Gardening fail

When I first started my garden, I just had to throw all the plants in to get started. The truth is, I am not just gardening, I am gardening, and working, and looking after children so I am sometimes burnt out and tired to learn this new thing. But when I do garden, and become connected to it, I feel really great. Long and short is - I spaced all the plants terribly, especially the carrots. I had forgotten to thin them out, and even to space the seedlings out - and they have grown into each other mangled and suffocated. FAIL!

I won't give up though - even if I have to learn by doing it - that first planting was the get started time - and I know EXACTLY how I will do it next time.

Note added April 2012 - besides the importance of thinning - I just read in my favourite gardening book (Xanthe White's Organic Vegetable Gardening):

"Carrots take time to really master, so don't give up if your first sowing does not succeed."

"Carrots will grow even in a heavy clay soil but improving the soil is the key to the perfect crop. The ideal soil is light and sandy with well-decayed organic matter that has been lightly limed. This allows the carrots to grow directly and deeply. Fresh composts or stony soils can cause the carrots to become deformed." - Xanthe White

Snail or no snail

Slugs! Snails!

With gardening and becoming closer to the land, there are more physically intense experiences, some good, some not so pleasant.
Pleasant: smelling fragrant basil waft when I am in the garden at night.
Not pleasant: getting rid of slimy slugs and snails!

I had been noticing that all my lovely perfect seedlings have been getting riddled with holes. I couldn't see any insects eating them. Totally new to gardening in NZ - I am reading Xanthe White's organic vegetable gardening book. She had said to go on night raids, and that in general with a garden and pests, "observation was key". I had planted the seedlings, but then just ignored them. Tonight after it was quiet and everyone was in bed, I grabbed a flashlight and and a bucket and went to have a look.

THEY WERE EATING MY GARDEN! There were many, many snails of all sizes locomoting around and clinging to leaves, and small slimy slugs. I grabbed them with my bare hand and put them in my bucket, observing where they were making short work of all my seedlings, in particular the lettuces. I think I've made a giant leap here, and that perhaps if I take measures I may actually have vegetables. In the past when I have experimented with growing, in pots, the pests totalled whatever I was growing. In NZ, it is bountiful, but bountiful in pests as well! Xanthe White had made brick beds, and had gravel in between her raised gardens to discourage locomoting of slimers. I am definitely going to put gravel in between my garden beds, in the areas that I can. I can even add some salt.

But then a dramatic event occurred.

It was an ethical dilemma. Xanthe had said although it was a queazy matter, those "suckers could do with some population control once in a while!" Being city suburb born, and we didn't have snails persay, I was concerned about killing something that I've seen illustrated in children's books as woodland creatures along with fairies and toadstools. I pictured painting the mural I plan to paint in my children's bedroom, and how unable I would be to paint a snail's magic if I killed them. I had seen them this night, stretching slowly and magically up - their delicate antennas stretching delicately out. I heated up boiling water, deciding to be a farmer. Then I changed my mind easily, and decided to throw them into the inedible part of our garden (yard), into the bushes. I threw them all into the bushes, stopping to wonder why I felt less caring towards the slimy slugs that had no shells. I knew that the shell was just one more adaptation to protect it...they were basically cuter. I returned to the garden to see if more slugs or snails were reeling up after I had left. I found a small black slug creating holes in a lettuce leaf. My caring turned to repulsion as my inner self regarded it as an unwanted, negative creature. And then I realized what the difference would have been, for earlier people, that resolved the ethical dilemma. They would have been eating your only food. It's killed or be killed, babies.

I plucked the black offensive creature off the leaf, dropped it into the bucket, and put the kettle back on to boil...

My theme song - "Hammer and a Nail"

"Hammer And A Nail" by the Indigo Girls

Clearing webs from the hovel
a blistered hand on the handle of a shovel
I've been digging too deep, I always do.
I see my face on the surface
I look a lot like Narcissus
A dark abyss of an emptiness
Standing on the edge of a drowning blue.

I look behind my ears for the green
Even my sweat smells clean
Glare off the white hurts my eyes
Gotta get out of bed get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands, not just my head
I think myself into jail
Now I know a refuge never grows
From a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose
Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose.

