each the amount of money Americans will spend to speed up the course of nature. There’s a great Wall Street Journal article online about a new generation of compost bins that takes the time and work out of biodegrading food scraps. And I’m in total agreement that turning a compost pile is a big pain in the hiney. Which is why for several years we’ve been vermicomposting (that is, composting with worms) in the back yard, in a repurposed plastic storage tub with air holes (price: free) supplied with shredded newspapers and red wigglers from Paul’s Bait and Tackle in South City, where we’re proud members of the Worm Club (buy 10 containers, get the 11th free).

Back on the farm where I grew up, my mom would simply bury the fruit and veggie scraps in the garden and let the worms have at it. While I disliked the chore of digging holes for it, especially when the ground got cold and hard, it was an absolutely free way to generate compost with no follow-on work needed.

One trend the article mentions is certain cities’ mandating that residents separate their “bio,” as we call compostable material in my house, as they do their recycling and place it in separate curbside bins. This sounds like rocket science on a municipal level, but when we moved to a German apartment in 1998, the system was well in place, and though it was voluntary, it was socially taboo to use up communal general refuse space with your “bio.”

So while I’m happy about anything that encourages people to compost their own waste — or at least separate it for the city to haul away — I’m a little bemused that some of these units use electricity to make compost. Doesn’t that sort of defeat the “green” purpose?

And now for the moment you’ve all been reading for … yes, Starbucks does indeed offer 5-pound bags of used coffee grounds for free under the tagline “Grounds for Your Garden.”

Wild weekend roundup (Sept. 12-13)

In the nearly two years I’ve been doing this blog, I’ve noticed that four or five times a year there is one weekend that’s crazy-full of events. Usually they fall early in February, April, June, September and December. Something about seasons changing, I suspect. The coming two days are perhaps the most crazy-full ever, and it’s impossible for me to choose which events to highlight because so many sound so good:

• The Hispanic Festival is back downtown at Soldiers Memorial Park (closer to me, so I’m happy, but probably the folks in North County feel differently!) with food and crafts and music and activities for the kids.  I like the schedule for the stage — bands are interspersed with dancers and other performers so there’s no time lost to breaks. Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 12-13)

• Due to a my own crazy-full week, I wasn’t able to promote the Best of Chesterfield as I should have, because the organizers were asking anyone interested in attending the free event in Herman Stemme Office Park to register in advance. So … it runs from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. tomorrow and it’s worth a late-notice effort, because the music lineup is great, and the food samples are only $2 to $7. Proceeds benefit the Howard Park Center, which helps kids with disabilities. Saturday (Sept. 12)

• Another festival that’s near and dear to my own heart (seeing as how it’s put on by an employer of mine!) is the St. Louis Kids Magazine Health and Education Expo at the St. Peters Rec Plex, a fabulous facility that’s open all day for free classes and activities as part of the Family Fitness Festival and Fun Run. Saturday (Sept. 12)

• The parade season is winding down, but there’s still one more chance to do your beauty queen wave at passing floats during the Fenton Founder’s Day Parade at 1 p.m. Saturday (Sept. 12)

• If you want more fire trucks than a parade has to offer, check out the Great Fire Engine Rally at the Arch grounds. The parade is at 10 a.m., but the excitement level rises at 11 a.m. when the firefighter challenge begins. And there are demos throughout the afternoon. Saturday (Sept. 12)

• Also at the Arch grounds is the annual ParkPalooza. It’s a weekend celebrating all our national parks, and activities are tailored to the locale — in our case, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. There are 10 interactive stations about outdoor recreation, Mississippi River culture and history, fitness and nature. Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 12-13)

• And if NONE of those events float your boat, hope is not lost — there’s also a free outdoor samba concert in Benton Park at 5 p.m. on Saturday (Sept. 12). It looks to be cooler than the last one, so people may not confine themselves to the shade along the basin’s edges — maybe folks will get up front and center by the band, Samba Bom, and dance! There’s food available for purchase from local restaurants as part of the Taste of Benton Park event, which benefits the park itself.
  

Songs for the birds (tonight, Aug. 6)

It’s nearing the time of summer when I start to write about events and places that are winding down for the season … but not quite yet! I have one more kick-off announcement first: the World Bird Sanctuary’s Birds In Concert, featuring birds of prey demos and live bands every Thursday in August.

I’ve heard three of the four bands, and I can almost guarantee that kids will love The Raptor Project (environmental folk/rock), Javier Mendoza (funk/flamenco) and Babaloo (children’s music). Based on those acts, I bet the Tyson Valley Ramblers (bluegrass) are top-quality entertainment too. The only downside for my family is that the evening begins at 7 p.m., making for a late night.

Due to the live animal component of these free show, no pets are allowed. For details, call 636.225.4390.

Taken with towboats (Aug. 2)

We drive the stretch of northbound I-55 between Loughborough and Arsenal several times a week, and the boys never paid much attention to its excellent view of the Mississippi River until after we toured a towboat in Grafton earlier this month. Now they’re craning their necks and scouting for barges as soon as we hit a break in the trees.

On a towboat in Alton, Ill.

In the city, the best view of the barge traffic can be had at Sister Marie Charles Park, just inside the city’s southern limit, east of Broadway on Elwood Street. Don’t be scared off by the park’s unsavory reputation as an anonymous pickup joint — it has a lovely view and deserves to be frequented by towboat-loving kids, especially during daylight hours.

A mom from the Illinois side of the river told me what a great visit her boys had to the Melvin Price Locks and Dam in Alton, and I’ve been thinking it’d be fun to take mine over there … someday. Thanks to Sunday’s (Aug. 2) Towboat Open House there, we now have an excellent excuse. The event features the Army Corps of Engineers’ largest diesel towboat, the Mississippi, which will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (For details, call 618.462.6979.) In addition, the National Great Rivers Museum at the lock and dam is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. that day (and every day) with free exhibits on Mississippi River aquatic life, river flow and soil formation, native cultures, river pilots’ training and much more. While you’re there, sign up at the museum desk for free tours of the locks and dams.

You may be surprised, as I was, how immaculate everything is on a towboat. The best part by far is talking to the crew — this will be possible on Sunday too, and don’t be shy about asking questions! It’s a fascinating world out there on the river, and I’m glad our family has finally started to learn about it.

Hummingbird heaven (July 26)

I have a love-hate relationship with our backyard fountain. When I bought it four years ago, it seemed like such a good idea. M. loved to play in it, and I loved the gentle gurgle of the water. We soon realized that birds loved it too. Really loved it. And do you know what? Birds have no compunction about pooping where they drink. Consequently, the fountain soon needed to be cleaned. And that’s where the hate part comes in. It’s a –tch to clean. For a while I tried discouraging the birds with anti-algae tablets, but the guilt was actually worse than the cleaning.

So now I’m trying to look on the bright side. We have a whole lot more birds in our yard than we used to, and I’m trying to figure out what they are so I can teach the kids. Last year we even had hummingbirds, for the first time I can recall (or perhaps for the first time I noticed).

We don’t have a hummingbird feeder because I’m afraid I’ll forget to clean it and inadvertently make them sick. (Why is cleaning always tied somehow to guilt??) But they’re so cool to watch that I’m sort of rethinking that too. I definitely have some questions for the folks at the Hummingbird Festival this Sunday (July 26) at Pere Marquette Lodge in Grafton. The Illinois Audubon Society will be there banding the birds from 1 to 4 p.m., and while they’re at work spectators will have the opportunity to get very close to — perhaps even touch — the tiny creatures. For a small fee, you can sponsor a bird and find out where it is throughout the year, courtesy of the society’s updates.

For details on the festival, call the lodge at 618.786.2331 ext. 338.

Plant a flower, help a bee … or butterfly … or chocoholic (anytime)

We’ve been planting our flowerbeds the past few days after school. Things are going smoothly now, but there was a very rocky period when S. suddenly and irrationally developed a terror of bees. I mean scream-like-you’re-dying terror — the first time it happened my heart didn’t slow down for a quarter of an hour after the bloodcurdling yell from around the corner of the house. So we’re back to the same strategies we used with M. when he went through something similar (albeit MUCH less severe) a few years ago: Bees want flowers, not you. Bees help all our plants grow the foods we eat. Bees need our help because they’re having a hard time right now. That’s as close to colony collapse disorder as we got, but it’s a very hot topic that’s showing up everywhere, even in Haagen-Dazs ads (with details about planting a bee-friendly blue, purple, orange and yellow flowerbed), as part of its Help the Honeybees online campaign.
Other online resources for helping bees abound.  If you’re in Illinois, you can help the BeeSpotter at the University of Illinois by sending photos of the bees in your yard.  If you’d like to do more, check out The Bee Works and think about setting up your own hives (as quite a few St. Louisans, city and county and even downtown, have already done).

But if you empathize with S. in his aversion to bees, helping butterflies may be more your speed.  There are lots of online resources for those too. You can read a list of plants that the Webster Groves Nature Study Society has put into its two local butterfly gardens (and see where they are, in case you’re up for a field trip).  Midwest Living Magazine also has some good tips for starting  abutterfly garden in our area.

What S. would like best, perhaps, is a garden designed with him in mind.  Unfortunately, his favorite food, cupcakes, doesn’t grow on trees.  But chocolate comes in a close second — and though cacao won’t do so well in our climate, there are some chocolate-scented flowers (including Chocolate Daisies and Chocolate Cosmos) that he might like so much he’ll be willing to share with the bees and the butterflies.

Hear stories (Apr. 29-May 2), write stories (Apr. 30)

The schedule for this week’s St. Louis Storytelling Festival is impressively long: three pages of events throughout the city and county, some indoors, some out, some reservation-only for schoolchildren, some free-to-the-public, and a few specifically for adults. The first three days (Apr. 29-May 1) are heavy on stories for schoolchildren, but the weekend (May 2) brings more family events at venues ranging from the Missouri Botanical Garden to the Arch grounds to libraries to Cahokia Mounds.

Of the eight featured storytellers, I only recognized one, Bobby Norfolk, but in reading up about their various styles and genres, I think they’re all going to be fun to hear.  Then there are dozen of regional storytellers who’ll also be performing; some of them are 10-year veterans of the festival. The University of Missouri-St. Louis is the main coordinator, though many other organizations are also involved.

This coming Thursday (Apr. 30) is the final day for kids in grades K through 3 to perfect their own stories for the KETC Channel 9 contest Young Writers and Illustrators: Adventures in Science. The science-themed stories must be postmarked that day. There’s no monetary prize, but M. considers the token reward for entering, a date at The Magic House, better than cash anyway!  Click here for rules and an entry form.

Go green, save green (Apr. 18-26)

The upside to the multitude of Earth Day events around St. Louis is that they foster awareness of all the possibilities for saving resources and becoming a more savvy consumer. The downside is that I think I’ve reached a plateau. I pay extra for curbside recycling; I drive a hybrid; I plant a garden; I have timers on my thermostats; I conserve water; I signed up for Ameren’s PurePower; I live in a home that’s 140 years old; I take unusable computer equipment to the proper disposal facilities; I buy recycled paper products; I carry my own grocery bags … heck, I even ordered a rain barrel from MSD a couple of weeks ago (the deadline to order has passed, but express your interest at customersvc@stlmsd.com and they’ll know to be prepared for next time!). No wonder a reporter from the Post-Dispatch pegged me last year at the Earth Day festival in Forest Park as her token “green” soccer mom!

