Plant Gardens 101

Composting with Worms in the Winter Times

Composting worms in the winter is not quite the same as composting worms during the summer times. There are no white flakes falling to make a 3-foot thick layer of snow during the summer time. There is no howling wind bringing chills to your bones in the summer time. There is no freezing temperature threatening to freeze you to death in the summer time. And there is no need for that thick jacket that you have been hiding in the closet just for that occasion. Overall, the living conditions during winter are not the same as the living conditions during the summer time. This applies to humans as well as red wiggler worms. That is why we need to understand one very basic and important note in worm composting during the winter.

What do you need during winter? (more…)

It was in the fall of 1998 that I took up composting. Most Saturday mornings were spent watching gardening shows on HGTV and DYI. I understood that without good soil a garden was doomed to failure. What better way to achieve good soil but with compost?

I wanted to find out more about composting before I began. So I went on a search for a book on composting. There are many good books out there with a lot of good information on composting. But one book really caught my eye because of the title, “Let It Rot” by Stu Campbell. How appropriate because that is what happens when plant material decomposes. I read that book cover to cover. I’m sure I got some strange looks from people when I took it to read while waiting for an appointment. I enjoyed that book as much as any novel I’d ever read!

There are numerous methods of composting. The three bin system is probably one of the most efficient methods to compost. The first bin holds your raw material. The second bin holds the compost material you are currently working on. When it is completely composted you place it in the third bin. This method is for someone with plenty of room plus excess energy. Since I have neither, this was not the method I chose. (more…)

Composting is not only one of the best things you can do for your garden, it is also one of the best things you can do for our environment. Knowing how to create and use compost is in our interest due to the tremendous problem of waste disposal. Landfills are becoming more and more difficult to find, so some municipalities are dealing with waste by refusing to pick up leaves and grass clippings.. About one-third of the space in our landfills is taken up with organic wastes from our yards and kitchens.

The end product from your compost bin will be a wonderful pile of black, crumbly humus which makes an ideal soil conditioner. Compost added regularly to your soil will benefit the soil by improving it’s texture such as loosening up clay soils and creating moisture holding capacity in sandy soils. (more…)

Organic gardening such as the use of composting worms is very much in demand nowadays as people are now being more and more apprehensive of chemically engaged methods for gardening. Home garden farmers are now having second thoughts about buying chemical fertilizers and are now seriously considering the use of organic fertilizer for their home garden farms. Red worm composting is beginning to have a steadily growing following as more and more home gardeners discover the myriad benefits of using red worm castings as organic fertilizers. Other organic gardening methods such as organic pest control methods are also being seriously considered by a lot of home garden farmers for their lots. The reason behind this is that they provide so much of what plants essentially need to live and be healthy. Nutrients such as phosphorous, nitrogen, sulfur, calcium, magnesium, potassium and a number of other elements are what keep our plants green and sprouting.

Red worm compost as organic fertilizer (more…)

Compost, made from decomposed grass clippings, leaves, twigs, and branches, becomes a dark, crumbly mixture of organic matter.

Learn how composting works. Even a newbie to composting can make good quality compost. It can be compared to cooking as art or part science. The following 7 factors will help you master the art of composting.

1. Materials
After a time anything that was once alive will naturally decompose. But, not all organic items should be composted for the home. To prepare compost, organic material, microorganisms, air, water, and a small amount of nitrogen are needed. (more…)

This article describes to you why composting is good to both soil and plants. You learn about the red wiggler worm and about how you can use it to have a 100% natural and beautiful garden.

Red Wiggler Worms (Eisenia foetida) are the most common type of composting worm. As they feed, red wigglers swallow great quantities of organic material, digest it, extract its food value and expel the residue as worm castings, which are very rich in nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. The life of a red wiggler worm in general is hard. Their bodies are about 70% protein; rich food for many predators. Their major enemies are insect eating birds, like robins, and mammals like moles. If you watch a robin hunting, it pauses, cocks it head and then hops. The robin’s ears can actually hear the red wiggler moving under ground. But the red wiggler worm, although sightless and ear-less can feel the vibrations of the bird on the surface. It’s the deadly game of survival.

Red wiggler worms can process large amounts of organic matter and, under ideal conditions, can eat one and half times its body weight every day. They also reproduce rapidly, and are very tolerant of variations in growing conditions.

Worms will breed most often for one of three reasons:
o There is an abundance of food available. o Their survival is threatened by environmental conditions. o They find themselves in an area which is saturated with suitable mates.

Why composting?
The worm excretes a soil-nutrient material called worm castings. This is why wise farmers have historically wanted to have healthy worm populations living in their fields. Worms are at the bottom level of the food chain but are critical to healthy soil. Recycling the organic waste of a household into compost allows us to return badly needed organic matter to the soil. In this way, we participate in nature’s cycle, and cut down on garbage going into burgeoning landfills. Worm composting is a method for recycling food waste into a rich, dark, earth-smelling soil conditioner. The great advantage of worm composting is that this can be done indoors and outdoors, thus allowing year round composting. It also provides apartment dwellers with a means of composting.

In a nutshell, worm compost is made in a container filled with moistened bedding and red worms. Add your food waste for a period of time, and the worms and micro-organisms will eventually convert the entire contents into rich compost.

The compost can be mixed with potting soil and used for houseplants and patio containers. It is an excellent mulch (spread in a layer on top of the soil) for potted plants. If it is screened, it can be added for potting mixes for seedlings, and finely sprinkled on a lawn as a conditioner. It can be used directly in the garden, either dug into the soil or used as a mulch.

Where can you also use worm castings?
o flower gardens o veggie gardens
o rose bushes o orchids o trees and lawns
o herb gardens o anywhere you want healthier plants & soil

Made through a brewing process which runs distilled water through Red Wiggler worm castings, the nutritious elements and microorganisms of the castings are captured in a concentrated liquid form, named worm tea. By using worm tea on your plants and gardens, you put healthy microorganisms back into the soil where they thrive and multiply, creating a much healthier growing environment for your plants.

Hope you had a good time reading this. Remember to always c\keep your garden healthy and 100% free of chemicals, using worm tea.

You may want to check my free web directory for more tips&tricks regarding seo or gardening. Please also take a look at some SEO services that I offer. If you have a passion about gardening, take a look at this revolutionary 100% natural product: my original worm tea

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It is something that I talk about in great abundance and that is vermicompost. Vermicompost is the end result of varieties of earth worms breaking down organic material. Their castings are what is called vermicompost.

Extensive studies have shown that adding vermicompost to your soil (more on that in a moment) helps improve it’s physical structure, enriches the soil with micro-organisms, increased of microbial activity by more than 20 times than other forms of compost, and improves your soil’s water holding capacity which leads to savings on water since you do not have to do it as often.

When vermicompost has been mixed in with soil, studies have shown that germination is a bit faster, plant growth is stronger and crops yield more. The root structures of plants are shown to be stronger than plants not grown in a vermicompost mix and the growth of roots are more defined. (more…)

Making compost is not difficult but it takes time. With tumbling compost bins or rotating compost bins we can make compost in the most efficient way possible.

With spinning compost tumblers we are able to make compost in a matter of a few short weeks. The design of these bins means they are one of the most efficient ways possible to make compost. They work so well for a number of reasons but chief among these is the fact that we are rotating the contents on a regular basis.

This is not hard to do. They normally come with a handle so it is simply a matter of turning it o mix up the contents. This evens out the temperature so that all the matter composts at the same time and also make it heat up to high temperatures. We are also chopping everything up finely which does nothing but improve the speed at which we can make our compost. (more…)

Any gardener or keen vegetable grower really should have heard about the urban compost tumbler.
Without doubt they are the absolute best way to make quality compost in as short a time as possible. We can make a fantastic crumbly mix in only two to three weeks with these fantastic machines. So how exactly do they do it?
Well, at the heart of the system is the tumbling action. This really is what makes it all work, and work so effectively. We will either rotate the drum manually or turn a handle which rotates or tumbles the drum. This really is what makes the compost tumbler so efficient. This action chops up everything very small which makes the compost process work as fast as possible. Then this tumbling will also evenly distribute the heat so that the whole barrel has an even temperature. By doing this we ensure that all the contents turn in to good compost at the same time.
This certainly does not happen on a conventional compost heap. (more…)

As many of us now know the importance of composting we have a few options of what to use including the soilsaver compost bin.

It is one of the most popular of the many compost bins available and this is because it has some great little features. It is compact enough to be kept just by the kitchen door or somewhere else near to the house so it is perfect to save on long trips down the garden to a compost heap. The easily removable lid makes it very easy to use and this makes it a very popular model.

With vents on the sides we are getting a good air flow through which helps to speed up the composting process and keeps the contents well aerated. This is very important if we want to have quality compost and for it to react as quickly as possible. (more…)

We all have to constantly throw away trash, whether it is food, paper, or anything we do not need anymore. We sometimes recycle things, which is good, but the majority of our waste ultimately ends up going unused.

Waste can be used for the purpose of organic gardening. This type of gardening was the prevalent type for the majority of mankind’s history. Then, when fertilizers and other chemicals were introduced during the world’s rapid industrialization, inorganic gardening became the premier method of growing plants.

While organic gardening seems like a new thing nowadays, as stated, it was the only kind before chemicals. Now the form is making a comeback around the world, as people become more aware of the health benefits from growing organically.

In order to avoid wasting your trash, you can turn it into fertilizer. Of course, you can only use organically based trash, like old food, to make compost, and not inorganic materials. (more…)

Why?
Organic gardening compost solves many problems. So much so that it’s tempting to wax philosophical on the merits of making compost. Compost isn’t just a gardening topic. It relates to conserving energy, reducing pollution, protecting the environment, feeding the hungry, reducing waste … and we could go on. See what I mean about philosophical?

Many times, maybe even most times, valuable organic gardening compost is made from household waste that would end up in a landfill. Now that’s a waste … burying valuable raw materials in expensive landfill space.

In many cases, there is little you as an individual can do to solve many of the social ills of our day. Making compost is a small step you can take to make a valuable product from waste. Now that’s a good deal!    (more…)

A good Garden Pond is a thing of beauty that makes your Garden a better place for you and your family. A Garden must not only be a beauty to look at but at the same time it must be safe for all concerned. Some steps have to be taken to ensure that the Garden Pond is safe and healthy for all. Special care has to be taken with regard to the depth of the Garden Pond if you have toddlers or small pets.

In case you have small toddlers in your House, they should be carefully watched while they are in the Garden and they do not slip and fall into the Garden Pond. Even then it is prudent to plan for any eventuality. You can add a Shelf or Ledge or other leaning Structures around the sides of your Garden Pond so that it provides an easier escape for a child to come out of the Pond by itself. Adding other materials around the edge of the Pond and its side will help in getting out of the Pond more easily. (more…)

Compost sieves help to answer the question of when the compost is ready. This after all is a complicated term for compost. In theory one can simply spread organic waste over the ground and let it rot. This tends to take time and be a mess, possibly an unhealthy one.

We try to make compost to be dark colored, rich smelling and crumbly in texture by rotting organic matter under controlled conditions. However, not all organic matter is created equal. Broccoli stalks, for example, are going to be evident in the compost pile long after the potato peels are indistinguishable from the rest of the compost pile. Choices need to be made. Should one leave the compost to work for another two, three or six weeks or months? Should one use the compost with the unresolved matter in it, hoping to bury it out of sight? Or should one separate the compost, using the finished material and sending the uncomposted matter back to the next pile for more decomposition? (more…)

If you have been searching for a way to exercise your “green” thumb jump into this fun and unique world of “vermiculture.” or “vermicompost” is an organic gardening process of natural composting using earthworms, known as the Red Wriggler (Eisenia fetida). The Wrigglers transform food scraps into rich compost and liquid fertilizer. It is the perfect hobby to support the “cradle-to-cradle” return of organic matter to its origin, mother earth.
It is also perfect for small spaces. The worms only need about 1 square foot of surface area to digest each pound of waste material generated per week. Supply your worms with a container, some bedding material, food scraps, and the worms do the rest. (more…)