I had a lot of good intentions
Sit around for fifty years and then collect a pension,
Started seeing the road to hell and just where it starts.
But my life is more than a vision
The sweetest part is acting after making a decision
I started seeing the whole as a sum of its parts.

I look behind my ears for the green
Even my sweat smells clean
Glare off the white hurts my eyes
Gotta get out of bed get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands, not just my head
I think myself into jail
Now I know a refuge never grows
From a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose
Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose.

My life is part of the global life
I'd found myself becoming more immobile
When I'd think a little girl in the world can't do anything.
A distant nation my community
A street person my responsibility
If I have a care in the world I have a gift to bring.

I look behind my ears for the green
Even my sweat smells clean
Glare off the white hurts my eyes
Gotta get out of bed get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands, not just my head
I think myself into jail
Now I know a refuge never grows
From a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose
Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose.

This is my garden.

Hello, imaginary friends! This is my potential garden space. I have been feeling the gardening vibe ever since learning how to worm farm. That sense of the richness in the soil... And experimenting in the land at our first rental place, which was by a forest. But now, after having a shared yard, where I couldn't dig anything up randomly, I have been giving a "ready, set, garden" home, with raised plant beds in the back, and a storage cupboard for storing later jars of preserves. No, I don't have any idea of what I am doing, but I did grow up in a veggie gardening family (albeit on the other side of the Earth, in Canada). But my instincts are pretty strong. I spent a day clearing the place out, and this is what my garden looks like.

The area to the right by the compost bin is just not really soil yet. I am going to have to hack it up with a pick, and introduce alot of biological matter (dead stuff).

The other night, I did buy alot of seedlings and plant the beds which were ready. In the approaching dark, with my little girl already planting the carrots randomly in a circle around her, there was no time to read up on which plants should neighbour which plants. I just had to follow my senses, and will learn from my mistakes for next time. But the moon was full, and I think that it was a great planting time. Rain began to fall, my husband thought I was crazy to still be out in the dark and mud. And so it begins...

Watch this land

We have done it. We've moved out of the city, to a place which is nearer to nature, more inaccessible but worth it when you get there. This place still has native skinks running around (small lizards) from under leaves or decaying matter whenever it is disturbed (they are considered rare, but their numbers been depleted here). The house we bought has raised garden beds in the back, and a great storage cupboard for storing food preserves. It has fruit trees as well. And room for an actual compost heap. I do have to travel further to work, but it will be on mass public transport. My children will not grow up stunted. Watch this space. (Or shall I say "land".)

The Kowhai Seed Secret

Usually Kowhai seeds are cased in a brown withered casing, and the seeds themselves are cased in a tough shell. I think this was so they could handle being carried downstream for some time before sprouting. Anyways, it takes months for these seeds to start growing -- I tried it myself, even after soaking them in hot water, one finally sprung up months later.

The Kaipatiki Project told me to gather the seeds between New Year's and Christmas, and they will grow right away. I gathered the seeds at this time - a year later, no sprouts, so FAIL.

Just now I got a comment -below - about how to do it! (March 2012). Copying it here:

Braedon said...
All you need to do it knick the outercasing with a knife and soak the seed in a damp papertowel overnight ( the paper towel should then be dyed yellow in the morning and the seed doubled in size)and then plant ( I remove the rest of the casing, not sure if thats necessary though). The seed will then sprout almost straight away. Has worked a treat for me many a time :)Hope that helps.

I am definitely going to try it.

Waiting in agony

Still dying to garden! Feel the instinct strongly. When I thought our house had an offer I ran around planting strawberries into pots, later to transfer to my new garden. It seems land is pretty essential for a garden. Still waiting...

By the way, the tomatoes from that last "gardening log" post didn't do too well. I still have so much to learn! I have Xanthe White's organic gardening book ready though.

Really quick way to clear out compost from your worm farm

A few weeks ago I had to carry out the dreaded activity of clearing out the worm farm.

Having a worm farm is pretty easy most of the time, you just throw in food scraps, and once in awhile I add torn up pizza boxes or newspaper and toss everything in that layer round and round wearing rubber gloves. But when it gets totally full and you need to remove compost-- or more accurately, remove worms from the compost --that's a different story.

But I have found a lazier, easier method that I use, and although I don't always feel like starting, I always feel really healthy and envigorated while I am doing it-- clearing out and getting all that nutrient rich compost actually feels really great. You sort of get into this earthy, green thumb vibe, and then you get into distributing all the nutrient rich compost to your garden plants. It gives you energy.

My lazy way is to pour the layers that are ready into a large container (like an empty rubbish bin, or a plastic tub) and pour in alot of water. I used to get worms out quickly by pouring the water through a colander (no, they don't drown during this process), but now I found it's really quick just to drag something through the water to dredge out most of the worms (and anything else that you don't want to pour on your plants. Your garden won't mind the compost diluted with water, it's just very nutrient-rich water that the plants can access instantly, and IT'S REALLY FAST. As disgusting as it is I have found a simple potato masher dragged through the brew will drag out a large number of worms, than you just sluice them back into your worm farm layer that is staying. Worms tend to hold onto an object dragged through the water. (Try dragging a stick, you'll see.) A potato masher has alot of places for them to hold onto.

That's my trick! Here are some photos of us doing it, with Troy volunteering as worm farming apprentice.

One cleared out happy worm farm (and garden).

Finding a home on land

Ok, so my husband and I are looking for a home with an actual yard (called a "garden" here in NZ). There is that classic irony of course of needing to work more in the city to purchase the land to "return to nature". But there is also the problem that's been happening over the last few hundred years, and at a critical point now-- of overdevelopment! Just as you buy a place with some wild land near it, it quickly also gets swept up and developed.

So, should I become active politically to plead for city zoning laws to change? How do I make a home on land???

The area where we would love to live is currently near a huge forest, and estuary. The forested area is zoned for development, and we all know, it won't be long. There is also a huge bridge in the plans which will cut through the estuary, through the neighbourhood. This is the most "wild" place we could find that we could afford to live.

Even in the real story of Laura Wilder, in her books "The little house on the prairie", the family made a home just beyond the wave of settlement. But now, we are carving up every metre.

The people of the future will reintroduce greenery where they can, and strike a balance. I am going to move there, and fight for all the wildness that I can.

Louise deVarga's FAQ about Worm Farming

Louise deVarga, someone who first inspired me about worm farming and composting in general (the original "worm lady"), had this posted on her old Composting for Shore website. I am glad I saved this, and can re-publish it on the web through my blog.

(Although after you get the "feel", it far more simple! All you need to remember is to keep churning the contents of the layer you are adding food to around, round and round, to help the process, and also add lots of paper regularly. I just tear up my pizza boxes now, that's enough paper-- simple.)

One thing I loved from visiting Louise's garden (which has won awards in the past from "Create Your Own Eden") was her comment about how her garden, with worms in it, was compared to a neighbour's grass yard. Her garden was full of native trees and plants, with steps made from railway sleepers going through it. It was full of insects, worms churning up the soil, and birds and all kinds of life. Compare this garden to the sunbeaten grass yard, chemically fertilized-- with only one species, grass.

From Louise deVarga and Composting for Shore:

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR WORM COMPOSTER

How should I start operation of my Worm Composter?
Add to the bottom of your worm composter old compost, vermicast, peat moss, palm peat/coconut block (available from Composting for Shore). Empty your worms from the packaging on top of this bedding. Place a small amount of worm feed on top (a light covering on the surface). Cover with an old piece of carpet or woollen underfelt. This allows the worms to feed at the surface while remaining protected from light and the carpet holds in the moisture.

The more worms you have, the more kitchen waste you can dispose of organically. We recommend that you purchase a minimum of 500g (2000)worms.

The more worms you start with the quicker your Worm Composter will reach its full working potential. If you choose to start with 250g worms it will take a fairly long time to reach full working potential. On the other hand 1kg worms from the start would see your Worm Composter fully up and running in a matter of weeks rather than months.

Do I need to dilute the liquid that comes out of my Worm Composter?Yes, dilute it 1-10 with water. It is a leachate and should be diluted. It is a wonderful plant food.

Will I get to the point where I have too many worms in my Worm Composter?No, you can never have too many worms. They will regulate their population to the confines of available space. Worm concentration should reach capacity after 2-5 years depending on space and feeding.

Worms will eat pretty much anything that was once living. This includes left over vegetable scraps, fruit and vegetable peelings, tea leaves/bags, coffee filters and grounds, vacuum cleaner dust, hair and nail clippings, scrunched up envelopes and broken up egg cartons, soaked shredded cardboard, crushed eggshells. The greater the variety of material you use, the better the vermicast.

What is not suitable to feed compost worms?
Onions, meat (attracts flies), dairy products, bread and citrus peel, fat.

Can I feed my worms garden refuge?
Yes, although your Worm Composter is designed to break down soft organic waste. Garden waste is best dealt with by conventional composting. You can add some compost to your Worm Composter for the worms to break down into vermicast.

I’ve had my Worm Composter for a month now, but the worms don’t seem to be eating?
The worms may be eating your bedding material if you used aged manure or compost. They will eat this before eating newly introduced feed.

How much will my worms eat?
Worms will feed at a faster rate once they have adapted to any new food source. Worms will also eat more if food is offered in a digestible form (i.e. moist and without large clumps is best).

The worms will eat their body weight every 1-2 days, but it will take 8-10 weeks until they have fully adjusted to their newenvironment and able to eat at maximum levels. As you become familiar with them, you will learn their rate of food consumption.

How can I help my worms eat more?
Although not a requirement of operating your Worm Composter, you may choose to make a regular addition of worm fattener. This will encourage stronger, fatter worms. Mix together proportionally – 50% chicken layers pellets, 10% wheat or corn flour, 10% powdered while milk/skim milk, 20% bran or wheat meal, 10% agricultural lime or Dolomite. You can sprinkle lightly over food wastes about once a week.

Can I overfeed my worms?Yes.
If you have overfed your worms and the feed has become smelly, the worms will stay lower in your Worm Composter and may die. The best test of whether you have overfed your worms is simply by the smell. The only smell associated with a well maintained worm farm is a pleasant earthy smell.

What do I do if my Worm Composter smells?
If your worm Composter has an offensive smell, it is an indication that anaerobic bacteria have built up in the system in uneaten food wastes. Either: remove the old food and start with a very small amount of new food, or stop feeding the worms and stir the wastes with a garden fork, adding garden lime as well. This aerates the organic material and allows worms to move through it more easily. Repeat this aeration procedure regularly to prevent recurrence. Start feeding again when all smells are gone.

What about temperature changes?
If you get much hotter than this, make sure your Worm Composter is in a shady place. By watering through the top, this will help to maintain the temperature when in a shady place. During winter months, particularly in Otago/Southland, it pays to place your worm farm under cover. The best temperature range for worms is between 18-23 degrees C, though Otago/Southland temps get lower. If temperatures are very low in winter it pays to keep your composter in a shed or good shelter.

Should I add water to my Worm Composter?The contents of your Worm Composter should always be moist. When adding your kitchen scraps, add some water to it before it goes into your unit, alternatively use your watering can to add some water if you feel it is too dry. Worms work better when their conditions are moist.

Can the contents of my Worm Composter be too moist?
If rain continues over a period of time, e.g. 1-2 days or longer, or is very heavy rain, if you Worm Composter is outdoors you should cover the top of it. Use plastic sheeting held down by a brick. The reason for this is the worms work better in moist rather than waterlogged conditions.

Will my Worm Composter attract ants or flies?
You may get ants in your Worm Composter if it becomes dry or acidic. Add water to increase moisture levels and a sprinkling of garden lime. Flies may indicate overfeeding. Offensive odours would also indicate overfeeding. To eradicate vinegar flies, slow your rate of feeding and ensure freshly added wastes are covered with a layer of old carpet. A sprinkling of lime will control vinegar flies entering your Worm Composter.

What about maggots?If you experience any influx of maggots, it will most likely be the soldier fly or vinegar fly larvae. Don’t be too alarmed if they appear, they are actually beneficial to the waste breakdown. If you want to remove them though, do so by liberally applying lime.

