Green Gal

Our sunflowers are almost blocking our back mailbox, which is where our landlord collects energy and water bill checks from us. We might have to figure out how to divert its growth to one side or the other... but hopefully, he likes sunflowers! The other day, I planted a number of seeds, including some kale in an old soy yogurt container. I set the container inside an old Earth Balance butter container so I can water it from the bottom. I also moved a tomato plant from inside to the backyard, and put one of my aloe plants from the front porch into the back because I think it needs more sunlight. Tomatoes, basil, jalapeños, cactus, aloe, and some pots that haven't sprouted yet but contain pea seeds (I think!). I moved the little hippopotatomus to this side of the garden. Some more new seed plantings, including broccoli, kale, and arugula. The broccoli from this summer is still alive but has been devoured by caterpillars (I think). The nasturtium on the side yard is gr...

 Awhile back, I planted some tomato and cilantro seeds in the same container. They've grown a bit since planting, and today was the day to transplant them into separate containers. The cilantro are most valuable to me since it's a little past tomato season anyway, so I transplanted the two tomato plants to new containers and left the cilantro in this one. Even if the tomato plants die from being transplanted, at least my cilantro will (hopefully) survive and thrive. I also decided to incorporate a small handful of worm compost into the tomato plants' new homes. I searched through the worm bin for small bits of worm-free, decomposing food-free worm compost. I added a small amount to each new tomato plant container and mixed it together with potting soil. I was careful in transplanting so that the roots of each tomato plant were only exposed for a couple seconds. Hopefully they survive this change. I have kept all three plants on the windowsill inside the house...

I posted recently about the unfortunate death of many of the compost worms in my worm bin . In that post, I described finding a graveyard of dead worms and my attempts to rid the bin of an ant infestation. My attempt was successful, and there are no longer any ants in the bin! I am also excited to announce that the worms appear to be reproducing again, and I continue to find more of them in the bin each day. I was afraid that too many of them had died and that I'd need to buy more in perhaps a smaller amount than the first order, but after letting the worms be for about a week and feeding very small amounts of food, it appears they are doing just fine! I recently added a squash rind, some moldy peach chunks, and a pear core to the bin, and they seem to be enjoying the buffet. This is what the bin looked like this morning once I took the lid and cardboard covers off. Every couple weeks, I have to add more newspaper, which I did after checking in on the worms. They really love ...

I mentioned yesterday on the blog that there has been an infestation of ants in my worm bin this week. They started showing up after I put squash in the bin for the worms two evenings ago. The morning that I put the squash in, I had discovered many of the worms were escaping. Thinking they were lacking food, I fed them more. In retrospect, I realize that part of the issue may have been that the bin was too acidic, with so much food in there. (More on this below.) Here are some worms enjoying the fig that I gave them Thursday morning after frantically searching for food they could eat during the day since most of our food scraps were frozen. I did a quick Google search on Thursday evening and read that making the bin more moist might stop the ants, so I watered it with a sprinkle of water, added some avocado skins after dinner, and went to bed. Yesterday morning, there were more ants. Like, a lot of ants, all swarming on the food that is supposed to be for my worms. I wasn'...

This morning after turning on the coffee pot, I walked outside to examine the garden, which I hadn't seen in daylight since Sunday morning. I've had a busy couple days at work, returning home after dark from full days of welcoming students back to the university where I work and tabling at community events. I had been watering the plants at night before bed or early in the morning, both times of darkness when it's hard to tell what the plants really look like. They looked great this morning, and I actually find it fun to wait a couple days to see them in daylight because then the effect of their growth seems magical! On Sunday, I had fed the worms in their worm bin a lot of food, and they seemed really happy. It also seemed like there were more worms in there, so I think they had begun reproducing. With my busy days and coming home late, I had kept them in the back of my mind, thinking they had plenty of food to munch on. Well, this morning when I peeked into the bin, ...

The day has finally arrived! The worms are here! The mail person tried to deliver them yesterday, but we knew we wouldn't be home and put a note on the mail box. The mail person left a note indicating which post office they'd be kept at until we picked them up. This morning I biked over to retrieve them. On the way to the post office, I picked up some corn meal since I had read it would be helpful for them to have something to munch on while their first set of food begins decomposing. There's been some food slowly decomposing in the bin since earlier this week, but I don't know how well that stuff's been decomposing. Now that there are 2000 worms with some of their castings in there, I think the food will break down better since there's more moisture and material. I made sure to really wet the bedding and cardboard pieces on top because of the heat we've been having. I may need to water the bin daily if this hot weather continues. After I put the wo...