Worms are thriving on a mix of cardboard, sterile compost dirt from the municipality, coffee chaff from a local coffee roaster, alfalfa pellets, kitchen compost and clippings from mowing the yard. I have not been an exemplary gardener this year. I have been trying to do too many things everyday and falling behind on everything. I did not have a plan when I laid out my beds in the spring and I created areas that were difficult to access for watering. I don't know which volunteer plants to keep and which ones I need to remove or at least reduce. I tried soaker hoses this year but because my plantings are in clumps on raised beds, a lot of the water is falling in areas that don't benefit the plants I am cultivating but it does benefit the plants I don't want to cultivate. My rain barrels are catching rain on the west side of the house but most of my garden is on the east and south side of the house. I have to carry every gallon from the rain barrels around the house to throw...
The new composter is assembled and ready for service. Mom read Pogo aloud while I tightened the 64 nuts and bolts to complete assembly. Setting up the shade garden and worm farm has led me to take a close look at our composting system. Previously we had thrown all organic waste into the city green bin. The bushels of leaves that fell from the Lombardi Poplar were bagged up and hauled away. My priorities have changed and the value of this green waste has gone up significantly. Our theory for shade garden success is that we are going to need a vigorous and vital soil habitat for the plants to draw maximum nourishment during the hours when they have direct sun. The soil on this property was severely impacted by a gigantic cedar hedge that surrounded the yard for 30 years. After the hedge was removed, there was major construction when we excavated to put a new basement under our 1911 house. This year we hauled 5 cubic yards of composted soil from the City. All these events have contr...
Yesterday mid-morning I went to check on the worms in their bins and found the floor littered with dead escapees. I had just changed out another pair of bins the day before - removing half the volume of worm castings, leaving as many worms in the bin as possible, and then refilling the bin with compost soil from the city, alfalfa pellets, greens from the garden and cardboard topper. As I swept up the little carcasses I realized I could no longer manage the work of looking after the worm bins through the winter. I am currently overwhelmed with recovering from caregiving, re-organizing my household, and getting my own health back after dental surgery. I talked it over with my dear husband and decided to re-home my worm bins to the garden for the winter. I am adopting the hugelkulture method of gardening, creating hills of composted dirt on top of composting leaves and brown materials. To re-home the worms I tipped each bin upside down on the hills of new soil we brought in la...
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