Well I am growing the red wiggly worms and they do not like the dirt. They love decayed food. Actually will not eat it unless it is decayed, that is why you chop it up. My regular compost has the big brown worms but these wonderful little red worms will give me worm casting that I can turn into compost tea and feed my plants. My DH thinks I have finally gone over the edge.
compost question
Sis has those.
They do not grind up. They just have a very large frame on the ground under some trees. They dump kitchen scraps in there every other day, and newpapers crumpled up. It must decay outside. The box is made of 2x10s, and is about five foot square. They just have a heavy loose plywood top which they can push aside.
They put all scraps in one corner until it's full, then rotate clockwise filling the box. By the time they come back to the first corner, that corner is pure castings and the worms have moved around the circle. they know to stop troweling out castings when they find worms again, which they toss back.
Since they both work, and their refrigerator-emptying son (athlete) has left for college, bet they have very little garbage for all the worms. I'd better get a box built! Sis promised me some, so don't want them to take off looking for new place to eat! there's no bottom on her box!
Red worms will die in dirt. I actually have neighbors collecting for me and I have two friends that have restaurants that I am going to contact for salad scraps and more coffee grounds. I have invited the neighbors children to help if they want. The boys thought that would be great. Did not get much of a response from the girls. I did something today that I know better and made a big mess. Need to fill the container 3/4 full with damp peat moss. I added peat moss to the water. Does not work. Had a big mess to clean up.
That is what happens when you are in a hurry.
Are you guys cold yet? Weather map for all of you East of New Mexico does not look good.
Frozen. Abnormally low.
Think Sis puts a lot of yard waste in theirs, too. They have huge garden, but not enough sun, so they get a lot of foliage growth.
Marti, KY is an open carry state... People like that get real scared real quick when other folks use their constitutional rights in public.
I found out about KY being an open carry state. For now all is quiet, he's in Florida. Which is probably good for me as I have a LARGE pile of compost dumped in my front yard. And I'm making arrangements for a load of sand and 2 of horse manure compost to be dumped. I'll break up this sticky red clay if it kills me.
I made friends with a guy that trims tree and he is going to dump several loads in my back yard area for further composting. Boy, next year I'll have lots of compost.
Marti
marti, that's the way to break up clay!
Like I said I'll break up this clay one way or another. Now have two truck loads of wood chips and leaves to compost for next year. I will be adding green stuff to it as needed. I figure some of it I can spread around under plants to help control weeds, plus it will help make the garden look good.
Marti, have you considered adding cover crops to your efforts at clay-busting?
http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/hort/faculty/bjorkman/covercrops/decisiontool.php
I thought about it, but not sure if I should. I'll look at the site you posted for me and see how it goes.
Thanks
Marti - you might want to try an experiment - grow cover crops (in a small area) to see how it works in your soil. I have clay here & used cover crops in my vegetable garden for several years. It was a tremendous help. I don't know what's recommended for your area/climate, but it's worth a try.
Congrats on your compost-components acquisition!
I used daikon radishes in a very troublesome area where runoff from my roof washed away soil & pounded the underlying clay flat & hard. It's about a 3' square area, and nothing but weeds would grow there.
I planted a handful of seeds, then thinned them out until the full grown foliage overlapped (about 8" apart). They grew happily, and I never yanked 'em; I just let the winter kill 'em. They composted in place during the following spring, while the Louisiana Irises I planted there took off (with the help of a top dressing of compost and a thin layer of gravel mulch. The spot where the deluge used to smack the soil is now occupied by a basketball-sized granite rock. Problem solved.
As for cover crops in between my tomatoes/peppers last year, I grew a mix of crimson clover & yellow clover to fix nitrogen, break up the clay, and attract bees, as well as dill around the perimeter to really bring in the good bugs. I'm now resting that small plot by composting on it for 2010.
I plan to make a new raised bed in about a month. The first plants to go in: a cover crop of daikon radishes, buckwheat & clover, with dill on the edges. The buckwheat & clover will get turned under in the spots where this year's peppers & tomatoes will go, and the rest can all grow together.
I've got a strawberry patch that's wearing out, so it'll likely be next year's veggie garden. This'll give me a three-year rotation starting in 2011: peppers/toms (w/cover crops), then compost, and then ... uh, something else yet to be determined (again w/cover crops).
I would love to plant the whole yard this year, but to be realistic I just can't do that. I've decided to plant one area at a time and than I can could plant cover crop in the other areas for next year. So I am planning on starting with the front yard first. I've also marked off a 30x30 section in the back yard for veggie garden. I can also plant my Elderberry bushes, grape vines and blackberry vines in that area. The rest of the yard I can cover crop or spread compost on for next year.
Unless you are in financial need for the grown food I suggest starting small and working up to the use of larger spaces. The most likely reason for failure is not being able to handle the space and all of the challenges it will sure bring into the picture. Lots of folks get bogged down with impossible amounts of work they did not expect. The projects get out of control while the would be gardener just quits.
You now have at least an hour a day planned with your existing projects. Do them well and enjoy the learning curve. Do them poorly you will not be proud of your work and temptations to quit will be immense.
That's kind of what I've come to realize. I made out list after list of plants, and veggies but did not take into account the work I'd have to do before I could plant. So now I've taken a step back and rethought the whole idea as far as what to do and when to do it.
Good Marty...................gardening will be fun when you can achieve success. Then your own experience can guide you into the larger gardens in years to come.
I had some help today and got my path around to the back porch done. I'm beginning to see progress and although I'm tried and sore, I feel good and will be back at it tomorrow. I've taken pictures but have to get them loaded on the computer. Something I have to learn how to do.
Marti, I am a total out of control must do everything in the total landscape all at the same time. Well as docpipe said, and he is one to listen to, You must chose your poison. Early Winter I was working on 6 different beds in the landscape. I would have to walk by one and say, yes I talk to my landscaping, I will be back because you are something I need done in the spring not now. I was actually speaking to myself. I was rehabilitating 4 beds and building 2 new beds. I did get the rehabs completed bu now it is spring and the ones that were waiting for spring are not completed. And now I have to plant my tomatoes, take care of my worms, make worm casting tea and also find time to sit back and enjoy my landscape. I do have an excuse for being behind because I got ill with a lung infection. Have been fighting it over two months. Having more tests tomorrow. Being narrowed down to Vermiculite dust in my lungs. I did not know it was so dangerous. I do work off a list but have not had time to look at it for months. LOL. Enjoy yourself and do as I say, not as I do.
Sharon,
I hope you will get better everyday. Just remember that you have friends out here that love you and have good thoughts going out to you.
Now back to garden. I will do as you say, not as you do! I'm going to start taking progress pictures and post a tour of my progress. Its now starting to rain. Hope it's just a short shower and I can get back to spreading compost tomorrow. I finally got the wheelbarrow flat tire fixed, so now I can move more compost at one time.
Love you Marti. I had a great visit with the lung specialist. I will update tomorrow on a d-mail.
Sharon - hope all is well & that you have a good outcome. Vermiculite is not nice, nor is coir, as I found out last fall. Lungs weren't meant for these things...
I could hear myself in what you've described - always have several things going at the same time.
I've found an upside to this methodology: by changing tasks, i don't overdo & avoid repetetive motion injuries.
The tough part is tempering desire/vision with time/energy/logic.
Doc you said, "Do them poorly you will not be proud of your work and temptations to quit will be immense." This is so very true!!! Taking care of something well also has long-term benefits in that most plants will be healthier & require less maintenance.
Marti - do what you can with what you've got. And remember that everything wants to grow...
Hi Sharon,
Many years ago I got a lung infection from breathing the flour while I was making donuts. I worked at a Winchells Donuts and had to make 3600 donuts in 5 hours. You get alot of flour flying around doing that. It took a long time to get over it. Plus the fact that I smoked didn't help. I became nicotine toxic in 1989 and have not smoke since. My son is delighted that I survived and don't smoke anymore.
Well, good friends, I went to a lung specialist and he said I do not have COPD but I should not be using Vermiculite. Same as asbestosis but even more lethal because it is not asbestosis. He said reads the label. I was at a very large gardening presentation and during the program they brought up vermiculite and said not to use it with out a mask. I do not know but what I read on the internet I will not be using it ever again.
Warning to us all!!! Thanks Sharon!
Good Morning , 11:30 AM here, my questions are can I put steamed white rice in my compost pile?, and I just turned over my neglected compost pile for the first time this winter and found what I think are grubs, but did see worms in it what should I do about the grubs? Looking forward to sage advice (pardon the pun)
Bill (3516planter) sends....
You can put anything that was once living in your pile. A few general exceptions are not used by many composters: protein and pet poops. The grubs are most likely beneficials. I would not worry about them. They are helping finish the compost. They poop too!
yewwww! I don't want to add certain grubs to my garden soils, though, and wouldn't her compost be full of their eggs?
some grubs can destroy lawns here, and eat roots on plants. cutworm grubs especially.
The grubs you mention are rarely in compost since they feed on tender live growing roots not material converging into humus. Yes her compost would have eggs and larva as part of the life cycle of the grubs that are a natural part of any good compost pile. Any that moved to the garden or flower beds would live their cycle and die adding their bodies to the process.
In agreement with your grub fear....I agree that some are very difficult to deal with but they are rarely if ever found in compost piles. Milky Spore Disease is the best organic way to get those white grubs that destroy lawns....mostly lawns because of the presence of many tender new living and growing roots. One treatment will last up to or even longer than fifteen years. I have lived here forty years and find myself living within the third Milky Spore Disease treatment of my lawns and flower beds. There are nematodes that are specific to cutworm control. I have never used them because we have never had a cutworm problem of any concern. ABRICO ORGANICS has done a lot of work with folks and their cutworm problems. They are a fine firm with good basic correct information. I purchase a lot of my basic growing support materials from this firm. I have always been able to trust what they tell me.
Thanks for the info about rice and grubs. I never eat all of my rice from carry-out meals so it will now go into my pile.
thanks again, Bill sends....