4 Green (and Frugal!) Solutions for All Those Autumn Leaves

I love every season. Truly, I do. But there is just something about fall that makes my soul happy. The crisp air, the gorgeous colors, the spicy smells of cinnamon and clove, the harvest, canning, Halloween, pumpkin everything. Seriously, I could go on and on.

One drawback to autumn for many people is raking and cleaning up all those fallen leaves. Don't get me wrong, having leaves scattered all over the lawn is fun for a little while and the kids love playing in them, but eventually you have to face reality and clean them all up. Often, people will rake, bag up all their leaves, and toss them in the garbage.

I don't know if it's the gardening geek or the eco-friendly part of me that balks the most at the idea of throwing leaves into the trash. Fallen leaves totally have a second life in your yard and garden!

Autumn is still in full swing here (though there is snow in this week's forecast) and we still have plenty of leaves to rake up and still more that have yet to fall. To read about how I use leaves to help my garden (a great frugal choice since leaves don't cost a thing!) and how I'm actually excited to make my first batch of leaf mold (I seriously am. Thank you, Alys Fowler.), check out my monthly post over at (This post is linked up to Little House Friday DIY Linky.)

Note: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. 

How My Garden Grows: My Not-So-Complicated Planning Process

Years ago, I took a gardening class about flowerbed design and soon found out that my method of flowerbed design was all wrong. What was my method? Impulsive buying of pretty plants at the local nursery. No rhyme or reason, just whatever caught my eye. While fun, that approach doesn't yield the best results; it creates more of a mish-mash of a flowerbed (albeit, a pretty mishmash). 

Same goes for vegetable gardening. Sure, you could head to the local garden center or Home Depot and pick up a bunch of vegetable starts, but you probably won't get the most success from your garden that way. A garden plan will help you make the most of the space you've got. 

Over a week ago I mentioned that I'd be sharing my garden planning process here. Let me say from the get-go: I'm not really the planning, super-organized type of girl. I've been known to keep a daily docket/to-do list from time to time, but I'll probably never be one of those people who has a household management binder. More power to those types, of course, but the all-or-nothing perfectionist in me gets overwhelmed simply at the idea of that much planning and organization. I hope you weren't expecting something complicated, mathematical, or super-scientific. I don't have any cute printables to help you plan your garden, either. That's not just not how I roll (though, for the record, I do love nice printable charts). 

This is the process I've used for the last few years works for me. No hard and fast rules here; just inspiration to help you figure out your own planning process.

The first step of my planning process often starts when there's still snow on the ground: research and reading.  In those months and weeks of winter, that time that toys with my emotions with warm days then snowy ones, dreaming about my garden does a lot to help my spirits. You can read about some of my favorite gardening books here (many of which are pictured above). My other favorite source for garden inspiration and information is Pinterest (you can find my gardening board here).

Next, I read and review my garden journal. 

Do you keep a garden journal? Because if you don't, you really ought to consider writing in one. I started keeping one back in 2012 and I love it. (For more detail on why and how I keep one, you can read my post about it here).  

It helps so much to be able to read the details of the previous year's garden because by spring, I have only vague memory of what I did. My journal lets me know exactly what I planted, when and where I planted it, how it worked, and my successes and failures. Reading and reviewing my journal helps me organize my thoughts and it helps me not repeat the mistakes I've made. 

My next step is seed inventory. This is when I go through my seed collection and see what I have leftover from last year (and the year before that, in some cases). This is where seed testing can be helpful and necessary (read here for how to test your seeds before planting them). I can't tell you how many times I've bought a packet of seeds even though I already had enough at home. When I did my inventory this year, I found three packets for the same kind of Swiss chard.

Once I know what seeds I do have, I make a list in my garden journal of what I want to grow and what I'll need to buy. I love flipping through seed catalogs to help me plan my garden. When I've purchased the seeds or retrieved them from my jumbled stash, I write down the exact variety each crop I'm planting that year.

I buy my seeds from my local nursery/feed store and through the mail. My favorite mail-order seed company is High Mowing Seeds. (And, no, they're not paying me or giving me seeds to say that.) Personally, I prefer to use organic, heirloom seeds in my garden. Heirloom vegetables are perfect for frugal gardeners because you can can use the seeds from the produce you grow and plant again. I was practically giddy last year when the tomato seeds I'd saved from my 2012 tomatoes sprouted and grew!

