Step by Step Instructions on how to build your very own Worm Composting Bin. This is a 5 minute project. I completed it in 3 minutes with a cold beer in one hand. You can buy worms locally or from several sources online. I purchased 2lbs of Red Wigglers online for $29.99.
Here's all you need:
2 Rubbermaid tubs (or cheap knock-off like these) or some old 5 gal buckets.
I’ve been workin’ hard! As should be obvious from the picture above, the work is piling up faster than I can get it done at this point. Sadly it started raining which is why I quit at such a random spot.
Tomatoes will be going into the furthest bed, the one next to it has peas coming up. The tomatoes are inside and safe from frost, except when I forget them outside of course! I’m creating raised beds for my fruiting vegetables. I begin by digging about a foot below the soil and turning it. Then I add a bit of grass and some ashes from the brush we burned earlier in the year. Really got the worms going! Finally I threw some grass mulch on the sides and between the rows to minimize weeds and water loss in the summer. You can’t see it here but I also put out some buckets to catch rain water. Lime will follow soon!
As you can see, instead of buying pots I’m just reusing food containers to start seeds and get them ready for the garden. Saves money and resources, win win! Most of the stuff that I’ve needed I’ve been able to find or make out of stuff around the house. You can really save some time and money if you take a moment to think! I even regulated the humidity by cutting slits in the lids and sticking a pencil through to open or close the vents!
Others in my house are getting a bit annoyed with all the seeds, but we’ll see what happens to the complaints when the food is on the table instead! More recycling, you can see spinach containers, a baking tray, some plastic cups, a pumpkin pie tray, and cardboard boxes. Recycling has never been more efficient! There’s all manner of tomatoes, peppers, herbs, spinach, broccoli and kale growing here. I can’t wait for it to get warm enough to transplant outside! May 24 or thereabouts…ugh, too long! Patience, grasshopper.
Of course I had to make this picture big to represent the size of this molehill. You don’t know how much it takes to turn this thing. So far it’s been cooking pretty well, just a lot of pine needles from last year so I have to keep throwing more stuff on it to keep breaking it down. I’ll lime it later too since it will surely be acidic.
Drilled some holes for native bees to make their nests in. You want to use a bit between 3/32 and 3/8. There are a couple of simple tricks. Nothing much matters except the depth and the direction the holes face. For anything smaller than 1/4 drill 3″-4″. For 1/4 and larger drill 5″-6″. The other important part is orientation. You want the holes to face Southeast, or if that is not possible for any reason, South.
Well, it’s late so that’s it for now. Happy gardening, peace and love!
So I’ve been trying to propagate everything I can. I’ve been pretty successful so far. I started with Schefflera, Aloe Vera, and a few others. I’ll start with the Schefflera.
Left is the original Schefflera that all the cuttings have been taken from. Below is an established cutting that my grandma rooted some time ago.
This photo on the right really accentuates how healthy and tight the nodes are in this picture. Very tight branching and all healthy green leaves. Schefflera seems to be somewhat drought resistant. A couple of weeks ago my Grandma forgot to water for a while and many of the other plants in the house saw the tips of their leaves wither and die. I hope my clones are as strong as this one. I found out that you can bonsai Schefflera, I’m thinking I’ll try that out with one of my clones. I’ll do more research and let you know what I find out. Pretty neat plant. I’ll show you how we go about propagating below. This blog was kind of an afterthought, so I apologize for not have step-by-step photos. I’ll take some more once the plant has been given a chance to recuperate. Pruning is always stressful on plants, even when it’s good for them. If you had a limb hacked off, you might be a bit stressed too!
The next pictures coming up are my starts that I took about 5 days ago. Most of the plants in this house are extremely convenient and can be rooted in water next to a window. I was doubtful at first, because I know that if you try rooting cannabis where light can get to the roots they turn green and start trying to photosynthesize. These seem to be doing pretty darn good so far though.
There is one set of leaves on the top left there that you can see look like they’re wilting, but it was like that on the tree. It still looks the same 5 days later and the other leaves still look very healthy. There are currently 4 cuttings in this jar. It’s just plain water from the tap. I didn’t even check pH or anything but ours is usually pretty stable from our well here.
I’ll keep posting every now and then to show how they are coming along. Next is the Aloe Vera.
So here’s the Aloe Vera. You propagate this one by just grabbing the little baby offsets that pop up around the main plants. Some say to leave them out of soil for 24 hours to let the root dry out. When I checked this plant out, I found many offsets that weren’t even in the soil. Who knows how long the had been out. Aloe is extremely drought resistant! They may have been there with their roots hanging in the air for months! So I just threw them in the little pots below and they are looking great so far. I’m not sure if the dried out shoots will rejuvenate but it looks like they are just concentrating on new growth.
You can see how many offsets I got off the original plant in the picture below. All but one of the planters has 3 separate offsets rooting. This is a great plant to have around because it’s hard to kill so long as you avoid over-watering. Aloe Vera is mostly water, kind of like us. Those thick leaves are full of a water based solution. They like the soil to dry out between watering, and you can let them go without water for quite a while before they will show any sign of dehydration. Not to mention if you hurt or burn yourself, you can use some of the gel to help your skin heal.
You can see where it dried out on the right there, all the little brown things used to be nice and green. You can also see that some of them look bent, this is the first sign of dehydration. Notice though that the newest growth is still looking very good!
I’ll keep posting pictures of these as time passes as well, so you can see how they recover. Now there are some other plants that have been propagated, but unfortunately I haven’t yet been able to identify them. If anyone recognizes any I hope you will leave me a comment!
Just kidding. One more plant that has been propagated. Christmas Cactus. There are a bunch of these around the house. They’re extremely easy.
Just snap a few of the leaves off and toss it on top of some soil. Give it a bit of water now and then but remember these guys like it drier than Aloe. Make sure the soil drains very well and doesn’t hold moisture and these guys will go nuts. We have like 10 of them around the house off of one or two original plants.
Okay, so now on to those that I haven’t identified. I haven’t propagated any of them personally, but I did get to put them in soil and see their roots growing out in the jars of water. If I had known I was going to be recording all this in a blog, I would have taken pictures, so sorry for that. Next time though!.
Not sure what this one was, but it grew roots nicely in water and has taken nicely to the soil. Seems to like the soil to dry out between watering, but I water it as soon as its dry to the touch. I’m thinking about trying to layer it back into the pot since it has such a long vine dropping down. I’d like to give it a profile closer to the original plant on the right.
The last is one of my favorites, at least for aesthetic quality. I have yet to identity it, but I am really curious to know what it is! Again, rooted in water in a window with filtered light.
I like this one. The younger leaves are quite light it color and deepen as they get older.
Well, that’s pretty much it, hope you enjoyed this installment. I’ll keep it updated if I can keep my attention span on blogging! Peace and love! Hope everyone is staying happy and healthy.
I started growing Cannabis last summer with my friend who had his medical card and had a great time; and in so doing I have found I am fascinated by the natural world. I spent many days the following fall searching for mushrooms. Before you get the wrong idea, I have a huge interest in drug related plants, but I rarely do them and I don’t even smoke weed anymore. It’s more that these plants that have evolved to have some great and spiritual effect on our brains and feelings tend to carry a greater interest than those that don’t have any effect.
I’m starting fairly small this year, though it is growing and I’ve been constantly looking for ways to earn extra money to expand my garden and the variety of plants it will contain. I’m starting off with this modest supply of organic and biodynamic seed.
Most of these will be going into the soil, but a few will be grown hydroponically in a DWC (Deep Water Culter) system. The modest beginnings of which are shown in the following picture:
I’m planning on setting up a greenhouse to house the hydroponic part of my garden. I’ll be using water barrels painted black to keep it warm at night and get a jump on the growing season since those barrels will heat up during the day and release it during the cold nights.
I couldn’t wait to get started, so I decided to start my spearmint indoors. From what I understand, it can take a while to get it started. So they’re just hanging out in a sunny spot and getting misted a few times a day since this soil dries out so quickly.
For my soil based growing, we have quite a bit of clay here so I’m getting as much compost as I can get my hands on going outside.
That compost bin has tons of those little red worms just under the surface. It’s gonna make some great soil. It’s a mix of mostly kitchen scraps and ash from the burn pile.
This pile is a much larger, more diverse mix including everything from grass, pine needles, ash, leaves, cotton, kitchen scraps, sawdust and so on. Lots of worms and mycelium growing through this pile. It’s gonna grow some really great veggies this year!
That’s about it for my outdoor garden so far. I’m going to head outside in a little bit and see how many plants around my property I can identify and figure out how to propagate. Plants are so cool, and I can’t wait to have everything I could possibly want to eat growing in my backyard. And this is only the beginning. I’m planning to have a vertical aquaponic garden going by next year! I can’t wait.
This page is going to be evolve as I have time to work on it. Just thought the man deserves at least as much attention as does Thomas Edison, who I’ve lost nearly all respect for. Most of the technology you see around you today was either invented by Tesla or based upon one or more of his many patents. He was an incredible man, and had we not ignored him and rewarded his amazing and utterly unselfish contributions to mankind with the act of mostly forgetting that he ever existed, we might have solved the problem of renewable energy long ago. I don’t doubt that it’s been solved many times since, but we are servants to the powers that be. As long as we remain ignorant of that fact, we will continue to struggle against each other instead of our oppressors.
