The Circle of Life STARTS and Ends Where the worms eat, fuck, poop, die and are born! I love farming worms, I love growing plants, I love eating fresh organic veggies and I love feeding the scraps of fruit/veggies as well as the plant matter back to the worms and watching that circle be repeated over and over. Knowing you are a part of something never ending and something that makes a huge difference is a big deal. This is as much a thread about plants as it is about worms but what I most hope that anyone who comes here picks up is an idea about how to utilize what we have to make what we need. If anyone thinks that a little thing cannot make a big difference. Think Again Yellow Pear Heirloom Tomato First Tomato from these plants. It went in the dirt on 2/28/11and I would guess it has 10-14 days left for the fruit to ripen. They generally take 70days from transplant so I am right on target or maybe a little ahead? So... welcome to my garden. P.S. If you don't get ^ its cause of v
awesome man, how long do you think it should take for worms in my are to start migrating and reproducing in my compost pile? i got a small one thats not big enough to create its own heat jsut yet, but after i pick up some apple trees i'm going to move it under them rather than where it is now on top of a black plstic sheet...
I don't know where your area is? You mean your compost pile is a small pile? Moving them under a tree could help keep temps down in summer and up in winter. That is always a pretty good idea if it can be done? Hello there DH. Welcome!!!
Great...now that there are real gardeners in here, there's gonna be a whole bunch of gardening talk... I'm here for the exotic pics...
So I am gonna rip Russy off and try to actually keep track of what I am growing. It would be a huge help to know what is running and what is producing and what I should keep because I like it but eliminate it from what I produce to take to market. N.O.=Not Organic (these are grown organically but the parent seed I either know is not organic or am unsure (seed swaps you sometimes can't know) Herbs German Chamomile N.O. Bouquet Dill Stevia pic below is German Chamomile pic for dill coming later. It really took a beating during the storms. This pic is Stevia PEPPERS 5 color Sweet Pepper Mix N.O. Corno di Toro Rosso Sweet Red Corno di Toro Giallo Golden Calwonder Sweet Purple Beauty Sweet Purple Pepper Quadrato Giallo D'Asti Sweet Yellow Quadrato Rosso D'Asti Sweet Red the pics below are of peppers and a couple of tomatoes planted 3/13/2011 These have moved super slow as it has been super cold for here and they spent 4 days in really bad salt water winds. But everything looks like it is coming back very nicely. Thought I had pics of fruit on peppers but I guess I don't will post later. TOMATOES Pink Brandywine Yellow Brandywine Black Krim Cherokee Purple Chocolate Cherry Mortgage Lifter Roma N.O. Yellow Pear N.O. 2 Pics below are of Roma Started 2/28. When I moved here the ole man broke it so I taped it back together. It is kind of a beast anyway. It has stems as big around as my big toe. This is a picture of the whole plant up against the railing. I need to move it to a 5gal but I am not sure I will? This stupid ass picture wont post right. It shows the edited picture and I pull the link from it and it posts the pic without the edit? WTF 2pics are of the yellow pear. This is actually a piece that I restarted after it broke off. It seems to be doing very well. I need to get it moved but I won't move it til June 12th. this pic is where the above cutting (breaking) came from. This is also the plant that was so badly damaged from the salt spray that I had to cut it back 80-90% there were only 2 short vines left. Now not only did this grow back to be covered in blooms but the cutting already has my first fruit and at least 10 additional fruits. [/I][/B]
sorry, more specific my compost pile is still fairly small, small enough that it doesn't generate it's own heat atm it is on a black plastic sheet in my garden area just out back however this summer i will be gettin some chickens and when i do i will also get a couple of fruit trees, at which point i will move the pile underneath of the trees and fairly close to the henhouse(not cooping the girls up, just got a place to sleep and lay eggs) this is actually why i was hopins the worms would get their tails in there! that way when i get my chickens they have something to munch on, but if the worms are well enough established then they shouldn't erradicate them from the pile anyway, back to the question(s)? where it is now, how long, if at all until worms begin to inhabit it? under the trees, how long, if at all until they move in?