What are the little white worms?These look like baby worms but are completely white. They are enchytraeids although some growers incorrectly call them nematods. Don’t worry about them, they do not harm composting worms, if you want to reduce the numbers don’t feed bread or floury products. They are part of the recycling system.

Can I put compost worms in the garden?
Only if you have a thick surface layer of mulch in your garden. Compost worms require moist conditions all year round. This is because they do not tunnel deep like earthworms (flat tailed worms) to find moisture. If you cannot provide this environment in your garden, do not introduce compost worms into it.


What about a holiday?
Leaving an established Worm Composter for 1 week without constantly adding food is not a problem. Just feed the worms a good quantity of food waste before you leave. Make sure that you leave your Worm Composter in a cool place with a layer of old carpet on top of them, to protect them from dying out. If away for 1-2 weeks add dried grass clippings. Purchase a bedding block if away for 3 or more weeks.

Putting out the Tomatoes

I grew these ones from seed, in little trays at first, using seed trays left from buying seedlings in the past (six-packs of little containers attached together like the ones in the foreground of the photo above) and planting the strongest seedlings in larger pots later when they got bigger. I hope I have a garden soon to plant these into by the time these get big!

I just love how the they soak up the sun, it feels like my own body is soaking and using the sun instead of wasting the energy.

Koanga Institute

All this is blowing my mind. Learning about Good magazine and all the million inspiring connections and thoughts in there, the earthy growth from worm farming over time, spiritual growth of community I've gotten from being part of the Kohanga Reo, recently finding the book on native Cherokee teaching (referred from my friend Wayne from taking the bus) about "touching" life, and now just looking at the Koanga Gardens website. I feel like I am trying to grow and open up, but am very closed compared to what I could be. Very unearthy, but trying to let it in.

(Links posted here, and also on the sidebar.)

Koanga Gardens Centre for Sustainable Living (and they sell plants and seeds in their original variety):
http://www.koanga.co.nz/

The original institute, started by Kay Baxter:
http://www.koanga.org.nz/

Good magazine made me want to cry when I first found it, and with Koanga Gardens I am having the same feeling. They run courses for self-sustainability and eco-villages, and are fighting this fight.


Here is a little blog from my tiny world, of just having learned to worm farm!

Huge worms found in our little piece of earth!

Worms are cool.

That's what I was thinking yesterday, feeling ill after working on the computer, rushing around the house or out, eating, resting, doing chores but still feeling weak. I finally had to get out and do something earthy.

I was going to walk to the dairy to get some cell phone time, rush, rush, acquire, acquire, but got tripped up by a weed on the way. My neighbour-- we share this house, three units of a building, she was really good and pulled the weeds out of a part of our garden, a wedge shaped part on the side of our driveway. I saw a weed she had missed. Then, my fingers in the dirt trying to get it out, I had to go get a stick or something to get the roots out. When I got the root out and had a metal tool in my hand which was useful, I noticed that none of the roots of the weeds had been pulled out. I could feel that the roots needed to be pulled. The earth drew me in, and after a bit, I was pulled in by the earth, and pulling out roots, churning up the dirt, and freeing it from this horrible plastic layer some misguided soul had put in years ago. I was lifting and pulling up a root-twined layer of earth like a carpet, as the plastic had made a barrier, roots in the ground white below-- somehow got most of it out, and then churned it all up, free to breathe. AND I found these ginormous earthworms, 10 inches long and very fat, that lived large enough to churn through that soil. My little children had come home from school, and right into the house to the TV. But for once I wasn't needing that sickly babysitter, and I forced them to come out with me, little children, similar to the white starved roots that I found under my plastic layer. COME! I yelled. COME LOOK! Dubious, they eventually came, and they loved it. Soon Troy was holding 5 huge earthworms. Luke was too scared, he kept saying

"look, a worm"

"a worm"...with with the voice of the young child whose mouth is new to making those sounds. He was frightened to touch them, once calling them "-nake baby" (he can't say s's). But fascinated to watch them as I kept finding them and throwing them over to him to see.

It was great. I felt really well after that.

Worm trying to crawl back into the soil, a good symbol for us!