Worms & Bugs

Spent part of my mornings this week hand-picking green imported cabbage worms off my cauliflower,

cabbage, and kohlrabi plants. :( I wonder if those would make good fishing bait?  I am researching lady bugs to help control these particular green worms and other garden pests and what to plant to encourage the pretty red beetles and other beneficial insects to move into my yard and garden.  We don't use pesticides or chemical fertilizers in the garden because we want it to be organic and all natural.

I learned a new word this week: insectary. Basically that's a garden plot or area that is planted specifically to attract beneficial insects!  I am already planning strategic companion plantings to help attract the good bugs and repel the bad ones as well as creating borders and small spots for these helpful plants.

Another beneficial for your garden is vermiculture - or worm poop! My daughter is the resident "expert" on vermiculture having learned about it in a summer camp several years ago and we had our very own under-the-kitchen-sink worm farm for at least a year.  We lost those poor worms to a kitchen sink leak but today I became a vermiculturist a.k.a. Worm Farmer again!

The new worm farm is a very small shoebox-sized plastic box with small air holes drilled into it and containing a nice worm-loved mix of wet shredded newspaper, a little garden soil, a few wet, brown leaves, and a little food by way of coffee grinds and shredded green.  Ramsey Farms Worm Farm (lol) is already home to about 55 to 60 red wrigglers I "hunted" from my backyard today.  They include both the Eisenia fetida and Lumbricus rubellus species.

These little guys will multiple faster than bunnies, eat kitchen scraps like egg shells, coffee grinds, and raw vegetable scraps, and the end product is a rich, rich compost to use in the garden or mix with topsoil to make an excellent potting soil for spring plants!  I was itchin' to do something garden-y today and I got to dig around in the dirt for a while, but I am already planning a much larger worm farm to build outdoors in the coming months that can help supply nutrients to my entire garden.