Obviously, there are many more steps my family could take toward ultimate greenness — we’ve done the easy and not-horribly-expensive ones. I look forward to attended some of these Earth Day events to learn more about what I can do, and perhaps even taking advantage of Missouri’s Green Tax Holiday next week (Apr. 19-25). All of the events below are free unless otherwise noted.

• EcoExpo at the Saint Louis Science Center, Saturday and Sunday, details at http://ecoexpostlouis.com.
• Earth Day at the Missouri Botanical Garden, Saturday and Sunday (Apr. 18-19), free with paid garden admission (or for city and county residents until noon on Saturday), details at www.mobot.org.
• Earth Day at Shaw Park, Saturday (Apr. 18) from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., details at 314.290.8544.
• Earthways Center Public Tour Days, Saturday and Sunday (Apr. 18-19), admission is $3 per person, but no reservations are necessary, details at www.earthwayscenter.org.
• Free @ Three Green Art-Earth Day at COCA, Sunday (Apr. 19), ages 6 to 12, details at cocastl.org.
  
• Earth Day Recycling Drive at St. Louis Community College – Forest Park, Sunday (Apr. 19), details at www.witsinc.org.
• Party for the Planet next Sunday (Apr. 26) at the Saint Louis Zoo, details at www.stlzoo.org.
  
• Saint Louis Earth Day next Sunday (Apr. 26) at Forest Park’s Lower Muny area, details at http://stlouisearthday.org.

Earth Day itself, April 22, is relatively quiet on the activities front … might be a good day to get things ready for my soon-to-arrive rain barrel!

Two genres of fun: very urban or very outdoorsy (Apr. 4)

Last year the boys and I headed way out west to the Wetlands for Kids Day at the August A. Busch Conservation Area on Highway D in St. Charles County. We arrived rather late in the day, but it was evident the event had been a huge, huge success (not least because of the 70-degree weather!) There were still kids traipsing from forest to pond and everywhere in between, getting a little muddy and very windblown, and loving every second of it. This year’s event is Saturday (Apr. 4) from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and I recommend getting there plenty early.  As you can see in the photo, S.’s favorite activity was exploring the woods; M. enjoyed watching the retrievers take to the water.

If you’re in the city and planning to stay here for the day, consider a visit to Cherokee Street for the open house from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Keep an eye out as you browse for some of my kids’ favorite stops: the Mexican bakeries (Diana’s and El Chico), Kakao Chocolates (note the new fruit marshmallows!) and always La Vallesana’s ice cream shop.  I hear that the new Foam coffeeshop and beer pub might be kid-friendly too. There will be live music at the Firecracker Press, 2838 Cherokee, though I haven’t found the time yet.   You can find details on the other participating businesses, who’ll have maps of the day’s events, at the neighborhood’s online news outlet.

Gardening freebies: trees and perennials (Apr. 3 and 4)

Today’s tip is this: Plant something the damn rabbits won’t eat! I never had rabbit problems growing up on the ranch in North Dakota … why do I have them here, in the heart of St. Louis City?!!??!? It’s driving me a little crazy — I feel like Elmer Fudd. So, I’m tempted to get another tree, just because I know it would survive better than my spinach, lettuce, peas, radishes and tulips! DEER are not a problem in my neighborhood.

The Missouri Botanical Garden’s marking the state’s Arbor Day on Friday (April 3) by giving away 400 saplings: Willow oak (Quercus phellos), flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), pawpaw (Asimina triloba) and fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicus) will be available at the William T. Kemper Center for Home Gardening from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or while supplies last. I really, really, really want a pawpaw.  (To be convinced yourself, read this old USA Today article! There’s more info about the event and the trees in this online press release.

If your gardening fancy leans more toward perennials, this month’s Fox 2 Children’s Garden Club meeting is for you.  The Great Perennial Divide takes place Saturday (April 4) at Sherwood’s Forest on Barrett Station Road, just off Manchester in West County.  Next month (May 2), the 10-year-old club turns its attention to vegetables.