Worms

Oh, poop!

June 22, 2010

Did you see this article about Worm Gold in the Union-Tribune yesterday? The Department of Pesticide Regulation said George Hahn, owner of Worm-Gold, Worm-Gold Plus, and Tree Rescue Solution, was selling an unregistered pesticide, in violation of state and federal law because he claims that his products repel insects. I read the article a couple of times thinking I’d missed something, but I’ve concluded that this is a case of non-communicative bureacracy. This guy has been fined $100,000 already, and the next step is a lawsuit. Are you sh*tt*ng me??!!! People, people, people……IT’S WORM POOP! I happen to use Worm Gold, love it, and believe that it really helps keep the pest population in check. If Mr. Hahn changes the name to “επίστεγο σκουλήκι” (translation below), his marketing would be more exotic and, maybe, he could work around the whole lawsuit thing.
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* translated from Greek = “Worm poop” People, people, people………

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Happy Easter!

April 4, 2010

We’re having a nice day at our house. The Easter Tree has been set up for a couple of weeks, decorated with all the Easter ornaments we collected, and made, over the years.

We dyed our eggs and hid them around the yard.

This is before the egg salad when the eggs were hiding in the celery instead of the other way around!

We had an Easter egg hunt for the “kids” which was a little tricky because they don’t have hands to hold their baskets and they were pretty clueless about what was going on, but it was fun.

The kids had never done an Easter egg hunt before!

Top off the festivities with an earthquake and call it a day. Happy Easter!

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Parts of a perfect day

January 9, 2010

Since we had some free time to ourselves today, Mi Esposo and I ran errands. On my list: buy good dustpans from Dixieline (I hate chintzy dustpans and I want to have one every twenty feet on the property for easy cleanup!); Pier One for some ornamental rocks for my flower arranging; pick up my pre-paid Dorsett apple at Walter Andersen’s Nursery; and most important item on the list – LUNCH!

First up, Andersen’s Nursery. A few months back I ordered a Dorsett bare-root apple from Walter Andersen’s Nursery and it finally came in for me to pick up. I have a Fuji and an Anna’s apple, but adding the Dorsett will round things out nicely and help cross-pollinate the Anna’s for better fruit production.

Andersen’s was hopping today and everything bare-root (apples, peaches, grapes, blueberries, blackberries, figs and other fruit I can’t remember) was on display and selling like hotcakes. They must have had a class because lots of people were in a frenzy in the bare-root section. We alerted an employee about our pick-up and then wandered around a bit. I picked up more strawberry plants, some lettuce mixture six-packs, a bag of worms, and a bare-root Flame Seedless Grape.

The Dorsett came out from the back and when they say bare-root, they mean bare-root. It was a stick with branches, and roots hanging off the bottom. These plants are tougher than I give them credit for! The employee wrapped it up in plastic for us with sawdust around the roots, we bought all our other stuff and we were out of there.

Interesting note from Walter Andersen
Bare-root fruit tree planting tip – Never use the sawdust that the trees are packed in as a soil amendment. Un-nitrolized wood shavings and sawdust will pull the nitrogen out of the surrounding soil as it breaks down depriving the plants of needed food. When you unpack your bare-root trees throw the sawdust in the compost bin if you dont want to throw it away. Good to know because I would have thrown it in the hole. Onward……….

We swung into Pier One and I found what I was looking for right away (I think Mi Esposo was shocked that we were in and out of there in five minutes!), hit Dixieline, wiped out their supply of my favorite dustpans, bought a big push broom and then it was off to lunch. Came home, gave the dog a bath, took the dog for a long walk, and spent a little time in the garden before dinner. What a nice day!

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More worm information than you probably need….NOT.

December 3, 2009

As a self-proclaimed lover of worms, this information is GOLD!

From the Solana Center for Environmental Innovation

A brief description of different composting worms:

“Earthworm” is the common name for over 2,500 species of Earthworm. But not all species are suitable for vermicomposting or the compost bin. Earthworker worms do not eat a large volume of organic material, do not reproduce well in confinement, and do not thrive when their burrow systems are disturbed. Vermicomposting worms on the other hand, reproduce quickly, eat large amounts of organic material, and tolerate disturbance.

Red Wigglers
Eisenia fetida
Red wigglers are the most common type of vermicomposting worms. They are rust brown in color with striping between segments. Adults can grow to about 3 inches in length, they prefer temperatures between 59-77 degrees F, and cocoons hatch between 35 and 70 days. Red wigglers work well for vermicomposting because of their high reproductive rate, ability to survive in varying conditions, and because under perfect conditions, they can eat their body weight in food everyday. Red wigglers are not soil dwellers and will likely perish if added to a garden.

Red Tiger
Eisenia andrei
The tiger worm is a close relative of the red wiggler and shares very similar vermicomposting abilities. They are dark red or purple in color and can grow up to 3 inches long. They prefer temperatures between 64 and 72 degrees F and can process large volumes of organic material. They are often not separated from red wigglers by commercial growers.

Redworms
Lumbricus rubellus
This worm works well for vermicomposting and bait as well. It is said to be irresistible to fish. This worm is dark red to maroon in color with no striping between segments. They can grow up to 3 inches in length and prefer temperatures between 64 and 72 degrees F. Redworms cocoons hatch in 12 to 16 weeks. This worm can potentially do double duty as a vermicomposter and earthworker.

Nightcrawlers
Lumbricus terrestris
Nightcrawlers are not ideal worms for vermicomposting bins. Nightcrawlers are deep dwellers that can burrow up to 6 feet into the ground. Nightcrawlers do not like their burrows to be disturbed and prefer temperatures around 50 degrees F. They can grow up to 12 inches in length and prefer to eat leaf litter and mulch. Nightcrawlers are earthworkers, performing an important role in soil mixing, taking organic matter from the surface into deeper layers of the soil.

For a list of suppliers go to this link: Worm and Compost Supplies in San Diego County

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Good compost comes from happy worms….

November 15, 2009

I hear singing and laughing, and I don’t think it’s Ringo.

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Lazy Composting

November 8, 2009

The worms don't care

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Composting – come on, you know you want to do it!

October 17, 2009

On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal had a nice article about composting and comparing different models. Read the full article here…. Journalist Gwendolyn Bounds also made a cute video about her attempts with different composters. She even plays piano for the “kids” in her Worm Factory 360. I think she and I could be friends!

There is another article online at WSJ written by another journalist, Rachel Emma Silverman, as she shares her families attempts at being more “green” in their daily lives. There are a lot of great links in the article, too.

In our household, we’ve cut our trash down significantly by composting everything we can, including: vegetable scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds, paper towels, cardboard, shredded paper, newspaper, old cereal and bread. Let the worms do the work. Sometimes I break the material down using a food chopper so the “kids” can eat through it faster, but in the interest of keeping things simple, just toss it in.

Just a quick note on eggshells. I just read that you should wash, not rinse, them before you toss them in because of the salmonella poisoning risk. That seems like a lot of water to waste. Another suggestion is to cook them in the oven for about 20 minutes, although I couldn’t find any info about a suggested temperature, so pick a temperature and wing it. From my perspective, I don’t see why we should have to go through all that work to have eggshells in our compost. There is bacteria naturally occurring in the soil anyway, and what about cow manure? This sounds like a subject I could spend hours researching on Google. No thank you. Moving on…..

Gardener’s Supply Company is a favorite gardening catalog of mine and they have a great selection of composters and composting supplies. Check it out:

After you click on the logo above, you will see a link for composting on the left side of the page near the top.

I’m a “cold” composter vs a “hot” composter, which means that my brown/green ratio doesn’t have to be so precise and I can throw in whatever I want whenever I want. Plus, the “kids” don’t like it hot, so it’s all good.

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Let’s talk about the “Kids”

June 26, 2009

At the Fair, I found Mr. Worm Guy, and we had a good talk about worms. My “kids” don’t seem to be eating fast enough and I learned that I started with too low a number of worms when I first set up my new little Worm Factory stacking composter. I think I collected about [...]

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