Do you know where your earthworms are?

The earthworm is one of nature's top "soil scientists." The earthworm is responsible for a lot of the things that help make our soil good enough to grow healthy plants and provide us food. Worms help to increase the amount of air and water that gets into the soil. They break down organic matter, like leaves and grass into things that plants can use. When they eat, they leave behind castings that are a very valuable type of fertilizer.

Earthworms are like free farm help. They help to "turn" the soil—bringing down organic matter from the top and mixing it with the soil below. Another interesting job that the worm has is that of making fertilizer. If there are 500,000 worms living in an acre of soil, they could make 50 tons of castings. That's like lining up 100,000 one pound coffee cans filled with castings. These same 500,000 worms burrowing into an acre of soil can create a drainage system equal to 2,000 feet of 6-inch pipe. Pretty amazing for just a little old worm, don't you think?

Having worms around in your garden is a real good sign that you have a healthy soil.  So how do you create an environment that supports all those earthworms?

Earthworms need plenty of organic matter to survive.  Keep your garden soil covered with organic mulch.  You can use grass clippings, shredded leaves or compost.  Mulch works like a blanket for the ground.  It keeps the soil cool and moist in the summer and warm in the winter.  These are ideal conditions for garden worms!

Of course, some of the best ways of increasing earthworm populations is by not harming them.  The overuse of chemical fertilizers or fungicides (including copper-based ones) can be detrimental to earthworm numbers.  Frequent deep tillage will not only expose earthworms to an unwelcoming dry environment and hungry birds, but it reduces their food source by increasing decomposition of ground cover.  Zero-till soils have been shown to have four times as many worms as cultivated soils.  One of the many great things about no-till gardening is that it protects and promotes earthworm populations.

Next time you head to your garden, take a shovelful of soil and count the worms.  If you measure 12"x12"x7"deep, the optimum number of worms should be approximately 60.  If you have 10 or less, your soil does not have a healthy community of the necessary microorganisms.  The number of worms is the best indication of your soil health.

 

Pepper test

I started two peppers plants for a comparison test.  One pepper is growing in a potting mix using 1 part vermicompost to 5 parts potting soil mix.  The second pepper is growing in pro mix.  I have only been using water but will start using Miracle Gro to feed the pepper growing in pro mix and vermicompost tea for the other plant.  The plant on the left is growing with vermicompost and the difference is already noticeable.

Planting calendar

Here is a link for a planting calendar that you can customize with your own last frost date.
http://www.yougrowgirl.com/2006/03/31/the-lazy-gardeners-seed-starting-chart/  Follow the instructions to download the spreadsheet.  I found it to be a helpful tool to remind me what I should be planting. 


This year everything seems to be moved up by almost a month.  Usually the goal is to plant peas in our area on St. Patrick's Day (March 17).  This year my peas are starting to poke through the ground,  the onions are about 4 inches high, lettuce is growing. 

My curiosity compelled me to unearth an onion bulb to examine the root system.  I put approx. 1-2 tsps. of vermicompost at the bottom of each bulb.  The roots look great!

Seed Tapes

This is just for fun.  I have been reading about making your own seed tapes.  Seed tapes are great for small seeds that are hard to sow evenly - carrots, lettuce, etc.  Last year I sowed my carrots in 3 rows and thinned them out as they grew.  I had a great harvest of carrots but it was time consuming to thin the carrots.  The same can be said for the lettuce.  I started most of my lettuce seeds early but the process was again time consuming.  The seeds were first sown in a flat tray and when they were large enough to handle, were transplanted into individual cells.
Will making seed tapes cut down on the time?  I am not sure but I am going to evaluate the process as the growing season unfolds.  Here is what I have done so far.

I started with undyed tissue paper.  My rows in my garden are approx. 36" wide.  The real planting space is probably more like 30" from row to row since I don't sow at the very edge of the bed.  I started by making a grid on the computer of 1" dots and printed that out.  I am planting my carrots this year on a 2" spacing.  The next step was to transfer the dots at the 2" spacing to the tracing paper.  I mixed 1 packet of unflavored gelatin with 1 cup of boiling water and allowed it to partially set.  I liked using gelatin because if it gets too hard you can softened it by reheating it.  I used a dropper and squeezed a small drop over each dot.  I only did one row at a time.  I put 2 seeds on each drop and then covered the row with another sheet of tissue paper.  I continued on until I finished the entire sheet.  I estimate that it took approximately 15-20 minutes to complete a sheet.  For the lettuce I put 1 seed at every inch because I plan to use the greens for an early salad as I thin them to 4 inch intervals.  The lettuce is a mesclun mix.  I discovered that by allowing the gelatin to become sticky, I could pick up a seed on the end of a tweezer and place it on the dot of gelatin and it quickly stuck to the gelatin.  It went quickly once I realized the gelatin needed to be slightly set.

Another alternative is grabbing a toilet paper roll and measuring out a piece the length of your rows.  Cut in half lengthwise, place seeds 1/3 in from the side and fold over.  I also read that you can use a washable white glue (Elmer's) instead of gelatin.  The criteria for both the paper and adhesive is that it should disintegrate quickly and be non-toxic.  Be creative and use what you have. 

I will already give a thumbs up to being able to sit on a chair in a nice warm house sowing tiny seeds at precise intervals!  The rest of the story will unfold this summer.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

It has been exceptionally warm this winter in Pennsylvania.  It is March 8 and the temperature today is 68F.  In a normal year, the goal would be to plant peas on St. Patrick's Day (March 17).  This year the peas, onions and spinach seeds are planted and the ground was beautiful.  My hyacinths are budded and some are trying to open.








I have been reading many stories about the success and failure of potato towers.  I found a website from the UK that has intrigued me.  http://henleypotatotower.co.uk/content/   I like the detailed explanation of how and why to grow the potatoes in a bin.  I am definately going to try it this year.

Restoring Life to the Soil

Restoring life to the soil.  That is our mission statement.  Feed the soil and the soil will feed the plants.  That is what we preach.  Our goal is to produce vermicompost that will make it simple for gardeners to create healthy soil.  I know that most home gardeners don't have time to research all the methods that are used to amend soil, so we wanted to produce one product that would include a good balance of soil life.  How are we doing?

According to our foodweb analysis, we achieved our goal! 

I received our results this week and was able to talk about our results with the lab's consultant.  He said that our numbers are great and our nematode number is especially good and includes predatory nematodes.  He said that our vermicompost will be excellent for gardeners and farmers.  He said that it will be especially good for making compost tea.  It felt good to receive confirmation for what we are doing.

Our mixture and method is slightly different from other vermicompost operations.  Our end product has achieved what we wanted  - a product that will incorporate a balance of life back to the soil.

You can view our report on our website -
http://www.landisalive.com/index_files/Page351.htm


If you are interested in reading more about soil life, here is a good link -
http://oregonfoodweb.com/soil-biology/in-depth.html


I am happy to report that Harleysville Ace Hardware is now stocking our vermicompost. 

Ready to Feed Your Soil

Restoring life to the soil is the first step on the journey to healthy food.  I am excited to demonstrate chemical-free, no-till gardening to others.  This isn't a new way to garden, quite the opposite.  This is returning to how people grew food before chemicals became the normal.

Watch this video on a garden that has been chemical-free, no-till for over 30 years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wffoeYUFK7k&feature=related

I am confident that in 30 years this will be the new normal and people will wonder why we ever thought chemicals were necessary.

   We are packaging the vermicompost in two sizes for retail - 2 qts & 5 qts. We will also sell in larger quantities per requests.