Get It Growing: Vermicompost, is a superhero for your vegetable and flowering plants - Sequim Gazette

Get It Growing: Vermicompost, is a superhero for your vegetable and flowering plants - Sequim Gazette

Get It Growing: Vermicompost, is a superhero for your vegetable and flowering plants - Sequim Gazette

Posted: 22 Apr 2020 12:00 AM PDT

Do you have kitchen food scraps that are just thrown away? You can reduce your trash and make organic fertilizer with a worm bin.

The end-product is called vermicompost and it is a secret ingredient for successfully growing strong healthy vegetables and flowers.

The words vermicompost and vermicastings are often used interchangeably but it is good to understand the difference. Vermicompost is a combination of worm waste and broken down organic matter from your worm bin. This looks much like what you would have in a standard compost bin, and it is not smelly at all.

Vermicastings are the waste produced by worms, pure dark brown/black worm poo. Both products can be used on plants immediately without fear of burning. For simplicity this article will use the word vermicompost.

Worm compost contains water soluble nutrients and is a rich organic fertilizer and soil conditioner in a form that is easy for plants to absorb. An easy way to get your hands on this product is to have your own worm bin or find a good friend who will give you some.

There are many different kinds of worm bins and the internet is full of ideas on how to make your own easily and inexpensively. You can also buy bins or even complete systems. But whatever you decide, get started right away so you can enjoy the benefits.

Getting started

Here are four simple ways to use the vermicompost from your worm bin:

First, top dress your plants which is just like it sounds, adding the vermicompost to the top of the soil.

Second, amend the soil when transplanting your plants by mixing vermicompost into your planting hole.

Third, add to seed starting soil mix in a 25/75 vermicompost/seed starting mix ratio.

And last, make an all-natural liquid fertilizer tea. Steep or brew the vermicompost in water so the nutrients and beneficial microbes can easily be taken up into the plant. This tea provides an easy way to provide a quick bit of nutrition and growth burst. Vermicompost tea will not burn your plants like chemical fertilizers can.

Tea-making

Vermicompost tea is easy to make. A simple method is to steep vermicompost in a container of water overnight. Add about one cup of vermicompost to a gallon of water. Steep overnight then pour the mixture through a sieve or coffee filter.

Or easier yet, place the one cup of vermicompost in a large coffee filter or cloth and tie it tightly closed with twine. Let it sit overnight in the water and then lift out the bundle and you are ready to go.

During the growing season, feed your plants once a week with the tea. You could also put the tea into a spray bottle and foliar feed your plants for an added boost.

If you have any vermicompost left over at the end of the growing season this can be easily stored over the winter in a plastic bucket with a tight fitting lid and it will be ready to go at the start of the next growing season.

So, don't delay, start up a worm bin and soon you will have your own secret weapon for growing healthy productive vegetable and flowering plants.

Judy Mann has been a Clallam County Master Gardener since 2005. In 2016, Judy received the Golden Trowel Award for her contributions to the Master Gardener program. She often gives presentations on how easy it is to make a worm bin and how to keep worms healthy and happy.

Lawn conversion therapy - StarNewsOnline.com

Posted: 24 Apr 2020 12:00 AM PDT

If you are lucky enough to have some land at your disposal, chances are you have been turning it over in your mind. Stuck at home, deprived of natural light, with grocery shopping less carefree than ever, it's no wonder we start eyeing sections of lawn the way a hungry coyote might look at his pet rabbit.

Sure, it's nice to curl your toes in a little short grass once in a while, or whack around a croquet ball. But perhaps you can spare a sunny corner, or four, for a different mission. Nearly 2% of the lower 48 states is lawn, while garden space is a small fraction of that.

Lawn conversion can be a grueling project. Or it can be as relaxing as a cup of tea. If you don't have any lawn or land to look at longingly, I hope that someday you find some. In the meantime, please stay for some carrot aioli.

