Worm Compost Tea - A Wonderful Garden Drink

     I have a worm bin with lots of worms living inside. A couple of years ago, I had a worm bin with worms inside, and the worms did not thrive. I didn't know what the reason was, but thought that possibly they did not get enough water. So, this time I have made sure they are moist. I put tea bags in the bin and sometimes I just put water in it, to make sure the worms don't dry out.
   There are a lot of worms in there now, plus, the spigot on the bottom of the worm bin doesn't close anymore, so I have to keep a bottle underneath it when it leaks (which is continually).
   I was surprised to see how fast the bottle I just put out there had filled up. I like to take the contents and pour them on the ground near the roots of the fruit trees. For the past year, I have been doing that, and this year, we finally have fruit growing on our trees. I am so excited about this. One of the trees is called 'blood orange' but the fruit never ripens on it because as soon as it freezes, the unripened fruit falls off. One time I did get a couple of ripened fruits on it, and when I opened it up, there was no indication that the fruit was that of a blood orange tree. So, if we don't have a freeze soon, we may have more of those, and I can better determine whether or not I have a genuine blood orange tree.
   Today I took the bottle that was filled with worm compost tea out to the garden area. Then I poured the contents onto a pile of scrap food that was in one of the gardens. It will be interesting to see how the micro-organisms live in this rotting pile of food. This is fascinating, to see how the soil can become nourishing for plants, and how plants in turn take in this nourishment to produce food for us. And the cycle goes on, and on. That is how God designed it to work for us. And we are very grateful.
   There are still a lot of blackberry plants that need to go. I believe they are doing so well because of the nourishment that is in the garden soil. But they will take most of the nourishment out, and the other plants will not benefit, unless the blackberries go. That is the project I am presently working on.

Here are some plants you can grow in the winter:
lettuce
spinach
beets
carrots
broccoli
potatoes

Happy Gardening!

Surprise Sweet Potatoes!

I cleaned out my gardens really well in the spring, and was majorly disappointed when all the blackberry plants grew right back in the gardens again. It looks like a jungle, but I don't think it will be as hard to clean it out this time since most of the growth is pretty new.
As I was clipping the plants, and pulling out the vines that so valiantly grew in my garden the past couple of months, I pulled up a vine and on the end was a sweet potato. So, I brought it in the house and I cut it up tonight and added it to the pan of potatoes. (Yes, I had both white and sweet potatoes baking together in the oven). There is still more of the vine out there so I will leave it alone for now, and pull it up in a couple of months (if I can wait that long!). One of my new favorite dishes is Sweet Potato Fries. Yummy.

Another Organic Gardening Blog

I found this on the Internet and it had some interesting looking articles on organic gardening.

http://eveningsinthedirt.com/%202012/organic-garlic-growing-this-huge-mamall-be-ready-in-july

Organic Garlic Growing: This Huge Mama’ll Be Ready in July

MAY 24, 2012 · 2 COMMENTS

Organic Garlic in My Garden

It’s another Garden Photo Thursday! I poked around in the garden the other day and noticed this purple beauty making an appearance. I planted about 18 heads of store-bought garlic last fall, and it’s supposed to be ready this summer. Yet, doesn’t this big garlic head look ready to eat right now? Yum. I covered it up with some dirt and decided to let it grow a bit more. Meanwhile, I’ll be having some garlic scapes with dinner soon.