Once I know exactly what I want to grow, I have to figure out where I'm going to plant everything. I draw up my garden boxes in my journal, along with notes for each container and pallet I have, too.

One thing I am trying to keep in mind as I'm planning where I'm going to plant each vegetable is crop rotation. I made this little table in my journal last year and I found myself flipping back to it many times as I was figuring out my garden plan this past week. (You can find more in-depth info about crop rotation here. My chart in my journal doesn't include their 'rebuild' step. Oops.)

I assign each of the vegetable crops I want to grow to specific garden boxes and pots, depending what was grown there last year and what plants grow well (or don't grow well) together. I also take into account how much I want to grow (depending on how much my family eats of that particular vegetable, how much canning I want to do, etc) and how much space that will require  As I plant them, I'll make a note of the date when they were planted on my garden map. The plan pictured above is from last year; it's nice to see at glance the story of what happened last season so I can plan accordingly for this season. It also makes me mindful of my calendar, so I know when to plant those tender plants, especially.

Does having a garden plan ensure you'll have a perfect garden? Obviously not. Despite plenty of planning and effort, my garden last year was just 'meh'. But having a plan still made it less frustrating and keeping track of it all will help me not repeat some of the mistakes I made. And, of course, no garden works without...well...work. But that's what's nice about having a garden plan -- your work has purpose and direction, along with (hopefully!) some delicious results.

{This post is linked up to Simple Lives Thursday, Homestead Barn Hop, and Little House Friday DIY.}

Lovely Links: Garden Planning Edition

Spring is finally here and with that comes gardening again! I turned over my garden beds a few days ago and, man, it was nice getting my fingernails all dirty again.

I feel like I'm a little behind schedule in my garden, though, since I'm still in the planning stages. The only things growing in my garden right now are the Swiss chard that overwintered (yay!) and the 30+ heads of garlic I planted last fall (YAY!). Next week, I'll post about my garden planning process here, but I thought it would fun to give you some inspiration for your weekend.  Whether you're growing a windowsill herb garden, a few containers on a patio, a garden in a corner of your yard, or a full-fledged homestead, here are a few links I've come across to help you plan your best garden yet!

1 Really Great Reason to Grow Food this Year :: Gardening Jones
On the fence about even bothering with a garden this year? Planning to grow a garden but need a little more motivation to dive in? The one reason described in this post is motivation enough.

Organic Vegetable Gardening 101 :: My Humble Kitchen
Great, basic info with links to posts about ordering seeds, the different types of seeds, succession planting, and more -- though I prefer the milk-jug seed starting method to starting them indoors. I'm also in love with the vertical planter boxes in this post.

Our DIY Raised Garden Beds - Chris Loves Julia
$10 Cedar Raised Garden Beds - Ana White
I love my raised garden beds!  If you don't have them yet, here are a couple great tutorials for getting yours started -- or, if you're like me, to rebuild yours because the wood frames of your existing garden beds are rotting away.

The Living Jigsaw: Planning for Crop Rotation in Your Garden :: Designing Edible Gardens
I've known for a while that it's not a good idea to grow the same crops in the same spots every year, but until last spring, I had no idea that you should rotate what type of vegetables you grow in each area of your garden in a particular order. Now that I understand the concept, it actually makes planning my garden easier.  Leaves - Fruits - Roots - Rebuild -- this post explains it all.

How much you need to plant to feed your family :: New Life on a Homestead
This post has a list of how much you would need to grow to feed yourself and your family for a year.  It's interesting , but it's also a bit overwhelming. While I would LOVE to be that self-sufficient, I don't have enough room in my garden beds to grow all that. Instead of feeling overwhelmed and bummed, I look at this list as a good guide to how much to plan on growing in the space I do have.

Lawns into Gardens :: New York Times
Speaking of garden space, my latest fascination: turning lawns and front yards into gardens. I mean, my lawn gives me grief every year (dandelions everywhere and it won't stay green); why not grow food instead? My husband isn't on board with this idea and I guess my boys need some grass to play on, but a girl can still dream.

Front Yard Vegetable Garden :: The Art of Doing Stuff
Now, this is something I could do...

One last thing: as you're deciding what to grow, consider growing some of the bees' favorite fruits, veggies, herbs and flowers.

Hope your weekend is lovely!

My Garden Highlight of 2013 : Homegrown Garlic

This year's garden was...meh.  I feel guilty even saying that -- I mean, the fact that you can plant tiny seeds and get any food from them later is nothing short of miraculous. But this year's harvest? Not much to brag about. The cucumber plants put out a few, but not in quantities like last year. The beets were radish-sized (that was my fault -- I bought the wrong variety). The greens (that weren't eaten by snails) were mostly pretty bitter. My cauliflower turned purple (again, my fault). Slugs went to town on my cabbage. The majority of my tomatoes are turning red in my kitchen right now instead of on the vine (though I did get a lot and they were spared by our early frost). The zucchinis didn't really produce (again, my fault. I ran out of space and tried growing zucchini in a pot. Doesn't really work.). My pumpkins turned about half-orange before an early frost.

That said, the parsley I grew from seed has provided all the parsley I've needed over the summer and even now. The peas were dependable as ever. The raspberries and blackberries in my yard produced more than last year (mmmmm...raspberry jam). So don't think I'm ungrateful or anything when I say the garden this year was just...meh.

Except for the garlic.  Oh my goodness, the garlic was the highlight of my garden this year! And I'm telling you this because NOW (mid-fall) is the time of year to plant garlic. 

I'd tried growing garlic in the past with little success. Turns out, it was because I was just using cloves of garlic from the grocery store. When I would grow the ones from the grocery store, the leaves would come up and I'd get excited, only to dig up walnut size heads of it (the cloves were teeny-tiny). 

Determined to grow my own garlic successfully, I did some research and ordered my garlic bulbs. I went with the garlic variety called Music -- one of the most popular varieties, especially since it's one of the easiest to grow. I picked a hardneck variety over softneck because I'd heard that it was better for harsh winter climates. I also went with hardneck because I wanted the garlic scapes (more on those later).

I planted mine right around Halloween last year with high hopes (I could've sworn I took a picture, but I can't find it now). I've heard of soaking garlic bulbs in a mixture of water, baking soda, and fish emulsion first, but I didn't. I'm sure it's helpful and I was going to try, but I was worried I had procrastinated too much and just wanted to get the bulbs in. 

I loosened the dirt in the bed I chose, buried each clove (pointy end of the clove up) about three or so inches down, put a layer of straw over the bulbs as a protective mulch, and hoped for the best.  It was actually a lot of fun to plant a crop when the weather was turning colder -- it felt kind of strange but in an awesome way, to think I was planting something in late October that I wouldn't enjoy until the following summer. (For some tips on choosing and planting garlic you can look here, here, and here.) 

We had a really cold and really snowy winter here, and from time to time, I'd look over at the bed where I planted my garlic and wonder. Even with our rough winter, when the snow melted little green leaves poked above the soil. 

Those green leaves just kept getting taller and taller. Still, I didn't get too excited since there was a chance that there could be nice long leaves with only tiny little bulbs beneath the soil.

In late May, I started noticing the little shoot coming out of the middle of the green leaves, called the scape. It's the flowering part of the bulb that gets sent off about a month before the garlic should be harvested. It's important to cut the scapes off fairly soon, since they'll interfere with how the bulb grows and use up energy that should go to the bulb instead of the flower. The cool thing about these scapes is that they're edible and they're delicious (and they make a pretty great accessory a la Creature from the Black Lagoon, as you can see above). 

I used the garlic scapes to make THE best pesto that's ever come out of my kitchen. It had such a great garlic but-not-too-garlicky flavor. I would honestly grow garlic just for the scapes so I could make this pesto again. For some other ideas for how to use garlic scapes, check out this link. 

Around the beginning of July, my garlic was showing signs that it was time to harvest because the lower leaves were turning brown and dying. The key is to harvest the garlic when the lower leaves are brown but the upper ones are still green. You don't want to wait until the leaves die completely because that can affect the bulbs negatively, making them split and the coverings of the cloves won't develop properly. As excited as I was to dig those garlic bulbs out and see how big they were, I moved slowly and carefully since garlic heads are pretty delicate and if you accidentally cut or bruise them, their storage life is diminished.

To my delight, the bulbs were as big, if not bigger than the ones I've used from the grocery store for years. They all turned out beautifully -- every single clove I planted resulted in a head of garlic. I couldn't wait to whip up some kind of Italian dish to use them in.

Thing is, it's totally fine to use the garlic straight from the garden, but if you want it last for months, you have to cure it. You can find a great and thorough post about curing and storing garlic here. 

