Birds in the Garden / Bees / Worms / Butterflies

The secret ingredient to fertile soil, earthworms!

For the shopping list:
A large glass jar (with holes poked in the lid)
Moist soil & old leaves
Tea leaves and veggie peels
Black paper
Earthworms

Put 1 cm of sand in the bottom of your clean jar, then plenty of soil, then a little sand, then plenty of soil and carry on until 5cm from the top.
Put some worms in the jar and fill it carefully with the tea leaves and peels.
Screw on the lid and cover the jar with black paper. Leave the bottle untouched with 3 weeks in a cool and dark place like the back of your cupboard.
3 weeks later, have a look - what is left of the food? How does the soil look?



Earthworm farming
Basic ideas - step 1
BEGINNERS STARTER KIT for farming in your own town garden:
Build a wooden box 1,5 x 0,75x0,30 high
Line the box with black plastic
Make a wooden lid & cover with shade cloth just bigger than the box - this will protect the box from heat, water, birds and the sun
Place the box on a stand - tilted to one side & drill a hole in the front corner of the lower side - this will be the drainage hole.
Use the drained water as a liquid fertiliser on your plants.
Dilute: 1-8 or more



Step 2
Place a good feeding mixture (next to worms never on top of them) 1x two litre ice cream plastic container.-

Once per week - consisting of rotten (2-3 days old) vegetable & fruit chopped fine, peals & solids (no onions and citrus nor garlic and carrots please)
+ old horse and / or cow ex stable and / or goat, pig manure + decomposed grass cuttings (no more heat & past the yellow stage please)
+ fine cut news paper and cardboard + a bit of brown sugar and meal will be a bonus.

Keep watering to maintain the moisture, but not too wet!!

After 10-12 weeks start harvesting from the beginning ----- sort worms + unused food + capsules -------- from castings.

Basic ideas - step 1
BEGINNERS STARTER KIT for farming in your own town garden:

Build a wooden box 1,5 x 0,75x0,30 high
Line the box with black plastic
Make a wooden lid & cover with shade cloth just bigger than the box - this will protect the box from heat, water, birds and the sun

Place the box on a stand - tilted to one side & drill a hole in the front corner of the lower side - this will be the drainage hole.


Use the drained water as a liquid TEA on your plants.

Dilute: 1-8 or more


by Pierre Botha, Plettenberg Bay



Articles

Winter Garden Care: To Spray or Not to Spray? / Garden Plants Perfect for Attracting Beneficial Insect Parasites and Predators / The Living World of Conifers / Spiders and Pesticides / Cold Blooded Wildlife: The Gift of Nature / Predatory Ladybirds: Nature's Solution to Aphid Control