Seeeeeeds

They're here!! The seeds arrived so it's time for some sowing! Stay tuned...

Worms: Take 2

So the first worms are still alive, but I wanted the better worms. The red wigglers that would eat a pound of food a day and reproduce by the dozen. That would create boatloads of fresh, perfect castings that would make my garden this summer the best on the block. Not that there's a ton of competition on my Boston block, but I'm still competitive.


So this time I did my research. I found a website that provided lots of good information not just about the worms, but about how to vermicompost, how to care for the worms, how to use it - pretty much everything. The reviews were good, I checked several times to make sure they were the right kind of worm and then I placed the order.

The great thing about the internet is that you can buy pretty much anything. The terrible thing about the internet is that then you have to wait to get what you ordered. I'm not very patient. Somehow I muddled through the week and a half it too for them to arrive and I was definitely not disappointed. So many worms! So lively and red! So ready to eat food scraps! YAY!

They were well-packaged with shredded newspaper and a special sack to keep them safe in their journey from Kentucky. I added the newspaper to my worm bin and then opened the sack to see my new friends. I honestly couldn't believe how many there were! I more than got my money's worth this time. And they're the right kind of worm - ready to take my food scraps by storm and start pooing out some plant boosting compost.

It worked out well that J and I were making chili for dinner. We do a vegetarian chili with lots of good veggies. So while I was cutting it all up, I saved the scraps to give to the worms. They already seem acclimated to their new home and are busy at work composting.

I probably won't add any more food scraps this week. I'll take a look Thursday or Friday and take a photo to let you see how they've done. Go worms go!!

Worms - Take One

I did so much research on vermicomposting. The type of bin, the type of bedding, the type of food scraps to put in it. And then I just bought worms on a whim, without thinking. Not my brightest move. But the worms arrived (they were the wrong kind for best vermicomposting results) with instructions on what to feed them (everything I had read over and over NOT to put in a vermicomposting bing) and what to put in as their bedding (very expensive, greenhouse grade peat and pre-composted leaves). Well... this was throwing a wrench into my plans!

Hoping they'd survive with the plans I'd read over and over and over again online, I went ahead with my well-researched plan and crossed my fingers.

The first step is creating bedding for the worms. Which, for those without a huge budget and access to greenhouse grade planting material, is shredded newspaper. One sitcom later, I'd shredded most of the free newspaper I could find.

But worms are 90% water, so they need something nice and moist. So I took out everything I'd shredded and wet it, being sure to wring it out well so it was like a damp sponge. Remember, we don't really want anything coming out of our insurance holes on the bottom of the composting bin. Once there were a few inches of damp shredded newspaper I put in the worms. They hate light, so immediately began trying to burrow into the bedding.

I wished them luck, put some saved egg shells, banana peels, coffee grounds and lettuce, on top of the worms, then covered it with more dry shredded newspaper. That serves as some insulation because worms like warmth.

So hopefully my poor decision-making in ordering worms from a not so great place, won't hurt too much. I've already placed another order with a well-respected company and will get better worms next week. I'm hoping they all get along like a big happy family.

Vermi-what-now?

So the seeds were ordered. Now we had to play the waiting game. And it was going to be a long once since the seeds were coming from California and I'm a cheapskate who didn't spring for expedited shipping. Looking for things to pass the time, I re-read Grow Great Grub, I looked at the library for more books on container gardening, I browsed the seed catalog with eyes bigger than my patio. And then I saw something new.

Soil is expensive. And the only thing more expensive is fertilizer. Or at least, good, organic fertilizer is expensive. The best kind of fertilizer is compost. Compost is the broken down, decomposed bits or organic (read plant not man-made stuff) material. All the nutrients in that material are broken down and are more easily accessible.

Typically compost is created by putting plant and food scraps in a pile and then turning it and letting it slowly decompose. As you might imagine, this takes a LOT of time and if you don't have an open space in your yard, a LOT of money to buy a container. It's also pretty smelly. None of these fit into my apartment lifestyle.