You know how a supermarket tomato can't even compare to the way a homegrown tomato tastes? The same goes for garlic. My mom (she grew garlic for the first time this season) and I can't stop gushing about how much better this garlic tastes, how much it adds to the things we cook. The flavor is so much stronger and delicious. It will be hard to ever go back to buying it from the store when I run out. This fall, both my mom and I are planting extra garlic in our gardens -- we're totally determined to each get a year's supply.

Seriously. If you have a garden space, order some seed garlic and plant it soon. Next summer, you will be thanking yourself that you did.

{This post is linked up to Homestead Barn Hop.}

Homemade Weed Killer: The Experiment and the Results

I've read in numerous places about using vinegar as a weed killer. Oh, vinegar. Is there anything you can't do?  {sigh}

Okay, so there are a lot of things vinegar can't do, including killing weeds -- at least, by itself.  I've tried before. I was going to post the results on here. I poured a bunch of vinegar onto the weeds in my driveway. Nothing. So I gave up on at least that use of vinegar.

But I have this weed problem along the strip of cement that is adjacent to our driveway and alongside the side of our house, along the fence we share with our neighbors on the east. Our previous neighbor (she has since moved away) let the weeds go kind of wild on that part of her yard so they crept under the fence and went wild on our side, too.

In years past, I've either pulled all the weeds by hand or I've hit it with some Round-Up. This year, I decided to skip the chemicals. I won't go into all the reasons, but some of the main reasons are that I'm not a fan of having poisons around the kids (especially with the latest findings about health issues with Round-Up), don't want to support Monsanto, and I'm too cheap to buy the stuff.

So I tried a different approach to killing my weeds with vinegar -- I added a couple more ingredients to the mix.

To make this homemade weed killer, mix:

• 1 quart vinegar (I used white vinegar but I've heard that apple cider vinegar works -- it has a slightly higher acidity level, so it probably will work even better)
• 1/4 cup salt
• 2 tsp. dish soap (I used the Dawn soap I use for my homemade laundry detergent, but any kind will work)

The vinegar's acetic acid is what kills the plant. The salt assists by pulling the moisture out of the weeds.  The dish soap helps the weed killer stay on the plant once you spray it. Word to the wise: this weed killer will kill any plant it comes into contact with; it's not selective at all. 

Once you've mixed up your weed killer, pour it in a spray bottle. It's best to wait for a day that is going to be dry, hot and sunny.

I sprayed all of those weeds along the fence on a Saturday morning, enjoying myself maybe a little more than I should have ("Ha ha! How do you like that?" Kind of how I was when I was trapping snails with beer).

Here's one of the before pictures again:

The next day, after letting the chickens out and feeding them, I decided to check on the weeds.

As you can see, they're not entirely dead and completely withered, but they're on their way. One or two more applications and those weeds will be history. {insert maniacal laugh}

Note: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have disclosed.

{This post is linked up to Simple Lives Thursday, Little House Friday, Farmgirl Friday, From the Farm Blog Hop, Creative HomeAcre Hop, and Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.}  

In the Backyard: My May 2013 Garden Report; or, Why I Haven't Posted Anything in a Couple Weeks

The weather is warm, the trees have leaves on them again, and gardening season is in full swing!  As a result, it's a lot harder to sit at the computer and work on a blog post. Don't get me wrong: I love blogging, but it just feels so good to get my fingernails dirty again. And even if I didn't want to go and work in the yard and I did want to sit here and type, my boys wouldn't let me. If they had their way, they'd both want to be outside all day.  Ahhh...it's nice to have the warm weather back.

Anyway, I thought I'd show you what's been going on and what I've been doing in my backyard.

I came. I saw. I mulched.

Confession: I've never mulched my garden before. I had a lot of straw left over from the winter (it's what I used in the chicken tractor this past winter. I bought way more than I needed to last fall.), so I thought I'd give mulching a try this year. Now that I have, I want to kick myself for not doing it in seasons past. Mulch makes gardening easier, period. I don't have have to water the garden nearly as much as I usually do. There are less weeds, too. It's awesome. If you're a newbie to mulching like myself, check out this helpful introduction to the why's and how's of mulching here and here.

Like last year, my milk jug mini-greenhouses are sort of stressing me out. I know for a fact that this method of seed starting works, but the seeds took longer to get sprouting this spring, due to some unseasonably cold temperatures this spring (it snowed here on May 1st!). Almost all of the milk jugs have growth in them (except the cherry tomatoes -- again), but they're still not as big as I would've liked them to be by now. I've got a variety of tomatoes (slicing and paste), broccoli, and herbs (parsley, oregano, and thyme) starting in the milk jugs this year. Keeping my fingers crossed that they'll start growing faster as the days get warmer and warmer.

On Wednesday, I opened our last jar of homemade jam. Since I've become a jam snob and can't bring myself to buy the jam at the store, I've been pretty excited to see the raspberry and blackberry bushes start coming to life. My raspberries even have the beginnings of little flowers on them. They can't come soon enough!

My first planting of greens didn't result in..well...anything. I don't quite know what happened there. But I planted again (lettuce, Swiss chard, spinach, kale, mesclun) and it's coming up this time around. Gardening can be kind of weird like that.

Speaking of greens, I'm trying to grow all my kale in a pallet. This one isn't leaning up against my shed like my other one; this one is flat on the ground. I just laid some newspaper down, filled it with grow-box mix, and planted. So far, so good.

I'm also experimenting in that pallet with growing stuff from the ends of vegetables. I've seen ideas for re-growing with the ends of vegetables on Pinterest and figured I'd give it a go with some romaine lettuce. It's not growing super-fast, but it's not dead, either (as you can see in the picture above, there is new growth). I also want to try this with other vegetables, like celery and cabbage. I'll let you know how it works out.

This season I've planted a few vegetables I've never tried growing before. Take beets, as pictured above, for example. I didn't even know I liked beets until last Halloween, when my mom put raw beets on a vegetable tray for our Halloween party. They were surprisingly delicious. I've since juiced them with some carrots and oranges and found that they're awesome! When I make green juice with my boys (they love green juice), I've been adding beet greens to it. How awesome is a vegetable when you can eat the entire thing, leaves and roots? Anyway, I'm hoping that my beet crop pans out.

Another new plant to my garden is cabbage. I bought some seeds to start but forgot to plant them in a milk jug (duh), so I picked up these cute little starts at a nearby nursery for 50 cents each. I have dreams of making coleslaw and sauerkraut (haven't tried that one yet but really really want to) with homegrown cabbage. I'm also giving cauliflower and broccoli a try in my garden for the first time, too.

One thing in my garden I'm feeling particularly excited about is my garlic. It's going nuts! A few years ago, I tried growing garlic but I didn't go about it the right way. I just planted some garlic cloves I had in the pantry and hoped they'd work. They did sprout leaves but when I dug them up, the bulbs were about the size of a walnut; the cloves of garlic were teeny-tiny. This past fall, I ordered bulbs from my favorite seed company, planted in late October and covered them with straw. In late February, I saw little leaves poking out from the straw. Since then, they just keep getting taller and taller. I've heard that homegrown garlic is stronger and more flavorful than the garlic at the store. I keep wanting to dig around them a little and peek to see how big the bulbs are, but I am trying to resist; I'm doing my best to wait another month or two before I do.

No backyard report would be complete without some mention of the ladies.  The three girls are doing fine and laying regularly. Even though I've been collecting eggs from them for almost a year, I'm still not over the happy novelty of getting eggs from the nesting box -- especially when there are three eggs at once in there. The girls seem glad to be able to peck in the green grass again, eat all the dandelion leaves my two-year-old can give them, and enjoy all the snails (grrr) I find in my flowerbeds. I just love having chickens in the backyard, even when they look like they're gossiping about me (as they seem to be doing in this picture).

My garden is looking pretty good and I feel really excited about it. It's a lot of fun.

That said, it's not perfect. And being all about honesty here, I thought I'd post pictures of some other projects and/or frustrations in the backyard.

This flower bed is making me crazy. I took this picture a couple weeks ago and it doesn't look much better since then. What do you do with grass in the flower bed? I'd spray it with weed killer (of the homemade and storebought varieties) but I don't want to kill all my perennials. I've tried digging, hoeing, even pulling the grass out by hand. What would you do?

Another flowerbed frustration: mint. I like mint, but there's no way I could use as much as I get in my yard. The people who lived here before planted mint in the flowerbed. As nice as the people seemed when we bought the house eight years ago, I can't help but curse them every spring when the mint starts coming back. It takes everything over -- the flowerbed, the plants, my grass, anything remotely near it. I can't tell you how often I'll be hunched over it in my yard, pulling at it, and wanting to shake my fist and yell toward the sky, "MIIIIIINT!!!!" (a la William Shatner in The Wrath of Khan). Please, reader, take this as a public service announcement and never plant mint anywhere except in a pot.

I've mentioned on here before that my lawn is a frequent source of frustration for me. Right now, an entire area is covered in dandelions. See how the grass in the top-left is clear? Yeah, that's kind of shows how my lawn looks, dandelion-free then -- BAM! -- dandelions. It's like a dandelion island. It's crazy. You know, every time I go to the store, I see in the produce section bunches of long, fat dandelion leaves and I can't help but think, "Who was the brilliant person who decided to go into dandelion farming?"  Judging from my dandelion patch, I think I'd be a fantastic dandelion farmer.

At least the ladies in the backyard love them. I wonder if they'd like mint...

Even with the weeds, the rampant mint, the dandelions galore, and the slow-starting seeds, May is one of my favorite months. I mean, how can you not be happy when there are lilacs blooming? {The lilacs always remind me of my parents and grandparents' yards and of this song.}

Even our kitty can't help but smile a little now that it's May.

Happy gardening, everyone! What's growing where you live?  

Note: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have disclosed.

'I Got Worms' : My Vermicomposting Venture

Add having a worm composting bin to the list of things I never imagined I would ever do. It's right up there with cloth diapering, raising chickens, and beekeeping. I can't even tell you how many times it makes me think of that part in Dumb and Dumber when Lloyd pitches his idea for a worm farm business. I remember how disgusting that sounded back when I watched it in high school. Who would have thought that someday I'd have a small sort of worm farm? Weird.

Anyway...

I'm not entirely sure where I first learned about vermicomposting (aka, worm composting; vermis is the latin word for worms). I've had a regular compost bin the entire time I've lived in my house (eight years this month!) and I'm always glad when I see worms in it. I've never, though, had a whole compost bin devoted to worms.

I started seeing pins on Pinterest about worm composting and I was intrigued. I read about people keeping bins in their small apartments or under the sink in their kitchens. I saw plans for tall worm compost bins that looked kind of like beehives. It seemed like a great idea to have worms eat food scraps and junk mail to help your garden, but it seemed a bit overwhelming, too.

That was until I saw this pin about making a vermicomposting bin out of storage containers. It seemed so easy and doable! I highly recommend checking out her post (especially the really cute video with author's four-year-old son explaining how it works) -- you can find the step-by-step instructions and a lot of good info.  In this post, I'm going to share the process of how I made mine and some insights to how it's working for us. Keep in mind, I'm new to this whole process and am by no means a worm expert (yes, they do exist). That said, it's been pretty simple thus far.

Making the Worm Composting Bin

While we were waiting for the worms to come in the mail (I say "we" because my six-year-old was super excited about the project), I went to the store and picked up a couple storage containers.

I struggled bit trying to find the right storage containers. The instructions I followed called for two 8-10 gallon storage containers. I found plenty of those at good ol' Walmart but all of them were clear. Same thing at Target. The worm bin has to be opaque since worms are sensitive to light, so none of the ones they had worked. I finally was able to find some black 12-gallon containers (so a little bigger than necessary) at IKEA for about $5 each, along with one lid for $2.

So all together the worm bin cost $12 (plus tax). Much cheaper than the pre-made bins that go for around $100 (and that price doesn't include the worms) .

To make the bin, you need to drill some holes in one of the containers. Seeing as I'm pretty inept when it comes to power tools, I just took the container up to my parents' house (we were going there anyway and my worms had just arrived in the mail). My dad took the containers to his garage and took care of things. I wasn't helpful at all; I mostly just stood there and told him all the reasons why I wanted the bin in the first place so he wouldn't think I was nuts (you can find some great reasons for vermicomposting here).

First, he made some small holes on the bottom for drainage; Dad used a 1/8-inch drill bit.

Then he drilled some holes into the sides (higher up above the compost line, for ventilation) with one of his biggest drill bits. The plastic container was a bit flimsy so a few holes were a little cracked but no big deal.

The second bin doesn't need any holes at all. The purpose of the bottom bin is to catch any drainage from the first bin. In the last month that I've been keeping a worm bin, I've found the second bin to not be that necessary. Just keep the worms damp and not soaking wet and catching drainage isn't much of an issue. Not knowing this in advance, I still use the second bin since I have it.

 

So that the ventilation holes in the first bin don't get covered up, you need to have a something to elevate the main compost bin inside the second. (Does that make sense? Look at the picture below and you'll see what I mean).  To do this, my dad simply cut some blocks of wood from his stash in the garage (did I mention my dad is a talented woodworker? I love that guy.) The blocks are just a few inches tall but they keep the ventilation holes right above the lip of the bottom bin.

That's it -- a homemade worm bin made in about 15-20 minutes, tops. Nothing fancy. That's fine. It's meant to hold worms and their castings (aka, worm poo); I'm keeping it in the garage. I'm fine with it being totally plain.

Filling the Worm Composter

First things first -- you need worms.

Worm composting requires a certain type of worm: red wiggler worms. You can't just go dig around in your yard or go to the fishing bait section and pick up a bunch of earthworms. From what I've read, these specific worms thrive on eating bacteria-laden and rotten food. Getting a pound or two of red wiggler worms is easy. There are lots of places online where you can order them -- even Amazon has listings for worms. I ordered mine from Wiser Worm Farm -- I got a pound of worms for $27, shipping included.

Once your bin has the holes drilled in it, it's ready to be filled.

First, add some shredded up newspaper. I've been using grocery ads that come in the mail, along with my son's book order forms he gets from school (that is, after I'm done spending too much money ordering from them...ahem).

Next, add some dirt. The worms need the grit to help them digest.  As you can see, Max's cousins got in on all the wormy action and they took turns adding the dirt to the bin. (A worm bin is a great educational tool, I think.)

Next, we added some food scraps I'd been collecting for the last couple days (more on what and what not to feed worms later).

Now you can introduce your worms to their new home. Once I dumped them in, the kids started naming them. In our worm bin, there's a little red wiggler named Charles and another named Sammy. It didn't take long for the kids to.realize that it's hard to come up with 500 names.

We poured a little water over the newspaper-scraps-dirt mixture and worms. To top it all off, we added a wet piece of cardboard (to keep the light out from the ventilation holes). Put the lid on and the worms are ready to get to work!

Maintaining Your Worm Bin

It's been about a month since we added our worms to the bin. So far, it's been incredibly easy. It's also so cool to see how it's working. They really do eat your garbage!

There are a few guidelines on feeding worms -- there are foods they can and can't eat. The way I keep it straight is to think of them as a bunch of wiggly little vegans because worms can't eat dairy or meat. Unlike vegans, though, they also don't eat oils or citrus.

What do worms eat? They like fruits and vegetables, breads and grains, eggshells (we've got plenty of those), tea bags, coffee grounds (including the filter. We don't drink coffee at our house, but I've heard that worms love coffee grounds), and shredded newspaper.

I've read that it's best to feed the worms food that's already starting to rot a little. This is where my compost pail comes in. Until just recently, I used this pail to hold kitchen scraps before taking them to the compost pile in the yard; now I use it exclusively for worm food. The amazing thing about this pail is that it can hold the stinkiest, most rotten stuff in it and you can't smell anything when the lid is closed. It's awesome. So, I let the food for the worms sit in there for a day or two and then dump it into the worm bin.

Other things to keep in mind when taking care of worms:

• Keep the bin's contents damp, but not soaking wet. I keep a spray bottle filled with water next to the bin and give it a few sprays when things are looking dry in the bin.
• I also have an old hand rake next to the bin to stir things around when I add new food for them. This also helps with ventilation so things don't get too compacted.
• Don't keep your worm bin somewhere that's too hot or cold. You don't want it to be somewhere where it gets colder than 35 degrees or hotter than around 80. Like I mentioned before, I keep mine in the garage (hence all the random stuff piled around the bin in the picture above).
• Like with a regular compost pile, the worm composter doesn't stink if you're doing it right. If it stinks, that's when some troubleshooting is needed (maybe it's too wet, there's too much food, etc.). When I open my worm bin, it has a sort of pleasant, earthy smell. I say this not to brag but instead to point out how not-hard keeping a worm bin is.

Just as I'm fascinated by my compost pile outside, I find myself looking at the worm bin the same way. It's incredible to see a little sort of eco-system at work. I have yet to get the castings out and add them to my garden. Once I've done it and made a batch of worm poop tea for my garden, I'll let you know. (Yep. Add "making worm poop tea" to that list of things I never thought I'd do, too.)

Note: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. 

{This post is linked up to Homestead Barn Hop, Your Green Resource, Simple Lives Thursday, and Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.}