June 2, 2015 by Born To Organize

It’s What’s for Dinner if You’re a Worm

Boy that title has a lot of apostrophes. I hope I got them right. I’m guilty of overusing’ them when’ they’re’ not really necessary.

Okay, that was a little distraction before I present you with this first picture: it’s what’s for dinner in the worm bin.

Kitchen Scraps for the Worms

Salad for the Red Wigglers

I had a worm bin going for a few years, courtesy of my friend Liz. It was an informal set up: an old bucket, some straw and kitchen compost. It worked well until an unwitting painter tossed it aside when they repainted our house. Once I realized, it was too late. The worms were gone. Hopefully they slipped out in the dead of night once they realized the garden had more to offer.

Red Wigglers

Within a few weeks something wonderful happened. A neighbor asked if I wanted a worm bin known as a Wriggly Wranch™. His brother in-law set one up, but then lost interest in maintaining it. I enthusiastically agreed. He assembled it for me under our orange tree. He gave me half of his worms to get started.

Wriggly Wranch Worm Bin

I read the manual cover to cover and frankly was a bit intimidated. Had I been doing it wrong all this time? They make it sound as though the worms are quite temperamental.

Feed them just enough, but not too much

Keep them cool and moist

If it’s hot, add ice cubes

If it’s cold, bring them into a sheltered area

…and so on.

The ‘ranch’ is now closer to the house so I can keep an eye on things

The worms did fine before the fancy home, and I heard no complaints about the food. I’ve chosen to relax, feed them once a week, and trust that they’ll do just fine. I’m practicing for when my son leaves for college. Baby steps, folks, baby steps.

Tonight the worms are eating organic tofu and cantaloupe. That’s what my son had as well. So far, so good.

January 16, 2013 by Born To Organize

It’s a Nice Day for a Weeding

Yippee! After days of bitter cold, we’ve had a glorious, sunny day. Even the birds in Mr. Prickles’ Magnolia tree are filled with song. What a perfect day to pull weeds.*

Of course, one thing leads to another so while I was at it I turned the compost barrel and flipped the compost in the bin. It’s all coming along nicely. I got in a good rake as well. My organizing side likes the order that comes with pulled weeds and raked needles. Being close to the earth is nice, too.

It was sad to see so much frost damage. Several of the ferns were hard hit, though ironically, the orange tree looks okay. I’m leaving the dwarf lemon under frost cloth for a few more days, though we’ve finally warmed up to a seasonal norm.

I looked in on the worms in the worm bin. Those wigglers are looking fat and happy. It guess it’s all those apple cores and organic broccoli heads. Tee-hee!

We’ve had a high of 57 F (13C) today with projections of 65 F (18C) by the weekend. I know it’s just a tease, but judging by all the buds breaking out, spring is on the way.

A. Leaf pile
B. Frost damage
C. Nesting material (laundry lint)
D. Peek-a-boo
E. Healthy orange tree

*with apologies, if you’ve read this far looking for wedding advice.

September 29, 2012 by Born To Organize

Garden Sunshine: September Winding Down

A special thank you to all my gentle readers for your comments and advice. The birdhouse gourd vine will stay through the winter. I”ll keep you posted on how things go. Late this week I noticed one of the gourds had doubled in size. Woo-hoo! What would a gardening gal do without this community?

Speaking of community, many thanks to gardensunshine for including me in her list of Beautiful Bloggers. I appreciate your kind words I’ve been following her five-part series as she transforms her “shed” from drab to fab. Honestly, it’s more rustic house if you ask me and I’m positively envious of all that space. The shed even has a bit of history:

It is believed to be one of the oldest buildings in our county. From what we can tell it was used as a house or bunker for the men working in the clay pit making clay bricks around 1890 and earlier. It is a really neat crooked building and as we found out when we power washed it full of water, it leans heavily to the left.

Garden Sunshine’s Historic Garden Shed (before)

Pop on over to read her five-part series, and to see the beautiful transformation in words and pictures. It was lovingly restored.

Back at gardening nirvana, we’re in for an early fall heat wave, with temps floating in the low nineties. I’m glad I got the winter garden in when I did. It’s a happy garden too, if that’s possible. The worm bin is a bustling place, thriving on kitchen scraps and leaves.The composter is “cooking” away, making organic mulch for next summer’s garden. I covered the seeds with wire and mesh, to ensure tiny critters give them a chance to grow. Lindy thought it was a new litter box, so I had to put that to rest as well.

October is almost here. I’m so excited.

September 6, 2012 by Born To Organize

Blooming Thursday: Garden Friendships

My friend Liz has been back in the States for several months, but it took her imminent departure for us to finally get together. Our friendship is such that we can simply pick up where we left off, regardless of time passed. Liz is also a gardener I admire and look up to.

Liz has the unique distinction of gardening through one spring and two summers. She spends part of her year in California, the rest in beautiful New Zealand. She taught me and some friends how to felt on one of her trips home. I hope to learn how to eco-dye from her one day, too.

On her visit today, she came bearing gifts…and lunch! So much for my hosting skills. We enjoyed delicious, home-made, vegetarian burritos while sitting on the patio talking shop.

You probably need to be a gardener to fully appreciate the first gift: a bag of worms and worm castings. I feel like a real gardener. I have a worm bin, a kitchen scrap container, and soon my tumbling composter will arrive at my door. I’ll be brewing garden goodness all winter long.

Worm Bin

In addition to worms, I am also the lucky recipient of several eco-dyed pieces, one-of-a kind art made with natural dyes, leaves and flowers. The small pouch is made from reclaimed materials, printed with leaves, dyed, then hand-stitched.

Eco-dyed Pouch

The three pieces pictured below use a similar technique, but with paper. I love the artistry.

Eco-dyed Art Print

Eco-dyed Paper

My dear friend is not a fan of pictures, but she did let me take a closeup of her t-shirt. She bought the shirt at a thrift store, wrapped it around rose leaves, and dipped it in a natural dye. It’s exquisite.