tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57167432012-01-30T10:46:47.626+08:00Notes that will never win me any awards but will nonetheless reflect my very apparent charmCianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.comBlogger5801100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-22773200025918930982011-10-03T08:27:00.000+08:002011-10-03T08:27:59.563+08:00

I haven't been able to give my worms their due attention in the past weeks since I've been rather busy.  That said, my vermicomposting habits have changed somewhat.  I no longer check on my bins several times a day.  It's more like once a week now.  But guess what?  My worms are alright. So how do I take care of my worms now?   I collect our organic leftovers in a resealable bin.  I add paper as

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-70993806343251097832011-07-06T19:09:00.000+08:002011-07-06T19:09:38.004+08:00

As I mentioned in a prior post, my mophead hydrangea plants are situated in front of my house.  When I sweep the floor (filled with dust, hair, skin cells, dead insects), I promptly pour the contents as hydrangea mulch.  I would partially the dirty mulch credit for the hydrangea's continued health.  However, since I also throw some food scraps there (lemon, onion, other fruit peels), I've been

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-60134714558667231022011-06-27T22:25:00.000+08:002011-06-27T22:25:59.721+08:00

One of the most common tips you'll see when vermicomposting is to avoid overfeeding your worms.  Sounds familiar?  It's bad for your bin because too much materials decompose at the same time, causing your bin to smell bad.  At the same time, the decomposition will eat up the bin's oxygen, thereby depriving your worms.  I've experienced that first hand.  Now, I never seem to have enough worms

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-28809895434782515402011-06-21T20:14:00.000+08:002011-06-21T20:14:58.194+08:00

I've observed something over the past couple of months.  In April and May, I had to scoop back worms from the floor at least twice a day and I had to keep the night light on to discourage escape.    Furthermore, I had to leave the lid off my bins even at night apart from not adding any sort of moisture at all.  And yet, I still lost a lot of brave worms in those months.  I salute them. The past

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-48827904913150235432011-06-17T21:35:00.000+08:002011-06-17T21:35:11.566+08:00

My really small back porch has been getting really crowded and messy because of all my little worm bins.  And then I had an inspiration.  I decided to have a multi-level flow through bin made out of office trays.  Of course I've tried this before, but I only stacked two or three.  This time around, I stacked five fully filled trays.  That's lots of paper and stuff and very few worms (about 250

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-72139096351316103102011-06-11T08:40:00.000+08:002011-06-11T08:40:34.683+08:00

Tell me this is not an amazing sight.  I just need Sigourney Weaver to complete the cast of Aliens.  So I've had mushrooms in my worm bin in the past, but I waa blown away by a picture sent by one of my past customers.  This sees like a full blown infestation.  And so he's wondering if the worms are still alive.  I am betting they are.  Mushrooms and worms like the same environment so if the

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-86671063491885061132011-06-09T00:51:00.000+08:002011-06-09T00:51:52.245+08:00

Well there's not a lot going on in the garden lately.  Most of my herbs are half dead again.  I think it's because of the rainy season.  I also have a few worms left since most have been sold. Anyway, I still have my outdoor "systems".  Although I don't have pictures, I'll try to describe what I saw the other day.  The pit where there was once a banana tree continues to impress me.  The contents

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-85617031315829079152011-06-03T08:57:00.000+08:002011-06-03T08:57:10.251+08:00

A few months ago, I tried to take advantage of the summer heat by taking stem cuttings from my rosemary plant.  That mother plant's health has been on the decline ever since I purchased it.  It was only a full year later that I was able to take stem cuttings and even then I wasn't sure if the cuttings would root.  But as I've written before, the cuttings survived.  Today, this is how the plants

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-88065040515127924072011-05-17T16:40:00.000+08:002011-05-17T16:40:08.679+08:00

It's been a few months since I put kitchen scraps as reverse mulch (bottom of the pot) under my habanero.  Then I put a couple of African Nightcrawlers along with the scraps.  I wanted to see if the ANCs would survive in the pot and turn the organic content inside the pot into vermicompost.    A couple of days ago, I decided to dig up the pot to see.    Compare it for yourself.  If you look at

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-14070280741308041222011-05-04T20:01:00.000+08:002011-05-04T20:01:26.916+08:00

I've been eating a lot of melons the past few months and I've been feeding my African Nightcrawlers a lot of melon rinds.  I've also been throwing lots of melon seeds in my various worm bins.  Because of this, a lot of seedlings have been growing in my worm bins.  So I figured maybe I'll try growing these melons to term in one of my flow through worm bins. It's been going great too.  I was

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-4503635556054421762011-04-30T10:57:00.000+08:002011-04-30T10:57:25.538+08:00

Well the melon is really taking over the big metal frame holding other pots.  The vines have climbed up three levels already.  Oh dear, I've run out of space.  I think it's about to crowd out more plants.  And that's just one melon.  Please bear fruit already.   I hope the worms in the container are doing their jobs.  I've put in a lot of organic material to help fertilize this big plant!

