March Madness

Am I wrong, or didn't the groundhog say that we would get an early spring?  This cold weather is killing me!  I've been completely out of sorts these pass few weeks.  Between stresses from work and trying to get ready for my spring planting, I've neglected posting and have generally been a little bummed out. :-(  Anyway.....  I've been itching to get out in the yard and start planning and planting and cleaning stuff up.  If I haven't mentioned before, my plan is to expand the garden this spring mostly because the boy doesn't want to mow the lawn.  And I'm planting an Asian veggie garden, which I am most excited about!! 

I went out in the garden this morning; it's been a while because of the weather. In the fall, I decided to try my hand at winter gardening.  I have to say lettuces do exceptionally well...

Worm Castings: It's That Time Again!

I'm coming up on 3 years now since I started my worm bins. And I still am totally amazed at the high level of efficiency of these little guys.  I'm still very passionate about the process and my worms and so I treat them with their favorite foods when harvest time comes around. 

Worm Poop and Mites!

Today, I had to check up on the worms!  Once again, these efficient consumers of my vegetal and paper waste are ready to harvest!

My original set of worms seem to have produced even more castings than the last harvest.  I also noticed, which isn't unusual, clusters of little brown mites on the edges of my bin.  They are completely harmless to the worms but compete for the food. 

I don't want the mites to get out of control and starve my worms, so I had to do a little pest control.  Usually, I just scoop up the mites and drown them in a bowl of water.

Mites drowning.  Sorry little guys.

I have no problems with them being in my bin, but I want the majority of the food to feed my worms and not mites!  Happy Earth Weekend Everyone!

Worm Wrangling Continued

Today I checked my bin to see how the little guys were doing.  Some of the worms have already moved to the clean side of the bin even without the addition of food. 

To make them happy and to encourage them to move over, I added food...

I always nuke my feed in the microwave to prevent fungus gnats, which I had a nasty infestation when I first started composting.  I also checked my first bin, my original worms....

Worm Wrangling

So I peaked in my top bin today and decided to start the process of harvesting the castings.  I started this particular bin the year before (2009) by splitting my original bin of worms and slowly breeding them.  It wasn't until 2010 that I really started feeding these guys and now this will be the first time I will be collecting castings from them.  My second bin below, which houses my original worms will be ready for this process in a couple of weeks give or take.