Written by Heather Zubiate
while back, I went to a garden lecture held by our county. They were discussing the virtues of compost, worm castings, and water wise gardening. The truth is, I was only there to get my worm composter with my coupon from our trash company. This all started while I was on one of my many quests on YouTube, where I found a BBC series about an ex food critic in Sydney Australia that sold all he had and moved to Tasmania to start a farm. His own words: "How hard can it be?" came back to haunt him many times. You gotta love the naivety of starry eyed romantics. Needless to say, he quickly found out exactly how hard it can be.
Anyway, on one of his eye opening revelations, he learned how micro organisms are the real work horses, and even the unsung heroes of fertile soil. Sensing his soil wasn't the greatest, he had his soil tested by a local Biologist and discovered that his soil was not just bad, but it was mostly dead! The biologist had been brewing some micro organisms in her lab and was kind enough to issue an experimental challenge using his land. He wisely accepted. They planted two test gardens, one treated with her bio-tea, the other plot was left as is. The garden planted with the micro organisms flourished and provided a tastier veggie than the garden plot planted in the untreated soil. Compelling stuff. So of course, I had to get my own worm composter.
Why Bother With Micro Organisms?
Without getting too technical here, microorganisms, the good ones, help a plant take up nutrients, and fend off bad organisms, thus making the plant healthy. Zero, or even if there are a few of the good microorganisms in your soil, that means your plants will basically starve, and be relentlessly attacked by the bad microorganisms. Commercial fertilizers work to an extent, but they don't provide any long term benefits to the soil. It would be like a person living off candy and vitamins. A person's health requires much more than just vitamins to compensate for the evils of sugar. There are enzymes,
soluble, and insoluble fibers, minerals, proteins, and a whole lot of other factors that help keep our bodies healthy. Same thing with soil. A farm, homestead, or garden with healthy nutrient rich soil will thrive and provide healthy yields of flowers, herbs, fruits, and veggies. That kind of garden will also be far easier to maintain, and a pleasure to work in. A healthy soil is balanced in its composition, texture, nutrients, and micro-organism population.
soluble, and insoluble fibers, minerals, proteins, and a whole lot of other factors that help keep our bodies healthy. Same thing with soil. A farm, homestead, or garden with healthy nutrient rich soil will thrive and provide healthy yields of flowers, herbs, fruits, and veggies. That kind of garden will also be far easier to maintain, and a pleasure to work in. A healthy soil is balanced in its composition, texture, nutrients, and micro-organism population.
Good Things Come To Those Who Wait
I am new to raising worms for their castings, or poop. I have high hopes that this venture will pay high dividends on my investment. But like all good investments, a high return can take some time. The first candidates for the wormy brew will be my fruit trees. They look rather sickly, and are by far, our biggest monetary expense, plant wise. I just hope they can hold on until they can receive the micro organism laden brew. There are commercial fertilizers out there that boast they have these tiny work horses in them, but who knows if they will really work? Robert bought one and so I will give it a try and see what happens.
Update
Sadly, I can't even remember when I started this article, it's been a while. Anyway, as of Mar. 1 2016, the worms are dead as a door nail--oops! Thanks to my forgetting about them, and sitting their home on a south facing wall (all be it under a porch), they finally succumbed to starvation and convection. I will try the worm thing again, but this time I think I'll put the bin next to the compost pile on the north wall, that way I'll remember to feed them and it won't be so hot over there. As for the commercial granule fertilizer containing those desired micro organisms, well it seems to be working. The fruit trees don't look as sickly, and with the addition of mulch, they seem to be doing a lot better. In a few weeks I'll take some pictures to show you some progress, but unfortunately, I accidentally erased all of my pictures, so I don't have any "before" shots to compare them to- - sorry again. Isn't technology great?! Until next time dear reader, I bid you: