The Modern Victory Garden

Wednesday I blogged about the worm box we ordered, which arrived and was assembled by my husband.    It was just waiting to be put in place and initialized with some food waste/bedding layers and the first red worms.   Here’s what it looked like fully assembled in the shop on Wednesday night.                       

The 2 lbs of red worms we ordered arrived on Friday.   We went with 2 lbs because we are now only a family of 2 people and although the garden produces a lot of trimmings, we also use much of those for the regular garden compost and for the chickens.   According to the Washington State University (WSU) Extension Service, 2 pounds of worms are required for each pound of kitchen waste produced per day.    So in order to feed 2 lbs of worms, we need to layer in 7 lbs of food wastes on a weekly basis.   Between our weekly kitchen compost pail amounts plus other food scraps, and trimmings from the garden as needed, we should easily be able to produce that amount for them on a consistent basis.  

On Friday afternoon my husband dug the spot for the worm box and set it down into the ground, backfilling around it.   Next to it we placed a large black tub full of thoroughly dampened peat moss.   The peat moss is the bedding layer needed.    Having it close by makes it easy to add several inches of damp bedding material on top of each thick layer of food wastes placed in the bin.   The bedding layer helps keep the bin from getting smelly and also gives the worms some additional insulation and protection from light (which they don’t like).   We can also use wetted shredded paper as well and intend to do that in the future, but for now we went with a large bale of peat moss.   We situated the worm box behind the house in a strip of land between the house and the back sidewalk (under the eaves of the house) that gets shade virtually all day and is unsuitable for growing any plants in.   Here’s a picture of the worm box as finally positioned and set up.   As you can see, it is largely buried below ground level, which provides insulation for the worms during colder weather months.                               

It’s kind of hard to see in this next photo, but the left hand bin has been filled about half full with several thick alternating layers of damp bedding and food wastes.   It is topped with a layer of the damp bedding material.   The worms were added into this prior to adding the top most layer.                    

 We will continue to layer on food wastes and bedding in this first bin until it becomes full and then we will shift to adding the materials to the second bin on the right.   Once the worms have exhausted the food supply in the first bin, they will migrate through the slats in the center divider to the new bin and begin working that side.   That is when the first side should be ready for us to begin harvesting worm castings.   Eventually the first bin is emptied out and the worm castings are used as a soil amendment and fertilizer and the process starts all over again by filling the left bin once the right bin is full.   Everything is now in place and in operation.   Hopefully the worms will find their new home to their liking and produce lots of castings for us to use in the garden.                                     

While I am in the processing of giving you an update, let me share with you that I spotted the first artichoke buds forming on my plants yesterday.   They are tiny and down deep in the central growing area of the plant so they are hard to photograph, but here is a picture of one of them.                     

Hopefully I will get more than just these first central buds, but I am thrilled to see that they are going to produce buds in this first year of growth.   Obviously I was successful in giving them an adequate period of chill to induce budding the first year.                              

Finally, I had to share that the Sun Gold tomatoes have their first few tomatoes that are ripening.                           

There is only one cluster so far that has really broken color but several more should be right behind it.   We have a stretch of decent weather forecasted for the coming week and I expect it will push all of the tomato plants along with their production and ripening of fruit.   The full size tomatoes will be a while longer yet, but having some cherry tomatoes to enjoy will make the wait much more tolerable!                            

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener