Gardening and Wormins

Last week I went to an organic gardening class and I am so excited to start gardening! I went straight home and the kids helped me plant Borage (an herb related to mint), basil, parsely, cilantro(coriander), pumpkins, acorn and butternut squashes, giant white radishes (they look like long fingers), canteloupe, bush beans, forget-me-nots (Megan calls them don't-forget-me's), shasta daisies, and sunflowers. I'll post pictures when all of these sprout. what fun! We are also Vermicomposting- which is composting with worms. You just feed them your left over greens and fruits and veggies and they turn it into the other "black gold" that's extremely good for your garden. They also love eggshells. Yummy yummy.

The kids are so excited about it and want to show everyone their wormies when they visit. Right now we have so few worms that they are in a little plastic container with holes poked through for air, but when they breed we'll have to move them to a large container. I chose to do mine inside under the kitchen sink in a sealed container, because I've seen outside ones that friends have done and it attracts all kinds of bugs.I went to Starbucks and got their free coffee grounds because they're really good for plants and the worms LOVE them (supposedly). If you want to learn more about vermicomposting, Martha Stewart did a cool tutorial on her show about it, although she doesn't do it exactly right, but the article that's with the video says the right way to do it. Here's the link

She doesn't really instruct you on how to harvest the compost, but all you have to do is bring the compost to the top of it and bring the container into the light. All the worms will go down away from the light and you just wait for them to get out of it and take it away to use as a fertilizer or plant starter. Use can also use the worm wee (urine) just make sure that you set your composting container on top of a collecting tray. Prop it on top of something so that the liquid can exit and collect. then you take it out and dilute it to use as miracle grow- the cheap and natural version. I know this sounds wierd, but it's so interesting to see how the planet works. What wonderful creations God has made!