Garden Friday

Welcome Winter Solstice!

It seems like winter has been here already for weeks,

with freezes, snow and ice frequenting our area.

For the next week, we expect daytime temperatures in the 50's,

which will be a welcome change.

We might actually be able to get something done outside!

There were two small projects I wanted to tackle before winter officially hit,

and I made it in under the wire.

The first was turning our leaf pile.

This has been on my project list since we moved into the house,

but other things just took a front seat.

It felt great to get out there in the brisk air

using a pitchfork and shovel to get air back into the pile.

Happily, a treasure trove of earthworms were found,

so I know that this heap will eventually aide in the garden's health.

With a neighbor supplying us with bags and bags of leaves,

along with our own stash, there should be a great foundation

of leaf mulch ready to add to the veggie beds in the spring.

Leaf mulch adds nutrients, suppresses weeds,

helps retain moisture and aids in soil fertility.

It's an easy way to give the garden a boost.

The second winter project was to remove castings from our worm bin.

Earlier this year,

we put together a worm bin out of a few simple materials.

You can find that project here. 

We ordered our worms online,

after failing to find a local resource.

The castings are the waste product that these workhorses leave behind

as they digest coffee grounds, eggs, kitchen scraps, paper and cardboard.

In theory, the bedding material (shredded paper) and food are placed on one side of the bin,

and when it comes time to remove the castings, 

the bedding and food are moved to the other side of the bin,

thus encouraging the worms to move toward the food source.

The castings can then be removed from the opposite side and placed in the garden.

 It didn't exactly work out that way with this homemade bin.

Although I did move the bedding and food to one side,

the worms just stayed in the castings.

Maybe there were still tidbits of decomposed food there

and they didn't want to leave.

In any case, I just decided to take some of the worms out with the castings

and place some of them in the compost pile and some in the leaf bin.

As you can see, there were enough to go around.

I couldn't believe how much the population exploded in that bin

over the last 6 months.

And just thinking about all that food and paper that didn't end up in the landfill

does my heart good.

I'm giving it another go with the remaining population,

and the castings I collect come springtime will go directly in the veggie garden.

I'm also considering purchasing a 3-tiered commercial bin,

to make it easier to collect the castings 

and keep the worms better corralled.

A friend has one of these type and I will try to get an update from her.

In the meantime, let them eat scraps!