Overloaded flower bed

16 years ago

I started a 2 ft deep flower bed last year by filling with manure, leaves, newspaper, cardboard and some dirt. I added a handful of worms and have been adding food scraps every week and covered with leaves in the winter. I have so many worms now and the bed has only raised up about 2", if that. It almost seems to have compacted. I needed 6" to 12" more. So to my questions. What would you do at this point?

1. Take out some of the dirt (it's really wet), dry it some and try to remove some worms?

2. Add more dirt and turn it in?

3. Use some of it somewhere else and replace it with dirt?

4. Any other ideas??

Thanks for your suggestions.

Kath

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Comments (5)

mendopete
16 years ago
Are you interested in continuing to have worms and produce vermicompost, or do you just want a nice flower bed? How big is your flower bed and is it raised? If you don't already have one, I would start a worm bin. Pete
plumiebear
16 years ago
Kath, I'm guessing (without looking at it) that the "wet dirt" is pretty nice vermicompost. I'd spread it around and use it to start other flower beds or garden plots. I dig a hole ~6" deep x 4" wide and fill it with some manure, pre-compost and worms. I cover the hole with an inverted plastic pot and add water weekly. I'm hoping the worms will continue to produce castings that will feed the roots of the plants growing around the "wormhole".

Congrats on the success of your winter wormery.

Andrew
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equinoxequinox
16 years ago
You had great sucess the first time. I would do the same exact thing that you had great success with the first time 3 to 6 more times. Each year you will have 2 MORE inches deep, rich soil in your great "location, location, location," for some lucky plants.

Your garden is two inches closer to heaven than everybody else.

Two inches of great soil right where you want it is two inches more then others who did not bother last year to follow your method have to start their garden in this year.

Eventually, even if you stop gardening for 10 years, this part of the garden will always be a bit higher and a bit greener than all the rest. Sort of in memory of all your hard work on it's behalf.
kathmcd7
Original Author
16 years ago
Your responses are so kind and just what I needed! I've been feeling like this idea was a failure because the original goal was to just enrich and build up the soil level. It's a 20 ft. long raised bed. Everyone who sees it says, "why don't you just buy potting soil and fill it up?". I do have three outdoor, and six indoor bins. I kinda think of the worms as farm animals (even though I'm in the city), and use the vc for all my plants and vegetables. I like the idea of digging some out and trying to plant around the hole. And you're right, the soil looks really rich, so I will continue on with my new attitude towards all my hard work.

Thank you
Kath
eric30
16 years ago
that's a good point kath. why spend $$ on potting soil when you can use paper and other materials that you already have laying around? Looks like it's time to plant. If you mulch heavy every year, it will continue to elevate.