The Rise of Wormopolis!!!

Gardening is one of those few activities where it is very important to be shitty. In fact, in the end, the more full of shit your garden is the better it will grow. This year, I did not do a great job of properly amending my garden beds before planting. The outside vegetable beds got a couple bags of steer manure and a few bags of compost, but somehow I forgot to treat my greenhouse with as much love. This accidental error has left me with a greenhouse full of mediocre tomatoes and struggling zucchini. Thankfully some of the hanging tomatoes were put in fabulous soil and a producing enough tomatoes for a bowl of bruschetta a day.

Finding good stuff for the garden can be a bit of a nuisance if you don't happen to have some sheep or horses wandering your backyard. Each year, it seems like I'm loading my car with a couple dozen bags of feces and rotten vegetables. In the end, I have garbage bags full of plastic and a visa bill that seems hard to rationalize. This year, in an effort to be slightly more self-sustaining, I've decided to invest in a new super-civilization of poop-machines aptly named Wormopolis. Wormopolis is a tupperware container full of red wigglers that happily (and somewhat magically) transform kitchen scraps into beautiful, but stinky, worm manure (more asthetically referred to as "worm casings"). This poop is rumored to be super-shit in the world of gardening, so I am very excited to test it out next year. The worms were gifts from my friend Lisa and a work colleague who apparently has a superpower when it comes to worm countries. It is this colleague that has advised me on how to start and build a worm civilization.

To grow a worm world take a tupperware container and drill some holes into the bottom, sides and tops. Your worms still need air and it's important that the worm juice (delicious sounding, I know) has a place to trip. Put about 2 inches of peat moss or soil in the bottom of the container, you can also add finely shredded paper or sawdust. Then just add your kitchen scraps (same rules as compost...no oils or meats). Make sure your worms are kept about 5 degrees, so in the winter, you will either have to put them in the house or sneak them into a neighbour's basement. They are pretty stinky, but in the end they'll help you grow pretty smelling flowers - so who cares! It won't take long to see the nice dark "casings" which can be scooped out and added to your soil in the spring.

The best part about this method of composting is that it's quick! With the cooler temperatures and dry air up here, I find it hard to get my compost really hot. This is probably partly because I believe in the lazy method of composting that doesn't involve turning it over or aerating it. The worms can get a bigger bang for your banana peels, by transforming them in a couple weeks instead of a couple years. If you keep your wormopolis happy, they'll reproduce like crazy and by the time spring comes, you can drop a couple handfuls right into your compost bins and hurry them along. This does mean sacrificing some of your countrymen, but sometimes in the search for freedom and democracy - lives are lost.

Here's some Wallys and Wandas...

Sierra posted this on Aug 06, 2007 from the garden | | permanent link