My 2 Cents on GMO

     I was thinking about the adverse effects of genetic engineering, or creating genetically modified organism (GMO). Years ago, if you liked a particular vegetable or fruit, you could go to the grocery store and buy that fruit or vegetable and use the seeds to plant in the garden. Well, a couple of years ago, I was trying to do that very thing. I grew a squash plant one time, and the squash turned out really weird. It looked a little like an acorn squash, but it was different. I actually was afraid to eat it. And if you noticed like I did, that potatoes no longer sprouted if you kept them too long. Somehow I figured out that most of our vegetables have had genetic engineering done to them. What happens now, if you buy a vegetable at the grocery store, chances are that you won't be able to use the seeds to replant the vegetable. I believe much of that is intentional. For if you are a smart person, you could just take the seeds from your vegetables that came from the grocery store and plant them and grow your own plants. Government interests have been the culprit for much of this going on.
  Have you ever seen a seedless watermelon? It was genetically engineered to keep it from having seeds. You, the customer, are happy with the watermelon not having seeds in it, while the food corporation is happy because you can't perpetuate their watermelon in your back yard! It took a while for us to figure this out. Now it is all coming to light and there are battles going on between customers and the big food industry owners.
   Last year, a person in our country got in trouble with the law, and you would not believe the reason why. It was because she had a garden and it produced a lot of vegetables and she was giving them away to her neighbors. Now a new law just came into effect that you can't grow a lot of vegetables at your house. Who is behind that? The big GMO companies. Monsanto is the biggest one, and it owns all the other food companies. Monsanto has patented their soy plants to be resistant to certain things, and legally you cannot take a seed from one of their soy plants and put it into your garden. You would go to jail if you got caught with a Monsanto patented soy plant in your back yard. One farmer did. He went to jail. I personally believe that one day, when Monsanto genetically engineers enough plants to be resistant to their herbicide, there will be planes or trucks, like the fogger trucks that used to go around and spray the mosquitoes. Let's say you are growing your own soy plants in your backyard or farm. If the fogger trucks come around and spray their herbicide into the air, guess what will happen to your soy plants? They will die. But the Monsanto soy plants will still live. That way, they have a monopoly on the food that we eat. It looks like they are trying to have full control over the food industry, and it is being worked out through their genetic engineering methods.
   This has been going on for the past several years, but now that it is in the light, we can take action. We can be thankful for people who have the vision to preserve our seeds. There are seed companies that produce what is called 'heirloom' seeds and seeds that are not genetically tampered with. There is a documentary out called, 'Food, Inc.' which goes into detail about how your meat is processed and how these companies are getting away with it. We can let the authorities know that we are not pleased with products being genetically modified and we can take action against it. We can support the local farmer too. There are laws in government waiting to be passed to do away with small farms. The government wants all food to be done on large factory type farms so that all the meat can taste the same, they can produce a lot of meat in a small space, and they can produce a lot of food to feed everyone without the quality that is necessary for the food to have. Ever since these large, factory type farms have been producing and selling meat, cancer has become epidemic. Meat that is processed today is really no good. Much of it has rBGH which is a growth hormone to make the animal have more meat on its bones or to produce more milk. The cattle have no place to roam and they have to stand in their feces. They are fed grain instead of grass (grain is much cheaper). They are given antibiotics as well. Then they are slaughtered and the meat is very unsanitary. So, bleach water is used on the meat to clean it. By the time it gets to your house, it is completely altered from the original way it was intended to be.
   This is not so with grass-fed organic beef. You can actually get nourishment, good nourishment from a piece of grass-fed organic beef. So, we can see that not only seeds are tampered with, but also meat and eggs as well. And the reason isn't necessarily so that many people can eat. It is processed this modern way, so that a product can be made in mass quantities. That way, the big food corporations can make a lot of money. But if people threaten them with their little gardens and farms, they are not happy. Nothing can interfere with their ability to make the big buck! And that is my 2 cents on GMO for today.

The Tower Garden is Now Available

For those of you interested in a way to do hydroponic gardening, here is something you might want to look at. It is called the 'Tower Garden'. A lot of food can be produced on it and it takes very little space. Here is the url for it: SS Tower Garden

My lone lemon tree

My lemon tree has one big lemon on it almost ready to pick.💛

My Guava Plant

This picture is of my guava plant in full bloom.

My Red Wriggler Came Today

I prepared to set up my worm bin again. The last batch of worms I tried to grow died out. I cleaned the worm bin out by dumping the contents into the garden beds and washing the bin out with water. I ordered a coco brick and 1,000 red wriggles which came today. I took pictures of the coco brick soaking and of the worms when I dumped them onto the saturated coco brick bedding. I also fed them egg shells and tea bags. I will water them more later on.💦

Article on Why You Should Grow Your Own Food

Here is an article I found on the Internet that explains why a person should grow their own food. It is found here: Wellness Times-Growing Your Own Food

I'll post an excerpt from it as well.

Whether its the all-too-common outbreaks of salmonella in produce or the genetically modified foods infiltrating the supermarkets that have you questioning your food sources, know this: You’re not alone. In recent years, everyone from suburban moms to Manhattanites with no more gardening space than small balconies are taking food into their own hands and learning how to grow what they eat.

Ivette Soler, expert gardener and author of the recently released The Edible Front Yard observes, “People want to be in control of their food sources because Big Agra [the agricultural industry] seems to be making decisions that are not in our best interest. Genetically modified seeds, Roundup-resistant crops and the lack of clear data on how these things affect us make us want to take our food back.”

