Restarting the worm farm

Well, I didn't realise that it had been 2 years since I last posted!! Life has gone on and there have been quite a few changes.

My latest purchases

The biggest change relevant to my garden is.... that I don't have one!! *gasp*

I miss it, but it was so hard getting things to grow as it was just in the wrong spot. So we are hoping to move it to the back yard... eventually.

For now though, I have been working on getting my worm farm up and running again, sadly most of my worms had perished. So on Sunday I bought a booster pack and a new mat for the farm.

Since then, I have fed them some apples, strawberries and coffee grounds.

Happy little worms

Planting Potatoes

I didn't want to plant my potatoes in my veggie patch again.  Aside from not having anymore space, I want to avoid finding potatoes in the bed forever, so I went to Masters and picked up some potato growing bags.

Seed potatoes, ready to be planted

These bags are pretty cool.  I picked up 4 packs of 2 (8 in total) for $20!  Bargain!  I got 2 different styles.  One style is round with a little 'door' to harvest potatoes and the other is a larger, rectangle bag with a bottom attached by velcro.  Both of these mean I can grow the potatoes where I want to and can easily harvest them.  It also means that I can move them around the yard if I need to.

Pea straw and worm castings

The bottom of the bag has drainage holes.  To give it a bit of a boost I layered the bottom with pea straw and some worm castings (some worms were added too) followed by some soil.

Potato being planted in the bag

I then added the potatoes with the small growth pointing up.  One seed potato in each round bag, and 2 in the rectangular bag. I covered all of these with more soil and then watered.

As the potatoes grow, I will add more soil so that the potatoes will continue to grow upwards. The taller it grows the more potatoes I will get (hopefully!)

I have put the 2 round bags together near the composter and the worm farm, and the rectangular bag near the little greenhouse where the lavender pot used to be.

I still have more potatoes chitting away (basically growing the 'eyes' so they sprout).  These are the smaller potatoes I saved from my last growing attempt. They are taking longer than I thought they would, but soon I will hopefully be able to plant these too.

Happy little worms!

On a side note, when I used some of the worm castings, I was surprised by how many new/more worms there were!! They seem to be very happy in there at the moment!! I snapped a few pics to show. This is just the bottom tray, there are more in the top tray too!!

Getting the Irrigation Set Up

Last week I went out to check on the freshly sown veggie patch and found that the cats had gotten into it again... and unfortunately they had gotten rid of most of my leeks. Not happy!

Weeping hose and connectors

So, the time came earlier than I expected to have to mulch and while I was doing that I figured I would also set up the irrigation in the beds.

When I was at Bunnings last I spoke to a really nice gentleman who worked there and he helped me out a lot.  We decided for what I had (2 raised beds) that a weeping hose (right) would be best.  For me, this is the first time I have ever used any form of irrigation that wasn't me standing there with the garden hose, so this is just a really nice, simple set up.

This weeping hose connects to the standard garden hose, which just makes it so easy to use!  Because I have to 2 garden beds, and this was a 10m hose, I cut it in half and clamped on an end to one and added a garden hose nozzle to the other. You can pick these up for only a couple of dollars and then you can make yourself as many hoses as you like.

Laying the weeping hose in the garden bed

After adding the ends, I laid the hose around the garden bed in a spiral (mostly because it was already curving). The hose needs to be about 30cm apart, which worked quite well in the bed. I was worried that 5m was going to be too long, but I think that it's probably about right. I did have to try and lay it around so that it wouldn't hurt/damage the growing plants.  The only ones I'm not sure of are the seeds, so I'll have to just see how they grow.

Keeping the connector on the outside for
easy access

When laying the hose down, I made sure to put the connector piece to the outside to make sure that it's easy to connect the garden hose without disrupting the plants or the mulch.

Water droplets from the weeping hose

The guy at Bunnings said to run water through the weeping hoses for about half an hour before adding mulch on top.  I think that's mostly to make sure it works, and probably to help clear it out in case there is any gunk in there.  It was actually really cool to see the water come out in little droplets.

Freshly mulched garden bed

After running water through both hoses, I added mulch over the top.  I bought a bag of pea straw as it should break down faster than the sugar can mulch that I have used before. I made sure to cover the dirt and the weeping hose without  totally covering the plants and seedlings.  This was actually a little difficult as  some of them were so small and tiny they just bent or were covered easily.  Also, I wanted to make sure that they weren't going to rot with having wet mulch around the 'stalks'.  I also tried to have a very thin layer where seeds were planted so that they would be able to sprout.

Lavender moved to be near other plants...
The bees are happy!

Since I mulched last week, some of it has moved or settled, so I need to add a little more, mostly to cover the hose. But so far it has been working really well.  We have had a bit of rain recently so I haven't watered, and I will only be watering once or twice a week now as I noticed that the water was pooling around the bottom of the beds when it got too wet.  The mulch helps the beds to retain the water so it doesn't evaporate.