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-80418299314765822732011-04-28T10:55:00.000+08:002011-04-28T10:55:38.088+08:00

I have this pot with a strange looking melon.  It has big leaves but no tendrils.  The leaves also seem to have a  veiny pattern, unlike my other melons that are just pure green.  Among the seeds, I've been throwing into the garden, I only had two other candidates: a watermelon or a squash.  However, a watermelon's leaves look more like small Christmas trees, not like this which is a little heart

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-91594629801607015302011-04-26T12:04:00.000+08:002011-04-26T12:04:35.506+08:00

I recently replenished my supply of African Nightcrawlers because a lot of my bins were bought the past couple of weeks.   That said, I didn't have a lot of bins lying around so I just put my worms in a pail.  They were pretty dense inside that pail.  And so the past two days have been quite challenging.  They've been crawling out like crazy, even with the lights on.  For the past two nights,

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-59241105686643501772011-04-23T20:00:00.000+08:002011-04-23T20:00:31.753+08:00

It's been almost a year since I planted a load of siling labuyo seeds.    Most of them died because ironically a lot of bugs were eating them.  I guess the leaves weren't hot.  One survived though and it so happens this one wasn't potted.  It just kinda grew out of neglect.  Sometimes too much love kills a plant.  I've proven that to be true many times in the past.  But anyway, look at this one.

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-38545352036262296992011-04-18T20:39:00.001+08:002011-04-18T20:40:35.597+08:00

My swiss mint is now a year old!  But it's not any bigger.  In fact, it's now smaller.  Let me explain.  Initially the mint grew really well.  Look how big the leaves were.  I even managed to prune it several times and grow new plants from cuttings.  I think most of those died months later.  The mother plant survived though, but barely.   I'm not really sure why but the stems became spindly.  The

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-25028867075648523292011-04-17T18:39:00.000+08:002011-04-17T18:39:10.885+08:00

I've been eating a lot of melons lately since my worms like the rinds.  So now I have more than enough seeds than I'm prepared to deal with.  So a lot of times, I just throw the seeds in with the rinds inside my worm bins.  In my flow through try, I've had dozens of melon seedlings sprouting at the same time.  Since the contents of the bin are almost fully processed anyway, I figured I would just

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-82256199176938733892011-04-16T01:50:00.000+08:002011-04-16T01:50:20.662+08:00

Okay, I have a slight modification in my prediction.  I maintain that Casey and James are the top picks (reflecting my own preferences for jazz and metal).  I'm getting bored with the gospel and country guys.  And please eliminate the baduy Stefano and the chubby country girl.  But shooting to the top of my list is Haley.  Oh with that sexy growling voice and those purple thigh high boots, how

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-33621038602234476242011-04-14T11:36:00.002+08:002011-04-14T11:38:41.532+08:00

As I mentioned in one of my recent posts, I'm trying to grow melons again.   To increase my chances, I am growing from four different pots. I have a couple of seedlings growing in my worm tray.  From a week and a half ago, the seedlings have actually dwindled as expected.  I would expect a few more to die out.  I am thinking I'll be able to grow three full sized melons from that tray.  Too small?

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-41749650243335597142011-04-12T19:49:00.002+08:002011-04-14T11:40:24.809+08:00

Let me welcome my new Purple Basil!  Actually, this is my second one, but my first purple basil was just purple on the underside of the leaves. The first one's still alive and I'm still waiting for the plant to turn purple.  This second one has a more obvious purple shade.  I recently repotted it in a container with some worm castings and coffee grounds.  Hopefully that would be enough to finance

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-66623817207146426192011-04-09T11:04:00.004+08:002011-04-11T18:11:35.905+08:00

You would often read that composting worms thrive best in a contained environment, away from the elements.  Since my back porch is really small, I am limited in terms of the number of containers I can use.  So today, I'll show you a couple of outdoor experiments (outside my mom's house without her knowledge...hehe).  Well more accurately, I'll show you the containers I've been using.  I checked

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-80808423577641267162011-04-06T22:33:00.001+08:002011-04-06T22:34:38.272+08:00

Summer is a great time for plants!  Most of my herbs are doing a lot better than they did 6 months ago.   Of course I have to be more dutiful in terms of watering (sometimes twice a day) but it's worth it.  Let me show you a couple of my favorite plants.  Look at the before and after photos of my chocolate mint.  There's a two month difference between these photos but look how lush the plant

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-85386720504380404542011-04-02T20:36:00.000+08:002011-04-02T20:36:12.116+08:00

Today I want to provide an update on my vermicomposting flow through trays.   The tray is pretty full and the contents I would guess are about 80% processed.  In my case, that's good enough to use.   So what did I do?  Well, I wanted to remove the worms from the tray but I don't want to sort through the contents since there's a lot of material there.  What I did instead was to put another tray on

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-33561148869741293542011-03-30T21:06:00.000+08:002011-03-30T21:06:59.150+08:00

Today I'll talk a little more about worm bin moisture.  What is the proper level of moisture?  How can you tell?  What happens if the moisture level is off?  I've been vermicomposting for about seven months now.  It doesn't seem like a long time, but I have seen a good number of bin conditions.  I've had content worms and restless worms.   Let me share a couple of things I've observed over the

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-54523055858229951842011-03-28T18:25:00.000+08:002011-03-28T18:25:41.513+08:00

Guess what?  The Indian Mango Seed did not germinate within the required period.  At least the worms did not run away from the tray.  As for the various seeds, mostly melons and watermelons, a lot germinated but a lot didn't as well.  I still got about a dozen sprouts, which isn't a bad deal.   I don't know what a chico seedling looks like so I'm not sure if the seed germinated.  It is worth

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-42406461830544565642011-03-25T20:52:00.000+08:002011-03-25T20:52:01.356+08:00

There's something wrong with the voting public.  The bottom vote getter is the most musically talented guy on the show.  Tsk...tsk...Meanwhile that irritating pop singer Stefano is not even in the bottom three. 

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-2344453622961532742011-03-23T22:29:00.004+08:002011-03-25T21:55:30.224+08:00

It's been almost two months since I put African Nightcrawlers inside a pot while I was trying  below-the-soil-mulch.  The experiment was conducted with my habanero as participant.  Here's my two-month worth of experience conclusion:  African Nightcrawlers can thrive inside a pot (about 14 inches) for at least two months.  In my last post, I indicated that I saw vermicompost on the ground below

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-19767807516415295252011-03-19T17:51:00.001+08:002011-03-19T17:53:04.123+08:00

It's been just over a week since I started testing the germinating potential of vermicompost.  It's simple.  I just put a couple of seeds in my worm tray.   This afternoon, I found these little babies.  I think those are all watermelon seedlings.  I'm pretty sure a dozen or more should sprout.  My chico seed hasn't showed up yet;  neither have my indian mango seeds.  I'll give the rest of the

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-20162804292892316382011-03-18T20:36:00.000+08:002011-03-18T20:36:32.142+08:00

This isn't exactly the part 2 of my worm bin seed germination experiment.  I was trying to see how long it would take watermelon, chico and mango seeds to germinate in my worm tray.   These days, I only put food in my worm bins when most of the food has been consumed by the worms.  In one particular bin though, it was taking a few days for the worms to even touch a carrot top.  I figured it was a

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-77033912039931155932011-03-18T09:20:00.000+08:002011-03-18T09:20:06.192+08:00

For the second time, I've been able to root lavender via stem cutting.  This makes rooting lavender in water a repeatable technique.  Of course it helps that the sun is just right.    And as you can see from the picture I made the soil level really low again (less than half the pot).  That's not soil either.  That's pure vermicast. By the way, I guess this means that you don't need a rooting

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-70967860579399438552011-03-16T17:52:00.000+08:002011-03-16T17:52:54.261+08:00

I had a eureka moment this morning.  Most of my worm bins have been doing okay: the worms are eating and staying put.  In the past days though, I've noticed an increase in the crawl outs, even in established bins.  And so I've been wondering why.  I think I have the answer. In a couple of plastic bins, I found the sides and lid covered with moisture.  I'm not sure if conditions became anaerobic

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-9604165567363661292011-03-14T14:51:00.002+08:002011-03-15T15:18:59.750+08:00

Finally I've done it.  I got my rosemary back in May 2010.  I've been trying to grow it successfully ever since.  But it's such a slow growing plant, much like the lavender.  A few months back, I tried rooting it by stem cutting but I guess it wasn't time yet.  The weather was too wet for this dry loving plant.    But now the weather seems just right.  It has been fairly dry and sunny.  The two

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-41370033078877636432011-03-12T09:20:00.000+08:002011-03-12T09:20:01.342+08:00

Well it's been over a month since my kitchen scraps mulch experiment.  I don't really want to dig up the habanero again since it's been fruiting.  I'll wait for the harvest of this current batch of chili peppers and then maybe we'll see. Anyway, my concern is that the powdery mildew seems to be back.  I was watering the leaves earlier when the white little things started flying.  I figured I

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-16349856826273795222011-03-11T21:26:00.001+08:002011-03-11T21:26:48.819+08:00

I keep reading that a lot of seeds "volunteer" inside worm bins supposedly because of all the beneficial bacteria inside the bin.  Supposedly, bad microbes won't infect seeds inoculated with worm castings.   Here in the Philippines, a lot of people are interested in germinating mango seeds.  Since germinating mango seeds is what got me into gardening again, I have a series of blog posts on how

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-72567773734443029422011-03-10T10:49:00.001+08:002011-03-10T16:38:53.762+08:00

I now have about 6 small to medium sized worm bins, none of them really with a substantial amount of worms.  But after months and months of trying, I'm glad to note that I now vermicompost (or use as mulch) all of my fruits and vegetables, paper, used toilet paper, cardboard (including pizza boxes), coffee grounds and tea bags, and all those other goodies you find that are usually fed to worms.

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-75188105310385705462011-03-09T00:35:00.001+08:002011-03-09T00:37:36.254+08:00

I've read that worm bins are not just bedding, food and worms, but that bins represent an entire ecosystem.  Apparently, that's true not just inside the bin, but outside as well.  Let me tell you my story. In the past one and half months, I've seen so many fruit flies and fungus gnats around my bins that I've had to kill them with my electric fly swatter every morning.  I'd get at least 6-7 hits

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-34179555455227128382011-03-06T21:31:00.002+08:002011-03-06T21:36:35.190+08:00

About two weeks ago, I noticed that the contents of one of my small plastic worm bins are almost fully processed.  I figured I would try horizontal migration as a harvesting technique.  I brushed the contents to one side and then I placed a folded cardboard pizza box in the middle to act as a divider.  Then I added fresh bedding to the other side and food for a couple of days.  Since it was a

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-74032864819917039912011-03-02T19:29:00.000+08:002011-03-02T19:29:50.810+08:00

It seems like I make predictions every year but my picks never win.  ;-)  This year, I think the top 5 will be all guys.  I didn't see any hot female singer.  My #1 pick is Casey Abrahms.  My secondary picks would be that rocker guy that dresses like Menudo (can't have it all) and screams a little like Adam Lambert and the big black guy that looks like Bubba from Forrest Gump.  I don't know their

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-60169516532801163272011-03-01T18:50:00.000+08:002011-03-01T18:50:21.611+08:00

I'm ending this experiment abruptly.  This morning I found two dead worms on the ground.  That's a bad sign since I haven't had any escapees in a while.  When I removed the newspaper cover, there were a couple of worms on the sides of the bin near the top.  That's another bad sign.  This afternoon when I checked the bin, a good number of worms were congregating on the side opposite where I fed

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-13009167126224127502011-02-28T21:38:00.001+08:002011-02-28T21:41:07.070+08:00

I have a 5-gallon vermicomposting pail.  It has about 1/4 pound of worms.  I really don't know.  I've been getting worms there to seed about half a dozen bins so I'm guessing the population has dwindled somewhat.  But then again, it's been over a month since I took any worms from the pail.  I'm guessing some reproduction has happened.  About 3/4 of the pail is filled with bedding.  I'm not

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-70237478442719492052011-02-25T17:53:00.001+08:002011-02-25T17:53:59.408+08:00

The lavender I find is one of my most difficult plants to tend.  We used to have a big lavender plant but every stem died eventually.  All except one.  Last year, I was able divide the lavender via root division.   However, even this new plant had a hard time surviving.  It saw some browning of the bottom leaves.  Finally, I removed it from its big pot and placed it in a very small soft plastic

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-53061141681323631992011-02-24T19:39:00.000+08:002011-02-24T19:39:16.982+08:00

I had a recent post wherein I said that I had a very small ginger to harvest from my mature yellow ginger plant.   Apparently I was wrong.  The ginger "fruits" are apparently intertwined with the roots.  Now I'm not sure what that small bulb was that I saw before.   And now I have pictures.  There are like 10 pieces from my ginger.  The great thing is that from that single plant, I now have about

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-66253821509151471032011-02-23T16:41:00.001+08:002011-02-23T16:43:16.420+08:00