When temps are breaking just above freezing worms will begin to work more quickly and breed quickly again. Provided they are covered with leaves and food waste placed under it. At this point you should be able to start piling up leaves and grass clippings and tossing your food waste under the newer layer. If it were me I would have a bin (at the absolute least) for composting food waste in order to utilize the castings for gardening? What you are doing is great and it helps out a lot as far as your footprint on the planet but you could use wigs to compost your food waste, paper and cardboard and get just as much back out of your worms as you put in.
i'm pretty sure yellow pear tomatoes are an heirloom variety(i have soem growing this year) also italian roma's are heirloom, at least the packet i got, not sure about yours good luck with your gardening man, and thx for any info! EDIT: i think i'm kinda a newb to composting, i don't layer anyhting, i just throw in yard and food scraps, egg cartons, wahtever else i deam acceptable for an excellent compost pile, mix it into the pile and water when dry is this still gonna give me worms when i move it off the sheet? p.s. i have been tossing worms in there that i have seen around the yard, hoping they will multiply also, round here the entire year is filled with cold spells and then warm spells, justin the winter the cold spells are longer and more severe and in the summer its the opposite so idk if the worms have adapted to wait until its consintently above freezing or if they come up whenever it feels warm either way the temps are about 60 in the day(this week anyhow) and tonight is a low of 39 or so, should they be out already? and if i decide i have enough scrap luber or chicken wire, whatever laying around, then i might use these things to make walls aroung the pile that will provide aeration, hold it in place, whatever, this fit your bill of a container? i don't mind if water drains some nutrients away from the pile when it rains or snows, these nutrients will fertilize my fruit trees well, as well as any plants i plant around the pile to shade the pile and gain from it etc.
Yeah if it is up in the 60's worms have been working that. If you have a very small compost pile with very little stuff in it then you probably do not have a large amount of worms there. When you get the chickens you can start tossing the waste from them on the compost pile or find some horse or cow manure. As for will there be worms, yes they will be there but outdoor compost piles are really best used for a future planting site or to utilize the mulch. I don't compost in ground bins. I compost in raised beds and large totes as feel I have better control. No problem happy to help any way I can!
awesome, thx man! the reason i was wondering if they were there or not, is that some site i was checking on chicken keeping, the person said that until they got the chickens, they had what they called, 'scary' amounts of worms in thier compost pile, and that the chickens helped to keep em down, thats kind of what i'm going for and honestly not sure what i'll use the compost for when i get it going, other than maybe the rased bed i'm planning on top of my hen house (looking into starting some permaculture plots, so other than initial set up there isn't any compost, just mulching waht you grew there and each year the soil gets better without ferts or even compost!) look up the one straw revolution on youtube if you haven't seen it, i honestly wanna do something like this here, though with different plants and even if i have to wait over winter before planting my next crop
There is no such thing as scary amounts of worms. I don't use compost really for anything other than feeding and housing worms. When I harvest a bin which I usually do right before I plant another round of fruit I toss some of the composted material into the mix. But I use very little as all of that composted soil that they live in is full of bacteria that they need to be healthy. It is lots of newborn worms, and a healthy thriving colony that make for a healthy garden with healthy fruit. As for permaculture if it is what works for you then I say go for it. It is a great idea for reworking and rotating crops but I run almost all nightshade varieties and so planting marigolds in the soil while the worms work it is what works for me. Plus I like the idea of making my own fertz from things that others view as waste!
Morning Serg I am sorry you are not feeling well! Sending yummy yummy coconut water your way. I heard it was your back though so I am actually sending you not yummy yummy, but stinky stinky noni. Thanks for the tags. Great a guy who would vote for Obama is crushing on me? That just dropped my self esteem by at least 70%. It is ok I probably needed it dropped even more than that?