Some of the plants they recommend that you grow in your gardens are:

1. Artichoke

2. Tomatoes

3. Lettuces

4. Hot peppers

5. Eureka lemons

I have to admit that I don't know what to do with artichokes (except make a cheese sauce), but the author says that they are easy plants to grow. I could make tomato sauce with the tomatoes, or V-8 juice copy cat recipe. Lettuce always comes in handy for salads. My bird loves hot peppers and I use them sparingly. Would like to grow pepperocini peppers (the kind that comes with Papa John's pizzas). Lemons always come in handy, especially in iced tea!

Happy Gardening!

How to assemble your Tower Garden - Video

Scarlet Runner Beans - Pretty Red Flowers

Here are pictures of the Scarlet Runner beans in my garden. They are getting ready to bloom. The flowers are supposed to attract hummingbirds.

Compost- Black Gold

Did you know that you can make your own plant food? The method is called 'composting'. It consists of taking your fruit/vegetable scraps and adding brown material such as leaves and combining them in a pile. I like the phrase 'black gold' because that is what compost is like. When the ingredients are finished composting, the color of the compost is black or dark brown. You should not see much of the scraps left. All the micro-organisms live on this stuff while it is composting, and they do the work for you. Here is an excerpt from an article on composting from 'Dummies.com'

Making Compost - Black Gold for Your Organic Garden

The best and most refined of organic matters is compost, which is organic matter and/or manures that have decomposed until they resemble loamy soil. Thoroughly decomposed compost contains lots ofhumus — the beneficial, soil-improving material your plants need. Whether the original source was grass clippings, sawdust, animal manure, or vegetable scraps from your kitchen, all organic matter eventually becomes compost.

Making your own compost is probably the simplest way to ensure high quality compost and save some money. It's really not as complicated as you may think: The many commercial composting bins and containers on the market make it a mess-free and hassle-free process.

A well-constructed compost pile — built with the proper dimensions and maintained correctly — heats up fast; decomposes uniformly and quickly; kills many diseases, insects, and weed seeds; doesn't smell; and is easy to turn and maintain. Conversely, a pile just thrown together rarely heats up and, therefore, takes longer to decompose. This type of cold composting doesn't kill any diseases, insects, or weed seeds; may smell bad; and definitely looks messy.

Containing your compost pile makes it look neater, helps you maintain the correct moisture, and prevents animals from getting into it. You can build your own, as shown in Figure 1, or buy a commercial home composting unit. The advantages of a commercial composter include the availability of a wide range of attractive sizes and shapes and ease of use. Choose from box-shaped plastic and wooden bins and barrels or elevated and easy-to-turn tumblers, as shown in Figure 2. Store-bought bins are costly, however, and produce only small quantities of compost at a time, especially compared to a homemade bin that's built from scrap lumber or wire.

Here's what you need to know to build a good compost pile:

1. Choose a shady location, out of the way, but still within view so that you don't forget about the pile.

The soil under it should be well drained.

2. Make a bin.

Create a wire cylinder that's 3- to 4-feet in diameter or build a three-sided box (similar to the one in Figure 1), that's 4 to 5-feet high and wide.

3. Add brown materials.

Add a 6-inch layer of "brown" organic matter — such as hay, straw, old leaves, and sawdust — to the bottom of the container.

4. Add green materials.

Add a 2- to 3-inch layer of "green" organic matter, such as green grass clippings, manure, table scraps, or even high-nitrogen fertilizer, such as cottonseed meal, on top of the brown layer.

5. Repeat these layers, watering each one as you go, until the pile is 4 to 5-feet tall and fills the bin.

A smaller pile won't heat up well and a larger pile can be difficult to manage.

6. Within two days, mix the layers together thoroughly.

Particle size should be varied, smaller particles hasten decomposition.

7. Cover the pile with a tarp to keep rain away and preserve moisture.

If the pile gets too soggy or too dry, it won't heat up.

Not all organic matter is good for the compost pile. Following is a look at what to add to a pile, what not to add, and in what ratios to add it:

• What to add to the pile or composter: What you put in the compost pile is up to you — just remember that it needs to be from an organic material. Here's a short list of possibilities:

• Hay, straw, pine needles

• Leaves

• Kitchen scraps (egg shells, old bread, vegetable and fruit scraps)

• Animal manure, except for dog, cat, pig, or human

• Old vegetables, flowers, or trimmings from trees and shrubs

• Sawdust

• Wood chips

• Weeds

• Shredded black and white newspaper. (In the past, color printing used heavy metals in the ink. Most color printing now uses soy-based inks, but it's better to avoid them in the garden altogether to be on the safe side.)

