Lombricultura (aka, Vermiculture)

Today, we added a bed to the garden--a worm bed.

The worms need their own bed in order to produce humus, an organic fertilizer which we will add to our soil in the future. There are many, many, many different models of worm beds to choose from; we opted for the simplest and cheapest option of using an old tire.

We placed it on top of some rocks to ensure the bed will have proper drainage and oxygen from below as well as from above. Then, we created a floor for the bed by making a latticework of sticks and covering it with sacking.

We poked holes in the sacking for drainage/oxygen purposes; we don't want the little wormies to suffocate.

Next comes newspaper, torn into strips.

At this point, we were ready to people our worm bed. (Worm our worm bed?) We've had our worms on hold for the past few weeks, and they've been hanging out in a plastic sheet. But it was time for them to graduate to the tire. So we dumped them into their new abode, with much pomp and circumstance.

Then we threw in some desperdicios from the kitchen - organic waste such as veggie peels and eggshells.

Then came the really fun part: adding water and mixing it all together with your hands.

Desperdicios, soil, newspaper, and all.

Mike is about ready to wash his hands here. Apparently nobody else wanted to get theirs dirty.

There's worms in there, I promise. They're just not very photogenic (i.e., every time I tried to take their portrait, it came out blurry).

Finally, we covered 'em up so it'll be cool and dark and humid - perfect conditions for making humus. Stay tuned in a few weeks for phase two, when we will add another tire on top of the first one and repeat this whole process in a way that encourages the worms to migrate upwards into the newer tire, allowing us to take and use the humus in the original tire.

And now, because you've been so patient and listened to me talk about tires and worms and stuff, shall we all play a game? Who can correctly guess what plant this is?

And this?

And this little guy?

What about this one?

And this?

And, finally, this?

These are all residents of our garden, in different stages of growth. Answers next time - or maybe the time after next, because tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and that means FOOD.