tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56257139021615719592012-02-13T21:40:12.130-05:00Briannoreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-53114985819514445192012-02-13T21:37:00.000-05:002012-02-13T21:37:50.666-05:00

I have been composting with worms for almost 3 years in my home. I started with 1 lb of eisenia foetida and in a two year period I grew that amount to more than 19 lbs. I supplemented my composting efforts with rabbit manure purchased locally from a rabbit farmer to help multiply my worm population faster. If you have lots of worms you also need lots of food for them :-) Here's a comparison

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-10733623286490454472011-01-23T10:58:00.003-05:002012-02-13T21:40:12.143-05:00

I have been vermicomposting with eisenia foetida worms aka "red wigglers" for several years. My worm population has increased gradually during that time and I now have some extra worms that I would like to sell. I am selling 1/2 lb of worms (approximately 600 worms) for $17.00 and 1 lb of worms (approximately 1,200 worms) for $30.00 to help others start their own vermicomposting programs. I'll

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-25783993745510490252011-01-08T09:35:00.000-05:002011-01-09T10:05:16.890-05:00

Vermicomposting has become a major passion for me. I started composting with worms to create a soil amendment for our house plants and garden patch. It's worked well and has even allowed me to revive some plants I'd left for dead. After repotting them in a 50% vermicompost mix they're now flourishing better than ever. I've also reduced our household waste stream by more than 50%. We use

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-62151049178945785832011-01-06T20:34:00.000-05:002011-01-06T20:34:11.329-05:00

Some people think it takes a lot of space to grow a garden and it might if you are planting a traditional row garden, but with a little creativity you can grow a lot in even the smallest space. Several years ago Mel Bartholomew authored a book about Square Foot Gardening that has helped many aspiring backyard gardeners get started growing their own food. You can built a square foot garden from

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-76265418981782283892010-12-28T17:18:00.001-05:002010-12-28T17:21:59.148-05:00

It's been 12 months since I started tracking the amount of waste my red wigglers are eating in my home worm bins.  I have other worm bins, but I've only been tracking the volume composted in my personal bins. In case you haven't been following along as I updated the totals (see the right hand column) throughout the year, the total newsprint, cardboard, and kitchen waste has passed 320 lbs.  To

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-39574056315196070022010-12-28T14:37:00.000-05:002010-12-28T14:37:19.322-05:00

S-P-IN stands for Small Plot Intensive farming or gardening. You can use land you already have whether it's in your backyard, a friend or relatives backyard, or you can even barter with your neighbor to use theirs. You can even implement the SPIN concept if you live in an apartment. It's all about choosing the right growing techniques, the right crops, and using a lot of ingenuity to make it all

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-39224249278118295572010-12-07T21:28:00.000-05:002010-12-07T21:28:50.035-05:00

I built a homemade DIY Deep Water Culture Hydroponic System from a plastic storage container this past weekend.  I got the idea from a You Tube video. Deep Water Culture is based on the theory of sumerging the plant roots in water containing nutrients to encourage root growth.  The water is oxygenated with an aquarium pump or ideally, a hydropnic pump specifically designed for the task. I am

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-38839610000746904732010-11-29T12:51:00.002-05:002010-11-29T13:06:52.306-05:00

If you've been vermicomposting for a few months or a several years, it's likely that you've discovered separating the worms from their castings a time consuming process, if you attempt to do it by hand. The video below offers a cheap and easy solution you can implement for you home vermicomposting efforts. I spent 99 cents on this harvester. (I told you it was cheap.) Worms will move away

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-15489456362337115702010-11-29T10:22:00.000-05:002010-11-29T10:22:06.221-05:00

I made this worm bin video to demonstrate that you can make a worm bin out of almost any kind of storage bin that you may already have on hand. It's likely you have all the supplies needed. 1.  A storage bin - I used a low-profile under-the-bed plastic storage tote 2.  A drill - I drilled holes in the lid for ventiliation 3.  Newspaper - Shredded news print makes great bedding for worms4. 

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-5303451299694950342010-11-15T13:03:00.001-05:002010-11-15T13:07:49.485-05:00

I'm not a soil scientist by training and I don't impersonate one on TV, but I do have a nice demonstration of the power of worm castings for growing flowering plants. Most literature I've read about vermicompost (i.e. castings from worms), always says that it's best to use an 80% to 20% ratio of potting soil and worm castings for best resutlts.  I can't dispute that recommendation at all, but I

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-38349118808039246682010-11-14T14:51:00.004-05:002010-11-14T15:01:23.543-05:00

I'm conducting a test to demonstrate the advantage of worm castings compared to regular garden soil and commonly available commercial compost. For the test, I've planted organic Little Gem Lettuce seeds in worm castings (bottom), garden soil (middle), and commercial organic compost purchased at the local hardware store (top). The worm castings are fresh harvested from my home worm bin.  The

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-40881004293265863402010-10-28T19:53:00.000-04:002010-10-29T17:26:05.306-04:00

I have been using the 5 tray Gusanito Worm Composter for 18 months. If you're looking for a night looking place to keep your worms, they are a nice choice. The vertical design takes up less space than a tote-style plastic container and helps make separating the worms from the castings a little easier. As the worms eat the food in the bottom trays they tend to migrate upwards to higher trays. As

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-2973762602633935592010-10-24T16:05:00.002-04:002010-10-24T18:33:38.273-04:00

You can buy commercially distributed plastic worm bins for prices ranging from $50 - $2,500 and up.  Many people I talk to about vermicomposting suffer from worm bin sticker shock.  They get excited about the benefits of vermicomposting and get a little deflated by the prices of "store bought" worm bins. Question: Do you really need a commercially built worm bin? Answer: It depends. If you've

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-57262532744574731452010-10-24T09:46:00.003-04:002010-10-24T09:52:29.221-04:00

This award winning video is without a doubt the best explanation of the benefits of vermicomposting that I've seen to date. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks to Cornell University for sharing this information.

