A fridge full of worms

Our beautiful old 50s fridge finally gave up the ghost after decades of service (I calculate we are the third owners). We couldn't bear to part with it so thought we'd give it a go as a worm farm!

Well, gotta say the worms love it! Although a relatively milder summer so far this season, the temperature inside stays fairly constant - so much so that we weren't worried heading off for a couple of weeks over the Christmas period.

Only thing is it's a bit tricky to catch the worm juice... a flat container seems to work OK. Best of all I think is being able to grab some of the castings and add to the garden every so often.

Fridge full of worms

 In addition, we also have the standard worm farm (right of picture - prefer the cricular set up to the box style) and we are currently worm sitting for the Pre-primary class (as we'd set up a farm for them last year). Both produce really well and we get a lot of juice from them, so overall the worm farming is going great guns.

If you're on the hunt for worms and are in the Perth area we have plenty to share!

Happy gardening!

Worms go on the move

On Monday this week, I went to Clancy's school to help the kids set up a worm farm, as part of their gardening set up. They currently have a large raised garden bed (shown below planted out in February this year), a small rainwater tank (set up by the ever-resourceful Daddy, Simon), and now have a lovely worm farm to complete the cycle!


I grabbed a few set up tips from the Town of Cambridge worm farm fact sheet and draw up a worm-inspired sign, so the kids can be sure they are keeping a good eye on their worms.
So, these are basic facts for keeping your worms happy and healthy:

1. Worms love sweet, not sour (i.e. not citrus, onions, garlic, etc).
2. Worms love dark not light (keep in shaded position with lid on and carpet or cardboard as a cover).
3. Worms love moist not dry (test by squeezing a handful of castings to test for moisture - that's fun!).
4. Use "worm wee" 1:10 (or 1L to 10L water) for your plants - they'll LOVE you for it!
5. Feed small amounts frequently to avoid a smelly worm farm (it should smell like a damp forest or fresh earth).

I used coco for the "bed" layer on the first level, then we gave the worms some edible items on the second "kitchen/dining" layer, using some old leaves, soggy cardboard and some green weedy scraps. We covered the layer with wet newspaper and then let them settle in for the week before giving them further food, which the kids will now do on Mondays and Fridays.

The kids loved holding the worms and feeling them wriggling in their hands - they were so keen! They thought the idea of "worm wee" was pretty funny too! Love the happy curiosity of kids!

Happy gardening!

Some Autumn Rejuvenation

OK so maybe we don't need a building site in the backyard :-).

We spent the weekend cleaning up the brick and limestone rubble extracted from our bathroom. We separated the good stuff for reuse and have a "throw out pile" as well. Amazing though how small the pile became once we looked at what we could reuse.

I also put in some lemongrass, galangal and wormwood cuttings around the chook shed and fence line to catch some of the water run-off and give the chooks some extra foraging. They will keep the winter grass down around our mulberry tree too, as it crops up after the rains. As long as the cuttings survive their scratching and digging they should be good!







On another note, our worms took a hit over summer. We've moved them back under the mulberry tree too. Hoping they'll replenish their numbers in the coming (cooler) months. Another reason to get some more green crops in is to feed the chooks and worms better as they compete for our meager food scraps right now.




We topped up the pots including the lemon, lime, fig, olives, guavas and more so they too can make the most of the rain when and as it comes.

Next, our no-dig patch gets a work over.

Happy gardening!

Winter plantings

We planted some mini cauliflower seedlings yesterday. Clancy grew them from seed in a big pot.



More potatoes are surfacing as well which is a good sign. I dug up one that was rotten so far, hopefully that's the only one, but the bed, although no-dig, is quite water logged given the amount of rain we've had in the last week. I forgot how torrential Perth rain is!



We also picked a couple of beetroot and some baby carrots over the weekend and the carrots are really sweet - they are a baby carrot variety.

We also fed our citrus trees with the worm castings from our worm farm which needed a bit of a clean out. They've grown heaps in this past month or so and always seem to respond well after a bit of a prune.

Other vegies on the move include snow peas, pak choi, Swiss chard, variety of lettuce and rocket and the herbs too! Who says winter is for hibernating?! ;-)



Happy gardening!