But I still wanted to make my own compost. How can I do that living in an apartment? Enter vermicomposting. Worms. That's right, let worms do all the work so you don't have to. Worms are essentially a few inches of digestive tract. All the do is eat and poo. And that worm poo (called castings because apparently 'worm poo' doesn't sound that great) is some of the best stuff around. High in nitrogen and other great nutrients, it can make so-so plants turn into monsters!! And if it's done right it doesn't smell, or so the internet says (and if it's on the internet, it's got to be true, right?).

So I set out to make a vermicomposting bin. This is the worms' home, and where you put the food scraps so the worms have something delicious to eat.

We started with a big rubbermaid crate we had sitting around, leftover from moving.

The reason a good vermicompost bin won't smell is because of air circulation. So that means drilling some holes. Actually, a lot of holes. J didn't seem to mind using a power drill and taking out some anger on the plastic bin.
We drilled fairly large holes in the top to provide lots of air circulation.

You need air all around, so that means more holes. We kept the holes big around the top portion of the bin, but used a much smaller drill bit lower down. You don't want your worms or compost escaping where it's not supposed to of course!

And then about 6 very small holes on the bottom to allow for any excess moisture to get out. Though the goal is to not let the contents of the bin get that wet, but it's always good to have an insurance plan. We bought a foil cookie sheet to put under the bin to catch any unfortunate drippings.

The end result looked something like this:












This is just one plan of course. There's tons available on the internet, from lots of reputable sources. We just used the plan that required things we already had on hand. If you try another plan, please let me know!
And if you'd prefer to see how to make this in video form, check out the video below, which is what we used!

Uh-oh... Seed Catalog

The hydroponic experiment went so well we decided to venture into other food producing plants. I did some research on seed and seedling companies and finally went with Peaceful Valley out of California. Normally I’d prefer to buy from a more local company, but I was impressed with Peaceful Valley’s selection of organic and heirloom products, their customer service and their prices.

Seed catalogs are dangerous things for people looking into starting a garden. Especially in January with the snow coming down, the temperatures plummeting and some pretty serious cabin fever starting to set in. I tried to reign myself in, but I ended up buying a lot of seeds. Lots and lots of seeds. After ordering, came the long wait for them to arrive from California.

Researching

Things were going so well indoors that I had a crazy idea.

Since our new apartment has an outdoor patio, what if we put some plants out there? Not right now obviously - since the patio is currently buried under about 4 feet of snow - but in the Spring.

As a kid, we had a garden in the backyard that was just dug into the ground. My dad got ambitious and built raised beds one year, so then we had that. But neither of those systems would work on a patio.

I know flowers and herbs grow well in pots, but I'm greedy and I want vegetables and fruits. Would those grow in pots? Would the pots need to be so huge that it wouldn't be feasible? Can you only grow certain kinds of vegetables? So many questions!

A quick trip to the New England Mobile Book Fair (the best bookstore EVER!) yielded all the answers we needed via Grow Great Grub by Gayla Trail. (She also has a neat website.) This beautiful little book talks about the basics of growing food in small spaces, in the ground and in pots, as well as specifics about how to care for different kinds of food-producing plants and the pot size requirements.

The photos in her book hinted at great harvests and had recipe ideas. Now I'd jumped from looking forward to spring to looking forward to the end of summer! It was time to get started. I'd done my research. I'd conned my boyfriend into agreeing to this insane idea. Next up was buying seeds!!

Tomato Update

Three... two... one... TAKEOFF!

Our tomato plant is huge! Every day I swear it must grow an inch. We even had to raise the light hood so the plant wouldn't get too close to the light.

The leaves all have little hairs on them, the smell deliciously of tomato and the root system underneath is really amazing. I'll have to put up a photo of that next time.

Excited to see what the tomato plant will do next. I'm waiting for flowers!








Left is the tomato on 1/16.
Right is the tomato on 1/30.

Amazing what two weeks will do!