• What not to add: Some items don't belong in your compost pile. While hot compost piles can kill off many diseases, weed seeds, and insects, it's not a sure thing, and some of these unpleasant guests may survive to invade your garden again. Certain materials can also invite unwanted wildlife to the pile or spread human diseases. Avoid adding the following to your compost bin:

• Kitchen scraps like meats, oils, fish, dairy products, and bones. They attract unwanted animals, such as rats and raccoons, to the pile.

• Weeds that have gone to seed or that spread by their roots, such as quackgrass

• Diseased or insect-infested vegetable or flower plants

• Herbicide-treated grass clippings or weeds

• Dog, cat, or pig feces.

• Let's talk ratios: In composting corners, you often hear about the C/N ratio or carbon to nitrogen ratio. Basically, all organic matter can be divided into carbon-rich (brown stuff) and nitrogen-rich (green stuff) materials. Using the right mixture of brown to green stuff when building a compost pile encourages the pile to heat up and decompose efficiently. Although nearly any combination of organic materials eventually decomposes, for the fastest and most efficient compost pile in town, strike the correct balance (C/N ratio) between the two types of material — usually 25 to 1 (that is, 25 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen).

Table 1 shows which common compost materials are high in carbon and which materials are high in nitrogen. Notice that the softer materials, such as fresh grass clippings, tend to be higher in nitrogen than hard materials, such as sawdust. Mix these together to form a pile with an average C/N ratio of 25-to-1 to 30-to-1, and you'll be well on your way to beautiful compost. Use the following ratios as guidelines. Actual ratios vary depending on the sources of the materials and other factors. And speaking of sources — be sure that your compost materials haven't been contaminated with pesticides or other chemicals.

Dummies.com- Composting

Scarlet Runner Beans Growing in my Garden

This garden bed has Scarlet Runner beans growing in it. I think I grew them a little too late last  year, but they should have a red flower on them. The beans are edible, but will have to be removed from the plant when small, because they will be stringy if left on the plant too long. (I've had my share of stringy beans. No more!). Hopefully, we will see some hummingbirds. They are so cute and tiny.

                                 

The Tower Garden - New Concept

Here is a new product that is coming out next month. Here you can grow a lot of food in a small space. It is called the 'Tower Garden'. It is an aeroponic form of gardening. Similar to hydoponics, Aeroponics are vegetables grown with not only water, but also oxygen. Here is a picture of the 'Tower Garden' without any plants growing on it:

Here is what the company says about their product: The Tower Garden® Growing System comes with everything you need to start growing vegetables, herbs, and fruits at home—including our specially formulated plant food and gourmet seeds. This aeroponic 5-feet-tall vertical garden allows you to grow up to 20 plants in less time than it takes in soil.


Here is the link to the 'Tower Garden' : Tower Garden
If interested, please contact me. The product will be in stock at the end of the month.

Scarlet Runner Beans - Growing and Harvesting

I have Scarlet Runner beans growing in the garden now. They seem easy to grow and they have red or red and white flowers. The beans can be eaten if they are removed from the plant early or else they get stringy. The flowers are attractive to hummingbirds. Scarlet Runner beans are one of those edible landscaping plants. I will take pictures when mine are blooming.

My Messy Garden

    Right now, my garden is filled with blackberry plants that I thought would be a good idea to let them overgrow in the garden last year. We had the gardens cleaned out a couple of years ago, and the only blackberries were outside of the garden along a trellis that lined the side of the garden area. But little by little, the blackberries started to grow in the garden area again. I did pretty good at first at cutting them out. Blackberries have roots that grow underground, so unless you can pull the roots out, they will just come right back.
  I have three of the garden beds cleaned out except for the thick stemmed blackberry plants. I will have to take some clippers and cut them out and I can try to dig the roots out as well, while nothing else is growing in the garden bed.
  So, little by little I am tackling the garden beds. I am almost done with the asparagus bed as well. My goal is to get it done before it gets too hot! Then I can plant all my peppers, squash, beans, and corn and there will be plenty of room for them to grow.
   The next thing I have to do is to get my worm compost out into the garden area. The soil needs to be fed. The soil also has to be mulched which I will use newspapers for. The soil will love the mulch and it will help the plants in their development.
   Happy Gardening!