Puddles from the garden beds

I have been thinking about planting some flowering plants in front of the raised garden beds to help soak up the run off, that way water won't be wasted.  I would love to plant more lavender, not only because I love the look and smell as well as encourage bees, but it doesn't need much water. The only downside is that B hates lavender, so will need to think of something else.

Trying to fix a hole in the fence... it's working!

As for the cats, I went broke up an old shoe rack and used a take to help cover the hole in the fence.  It has held up really well  and there have been no cats in my garden beds, but unfortunately they have moved onto the pots... rosemary and lavender which I moved to be near some other flowering plants in the garden.

Overall the plants seem to be doing ok.  However there are other things I want to plant, and my only solution at the moment is that I need more garden beds!! Not sure where to put them without pulling out the plants near the lavender bush... 

And then, there was a veggie patch!

Yesterday started with a trip to Bunnings with Nessa to pick out our veggies and get ready to get our veggie patch set up. For a 5 year old, she did amazingly well to spend 2 hours in a garden/hardware store, although the trip to the playground in the middle there helped! I was lucky to get vouchers for my birthday, so was happily spending those!

 

After multiple laps around the store, we bought:

• carrots
• chives
• oregano
• spring onion
• brown onion
• tomatoes
• capsicum
• chilli
• garlic (HUGE garlic!!!)
• snow peas
• marigolds
• a flowering plant for Nessa (so we can get rid of the rose bush)
• 3 bags of soil
• a bag of pea straw
• a weeper hose and additional clamps

So much fun!!! If only I wasn't limited by space, I would have bought a lot more!!!

 

The only downside was that I didn't get to have Nessa with me for longer, as by the time we finished I really needed to get her to daycare, however it was the only day I was able to take her shopping for it all, so I headed home to start on my own.

 

First things first, I had to put the second raised garden bed in, which meant transplanting all of the garlic (again!) and digging up the dirt to make the second bed fit.  I set up the second bed the same as the first one, with only one difference; after putting down some cardboard and then a layer of soil, I pulled out my fermented Bokashi bucket and laid it's contents down before putting the rest of the soil on top.  The bed wasn't quite full, and as it had a lot of mulch mixed through it, which is where the 3 bags of soil came in... I needed something that didn't have a lot of rocks/woodchips through it to be able to grow the carrots successfully.

 

Usually I have the garden beds planned out, with what plants go well together (companion planting), how far apart they need to be planted and a general layout of the beds... however this time I had to wing it, and just try to remember as I went along what went well together.

 

In garden bed 1, I planted:

• Lettuce
• Garlic
• Oregano
• Spring Onions
• Leeks
• Marigold

In Garden Bed 2, I planted:

• Carrot (seedlings and seeds)
• Brown Onions
• Chives
• Snow Peas...
• Garlic
• Marigold
• Beetroot (seeds)
• Lettuce (seeds)

 

I still had a lot of left over seedlings, so I added a little more soil and put them into the greenhouse, so that hopefully I can use them later.  I also added the chilli, capsicum and tomato plants to the greenhouse as it isn't quite warm enough for them yet, and I am hoping that this will mean that I will be able to plant them straight away when it's time.

 

I also added a marigold plant to the pot with the mandarin tree in the hopes that it will help with pests.

 

I still need to add the weeping hose to the garden, but I want to see how the plants establish first as I don't want to damage the seedlings.  Once I have put in this hose, I will then mulch to help keep the plants at the right temperature, help keep water in, and to provide nutrients to the plants as they grow.

 

 

Overall, I am so happy that the garden is set up again, it's nice to have it going again, I am looking forward to seeing it all grow, and then eating it all!

Veggie Garden: v2.1 - Part 1

It's only been 2 months since v2.0 (almost to the day!), but on the weekend I started the next version of the veggie garden. This is following on from my previous post on planning, so now I am starting the follow through.

 

First I took out half of the dirt from my previous efforts and got all the way down to the clay soil. The downside to this is that I picked up all of the mulch that had been left behind previously.  This is an issue in a vegetable garden when growing root vegetables (such as carrots) the roots can split and you get a strange form growing.  At this stage, I think I will stick with non root vegetables in this bed.

 

Digging out the existing garden bed

 

Digging up all of this soil meant that I also had to dig up my Bokashi that I had buried, none of it had completely decomposed, which was interesting, and gross, all at the same time. It is interesting to note that everything that was left was basically all of the processed foods; all of the organic foods had been processed.  I did find a whole stack of worms at one point working on some of the Bokashi, in fact I found worms throughout the soil (mostly where there was Bokashi) which is an excellent sign!

 

Lots and lots of worms!!!

 

After removing the soil, I placed the raised garden bed where I wanted it to go and then placed a broken down cardboard box as the base to act as a weed mat.  If you decide to do this too, make sure you get rid of all of the sticky tape on the outside first.

Using an old cardboard box to deter weeds

On top of this, I scattered a handful of dynamic lifter to help get things going followed by the soil.  By this stage I was working up quite a sweat!  As I put the soil back in, I tried to make sure all of the Bokashi was buried, although I am unsure if I got it all... we'll see if I did, and what the consequences are! I did rake in some Worm Farm and Compost Conditioner, to help with the acidity of the Bokashi.

Raised garden bed, practically ready to go!

On top of the new garden bed I basically blasted it with nutrients!  First I added more dynamic lifter, gave it a water, then added a Seasol mix and also used some worm tea on it as well. I wouldn't normally do this, but as the bed is empty and probably will remain so for the next couple of weeks, it can sit and 'process' and settle over this time.

 

I also added a little of the Seasol to the garlic currently growing, and finally put the bird netting over the lot of it again.

Bird netting over v2.1

I also added some shredded paper to the compost and worm farm, and I also added some scraps from the kitchen to both (coffee grounds and vegetable peelings). While sorting out the worm farm, I checked on the Bokashi again and found the worms to be all over it!  The next bucket has finished fermenting and I am so tempted to add more Bokashi and cover it all in soil... but I don't want to do this until I have more working trays to add, so I think that might be my next purchase.

 

Finally, I used some jiffy pellets in a seedling tray and went through some of my seeds to plant some:

• Nasturtiums
• Capsicum
• Dwarf Peas
• Sugarsnap Peas

I still have more that I would like to plant, but at least it is a start.

Seeds! Hopefully they will sprout...

It was really great as I was able to use my new mini greenhouse!  I added a few other little plants and previously planted seeds in there in the hope that they will grow too... hopefully the greenhouse will help to keep them safe.

The newest addition: mini greenhouse!

 

Planning ahead...

If any of you know me in real life, or have read my other blogs, the one thing you will know about me is that I am a planner... naturally so!  Doesn't matter what the situation is, you can bet I have probably planned for all contingencies, even if most of my plans remain just that... plans.

 

The same goes for gardening. I have plans upon plans upon plans... and very little follow through... in fact, I think I am a lazy gardener.

 

I am very sad to admit, that I think it has been about a year since I have actually picked something I have grown (except for herbs at least), and that has been because it has probably been about a year since I planted something (excluding the recently planted garlic.) I have mostly been putting off due to monetary reasons, or the fact that we moved house or even just due to not having the time.

 

And I have missed it.

 

Over the last few days I have been thinking more and more about how much I want to see my garden grow and eat the foods that I have nurtured. I love to look back on photos  and see how much bigger the plants have gotten... they don't seem to grow that quick when you are watching them.

 

I have so many different things that I want to do or change in the garden, especially as I will need to "make do" for now, until we are able to build the garden beds that we want. As there are many different aspects, I have created sub headings below.

 

Garden Beds

First up, this is something that I need to address, because without garden beds, I have no garden.

 

At our last place we used raised garden beds (right) which worked quite well, although I wasn't a fan of how small they seemed to be, or how short.  However, now I am dealing with an in ground bed, that is even lower and is harder to reach the back of it. While I have added more soil to the top of it, along with composted cow manure and worm castings, I am concerned about the depth, the weeds coming through and especially the fact that it has a very, very hard clay 'base'.

 

Due to these reasons, I am considering dismantling the bed as it is; taking away the wooden boarder, removing the soil I have added previously, and placing my old raised garden beds in it's place. This will give it more structure for the time being, and will also be in a format that I am used to. To help avoid the weeds, we have a lot of packing boxes in the garage, I might place a few of them down first as they will decompose eventually, but should provide a good weed mat (if you do this, make sure you take the packing tape off them first.)

 

Compost

I would love to be able to make my own soil (aka compost - I didn't realise they were the same, makes sense though), although with the tumbler, it is harder than what I thought it was going to be, especially with the Bokashi.  At this stage, I have another Bokashi bucket almost ready to go and I don't know what to do with it; do I put it in the tumbler with some sugar cane mulch and hope for the best, or try and put it in the ground again, while waiting to see if the bird netting is working. 

 

This has lead me to want to try a third option, and that is buying the stationary composter I spoke about previously. But I am torn. I don't think we really need another one as yet, especially as I don't know if it will work the way I want or expect it to, and as well as having the tumbler, I also have the worm farm, which I now know that the worms like Bokashi.

 

Worm Farm

As I mentioned the worms like the Bokashi, so if I am not going to use soil or the tumbler to break down the Bokashi, should I use the worm farm... seems logical really.... might just need to layer it with dirt and/or shredded paper.

