As you may have guessed it, this is one of those posts where I show you what not to do. My thumb is not green, but is colored green wanna-be. Compost is the richest fertilizer you can use. You don’t need to buy commercial fertilizers when you use this natural one. Compost is the results of decaying organic material like leaves, grass, or kitchen scraps.
Our first attempt
It was about seven years ago, and I thought I had read up on all the details. Well, ask the worms … I missed something. I built our little compost bin out of some scrap 12 x 12 x 2 boards and made a nice little bin that was two by four feet. I prepared my compost pile for the initial arrival of 1,000 red earthworms.
Being a clever shopper, I found someone 30 miles away in the classifieds who sold all kinds of earthworms. When we got the little critters home, I pulled out the several pound blob of earthworms. Our 7 yr old son thought this was really cool and interesting while Jackie found it less so. This was to be our new army of workers who would convert kitchen waste into prime garden compost.
Jackie and I eagerly added the little critters and watched them burrow into the peat moss mixture! This was going to be great, because next spring we’d have the best fertilizer for our first garden on the mountain! All that fall, we continued to add ingredients to feed our little slimy workers the best from our kitchen. I would mix the material up once and a while so everyone could have a fair chance at the fresh worm goodies.
As the snow came, I checked and did not stir the compost. It seemed to be holding its own heat from all the activity. I didn’t disturb the workers and the system for most of the winter, 8 – 10 weeks. Then in the early spring, I took my first peek. It smelled and I couldn’t find any live worms! The process had stopped.
Jackie, being the biggest animal lover in the family, felt really bad that I had managed to take 1,000 little worm lives. Me? I got over it rather quickly.
The Cause?
All these years later, I’m not positive what went wrong, but I have two suspicions.
- The outside temperature and design of the bin. The wooden frame and cover were set on top of an old board on the ground. In hind sight, we should have dug a foot or two deep in the bottom to provide natural earth warming. (I was afraid all our workers might leave)
retired compost bin
- Maybe we neglected a key ingredient to be added every week or month during the winter?
So as a tribute to all of our faithful little earthworm workers, we will share some of the best tips for making sure your compost experience is a pleasant one in a future article.
[ for more information see: Tribute to the lost worms]
Have you been composting for years?
How do you manage your system in the winter?
What do you think our problem was?
Share your best composting tips so we can include them in the earthworm tribute article! Post your thoughts below, now while you have those ideas!
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They were so cute, too. I remember how they wiggled in their little enclosure, so happy. How could you be so heartless, Dad? The ghosts of the worms you so cruelly murdered will come back to haunt you!
Hi Marshall,
I have bred up worms for ’bout 11 years now, I use some as gifts to gardeners who truly want some for
their composting efforts…I gave a bundle to the local school and they have done well, and that action
caused a few of the children to start keeping earth worms at home…I use any kitchen scraps, cardboard
and lots of cow manure, my bottom of the wooden box is open to the soil, and I keep a carpet cover over the top to stop my chooks, and I keep the moisture
level at 43% as best I can…I use the Tiger, the so called “Blue” and the Red Wriggler, that sadly ends up being begged for by local fishermen, actually have lost mine now, far too many demands on my generosity…At a place up north I used worms and horse manure from a racing training stable, and built up an area of 80 feet wide and 20 feet long of very low back yard to a finished height of 3 feet over a 6+year time factor, it was a superb bit of soil and became a new orchard area in the backyard, sadly though my wife died from a brain tumor and I moved on to start doing something similar here again
but in a smaller area, and only 12 inches deep this time…
Bye,
David Ponsonby…
Wow, 80×20′. I’d say you might have earned some local nicknames with that large of a worming plot! How cold were the winter temperatures and did the ground freeze? What winter precautions did you take?
Help,Help, Got to Correct your Thoughts Marshall,
With the backyard area I built up I used 3 sizes of wooden frames, 1 was near 20 feet in length x 6 feet
wide x 18 inches deep, the next was 6 feet long by the same sizes as the other, and I had a small 3 feet square unit…I would leave my trailer up at the horse stables and bring it home when full, only 1 or 2 days and back it would come…As I filled to the top, I would then move onto another box and after a few days wait for things to settle down I would move the used box and start all over again, in under 2 years I had the whole low area built up and rich with earth worm life…I also made 5 permanent vegetable beds 20 feet x 6 feet with a concrete edge
in another part of my backyard, they I dug down to subsoil, removed that and recharged them all each year with both new horse manure and compost, the
cropping was fantastic, and I tended to keep fairly fit in those days, fed 7 people in 2 families…A 12 feet x 6 feet inside measurement growing Tioga Strawberries double cropping gave us 5 gallons of berries each year…Sadly when the wife died I lost interest and moved on down to here, and only have a far smaller setup, but I do have some wonderful memories of the yonder years Marshall, and now in my twighlight years, nice memories are lovely to have…
I’ve waffled enough, thank you Marshall and your wife for having such an interesting site to look at..
Bye,
David Ponsonby…
Urgent Post Script,
Marshall, up at Longford where I used the earth
worms as jolly slaves, hi hi, we did not get frozen soil, frosts yes, nothing more, here we get freezing times, the Sunday before I had my last heart attack it was minus 9 degrees, very cruel to a bald headed man who forgot to grab a hat going outside, ouch…
But the worms here just seem to burrow down and re-appear in spring time again in great numbers, I
have seen a lot while planting a new row of Raspberry canes the other week, and yesterday I planted 2 more fruit trees and though only August I did see lots of worms as I dug the tree holes…As a matter of interest Marshall, I have a drying Prune
growing here, has a sugar content of 9%, the new one I planted has a sugar content of 13% or so, should dry well be nice flavoured…As I type this Marshall, the flock of Guinea Fowls are playing about outside the radio room window like a pack of kids, my cat is not sure just how to take them and their calls, shreiks and fast take offs into the air, common chooks yes, she knows them, but these new
crittas have to watched and dodged, hi hi…
Bye,
David Ponsonby…