Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Bees and now Worms!?!?!

Since we arrived in Alabama, I find that my outlook on life has changed dramatically. I am extremely concerned about the amount of waste that goes out of our house and into the garbage truck. Our city recycles, which is very nice, but there's still a bunch of garbage that we'd like to eliminate from the landfill, so we decided to build a couple of composters...
I found simple plans for a hot composter (for yard clippings and such) by fastening together five shipping pallets. It's free once you find the pallets and it will eventually turn your yard clippings into nutrient-rich compost. It's uninspiring and less than romantic, but it's clean and will boost the fertility of my Alabama red clay garden.
The problem with an open back-yard composting bin is that it cannot do kitchen scraps. Those attract pests and that's just not cool. But we eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and often have peelings and cores and other kitchen waste that we wanted to dispose of differently, so we bought a vermicomposter. Yes, that is fancy talk for worm farm.

Strange, yes, but necessary I think. CJ surprised me with this for our tenth wedding anniversary. (Who knew that the tenth anniversary was the worm anniversary?)
Regardless of what the occasion is, I am almost as excited about the worms as I am the bees. It's going to be nice to see the bees pollinate the garden that grows in my homemade worm-processed compost.

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