"What might have been" in the first
month of us cultivating a worm-powered compost engine, has come and gone. We
are two days into the second month and dare I say it's lost a bit of
it's charm, perhaps the novelty has worm off or maybe it's just getting boring. I
haven't really looked at the contents in about 10-12 days. I open the
moistened newspaper cap and continue to dump food onto the top layer but
I'm not really "looking" in there. When they feel me take the cover
off and consequently see light, they disappear quickly. And that's just the top
"working tray" where food is actively being consumed and eaten for
the most part. The real composting occurs in the lower most tray called the
"processing tray." I have been a stranger to this tray for about 2
weeks. That changed today.
Today was a maintenance day and I
thought I'd start by replacing the old, soggy newspaper cap on the top of the working
tray. This was the original newspaper that I added on Day 1. Didn't really know if you're supposed to replace it, you're probably not because it's half
decomposed itself and will eventually turn into soil, but when l looked closely
at this, and lately when I lift the corners to add food, the moldy mess just
kind of falls apart. Enter about a dozen new soaked newspaper pages to cap off
the tray. I threw the old one out. Next I spread newspaper on the floor and
took my top 2 trays and set them on the floor for maintenance. Deep in the
lowest tray or processing tray is where all the worms for the most part. I grabbed
my soft little yellow rake and very carefully raked and turned the compost
over- the idea here is to mix the contents with some new oxygen as it stimulates
the breakdown already naturally occurring. This by the way, irritates the worms
because well, some of them are being literally pulled apart. Oh well,
they're worms. After I turn those rich layers over, I add a couple handfuls
of pumice, kind of a sandy, gravel medium that helps the worms digest and grind
food up in their gizzards. I like that word, gizzard.
After that tray is cared for, I move
to the fresher working tray that is about half full but a little light on
paper. I shredded up about a dozen sheets and I added another handful of pumice
with the shredded paper. Just as with the processing tray, i raked and turned
the contents until all has been overturned and aerated nicely. Next I added
some cardboard egg containers and a slice of bread. This should balance nicely
with all the fruit and vegetables I've been dumping in. I hope our worms like bananas,
berries, carrots and snap bean pieces because they sure get allot of it. Important- 40% food 60% fiber, and I flip flop those every couple weeks for even more balance.
My charming wife saw through a
relatively transparent act of goodness I offered her last week. I asked her if
I could make her an omlet for breakfast because I loved her and liked doing nice things for her.
I came clean that it was really for the worms- they need their calcium that
aids in reproduction efforts you know. I told her it served her right for all
the coffee grounds she been throwing into the garbage instead of throwing them
in our one-month old rocking WormFarm 360!
Check them out here: http://gottabgreen.com/index.phpmain_page=product_info&cPath=55&products_id=4538
Kelley Murphy, the author is a new
e-commerce business owner of gottabgreen.com, promoting and selling a
responsible lifestyle and eco-friendly green products online. Looking to rid
the world of plastic, follow his blogs and shop GottaBGreen.com at http://gottabgreen.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment