Kelly Slockum.

BTW. after looking around for an alternative site, we might be better off settling in here until something substantially more suitable for us is happened upon.

cb2

A lot of the wisdom I share on the worm forums originated with her.

Moved the manure and woodchip mulch that was placed on the comfrey patch to some new garden beds today. We had laid in about 3" of manure and 3" of wood chips on top to protect the comfrey through the winter.

Last summer when we got our first order of EH I put three or four at each plant and through the year I came across them from time to time so I knew they were doing well there. When we pulled the mulch we came across a good number of them and they we large and healthy.

Very nice to see that the EH are taking root in our garden.

Sorry, distracted by the "joined March 3, 1972." Maybe you invented the Internet?

Chuckaboo??

Just a little fun with usernames Merrygardener. The real twist will happen when folks start using other members names, if you are distracted by a pre internet Joined date then seeing a post not of your own with your name on it will really send you for a loop ;)

Doing more and more in the gardens each day now as the weather continues in this freakishly early cool spring mode. have peas, corn, squash,and tons of greens coming up. Hoping we dont get a killing frost but if we do we have plenty of seed to replant.

All this activity though means lots of turning soil and the worms are abundant. Has been so nice to see just a worm or two last year but now it seems like they are everywhere. This is amazing to me because in the past there were no worms at all, the EH have proven themselves quite able to establish in our soil now just need to keep some moisture on it and of course continue adding the OM.

I was born to the Aboo family but as a small child my young, immature parents left me in a worm composting bin and went to live a life of irresponsibility in the silicon valley playing video games or something.

I was told this by a lady...Marianne Iebtoo...who rescued me, and the worm bin, and who became my new mom as well as one of the most respected vermicomposters in the world.

You could say my life was re-conceived by the virgin vermicomposter Marianne.....unless you feel uncomfortable thinking about the parallels the whole imagery could cause. In that case, be a nonbeliever. It's OK.

chuckiebtoo

I suspected something like that. Like the saying: ' America wasn't discovered by Columbus but by another man with the same name ' I'm glad you're still here (or I think you are). What with 60+ houzz members with the name Shaul, I'm not sure that I'm here myself (actually I could be anyone (rather disconcerting)).

Shaul (aka shaul_gw)

After hanging out as a lurker for a few years. houzz is a little strange, but glad some of the regulars have made it over here. I CAN'T Lose my pretend friends and mentors Equinox, Hummer, Pete, Chuckaboo, Barbara and others. I have managed to get and keep my herd alive and well thanks to ya'll.

Yeah, I agree Debbie.........'specially that Chuckaboo guy. He's a little hard to follow sometimes but proves that some wormers ain't always the sharpest knife in the drawer.

chuckiebtoo

That Chuckaboo guy is fun to follow.... along his wandering ways! :-D

Hi, All. Debbie admitting to being a lurker gives me the nerve to chime in - I've been reading for a couple of years, and my worms are well and happy thanks to all of you, no matter what your name is!

Yeah luvsflwrs! I know there are others of myself out there. I bet I read 100 hours Before I got my worm friends. I didn't want to kill them once I got them.

Ok, have some questions for you experienced wormers :o)

I saw a "worm home" set up that you put IN the garden that I would try. You cut off the bottom of a dark container (like trash can/smaller) and put it directly in the garden, so essentially you are covering a relatively small portion of soil in a large garden. Then you up 3 or so inches of "bedding" (moist cardboard, paper, etc, some soil on top, and perhaps some more moist cardboard, then put food scraps on top, and cover. Obviously I think you have to add (buy) worms unless you can find some in your garden. Then feed the worms every week or so, they estimated a cup or so of food scraps.

Any suggestions/input before I actually set this up in a new garden bed? I bought 2 containers but thought I best try one before I get carried away ...and see that it works.

If you have worms in your garden you wont have to find them as they will find this nice feeding station you have set up for them.

Do some googling on worm towers and you should find what you are after, I personally think its a great idea for composting scraps right where you are wanting the benefit from them.

Regardless of the type of "houzzing" you choose, start small. Grow your knowledge and techniques as your first small, insignificant, inexpensive worm operation grows. You'll be better able to recognize the rights and wrongs you'll be trying to keep up with. During this time, you'll find out just how much leeway the significant other (?)....while watching your every weird move..... will allow you to get away with.

As far as the "feed the worms every week or so, they estimated a cup or so of food scraps" goes: pay no attention to that. Feed them as they eat it. Place the feedings in different spots each time and feed again when that feeding seems to be gone. If it's a week, OK. If earlier, increase the amount of each feeding or the frequency of feeding the same amount. There'll be a period of adjusting the amount of scraps you produce to the amount of food the wormies will consume.

As you become consumed by the passion that is worming, the amount of time you'll devote to it will likely increase. If not, you'll probably not be cut out for playing around with worm dung and you can go back to fishing or golf or chemical fertilizers with less regret. (You probably won't).

If you're getting into this as a money-making venture, forget all I said.

chuckiebtoo

Moderation, Diversity, Patience

For me, I just want to attract the worms and have them happy enough to hang around and help fertilize my garden :-)

Shootin from the hip here vala but I would think a good thick mulch in the garden would be better than the worm tower. Just seems like encouraging widespread areas for the worms to travel through would better disperse their fertility through the garden.

The worm towers though do make sense in having a nice place for putting your kitchen scraps and possibly a home base area for them that may encourage better reproduction for making more worms that might spread out through that organic material spread around the garden.

Well these are new garden beds (as of last summer) and i bought a leaf shredder and covered most of the garden beds last fall; am making another big one and have more leaves to shred for that. Am hoping that will bring the worms, but thought the feeding station would also make them a nice home where they would be happy to stick around :o)

I personally think the worm towers are a great idea, convenient place to get rid of scraps easily and like you said a nice home for the worms. I just dont really see it spreading that worm goodness across the garden, dont really know the travel habit of worms but suspect that if there is a good food supply at the tower they will congregate there and their castings will also accumulate there.

With all those leaves mulched about there will surely be wanderers who just want to know whats over the next hill and the towers should make for a steady supply of new generations to take up the exploring urges so together the towers and heavy mulching sounds like a great plan.

Vertical-ness makes no sense to me. If space exists for horizontal-ness, the stacking up of wormies, and wormie poop, and worm beds where moisture gravitates toward down-ness, and the wormies have natural proclivities that make them naturally horizontal movers, and your desire is to encourage "worm creep" so the wormies have unfettered access to "spread", towers are contrary to the desired result.

The peoples who preach towering of wormie communities are mainly thinking about profit margins and the bottom line...(which is horizontal).

chuckiebtoo

I have a homemade bin in a clear Rubbermaid type container. I started with about 10 worms and they have now multiplied to a hefty number. I don't think I'm at a pound yet, but I've never seen a pound of worms, so who knows.

Yes, my spouse thinks I'm nuts. I ran into our room one time holding a wriggling mass of wiggles and partially finished compost in my gloved hands and exclaimed, "look how many worms I have!" He told me that I was crazy and should get that gross stuff out of our bedroom. It was funny. He has also never asked where I keep said worm bin (bottom kitchen cabinet) because he doesn't want to think about it in the house. Ignorance is bliss.

Question is this: I have the worms bedded in newspaper, dried and crunched leaves, a bit of dried grass clippings. Should I expect them to convert all the bedding to vermicompost or just the food scraps? I harvested some compost and had enough for brewing some tea and making a seed starting mix, but there was still a good bit of bedding in the mix. How much of this should I expect them to convert to compost? I was also concerned about the toxicity of the finished castings. How much castings is too much for the worms?

If he worms do not bother reading the instructions to flow up to the new tray of food then how are they to be expected to read the instructions to enter the tube to feed and then reliably exit the tube to poop?

chuckiebtoo: "some wormers ain't always the sharpest knife in the drawer." Glad to hear that after reading the whole you were looking for new blood thing.

"sbryce_gw: A lot of the wisdom I share on the worm forums originated with her." Me too. And I swear she said they don't need grit.

She's right. Grit is almost always in there without adding extra.