Plant Gardens 101

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…)

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.

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Composting is easy so long as you have the right materials and equipment necessary, but did you know that even the worms are your best friends in this process? Vermicomposting or vermiculture is essentially the process of composting with the use of worms and their castings (i.e., worm waste). An easy and fun way to compost for your garden or house plants, vermicomposting can be done both indoors or out, and requires very little space.

Red worms or red wiggler worms, which are different from earthworms, are the best worms to use for your composting process. You want to stay away from using earthworms because they weren’t made to be composting worms; red worms will take your food scraps, eat and digest them, making worm castings full of nutrients for your soil. Earthworms on the other hand, are burrowing worms; they’ll aerate the soil and take everything on the surface down with it. Therefore, they’ll be absolutely useless for what you want to do, which is compost!

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I’m sure many of you have heard of Cesar Milan, also known as the Dog Whisperer, but are you familiar with Vern Culteur the Worm Whisperer? Unlike his canine counterpart, Culteur is well versed and in tune with the ways of the worm and its needs for a successful and fruitful compost. Compost, you say? What in the world does a worm have to do with composting? Well, my friend let me tell you more…

According to Culteur, known to his friends as Verny the Wormy, worms play a vital part in the composting process. In fact, there’s an entire composting process called vermicomposting or vermiculture which involves food scraps, yard wastes and worms. When visiting troubled gardeners and composters alike, Culteur adamantly but gently tells each one that if they’re going to start composting with worms, then they’ll have to adapt to a few changes. For instance, one of the first mistakes that many novice composters make is using the wrong worm. (more…)

If you’re into composting and are looking to try something a bit different, consider going for worm composting. Known as vermiculture or vermicomposting, worm composting is the process of creating cow-free manure or worm castings by letting red worms or European night crawlers feed on your organic matter. The process is simple since the worms will do all the work for you, and you get to reap in the wonderful results for your garden.

To start the vermiculture process, first you’ll need a worm bin to house all your worms. You can easily make your own or you can purchase one from a variety of websites like Composters.com. If you’re the DIY type, I suggest finding a bin that includes a tight fitting lid so that no light will get through. The depth doesn’t really matter, but the deeper it is, the more wiggle room your worms will have to move about. The bin itself has to also hold about 10 pounds of compost and food scraps per week. Ventilation is also important, so make sure that you include a few air vents on the top of the lid and along the sides of the bin. A drain catch like an additional lid or bin underneath the worm bin is a good idea just in case any compost tea leaks out. (more…)

If you’re thinking about starting up a family-friendly composting project, why not consider doing one that involves worms? That’s right, worm composting, also known as vermicomposting, is a fun-filled way to get the compost you desire for your garden. All you and your kids have to do is keep the worms happy by feeding them and they’ll do all the work for you. Here’s how you get started:

All you need is a plastic 10 gallon worm bin with drainage holes on the bottom (home made or store bought is just fine), a tight fitting lid to keep the worms in the dark, moist bedding made out of one inch newspaper strips or sawdust, a pound of red wiggler worms that you can get from your local fish bait shop or from internet retailer sites like Composters.com, and some food waste like banana peels, fruit rinds and vegetable stalks. Be sure to keep in mind that this will get a bit messy, so it might be best to do this outside especially if you’re children are going to be involved. If it gets messy, it’s okay! (more…)

Earlier we’ve talked about the differences between compost bins and compost tumblers, and let you, our wonderful composting audience, decide for yourselves on what you thought would work better for your needs. Well, let’s put our differences aside and talk about worm composting, also known in the composting world as vermiculture or vermicomposting. There’s really not much to it, we use worms, right? Right, but not just any worms; red wiggler worms or night crawlers are the preferred types of worms to use. Why not earthworms, you ask? Well, I’ll explain that in a second, but let me first tell you why red wigglers and night crawlers are so beneficial to the composting process. (more…)

The main work worms do in your garden is tilling and aerating the soil. They burrow very deep, leaving channels through the soil that break up clods and allow air to enter and water to penetrate and drain away. In the process of eating at the surface and eliminating lower down, they introduce organic matter to the deeper levels and steadily increase the depth of topsoil. Their main role is to digest decomposing organic matter, converting it quickly into a form plants can use as nutrients. It is important to maintain good soil structure when gardening organically. Unlike mechanical tillers, earthworms do not damage the soil by inverting it, creating hardpans or breaking up the crumb structure. They never have mechanical breakdowns, they do not create noise or pollution, and they use garbage for fuel – an excellent way to dispose of your kitchen scraps, especially if you live in an apartment.

DIY Worm Farming Commercial worm farms are very practical, widely available, easy to use and are quite aesthetically pleasing. You usually buy them with a small supply of worms to get you started. Choose either Red Worms or Tiger Worms. However, if you already have a suitable ‘home’ for your worms you don’t need to spend the extra money.  (more…)