Debstr's Blog
Debstr's posts about: compost
Mar 7, 2008 | 2:52 PM PST
Tags: transplants , worms , compost
Remember this guy?? Frankie our newest pup, fits in perfect here except for the fact that he loves to rile up the other dogs ALL the time - he's a full time job, but oh so cute and he's enjoying the Sunshine that we had today! The sun shining brightly sure makes it alot easier to handle this Cold weather! Remember Daylight Savings Time this weekend - clocks spring ahead an hour.
This week I spent a whole lot of hours transplanting - I usually start seeds in a tray and then when they get too cluttered and need more room to grow I will pull some out (ever so carefully) and plant them in small pots. This year I ordered 100 pots and I knew I would need more, but DH suggested I start out small. Well, yesterday I ordered 400 more - I went through those first 100 in No time!! The picture is a tray full of transplants I made up for a friend - I will keep them here under lights until time to plant outside which is another 2 months or so - yes, yes, I start seeds very early but it's OK ... I just can't stop myself LOL
Tomatoes, peppers, basil ... per his request. I may add another tray of flowers or who knows what I will come up with! I also plan on making up a nice tray like this for Mom for Mother's Day and I am SURE there will be more trays I give to family and friends....Easter is right around the corner.
Nowwwww....for the update on the worm bin composting!!! The following pictures of the worms are not for the weak of stomach - so be prepared :-) Actually, before I started composting with worms I thought they were SO gross and slimey and .... they still are, but I got used to them! Especially when I had to pick up one or two after they fell out of the bin or had a cluster land on my hand .........ewwww It's just something ya get used to ....
Picture #1 This is the bottom bin
Now what I do on occassion is stir them up so I can see how things are going in there and the next picture shows how I stirred this up a bit and there is still some leaves and newspaper that needs to decompose so I will let this go for AT least another 2 weeks and not add any more food scrapes or anything ...
In the meantime, I added kitchen scraps to the bin above this one along with wet shredded newspaper and there is some action already going on in there but this is the place I will be adding food scraps, leaves, etc. from now on and the bin above that I added some stuff to get it going kinda. When the time comes I will take that bottom bin and place it on top of the other two and stir it up, let the light get to it to encourage the worms to travel to the next bin and Voila I will have a bin of worm castings! I hope I am making sense here ... but the thing IS - this is not an easy thing to do or learn (for me at least). In time I imagine it will become second nature and something I am used to, kinda like the cluster of worms landing on my hand LOL
Ok time to go work on dinner - but to tell ya the truth after taking and posting these worm pictures - I lost my appetite! Go Wormsssssss............
Jan 28, 2008 | 4:59 PM PST
Tags: worms , worm bin , compost
A worm bin is definitely a challenge and a learning trip if I ever had one! I still have not mastered it but have gotten better - the trick is time and patience. April will officially be one year since I purchased this unit and the picture looks so shiny and brand new - it's worn in now ....
It has 3 drawers or sections and the lower one with the spigot you can turn and it releases liquid which I use for watering my plants - compost tea which I dilute with water. Now I did try and make my own before I bought this and many folks do make their own with great success. I think I just wasn't that mechanically gifted for constructing one of these on my own. Basically you can make one with a plastic bin and probably at this point I would attempt making one again since I have experienced the worm bin life lol Making compost with worms is No overnight miracle by any means - I thought it would be and learned otherwise. I did lose a few bins due to my impatience - the one I thought would be really wonderful was adding weeds from our pond OMG bad move! You have to balance dry material with wet material and just let the worms be. The moving up and down from one bin to another I still have not figured out - I put kitchen scraps, leaves, shredded paper in two of the bins and then I kinda stop adding to the bottom one (let them work on the material) and hope for the best. When I am planting new seeds or plants I will dig around and grab what compost I can and add it to the soil. These are not earthworms they are red wiggler worms which are much smaller and I did receive complete instructions for setting up and maintaining the worm bin. There are books out there and websites so information is plentiful. I came across this one site where this guy had a worm FARM and had tons of worms and piles of compost which he sold. I truly believe this is an art and one that takes time and patience to master.....so I wait.
