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Winter is the time of year when many raising red worms will find it difficult. They find their worms are dying off. This can easily be avoided if you take precautions when raising your red worms. Seasonal changes affect the way one raises their red worms. When winter arrives we concentrate on keeping our red worms warm. It is much easier when raising red worms to keep a worm bin warm than trying to keep it cool enough during the warmer months. Raising red worms and transitioning from winter to spring can be relatively simple if you approach...

Since I’ve shown you what it’s like feeding my worms, they have gone a mating spree. They have been reproducing like crazy. I assume that this means that they are really comfortable with their environment. Not sure that my words could do much justice for how many there are, so hopefully this video can: httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU9X8RGSL6U ...

Wanted to give a glimpse into what it’s like feeding my worms. Since I’m using a Worm Factory 360, I needed to start a new tray. Here’s what I did: Added some blended food scraps to the bottom. Covered them with some browned fallen leaves. Topped that with shredded newspaper that I sprayed down with a water bottle. Covered everything with a sheet of newspaper that I sprayed down as well. It’s quick and easy. Here’s a video to see what it’s like. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7xCkWDXM8A ...

Now that I’ve remembered to amend the soil in my container garden, I’m going to be running a side-by-side test of soil amendments. Here is the test that I’m going to run. I have two cucumber containers on my balcony garden. In one of them, I have amended the soil with straight compost. The other container I have watered with the cow manure tea that I brewed up. The plant that I used the cow manure tea already started out slightly smaller than the other, but I want to test and see if the manure tea help to promote better...

I am making cow manure tea to use as a soil amendment in my container garden. I’m brewing cow manure tea from Authentic Haven Brand. The brewing process will take 1-3 days to complete. You’ll need the following: One five-gallon container filled with water Bag of cow manure tea bag Towel or cloth to keep the bugs out You just need to drop the tea bag into the bucket of water and let it steep for 1-3 days until it looks golden brown. Put a cloth over the top of it if you are keeping it outside to keep the bugs out. For more...

I’m using the worm leachate that was produced by the Worm Factory 360 in my garden. The leachate was mixed up with 3 parts water and put into a spray bottle and the plants were sprayed down. Since my kale leaves are yellowing, aphids have infested my purple kale and cabbage worms wiped out the oak greens, I’m hoping that this will help to help both fertilize the plants and to keep the the insects away. The leachate is produced by all of the excess moisture that the worm bin has been drained out of the worm bin. This is different...

Now that I’ve arrived in Los Angeles, along with my worms, I’m starting to get the hand of this worm composting thing. The Worm Factory 360 is definitely performing much better than the bins that I had built and killed all my worms with. Though in checking in on them, I’ve noticed that there are little white dots on the food scraps. There seems to be insects, but could possibly be mold as well. I tried to take a decent pic of it above and capture it on video, but they are mad small and hard to get into focus. I assume...

When I decided to move to Los Angeles, one of my concerns was figuring out the best way to ship my worms. Well, I figured it out and the worms safely made it. I had a pound of worms and filled up 4 plastic containers that were checked along with my luggage. Here’s how I packaged and shipped them: Lined the bottom of a large coffee container with shredded newspaper. Piled worms and whatever else was in the bin in the container on top of the newspaper. Added food scraps on top and covered with a sheet of moist newspaper. Put lid...

I began the first part of moving the Worm Factory and the worms with me to LA when I moved them to my Grandmother’s. They will be stored there until I move out to LA. In order to make sure that the bin didn’t break open in the car ride to my Grandmother’s, the working tray cover was duct taped to bin and the bin was duct tape to the base. This is to ensure that the lid remains on keeping the worms in the tray. They’ll be stored in my Grandmother’s basement until I leave. By that time, I’ll have to figure...

Now that I’ll be moving my garden and life out to LA, I think that I’ve gotten this worm composting thing down. It’s been almost a week since I’ve started using The Worm Factory 360 and it’s the most lively that any of my worms have been. That’s not saying much because my worms have mostly wound up dead after a few days. The fact that the worms are doing well is all peaches and cream, but I need to figure out how to get the worms out there as well. Getting the bin out there will be easy enough, but...

So I’m giving the worm composting another shot after several unsuccessful attempts at it. The woman at the Lower East Side Ecology Center who sells me the worms was hesitant to sell me another pound because I’ve killed so many. I let her know about the new bin and she seemed genuinely concerned about my previous experiences. We chatted a bit more, sold me the worms and said to stop by in a few weeks and she’ll give me some more. Very nice and thoughtful of her. I got back home and set the Worm Factory up. It’s...

The fine people at Natures Footprint Inc heard about my worm killing ways and were concerned. They contacted me and thought that it could be the bin that I was using. Of course they did because they make worm bins. They offered to send me a Worm Factory 360 to try out. I willingly agreed. It arrived in the mail last week and is quite the beast. I need to read the instructions on how to use and set up. What I’m nervous about is ordering another pound of worms. The lady from the Lower East Side Ecology Center, where I buy my worms...

Now that I’ve figured out a way to compost in my kitchen without worms, I’ve started to pack as many containers as I can to make compost. I found an empty container of cat litter on the sidewalk that I brought home and filled. I’ve also had my roommate keep his coffee containers and have begun to use them as well. More food scraps were added to the original container, but didn’t want it to get too heavy to shake around. This is why I started new ones. A scoop of old potting soil was added to the bottom of each...

Since I’m still new to this gardening thing, I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my first year. I’ve also had many successes as well, with the most memorable being my first lettuce harvest. For this post, I’d like to share the Top Five Gardening Mistakes that I’ve Made. Life ain’t perfect and neither are my gardens. I know hard to believe. I’ve made these mistakes, learned from them and have become better at gardening (and life) because of it. Putting too many food scraps in the compost bin. This...

I started a kitchen compost bin since I’m done with worm composting. Gabriel Withington (@IntegroDesign) gave me a great idea. He said to compost in buckets similar to the the aerobic compost bin that I built. The main difference is that there is no need to drill holes to aerate the compost. If you leave enough room, you can shake it up to aerate. If it gets too moist, drain off the liquid and use as fertilizer. Brilliant! Here’s what I put in the bin in order: Fresh compost (b) Old potting soil (b) Shredded newspaper...

I can honestly say that I am done with worm composting after killing my third set of worms. This isn’t much of a surprise since they were literally crawling out of the bin a few days back. My first set of worms I killed because they were too damp. The second batch were too dry and this batch…obviously I have no clue because I keep killing them. So I’ll leave it at three pounds of dead worms and likely start more aerobic compost bins in my kitchen. I’m sure that there are some worms somewhere thanking whoever worms...

I must be making a name in the worm community and not a good one. When I checked on my latest batch of worms some of them crawled out of the bin. The ones that escaped didn’t last long and were dead under the kitchen sink. Since I started this third bin, I moved it under the kitchen sink to protect them from the light. I also noticed that some of the worms were crawling to the top of the bin, but the lid was on. Fresh bedding was added because I didn’t want to make the same mistake as before and have too moist of a bedding. The...

The composting mistake that I made is pretty simple – I killed my worms. Shortly after starting my worm compost bin, I had to dry it out because it was too wet from all the coffee grinds. That didn’t work and the worms were all dead. So I properly buried their remains along with the newspaper bedding at the local community compost. That didn’t stop me from starting a new worm bin. Why would I let it? I made a mistake, learned from it and now I’m one step closer to success. I cleaned out the old bin, put a fresh...