Harvesting a Worm Box

I set up my worm box last April and harvested a hearty amount of worm compost at the end of June. Here's how to do it:

1. Tear up strips of old newspaper and cardboard. You'll need a lot. Enough to fill your worm box 2/3 full.
2. Soak the torn paper in a tub of water. Wring out very, very well. Can't be soggy.
3. Add dry leaves, clippings (I used pampas grass leaves and the sawdusty stuff from an old, dead plant). This will pick up much of the moisture in the soggy paper.
4. Move worm compost to one side of the worm box.
5. Bury new food scraps in the new bedding. Worms will crawl over to the new bedding side. Give them a couple weeks.
6. Remove compost. Put any residual worms back in the box to gnash on new food. Spread around your needy plants.
7. Fill empty half of box with new bedding.
8. Keep your girls' tummies full. They work hard for you and your plants.

Ready for worms

Ordered 1,000 worms from earlybirdworms.com. My 2x4-foot worm box has been readied--marine varnish on the inside; primer and dark green exterior paint on the outside.

When the South Carolina red worms arrive I'll soak newspaper strips in water, squeeze out the excess, place them in the box and be ready to go.

We eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables in our house, so the worms will not go hungry. Soon I'll have rich, homemade compost for the garden plants.

The work begins!

I hit the Master Gardeners' Sale at the arboretum Thursday morning and walked away with pink, red, purple and white pentas, zinnias, cardinal flower, Mexican petunia, creeping zinnia and a gorgeous varigated lavender/purple dahlia.

I put everything but the pentas in the ground and weeded (ugh) the butterfly garden. On a tip from friend Marcia, I loaded up the van with 20 bags of 99-cent per bag hardwood mulch.

Fed and pruned the roses (two climbers, one Lady Banks and three miniature) last week. Trying to do a little a couple times a week instead of the 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. marathons I've labored through in previous years.

My husband has begun dismantling the two-tiered circle of landscaping stones in the front yard. Some went under the recycling bins, some under the worm box, some are stacked and ready to be shaped into a platform for my kayak--and there are still a hundred or more left. Maybe we'll lay a patio where the pampas grass used to be.

My Bradford pear is beautiful, as are all others in the neighborhood. Camellias are still blooming.

I'm looking forward to gardening this year because most of the hard work of filling in bare spots is done. This summer I'll concentrate on color--hence the pentas and zinnias, two butterfly favorites.

Oh, yes! The Redbud is red and ready to pop. Weeping cherry is flowering. Can't wait to see their glorious colors soon.

First day in the garden

After a heavy night rain, the sun came out shining. With temps in the high '60s, how could I not go out into my garden?

Basically, it was clean-up time but I did revel at the sight of buds on hydrangeas and azaleas. The camellias, I'm afraid, have been stunted by below freezing night temperatures and daytime lows in the 30s. Just not good blooming weather. Only a few flowers are open and the buds, though numerous, are brown. We'll see what happens.

I'm expecting action soon from the Lenten Rose and am on the lookout for daffodil shoots. Remembered to fertilize the azaleas around the pine tree.

Also getting excited about the worm box I'll have this year. I've heard they're very successful and easy to establish. Fruit and veggie scraps go it and natural compost comes out. Go worms!

Georgia