My first garden!

Bah worms are brilliant!

Yes they're inside at the moment. It's secure so it will be fine. When the contents start filling then gaps start to appear in the side of each box. That's when I need to be weary of escapees

The compost heap is good, but it stops working in winter because it gets cold. Heat is the main driving force of a compost heap, unless we're talking about anaerobic decay. Also, the compost heap creates compost, which then needs to break down into the soil to release nutrients. The wormery has worms, which eat the decaying food and create "castings" which is near enough pure nutrients. There's the added benefit of not having food in the garden which could attract rats etc.

The excess moisture in the wormery gathers on the bottom and the tap allows me to drain it out. The liquid (I think it's called a leachate) is full of nutrients and is essentially a fertiliser! Although, it has lots of bacteria in it which want to break down matter, so I will be adding it to the compost to help break that down faster.

You can have him! stealing my cardboard!

 

I understand why you're doing it but it's not for me.

I reckon you put him up to that just for the camera, he looks so sweet and innocent.......... Just like me

 

Armandii, what are you trying to say :p

 

Yeah, it's not for everyone, I get that. I've always liked the idea of no sending anything at all to landfill and reusing as much as I can. I think americans call it homesteading?

So far, me and Hope have sent 2 morrisons bags of waste to landfill each week. That's not too bad. The rest of the stuff in the houseold bin has been garden waste, rubble and snails. Sending that to landfill is like filling a hole in the Earth with earth from my garden. The rest of the stuff is recycled or resused

 

Interesting idea Rad but not indoors! I'll stick to my compost heap, with worms, outside.

 

Oh gee whizz it isn't staying indoors! It will be in the cupboard under the stairs in winter but it will be outside until then.

We shall see what the difference is between the compost made from the wormery and the compost in the compost heap. I'm guessing the wormery will make much finer, richer compost which will be more suited to cuttings and seeds.

We can at least try

 

So, as I mentioned yesterday my fence posts arrived, as did my fence post spikes. Today was all about the erection!

ahem... The fence posts were about 9ft long so I cut them down to 6ft. The offcuts were obviously 3ft and these were screwed onto the posts 1ft from the top. The posts are 75mm square and the screws are 100mm long. They're pretty strong but if they fail I'm going to drill holes and use bolts instead.



My neighbour was playing darts in his spare room and I caught him watching me building these giant Christian crosses



They wouldn't look out of place in a graveyard I have to admit. So far, no wasted materials! I then got the other fence post, cut 2 lengths each at 34 inches long. They were attached 19 inches from the bottom of the post. I chose these lengths because it made a straight line (roughly) from the bottom of the posts to the end of the horizontal bars.

And in they go!



It's got the bars on the outside of the fence posts so that the wire helps pull them into the post, instead of away from the post. I've attached the wire to eye hooks, with 4 loops at each end and then the excess wire wrapped around the wire.



I have to confess that I hammerred in the spike and it was crooked and I had to dig it out. That was a pain, but I got to try out my new spade. I forgot about the shards of glass in the oil though and slit my index finger open. Didn't realise until I saw blood down my forearm. Then it started stinging. Funny how that works eh?

I've also tried to improve the drainage here too. The concrete base next to this frame collect water and it flows over the edge and into the soil where these raspberries are going to be planted. I took some of the hedge clippings from the compost heap (a few days ago) and buried it 2ft deep right under where these raspberries are going to be planted. I've also planted the gooseberry bushes (from my aunt) and taken the really nice compost from their pots and mixed that into the soil. The raspberries should have much better drainage now.

@Anthony Rogers I've put the raised bed cloche frame together now. I've cut the end pipes in half and added a T-joint. Then another pipe has been added which sticks into the middle of the bed.



Those middle pipes really give the end pipes strength. A lot more strenght than I was expecting! I've not added a bar across the top because I couldn't think of a way to connect it to the outside pipes. To be honest, that middle pipe it there just to stop the snow from piling up on the fleece and pushing it through. I'm happy with it. I'll order the fleece soon and get that fitted on weekend before the frost arrives.

You'll all be happy to know that I had very little worm wander yesterday. The worms are all happilly scooting around in the mass of cardboard and coir. It's going much better than my previous attempts so I'm obviously learning from experience! Oh and I've put it outside now. It's going to sit next to the trellis planter.



It will eventually get a few feet higher and should end up about half the height of the trellis. By the way, the honeysuckle (on the trellis) is really taking off! Not long before it fills the trellis

 

Your garden is coming along so well Rad. I love the wormery , I've got one too, I can't say it's been all that successful this year, last year I got a good amount compost from it which was great,
Worms like a bit of shredded paper & the odd egg box as well as your vegetable peelings, they don't like citrus fruit....sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs so to speak!
Good luck withyour worms

 

I'm happy with the progress! I had a flick through the earlier pages of the thread and it's strange to think the garden used to look like that.

Yayyyy a fellow wormery friend!

I've spent a fair amount of time deciding which to get (or whether to make my own) and I'm pleased with it. What type of wormery have you got?

Yeh, I've read the "composting with worms" book, as well as loads of website articles. I think it's 70-80% black matter and 20-30% brown matter (black being nitrogen and brown being carbon) that you're supposed to have? I remember it as 1 handful out of 4 should be carbon based but I'm sure some people stick to the percentages religousy

All the waxy cardboard boxes (cereal boxes for example) are saved and given to the gerbils. They chew it up to make bedding. They're axcellent at shredding cardboard, paper and tissue. When they get cleaned, the sawdust and all the shredded stuff gets emptied into the compost heap.

The corrugated cardboard is being saved for the worms. That's why I added cardboard instead of adding newspaper when I set it up. I've got so much of it! Egg boxes are strictly for the gerbils, I'm afraid! They absolutely love to chew them up and they make excellent bedding (it's all fluffy and insulating).

Between the worms and the gerbils, I don't have much in the way of paper recyling! It all goes back into making food!

I know about citrus fruit. My mum learnt that the hard way! I will be saving acidic stuff and storing it in a sealed bucket of water to make the water acidic. That way I can keep my blueberry bushes happy

 

I agree with that. They can smell pretty awful! A healthy wormery tends not to smell but we'll see. Knowing my luck it will smell putrid! In which case I will wrap it in bubble wrap and leave it outside

 

Ohhhhhh why did I get a J Parkers catalogue???? This is getting costly again

 

Right!

THAT. IS. IT. NO MORE BUYING STUFF!!

It all adds up so quickly!



One of the oxalis is for me, the other for my gran. 8 strawberry pineberry plants are for my mum, 2 for me

Oh and I went with the rose collection just because I want to get things growing up the fences asap and become established so that I can enjoy them earlier. It's an investment!

I hope to propagate most of the plants in the garden so I'm considering it an investment.