Two ways to go
The hard way to convert a lawn is to dig out the thick sod, shaking the dirt from the hefty roots and tossing them into a pile. You then must dispose of all this plant matter, and the wasted potential it represents. The best thing to do would be compost it, but it will take a while to kill all those roots, and proper composting is hardly a passive piece of work. One way or another, that dug sod is going to make you work some more just to deplete the land's fertility. And no matter how hard you try to remove every last root, you will still have grass sprouting in your garden.

The easy way to replace a lawn is to cover the garden-to-be with a sheet of black plastic. You can then attend to other matters while the lawn beneath hosts a temporary worm conference. Two months later, what had been a typical section of sod is now a sea of soil, about half of which is soft worm poop. It's weed-free and ready for planting.
The problem with the easy road is you have to wait for results, but at least there is comfort in knowing that your waiting is productive. The problem with the hard road is the lack of waiting. You have to get to work or nothing happens.

Both paths are therapeutic in their own ways, and fortunately we don't have to choose. We can actively dig one spot, while elsewhere, tucked under plastic, another piece of earth turns itself.

If you get that plastic on soon, you could have a garden spot by early summer. If the plastic goes on in late spring, the soil will be ready in midsummer, which is is perfect for planting a fall garden.

Kale, spinach and carrots can grow through the autumn and even overwinter if you take measures to keep them warm. Beets, radishes, salad turnips and many other short season cool weather crops can also produce well with a summertime start.

You will have to dig and work the new soil into place, which will be laughably easy compared to the labor of digging green lawn. But before you get started on that new piece of earth, put that plastic in its next location: the future garlic patch.

Garlic needs to be planted sometime in the fall, by about Halloween at the latest. That means that if you were to move your plastic in the middle of summer to the future garlic spot, the next piece of lawn would be converted to worm poop right on schedule. When the frost is on the pumpkin and next year's garlic is in the ground, you can fold up that sheet of black plastic after a productive season, and keep it safe for next year's adventures in lawn conversion therapy.

How-to
The hardware store should have black plastic, although it might not be in the garden section. You want at least 6 mil (0.006 inch) in thickness. I bought a 10 foot by 25 foot piece the other week for $30.

When you lay down plastic, first rake and mow the spot, scattering the clippings . After the plastic is in place, set heavy objects like bricks or pieces of wood around the edges of the plastic to keep the wind from getting under it. Random pieces of furniture work, too, depending on the exterior decor you are going for.

After the lawn is fried and before you plant, consider digging a trench around the edge of the new spot and installing some kind of edging to block the grass roots from invading. Pieces of 1×6 or even 2×4, buried with the thin edge at ground level, will slow the invasion of the persistent lawn to a manageable pace.

When you are living off the land, eating seasonally is normal. But early spring is the trickiest time to do so, as there is little new food and last fall's stash is dwindling. Since carrots and garlic are virtually always in season, here is a recipe for carrot aioli that you can pull together any time of year. You can then use it to pull together any meal.

Recipe: Carrot Aioli
In this recipe, steamed carrot takes the place of egg. The thick, orange emulsion is tangy with lemon, and functions as a megaphone for the garlic. It's good on bread, chips, pasta or straight off the spoon.
Makes 4 large servings
1 pound carrots, trimmed and cut to 3-inch lengths
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 teaspoon salt
½ lemon juice and zest
1 cup olive oil
A pinch of thyme or oregano
Steam the carrots until you can easily thrust a fork through, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, add the garlic, salt, oil, herbs, lemon juice and zest to a blender and make it silky smooth. Add the carrots, still hot so they cook the garlic a little, and blend until smooth again. Add more olive oil if necessary to help the blender achieve a nice vortex.
Serve as a condiment, sauce, dressing or main course. Refrigerate any leftovers.

Intestinal worms: Pictures, symptoms, and treatment - Medical News Today

Posted: 08 Jan 2020 12:00 AM PST

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Intestinal worms: Pictures, symptoms, and treatment  Medical News Today

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