Update

Hello all!

It is I, Tim

Just a quick update on the potatoes and the worms.  I just added the next tire to my stack yesterday and it looks like everything is going really well.  The plants must be 16" or 18" tall now.  The taters are growing great and yet the tomatoes are growing poorly.  Hopefully we'll get some warmer weather here eventually and they will catch up a little bit.  We also have some strawberries that are just starting to ripen up.  It will be nice to get some fresh food to eat from our own backyard.

The worms also turned out pretty well.  A week or two ago I finally got around to separating the worms from the castings.  I ended up with a little less than half a 18 gallon bin full of castings.  If my estimation is correct, it is about 25 Lbs or so.  According to a website, that's about $30 worth of castings.  I didn't think I would end up with nearly that much after only 6 or 8 months.

Well, that's all for now.  I will write again shortly.

Worms

Hi everyone, Tim here.

Just wanted to do a quick update on a few of the "projects" I've been working on.  Some are turning out well, others are still a bit of a work in progress.

The first project began last year a little before Christmas.  We got interested in vermicomposting and decided to start a worm bin.  After a little bit of research on the net, we were set to make some bins and buy some worms.  I made the bins from some Rubbermaid bins I had down the basement.  The one on the bottom is intact and another modified bin nests on top of it.  The upper bin just has some holes in the bottom for drainage and some holes in the top for air flow.  We put some dirt, paper, and food scraps in the bin along with the worms.

At first, the worms didn't like the bin very much.  They liked crawling out all the time.  After picking them up off the floors (and sometimes the walls)

I finally called the worm farmer we got the worms from.  He suggested a night light so I rigged up an LED night

 light to fit in the top of the bin and a little bit of tape got the light to stay on all the time.  No more problems.

It's been a few months and after the bugs were worked out (including some fruit flies) we have a whole bin full of worm castings.  The castings are great compost for the garden and we'll mix some in with the garden soil when we plant in a few weeks.  Hopefully it will help us grow some nice fruitful plants!