Step by Step Guide to Worm Composting

by Rhonda Abrons

Worm excretion, also known as Vermiculture, is an excellent way to fertilize your garden organically. Listed below is a step by step guide to get you started on creating your own worm compost fertilizer.


Choose the Proper Container


You will need a container at least 8 to 12 inches deep. Wood is better as it absorbs moisture and insulates the worms. A rectangular plastic container is often used, but the compost tends to be soggy.


Have Plenty of Holes in the Bottom


After choosing your container, you must now drill holes for release of excess moisture as well as for allowing air flow. Each hole should be at least two inches apart from the last and spread across the entire bottom. Once this is completed, place the container on some bricks to keep it off the ground. This step allows for the air to flow around and through the container. Another bonus to this step is that a tray can be placed underneath the container to catch any excess fluid which can then be used as liquid fertilizer. If you notice your compost seems excessively wet, simply add more holes to the bottom.


Use Shredded Newspaper to Line the Container


To line the bottom of the container, simply shred newspaper into one inch wide strips and spray with water from a spray bottle until damp. Once this is completed, you will need to add about one cup of sand to the container. The sand assists the worms with their digestion.


Collect Kitchen Scraps


Just like home composting, you will need to start collecting your kitchen scraps about one week prior to purchasing your worms. This will be the food your worms will eat in order to excrete your compost material. It is very important that you do not use animal proteins such as meat, bones, cheese and milk as well as any oil based products like mayonnaise or salad dressings. The best food for your worms is egg shells, raw fruits and vegetables, coffee grounds and used tea bags.


Purchase Your Worms


You will need to have at least 2 pounds of worms for each day of food waste. Surprisingly, this works out to be approximately 2,000 worms. The best variations for composting are red worms or red wigglers as they thrive off of organic materials such as rotting fruits and vegetables.



Put a Cover on the Container


When placing your container outside, a wooden board works best as it keeps the worms in darkness just as they like it while keeping the soil moist. In addition, it also prevents predators from getting in. If your container is indoors, a simple plastic lid cover will suffice.


Collect Worm Excretions


Within four to six weeks from starting your worm compost you will start to notice the bedding becoming darker. Finally, in about two to three months, there will be very little of your original bedding remaining. If you wish to collect all of the compost or castings at once, simply pour the container onto a tarp or old shower curtain liner. The next step is to shine a light over the piles to ensure the worms move to the bottom. Once you are sure they are at the bottom, begin scooping the castings until all that is left are the worms. Place new bedding, the worms and some of the castings back in your container and start all over again.

About the Author:

Rhonda Abrons is a keen organic gardening enthusiast and featured writer on Clivir.com where she shares her gardening knowledge about How To Start An Organic Garden and Organic Garden Fertilizer.

Starting The Garden For The Next Year

by Keith Markensen

If you want a real thrill out of your garden next spring, now is the time for fall planting some of the spring flowering bulbs, especially the early ones. These include snowdrops, chionodoxas, Siberian squills, crocus. assorted grape hyacinths, Tulips, Fritillaria meleagris, Camassia Leichtlini, Iris reticulata, Ornithogalum nutans. You may have to look online of bulb specialists to find some of these but it's worth the effort. They all have been growing in my own landscape for years.


The evergreen barberries are a fascinating group of broadleaf evergreens that should take temperatures to 15 or 20 below zero. Probably the hardiest is wintergreen barberry (Berberis julianae) . But my favorites are, despite their jaw breaking names. Berberis verruculosa, Berberis triacanthophora, Chenaulti, candidula, Gagnepainii. Like all barberries they are spiny, but are so low growing that you don't really encounter the spines. Your local nurseryman should be able to order them although he probably won't keep them in stock.


Substitution by nurserymen can be a problem, especially if you don't know what the plant you originally ordered looks like. Fortunately we do not have many of the old style nurserymen left who would sell any variety of, say peach trees. Nevertheless it is always a good idea to state on nursery orders - "Please do not substitute" if you want specific plants


Starting New Plants


Late this month or early next I like to pot up some divisions of the plants in my wall garden. This includes pink rock cress (Arabis , hardy alyssum, hen and chickens, cheddar pinks, Sedum Sieboldi, purple rock cress (Aubrieta) the various bell-flowers including Campanula garganica, C. muralis, and others. I use 2 - 1/2 inch pots, a soil, sand and peat mixture and plunge the pots to their tops in sand or peat in the cold frames. They make wonderful plants by next April. If you do not have these plants many of these can be grown from seed, sown now in a cold frame.


To avoid last spring's disappointment when so many of my primroses and tropical plants were winter killed, I am planning to have at least a three by six foot cold frame filled with them and some hardy tropical plants for replacements next spring. This will give me 200 good tropical plants, all from seed sown last November or last spring or from self sown seed.


Mildew


Mildew disease, that white powdery stuff on the leaves of roses, zinnias, lilacs, coralberry, golden glow and many other plants can be prevented by dusting or spraying with sulfur. Most other chemicals, including the other fungicides, do not particularly bother it. Once mildew is established on the foliage it is there until the leaves fall. One or two applications at ten-day intervals should suffice.

About the Author:

Join Keith Markensen at http://www.plant-care.com. We've created the perfect resource for you on the topic of hardy tropical plants.

Have A Better Garden By Double Digging

by Marshall Clewis

I advocate deep digging in the fall of the year, and where time and energy permit I highly recommend double digging. The method of double digging is as follows. First measure off with a garden line a strip 18 inches wide across the garden for the first trench to be dug.


Dig out the top soil from this first strip and remove it in a wheelbarrow to the other end of the garden, where it will be used to fill in the last trench made. Now dig over the bottom of the trench and if possible incorporate humus or rotted material, such as leaves, old manure or compost.


Such material mixed into this lower stratum of soil helps build it up into top-soil. Now measure off a second strip 18 inches wide, and turn the topsoil from it into the first trench. If manure is available put it in with the topsoil to be more readily available to plants. Use green farm manure. Digging is continued in this manner across the area to be dug. Of course double digging, as its name implies, is twice as much work, but it does build up a productive garden.


Raspberries. After frost, check over the raspberries and remove all old canes, and if the new canes are thick remove some to permit air circulation. A cane every 4 to 6 inches is sufficient. Rasp-berries grown too closely are subject to disease.


Outdoor roses. Rose plantings require well prepared soil. If the topsoil is shallow, double dig and add much manure or humus as is available. Roses are rank feeders. If the garden is wet, drainage is necessary. They like plenty of water but do not like to constantly stand in wet soil. Stone ditches can be run through the area to take off the excess water. Roses also require free circulation of air, so choose a well drained, airy spot. Order roses now, and put them in as soon as they arrive. In planting, have the graft under the soil; otherwise it will dry out and may kill the plant. Be sure to firm the plants well when planting.


Greenhouse temperature. Greenhouse temperatures become important now and should be controlled at night. If you have two houses, maintain one at 50 degrees at night and the other at 60. Many plants need a hit of extra heat and many prefer the cooler house. Drafts must be avoided because they cause mildew. From now on provide ventilation from the top of the house only.


Bulbs for potting. Narcissus, hyacinth, tulip and iris bulbs should be potted now for greenhouse forcing. Use a good soil, adding a 5-inch pot of bone-meal to a bushel of soil. Pot or flat the bulbs but keep the nose of the bulb just out of the soil. All bulbs can be planted almost touching each other. Firm them well and set the pots or flats in a trench outdoors. The trench should be about 12 inches deep. Water the bulbs thoroughly, cover them with half an inch of sand and then with the soil that was dug out to make the trench. Additional covering of leaves or hay will be required in the later fall to keep out frost and so facilitate the digging during the winter.


Chrysanthemums. The chrysanthemum flowers are in bud now and will take a lot of feeding until color shows. At this point of growing chrysanthemum plants, manure water is best. Dissolve any good garden fertilizer in water, 3 heaping tablespoons to 3 gallons of water, and water the mums with it every 5 days. If the plants are dry, water first and feed later in the day. After the chrysanthemums have been cut, store the stock plants in a frostproof frame or a very cool green-house. The frame can be frost proofed by banking leaves around it.


When the remainder of the chysanthemums have been removed, the chrysanthemum soil is excellent for growing winter flowering snapdragons, or mari-golds, stocks, leptosyne and pansies, but add some fertilizer to replace the plant food used by the mums.

About the Author:

Know the secret why many people are interested on chrysanthemum flowers. Join us http://www.zone10.com/growing-big-chrysanthemums.html.