Spring Work Out

It feels so good to be outside in the sunshine and I'm already feeling my muscles growing too!

My easiest compost ever bin last summer

Remember my post about the easiest compost ever?  I swear by this method!  Everything from fern fronds & grass clippings to egg shells & cilantro stems make it into my compost bin and magically with no mixing or moving, I get a tube full of black gold each spring! 

Now that my tube of compost is ready for use, I just pulled off the wire frame to harvest my black gold. Theres always a layer at the top that is only partially decomposed, but that's ok.  This layer along with all the worms inside of it is removed and placed in the bottom of the empty wire bin where it will jumpstart this years compost.  All the enzymes and microbes that aide in decomposition are already in that partially done layer.

I'm thrilled that I wound up with a lot of ready to use compost!  It was about 8 wheel barrows full of 100% free organic soil amendment! And with no backbreaking work or constant turning.  I just stack it in, water it when it's dry and let mother nature do her thing.  You just can't beat that! Composting is the epitome of the old saying "waste not, want not".

Beautiful black and rich.  Last years waste will

feed the plants that will feed us this year!

If you've been following my spring garden frenzy, then you know that I've run out of room in my garden beds for planting anything else.  Soon Ben will be building me some more recycled beds and bringing home a few yards of 4 way organic soil to fill them, but the sun is shining and I just can't wait.  So I took a look around the yard to see what I might repurpose for planting in some odd shaped areas of my garden where buiding beds would be difficult.

First I found the top half of an old plastic compost bin.  The bottom section had split open and was not really good for anything (that's why I'm not using plastic for my bins).  It seemed like a great candidate for a garden container.  I drug it down to the garden and found a spot for it, next to my ugly but useful recycled laundry bin planter.  I filled it with compost, leveled it out and planted another type of carrots inside.  It might not be pretty now, but it will be gorgeous when those carrots come up!

 

You never know what might make a good garden bed. 
This container lived it's first life as a compost bin,
now it will get a second life as a carrot planter!

I still had loads of compost, so I took the wire mesh tubes from last years failed potato tower experiment and carefully cut them in 1/2 to form 6 good sized containers.  These would fit perfect in the sloped corner of my garden.

 

This wire tube tower for potatoes was too tall last year.

 

That's more like it!  Now these shorter tubes I can work with. 

Each tube became 2 - 18" tall planters.  These are perfect for this spot because I can mold the shape a little bit before filling them.  Then I found some old plastic woven bird seed bags I've been saving for a project and cut those down to line the bottom of each of these new planters.  I cut drainage slashes in the lining and got to work filling each plant tube with compost.

8  loads full!  I highly recommend a 2

wheeled barrow like mine for ease of use.

Eight trips to the back yard with my wheelbarrow and I had created a whole new planting area from recycled and repurposed items I already had!  I love recycling in the garden!  

The mesh planters are full and ready
for seeding.  And now a wasted space in my
garden is going to be a productive.  Yay! 

I decided to go ahead and try potatoes in these again now that they are a bit smaller.  I have several different types of spuds that have sprouted in my cupboards that should work. I placed 3 little papita starts in each tube.  I don't know if they'll all grow, but at least some of them should.  I know potatoes grow in compost bins all the time.

Red, white & russet potatoes from the kitchen get

replanted here  along with an onion and some garlic

centers that need planting.

Oh I almost forgot, each day when the sun is out I'm opening up my boat/greenhouse to get some direct sun on the soil and the plants.  I've also placed my jugs of water strategically throughout to absorb the heat of the sun durring the day.  In the evening I'll recover the boat and those recycled containers of water will radiate the warmth back into the greenhouse. 

Those empty jugs from our ceasars and screwdrivers

become passive heaters in the greenhouse

I bumped into my neighbor Leslie as I was out enjoying the sun. She's also been hard at work cutting back her fern fronds and generously offered them to me for my garden mulch. Thank you Leslie! I think I may have enough fronds to fully line the non-growing areas of the garden now! It sure makes the garden area look nice too. A few hours of work in the sunshine and what a payoff!  I love it! 

Of Gardens, Garbage & Goo!

 

What's up with those worms? 

I've had bloggers block. I try to post a new blog each day (sort of cheating a couple days a week with simply a photo). Today I'm back. :0)

I'm taking a break in the midst of my Monday chores to share a bit more about my dirty life as an organic gardener. We've been really lucky with a mild winter this year and I've been working in my garden for the last few weeks when the weather is dry enough. Today is a day like that. High cloud cover but no rain so far. It seemed like a good time to check in on my worm bin. 

Seperating the trays 

So the way this system works is the worms should be actively eating in the top trays of the bin and the finished compost should be in the bottom trays.  First I removed the top few trays and set them aside.

Then I'll take the bottom few trays down to my veggie plot to amend my soil in an empty bed.

These worms will ride in style in my custom garden wagon! 

No one said this would be pretty! 

Now I'm going to drain the "worm juice" or "worm tea" into a watering can.  When I get down to the garden I'm going to water my celery plants with this nutrient rich, all be it, smelly juice. 

This bed will be ready to plant after a small resting period.

A quick trip to the garden and I added the worm compost to my only currently empty vegetable bed.  I just dump the trays in and pull out any "clumps" of worms that are in the mix.  I'll return them to my worm bin.  Any others that don't make it back to the bin will be just fine in my garden bed.  They'll continue to work for me by aerating the soil.  I then mixed in the new compost into the soil and I'll let this bed sit for at least 1 week before adding any seeds or new plants.