GMO Issues

I just thought you would like to know what is going on in the agricultural world. For years, I had heard the term GMO, which stands for Genetically Modified Organism, but I failed to understand what the issue was about that seemed so distressful to many people, particularly gardeners. 

   With the ability to alter the nature of seeds by use of genetic engineering, plants can be developed that have special capabilities, like resisting certain bugs or diseases. So good, so far, right? Nope. Here's why; There is a large food company that owns many, if not most of the other smaller food companies. The name of this food/agriculture company is called 'Monsanto'. Many meat companies and produce are ultimately owned by Monsanto. Monsanto is continually coming up with ways to patent their food products. For example, they have a soy bean that is patented. The soy bean has been genetically modified to be protected from certain things like diseases and certain pests. All the other soy bean plants in the world do not have this resistance (because they are not genetically modified). So, let's say that people use Round-up in their gardens (which is also put out by Monsanto). It will have an effect on the plants that haven't been genetically engineered like the Monsanto ones. But the Monsanto ones will stand strong. And if someone is caught growing one of Monsanto's plants, that farmer or gardener could get in trouble with the law because there is a patent on the Monsanto plants. You would have to have special permission to use a soy bean as a plant if it is one that Monsanto produced. If you want to grow your own soybeans that are not from Monsanto, the soybean might not grow as well as the Monsanto ones. Little by little, Monsanto is taking over the entire food industry by doing this. It will come to the point where people won't even be able to do their own gardening anymore! There are people who have gotten into trouble legally for using Monsanto soy beans, as well as just having too much produce in their gardens!

   Having said all this, there are quite a few garden seed companies that sell 'heirloom' seeds. Some sell organic seeds as well. These seeds have not been tampered with and are good to use in the gardens. We need to be supporting the companies that sell these seeds. What we don't want to have happen is for Monsanto to end up having complete control over all food/agriculture decisions in the future. 

   Also, I find it ironic that a man named Mike Taylor has been a lawyer for Monsanto, and also has played a part in being president of the FDA. I'm sure he has a hand in all this as well!

   Here is a link to an article from Dr. Mercola's web site on GMOs:

The researchers are calling on farmers in some parts of the country to stop planting corn with anti-rootworm genes altogether, or to plant such corn only intermittently ...  Mercola on Corn GMO

Organic gardening: How to grow an organic vegetable garden

Vermicomposting: Creating Compost with Worms - For Dummies

Vermicomposting: Creating Compost with Worms - For Dummies
Here is another article from the Internet on Vermicomposting. Lots to learn and a lot of info is available to us.

Vermicomposting

Have you ever heard of Vermicomposting? It is wonderful to do if you can do it. Vermicomposting is a fancy word for worm composting. When you have a bin full of worms living off your vegetable peelings, you can end up with great compost!
   What are some things to put into a worm compost bin? They will eat vegetable peelings, tea bags, coffee grinds, egg shells, fruit and vegetable scraps and many other nourishing things like that. Don't put any animal scraps in your bin though.
   What the worms do, is to feed off the food scraps, then they expel what was digested, and they lay eggs to make more worms. All of this ecosystem creates food that is suitable for plants to live on.

Here is an excerpt from an article off a page on the Internet about vermicomposting:
Many gardeners compost both yard waste and kitchen waste with compost piles, sheet composting or some other method during the growing season. Fortunately, very little yard waste is generated during winter months when cold temperatures make composting difficult. However, usable kitchen waste is constantly being generated and must be disposed of. Vermicomposting is the process of using worms and micro-organisms to turn kitchen waste into a black, earthy-smelling, nutrient-rich humus.


http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/vermicompost107.shtml


Here is another article on vermicomposting:
http://home.howstuffworks.com/vermicomposting.htm


I have a nice worm bin, and have been doing this for a couple of years. I took the bottom layer out and dumped the compost into my garden. I just planted some seeds, so they should benefit from the food provided in the finished compost, thanks to the worms, and all the other micro-organisms in the worm bin.

My Lone Mason Bee

I posted a picture on the right of a mason bee getting into his house. I saw this a couple of days ago and it looks like he has a favorite hole picked out to build in. Mason bees are good because they help pollinate vegetables and fruits, and honeybees are becoming more and more scarce. You might be able to see the bee if you enlarge the picture. I had a little box of the bees in their egg cases, but the box blew away and I never found it. Hopefully, the bees will find their way to their new house and start living in it.
   One good thing about mason bees, is that they don't sting. I hope to have more housing for them in the future. I ordered my bees from Nichol's Garden Center.