Got Worms?

Last week, we took a field trip to the Portland Home & Garden Show. We said it was for the kids, but really, it was for us. The Mister and I were hungry for a little eye candy. You know, the kind that looks nice, but no one can actually afford?

This would be some of the candy that I'm talkin' about...

My dream pond~very relaxing.

Concrete art

A waterfall fireplace~how's that for an oxymoron?

There were other pictures, but as they say, too much of a good thing is never a good thing.

Okay, since I don't know who they are, here's one more...

Ahhh...My other dream pond.

Yep, I feel better.

Since the cost to put in our own "serenity now" oasis is more than the total cost of our home, we went for the next best thing.

Worms! One pound of Red Wigglers to be exact. That's approximately 1,000 worms. The above picture looks pretty gnarly, but I can assure you, no worms were hurt in the production of our farm. In fact, these worms are like itty-bitty kings & queens. And they have their very own castle to prove it.

The spigot is for the "tea" fertilizer we'll use to feed our houseplants with.

 
Since worms have both male and female reproductive organs, we named 500 of them HErman, and the other 500, SHErman.

Don't want to cause any mix-ups when they start dating.

Pumice and backyard soil

Mixing it up

We mixed the pumice/soil with a peat moss-type material and shredded newspaper.

Old lettuce, mushrooms, eggshells, and coffee grounds were placed in a back corner before we added the HErmans and SHErmans.

We covered the worm bed with shredded junk mail and squirted the whole thing with a little water.

Madison was reassuring the HErmans and SHErmans that "everything will be alwight."

She didn't think the worms would like the total darkness though.

Finally~a locally made product!

We'll add more food waste (minus meat, dairy, and citrus foods) until the tray is full~a little at a time. When tray #1 is filled, we'll start adding compost to tray #2 so the worms can begin working their way up as they run out of food. (Four trays came with the kit we purchased, but we bought 3 more to maximize our composted gold.) A fellow blogger, Clint, over at The Redeemed Gardener,  just posted some great info about red worms~check it out if you want to know more!

And while I wait for my beautiful worm casings to be ready (first tray will be ready in 2-3 months), I'll be busy dreaming about our own little garden oasis.

Even if we can't afford the pond to go with it.☺

This post is linked to The Homestead Barn Hop.