 

Image from: http://healthyalternatives.co.nz/

However... this means that I will need more 'space' in the form of trays.  I have looked into this and it will cost me about $53 including postage to get two trays sent to me from Tumbleweed, or I can get a whole new worm farm for $55 through an initiative of the Canberra Environment Centre. If I was to do this I would have extra pieces of a worm farm that I wouldn't need, although could come in handy if I ever need new parts... or I could just simply have two worm farms. I would rather not do this simply due to space, and also I would need and another starter pack of worms (1000 worms).

 

Planting/Seedlings

The mini greenhouse I have
Image: http://www.minigreenhouse.org.uk/

As I mentioned before, I haven't planted anything in a while, but a friend of mine gave me a wonderful birthday present, a mini greenhouse!  Now I haven't used it yet, but I did build it the other day. I am hoping that this will help with saving some money by planting seeds, but also time as I vary rarely get a chance to go to the garden store... plus it also means I have the benefit of knowing what  went into the plant right from the beginning.  I will probably still buy some plants from the store, but I am hoping that it will enable me to get some gardening in when I get the time and have the inclination, even if I don't have the money. With spring just around the corner, there will be lots to plant, so far this is what I am wanting to plant:

• Beetroot
• Beans
• Capsicum
• Carrot
• Leeks
• Lettuce
• Potato
• Shallots
• Snow peas
• Strawberries (I do have one planted, but it doesn't seem to grow much... I think it needs a larger pot)

 

Potatoes

After having such a wonderful time growing potatoes last year, and getting some delicious spuds at the end of it, I have decided that I simply have to grow more this year... many, many, many more!!!! Home grown potatoes are simply amazing!!!! I never knew potatoes could be that delicious!  The issue with this is trying to figure out what I an plant them in.  I would rather not use a garden bed as they take up a lot of room, but also because you need to be careful of any diseases being past onto future crops.  I am thinking about using some large containers, but that would be one container per plant (possibly 2 plants)... but I just don't know... perhaps I should try to plant in a garden bed. No matter which way I go, I know that I need to figure it out soon, because I simply have to plant them.

 

Herbs

My sad looking herb "garden"

My herb pot at the moment is looking a little pitiful. The basil has died down, the parsley never really grew and neither did the chives... I think this is all because the thyme took off like you wouldn't believe!!!  I am now thinking about ripping it all out and starting again... even my wonderful thyme plant. I could use this pot to grow potatoes (along with a similar one I have that is currently empty (there are 2 potato plants!!)).

 

My problem with the herbs, is where do plant.  Do I get more pots? I seem to have too many as it is.  In my world, they don't match and they don't look very neat.  At the moment I do see them as a means to an end, and I do have some that I can use from previous gardening attempts or should I look at getting one of those big herb pots with all of the different compartments, but I just don't know how I want them set up... and then I need to work out what I want to plant!  This is what I am thinking at this stage:

• Thyme
• Basil
• Oregano
• Chives
• Parsley
• Chamomile (planted)
• Rosemary (planted)

With some of these herbs, I could also put them into a raised garden bed to not only help with pests, but also as a backup in case they go downhill as they currently have when planted together.

Soil
I mentioned before that the compost would become soil, but until I can get a good rhythm going with it all, I will need to buy more potting mix, which as you can imagine would get costly after a while.  I think the best thing to do is to start with getting the raised garden beds back into place and see how it all goes from there.


I think for now I need to accept that I won't have the garden the way I want it, and I will still need to deal with pests, but hopefully I can at least get something functional happening, and hopefully before spring really kicks in.

Quick update on the worm farm and compost

Following on from my post last month, I have been checking on the worm farm and compost regularly, but for different reasons.

 

With the worm farm I was testing out how the worms went with the Bokashi in there.  For the first few days they didn't go near it, then slowly they started to make their way up (it did go into a fresh tray, so this is quite normal).  However 3 weeks later, they were all over it, and on top of it! A very good sign!  I think I will continue to add Bokashi mix to the farm, but will try to avoid the meat components, although from what I can tell, the only reason to do this would be to avoid vermin... but I will start slow, then see how we go when meat is added.  The difference with the meat in the Bokashi is that it is fermented, so it should make a considerable difference.  One other thing I really need to do with the worm farm is to add more shredded paper as they have gone through everything that I have added previously.

 

The compost is doing much better since I added more of the sugar cane mulch.  The smell has become more earthy (a very good sign!) and while it does look a little too damp at the moment due to all of the recent rain, it seems to be breaking down as well as it can. The sugar cane mulch will break down really slowly, so I need to look into alternate options for adding brown material. Due to the additional dampness, I will need to add some more brown material, although this time I might add some shredded paper.  I have also been trying to give the composter a tumble/turn every one-three days to help aerate it and get those little microbes working.

 

Overall, things have improved considerably, which I am very grateful for.  I am hoping that this will show that compost piles can be 'fixed' once they are (very much so) broken - something I couldn't find while researching online.