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-14091608940987169282010-10-23T19:35:00.000-04:002010-10-23T19:35:29.590-04:00

I spent the afternoon at a local community festival. A lady stopped by the booth to speak to my wife and the talk turned to vermicomposting.  She was telling us about a friend of hers that raises orchids.  She said he'd always had good luck growing orchids, but since he started using worm castings and worm tea, his orchids have exploded with growth. As anyone who has tried to grow orchids and

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-4577265994808315932010-10-22T16:50:00.002-04:002010-10-22T16:55:11.273-04:00

For those that haven't seen my original posts about the 5 gallon bucket experiment(s), here's a link to those posts which should bring you up to date. The buckets make very inexpensive, but effective worm bins. It's been 5 days since I separated the worms from the buckets. I placed them in a 64 Quart plastic holding bin that I use for various purposes including local sharing and my really-small-

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-8623652999831949992010-10-17T19:09:00.003-04:002010-11-15T13:11:28.485-05:00

Some may remember my experiment with 5 gallon buckets. Well today is the day I'm going to empty them and document the results. As a reminder for those that didn't see the original post, I started with 3 buckets: one with 1 lb, one with 1/2 lb, and one with 75 worms. All were prepped the same way and treated exactly alike for the entire length of time. If I added water to one, I added the same

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-5447880451510540792010-08-08T13:56:00.001-04:002010-08-08T14:01:02.624-04:00

Hooray for Hillsborough!  I don't have the figures for Pinellas County, but according to a mailer I received in my mailbox this week requests for recycling bins increased 552 percent during the first three months of the "Famous Bins" campaign.  YTD 2010, more than 7,200 households have received bins. To learn more or request your own curbside recycling bin, visit HillsboroughRecycles.org . Blue

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-76987419504441338102010-08-01T11:41:00.002-04:002010-10-04T20:35:07.368-04:00

Find more videos like this on vermicomposters.com This is a short video to document the prep work for an experiment I'm conducting with two 5 gallon buckets. In one I'm going to put 1/2 pound of worms and in the other 1 pound of worms. My hypothesis is that the 1/2 pound will reach about 1 lb in 3 months, but I'd guess that the 1 lbs might fall short of 2 lbs due to surface area. But hey,

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-3121392299280774092010-06-06T17:09:00.001-04:002010-06-06T17:18:00.504-04:00

It's time for an update on our backyard worm bin. I started this in ground bin in January.  It started as an experiment to prove a point -- you can keep red wigglers outside in Florida.  With night time temperatures in the lower 40's in January and day time temperatures in the upper 90's in early June, I've had to make some adjustments. I monitor the bin with a remote thermometer.  This has

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-28820692486542094202010-06-06T16:57:00.000-04:002010-06-06T16:57:08.338-04:00

Here are some pictures of the cantelopes we're growing in our backyard raised bed garden.  With rising temperatures we'll be cutting it pretty close on these ripening before the rot, but I've got my fingers crossed. We have them resting on cardboard in an attempt to reduce the chances of rot.  My grandmother always used straw bales to keep them off the ground, but I think the cardboard is

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-86538937220932165132010-06-05T22:19:00.002-04:002010-10-04T20:35:36.178-04:00

I took this picture to provide an example of the power behind the magic of worm castings.  I don't profess to understand the in's and out's of the science behind the magic, but I know the benefit when I see it.  The local home improvement store always has a rack of clearance plants that they sell at very, very low prices.  These plants are usually on their last few days of life.  Linda

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-25978384271810694352010-05-22T15:52:00.001-04:002010-05-22T15:54:09.216-04:00

Vermicomposting is great way to create your own soil for gardening without owning a large plot of land.  Worms eat your kitchen scraps, leaves, newspaper, scrap paper, cardboard, etc. -- the by product -- vermicast is a valuable and highly sought after soil amendment packed with nutrients your plants, shrubs, trees, and lawn need to surive. How many worms do I need?  You can start with a 1/2 lb

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-33381118547307174152010-05-14T22:15:00.000-04:002010-05-14T22:15:18.746-04:00

My outside 2 x 3 worm bin is going like gang busters these days. The worms are nice, rich, deep, pinkinsh color. They are big and energetic - much healthier than my "inside" worms. I had a little trouble with bin when it rained for two days straight, but things are fine now. I fluff the bedding every two or three days and that is helping improve things a lot. Without stirring things get toxic

Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625713902161571959.post-31341980195828953932010-03-14T19:53:00.001-04:002010-03-14T19:54:45.971-04:00

I shot this short video update of our backyard worm bin. I'm new to video so I apologize in advance for the amateurism. We also have an inside bin, but started this one outside a couple of months ago with 3 lbs of red wigglers. This bin is made from a 2 x 3 feet plastic utility tray buried in the ground 6 - 8 inches.  I keep it covered all the time. When it drops into the 50's I cover the lid

Briannoreply@blogger.com0