Managed to do a fair bit of gardening today despite battling the start of a migraine (eventually thwarted by caffeine and rest in the afternoon). I repotted a blueberry plant that was in a way too small pot. I also repotted my $5 tubestock camellia I purchased recently.
My big success was finishing sieving my worms from their worm poo and therefore being able to retire one tray of my worm farm. It has taken me many hours over a few weekends to accomplish this because it is the first time I have done it and I didn't know what I was doing. Eventually with advice from @treevan and @earthmothering9 I got it and this morning I was much more efficient. This is what social media is so good for - sharing skills and experience as well as encouraging others.
So I cleaned up a worm tray and felt good! #worms#vermiculture <- newly learned word for me :-)
I used the worm poo slurry for our street garden. After a harsh summer I have been giving it some loving care. Despite the perargoniums being stunted while they held on for dear life during the period of no rain and high temperatures I pruned them a bit yesterday to encourage new growth.
I have grown the pelargonium (geranium) pictured below on the left from a cutting I took from a street planting in North Fitzroy. Those pelargoniums needed cutting to invigorate them and make them bushy. The cutting had thrived in a pot so I planted it out yesterday.
The pelargonium on the right is a slower growing variety grown from a cutting from my mother's garden. I have put it in a more sheltered position in the street garden as it is a slow grower and seems to be a bit more delicate.
While I was tending the street garden this afternoon a neighbour I have not met before stopped and said he likes seeing me take care of the garden so often. That makes me happy because that is the point of the garden. In an area covered with signs of addiction, rubbish and grafitti of the tagging variety, I want this small patch to uplift passers by and awaken in them the thought that it is possible to make things better here. #StreetGarden#Melbourne#StreetGardening#GardeningAU
It is a public holiday here and peak gardening season. This morning I did a lot of work on our worm farm. I had retired the bottom bin 3 months ago and have been only feeding the top bin. We have a lot of worms and some migrated up. They have eaten a lot of stuff in the top bin including all the shredded paper I had put in there.
However, there are still heaps of worms in the bottom bin that are not migrating up. I was puzzled. What were they feeding on?
As I pulled worms out from the bottom bin by hand this morning (spent about an hour doing it), I felt solid material amongst the worm paste. There were still remnants of corn cobs in there. I also found a couple of partially digested tea bags. No wonder they are still happy there.
@perkinsy Worms eat microbes that process organic matter, they'll survive on their bedding without feeding for a long time as the bedding is also being processed by said microbes.
@perkinsy The bacteria is mostly what enhances the growth of plants. You use it fresh and straight away if you can. You can add a pinch per plant under mulch or in soil, or create a simple slurry in water and irrigate it about.
You might keep the castings dark and covered for a while to allow missed cocoons to hatch and then recover some more worms, if you were so inclined. You would do the tabletop method in bright, indirect light; brush the top with hand and take layers of castings away, worms will move down towards bottom and then throw the last section back into the farm. I don't do this step, I put it out as soon as I can but I run biochar through my castings so the castings may sit with new char for 3 months or so while I slowly get through it. There are worms still moving about in this process, even without food. I set up a worm farm for my MIL and they didn't feed it for a year and there were still worms in it.
When doing a new layer of bedding, add castings from a working layer as that accelerates the populations of the microorganisms that are doing the lion's share of the work; the worms clean up and eat what they're doing.
On the way to building my worm empire at work.
Second wormery is now installed (and used it as a how to workshop for anyone interested in how to set up a new wormery).
Especially good as they have no council food waste collection at work- so we’re managing to divert food waste from landfill & the methane production that would result from anaerobic breakdown there.
Lots of lovely worms and lovely people interested in setting up their own wormeries. Winning. #worms#wormery#ClimateAction
I haven’t read any of the Dune books, I haven’t seen any of the movies, and all I know is that there’s something called “spice”and there are big worms in a desert.
#Earthworms enhance silicate rock weathering, which is a potential CO₂ removal (#CDR) technique. With global worming, this effect could become significant.
I was planning to remove my non-native bushes from my yard and give them to a neighbor this weekend, but now I have to question doing that if it's possible that would help the #invasive#worms spread.
Problem with people today is a lack of empathy.
I see everyone banging on the #RFK brain #worms story and not enough sympathy for that poor little brain eating slug that starved to death in his head. https://journa.host/@w7voa/112405162541228430
This run was recorded live at ESA Winter 2023, which took place from February 18th to 25th, 2023. The event is over, but you can still donate to Alzheimerfon...
