On 6/30/2016 9:02 AM, songbird wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
songbird wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
...
I don't remember what type of worms you use. Earthworms, red wigglers,
etc. I tried red wigglers and they all died within a week, even though I
did everything the book said to do. I'm about ready to start another batch.

a mix of about six species. earthworms and
composting worms.


Never thought I would have to buy worms, everywhere we've lived, except
Saudi Arabia, the common earthworm was there. We just put our compost
between the garden rows and it was gone in a day or less.

no worm likes it much when it is very hot or
very cold. that is why raised beds are not always
a good move (not as much insulation factor the
thinner the beds the worse).

you may need pretty deep mulch to keep composting
worms going in a raised bed.

We bought some earthworm pods a few years ago and put them in the raised
beds. We see one once in awhile but they are in the row beds along the
fence line that we have amended many times. Our compost bucket goes into
the composter and then we put the compost into the gardens. Don't see
many earthworms generally but every once in a while we get startled by
one plus get startled by the occasional snake up from the retention pond.

while compost is ok for worms as a bedding
they also appreciate goodies like melon rinds
and dried carrot slices. dig down a little
ways to make sure things are covered and there
won't be a problem with animals or fruit flies.
for melon rind go back and check it in three
days and see if you've attracted worms.
they will survive without goodies, but it
doesn't take much to encourage them more...
We do that in the raised beds with some things. I just tossed another
batch of crowder pea hulls in one of the beds. Haven't seen any of those
go under yet. Tilly knows better than to even sniff a bed and our only
critter problem is the cats that think our gardens are toilets. Had
another hit last night from one, I swear I'm going to get out the
"Whisper" air rifle, pretty close to having a suppressor on that one.


Taking a break from moving stuff around in the garage. Garage faces East
and the morning sun shines right into it. We're going to hang a steel
rack from the ceiling of the garage to make more room for her "stuff."
Big PITA but SWMBO wants it.

always projects around here too, but i'm in
gardening/weeding/watering mode until we get
some rain (maybe tonight, tomorrow morning if
we're lucky - i won't count it until it hits
the ground).

this house is very small, there isn't much
storage space at all, just a few closets for
each of us and that's it. the crawl space
works for some things, but it isn't easily
accessible. i am very gradually getting rid
of stuff to make more room in here. it's
more of a winter project...


songbird

We needed a garden shed here so we bought a plastic (very sturdy) one at
Lowe's. It's about ten feet by eight feet and was very easy to put
together, even has a floor. I bought some one foot square concrete pads
about an inch and half thick to put under it and it works well. Took two
old people two or three days to get it up but it has been doing well for
four years now and holds a lot of stuff. I did most of the putting
together and Miz Anne held things up while I bolted them together. We
still work pretty good together after fifty-six years together and we've
never struck either of us, yet. G

George