I noticed this new shoot coming up in the garden. 

It's either a garlic or onion?

After a quick look around the veggie patch, I'll returned to the worm bin to finish this project.  I replace the trays from the top.  They will now be at the bottom of the stack. Reserving the very top bin to the side.  I'll add one of my now empty trays to the top of the stack.  This is a good time to add some bedding for the worms and I've saved just the thing inside.

A pressed paper egg carton is great for worm bedding

To use a paper egg carton for bedding material in the worm bin, I'll first wet it down from the top and bottom side so it absorbs some moisture.  This helps to tear it up and makes it more appealing for the worms in my bin.

Tearing the carton into smaller pieces will allow it to break down faster.

I return to the wormbin and tear up the egg carton into the top (now empty) tray.  Then I'll add in the worms that I pulled out in the garden.

OOOwey Gooey!  That's a whole can o worms!

Yuck!  This ugly garbage will become beautiful soil amendment in no

time thanks to my hard working worm bin!

Now I add the "orignal" top trays contents to my new top tray.  These little worms have been munching away in my bins for 2 years!  They breed when there's enough food (which is always the case in my bins) and any that die are eaten by the living worms and turned into great compost too! 

Here's the bin after the project is complete with 3 working trays

3 empty trays ready for the next run of kitchen waste

So that's it!  That's really all there is to running and maintaining a worm bin.  It's so easy and the reward of "free" soil amendment and fertilizer is great in my organic garden.  My yeilds are up and my plants grow quickly and healthy.  Another plus, it's as green as you can get and keeps all those lettuce centers, broccoli stems, cabbage hearts and other scraps out of my trash can and out of the landfill.  Yes they will decompose there too, but this way they get a second life, from a single resource as a natural organic garden additive!

No one said gardening was for the squeemish!  It's a dirty job, but I love it!  I enjoy the time outdoors and love growing my own produce knowing that no chemicals have been added.  Joy, dirty joy!

What's growing on? 2/2/10

Take a walk with me won't you?  Let's see what's growing on in my organic gardens.  This year everything's making an early arrival due to our mild winter weather.

First let's stop and check in on my worm bin.  Looks like these red wrigglers are doing just fine.  They work non-stop for me turning my kitchen waste and junk mail into wonderful compost. 

 

How is the back bed doing?  It looks like the ground cover I planted last year is taking off! These little ajugas are so pretty with their red leaves and in another month or so we'll be seeing them show off their pretty purple/blue bloom stalks.  I can't wait!

 

I wonder how the green house is doing?  Looks great!  We've got lettuce that's nearly ready and carrots just sprouting up too.  They'll have a big head start on the spring plantings.

Seeing the Lemon balm up and growing got me thinking about my homemade salsas.  And suprise, there's a little cilantro that volunteered in last years salsa garden!

 

This brussels sprout plant has been growing since last spring.  I think I may have to read some hints about how to make them grow properly.  Still no sprouts, but at least the plant is starting to look better.

A couple of little pretties are coming up around the yard too.  I'm excited to watch this seedling Daphne develop into a small tree.  It's about 2 years old now.  I think in about 10 years it will be a real show piece. 

It's a nice enough day, I should be out pruning my many ferns in anticipation of this years new growth.  Normally I wait until March to do that, so I think I'll give it at least another week before I tackle that project.  Also don't want to till any of the soil yet even though it's a tempting day.  It's still much too wet and this would break down the natural enzymes in my healthy soil. 

Don't waste your waste! Become a Worm Wrangler.

Ok gardeners and other green people are you still throwing your food waste in the garbage?  Stop that!  Don't waste your waste!  Become a Worm Wrangler.

Do you know that the average American household produces about 5lbs of garbage everyday?  I wonder how much we could reduce that by simply composting our food waste.  It might even lower your garbage bill!

I started coralling crawlies last fall when I set up my wonderful Worm Factory Worm Bin.  I love this company for making their worm bins from  post consumer recycled materials and they're here in my local area. Also the lifespan of these bins is supposed to be about 70 years and it comes with a 5 year warranty!

Worm Factory Worm bins rock!!!

Here's some fun facts about worms:

• Wrangling Red Wiggler Worms is called Vermiculture
• Worms eat up to 1/2 of their body weight eachday, so if you've got a pound of worms they'll eat a 1/2 pound of your food waste everyday!
• Worms in bins should receive a mix of 1/2 food waste and 1/2 fiber, so worms can eat your junk mail and shredded documents!
• Worms process your compost much faster in a worm bin than in a regular compost bin and takes a lot less work than turning a compost pile.
• Garden plants grow faster and fuller when fertilized with worm tea!
• You can use worm bins indoors or out! So even apartment dwellers can raise red wigglers.
• Mixing finished worm compost into your potting soil makes houseplants healthy and happy
• Worms will reproduce in your worm bin but they'll regulate themselves based on the environment and amount of available food and space!  Watch this short film from Isabella Rosellini to learn more about worm reproduction

Here's a peek at my healthy happy worms.

I love my worm bin so much I even made my own video about it this summer.

Here's Fat Red Worms

There are a few things that worms won't eat and should not be placed in your worm bin.  They're not too picky, but worms will not eat onions, citrus rinds, and jalepenos or other hot peppers.