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.

Second day in the garden--daffodils!

Here it is the last week in January and I'm lucky enough to be living in a region where daffodils are poking through the ground. Nowhere else have I lived where I was this lucky.

Yes, some daffys are just poking, while others are three inches tall. I'm pleasantly surprised to see the hydrangeas with leaf buds ready to pop. This will be the first season for Lemon Daddy. I can't wait for its chartreuse leaves to shine like lamplight under the pine tree.

Camellias are still slow, although a few flowers are smiling at me through the family room window. The Bradford Pear, completely denuded of fruit by hungry birds, has leaf buds looking soft and hopeful.

I expect strong color--crayon red--from the azaleas under the pine after the good fertilizer drink I gave them last Sunday.

Some unpleasant sights: two yucca plants that refuse to leave my yard peacefully. We dug them out in '08 but they continue to send their sturdy spikes skyward. Can anyone share a foolproof method for extinquishing them?

We also decided the pampas grass has to go. The plants are immense and not flowering well. Just too big, I think. I envision a lovely flowering tree--cherry or crab apple--in place of those outside the kitchen window. Can anyone share a foolproof method of extinguishing pampas grass? I love the flowers but these have outlived their charm.
Georgia