Last summer, I bought a Malvarosa.  It was a wonderful herb.  It was very fragrant and grew steadily without me noticing and with minimal care.  So I figured the Malvarosa was a low maintenance plant.  And it's true...in summer.  When the rains came, my repotted Malvarosa (now a big plant) went through all sorts of struggles.   I bought a couple of new ones a few months later, but none of them

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-61589969090949309802011-02-22T10:35:00.001+08:002011-02-22T10:38:08.570+08:00

Well it's been over two weeks since I used all sorts of kitchen wastes (even some meat and fat) to artificially raise the soil level of my Habanero.    So was this a successful experiment?  Well based on my criteria, it is.  The Habanero is still alive and thriving and it hasn't wilted once since the time I transferred it.  That's pretty good considering how dry the weather has been as of late. 

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-54787091370396557602011-02-21T18:54:00.000+08:002011-02-21T18:54:39.326+08:00

I feel alone.  I generally give my best effort so that I can process my kitchen scraps and other biodegradable materials like paper.  From the various garden blogs, I've learned to mulch with plastic, paper and leaf litter.   In fact, I enjoy the topic so much that my Google Reader is filled to the brim with subscriptions about these topics.  But you know what's strange?   About 90% of the stuff

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-34540132928141939642011-02-19T00:34:00.004+08:002011-02-19T00:36:19.023+08:00

Is it a lame title?  hahaha...I'll live.  I just don't have a major theme.  I do have bits and pieces of worm stories.  The other day, I made a video.  It's about how worms like melons.  What's your experience?  For me here's what happened.  I put in two melon rinds in my pail-type worm bin about two days before the video.  On video day, I checked out the melon rinds.  There were like a dozen

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-80804639646142559852011-02-17T17:33:00.001+08:002011-02-17T21:56:41.665+08:00

Well, it's been a year since I last registered my Suzuki Multicab (the one I bought from Don Soriano & Kevin Yao -- buyer beware!) Last year I had all sorts of problems because the vehicle was supposedly from Cebu and therefore kinda complicated.  Read about it in my related posts.  Anyway, a year later, I looked for Mang Jimmy again, who was the fixer that got the vehicle finally registered in

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-72100295331508542992011-02-17T16:06:00.002+08:002011-02-17T16:10:23.841+08:00

I finally got it!  After months and months of searching for a purple basil, I finally found one!  Yey!  But I must say it's not as exciting as I figured it would be.  Why?  Well, the leaves aren't exactly purple.  The undersides of mature leaves are purple, but on top it's all green.  Supposedly, those leaves should turn purple over time as well.  Only time will tell.  In the meantime, I'll have

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-42944183055711243272011-02-16T17:18:00.001+08:002011-02-16T17:20:05.794+08:00

A lot has been said on using vermicompost or vermicast as an organic fertilizer and how it won't burn plants no matter how much you use.  Have you seen it for yourself?  I have.  Here's what happened to my recently rooted sweet basil cutting.  If I remember correctly, I cut it about 3 weeks ago and planted it in this makeshift pot about 1 1/2 weeks ago.  I used pure vermicompost as soil.  I only

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-27487365669224921402011-02-16T16:54:00.000+08:002011-02-16T16:54:43.315+08:00

Has it really just been a year?  It seems so long when I started gardening again.  It all started with the mango seeds I wanted to germinate.  Now, I have three of them left and this is the biggest one. I'm not sure why, but it's about a foot bigger than the others.  This one is about two feet tall and is starting to bend because of the weight.  The main stem or trunk hasn't become woody yet.  

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-16587476000045583752011-02-11T20:49:00.002+08:002011-02-11T20:58:17.065+08:00

I'm running a bit low on worms due to positive sales of my indoor worm bin.   So today, I decided to fiddle with all my worm bins just to see if my small business can survive with just organic growth of my worms or if I have to buy more African Nightcrawlers.  First, I checked on my vermicomposting sack.  It's a basic rice sack that I left out in the garden, but under the shade.  It's my lowest

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-50377236174003696792011-02-10T08:36:00.001+08:002011-02-10T18:39:27.450+08:00

If you read the 1,720,209 blog entries on creating worm bins, you'll probably discover that a lot of them are copied word for word.  It's crazy how much info we rip from each other in the Internet.  Nonetheless, I followed a lot of the rules.  In my short experience with African Nightcrawler vermicomposting, here are some personal opinions: Bedding Materials - I'm all for cardboard, newspaper,

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-58045520479674528972011-02-10T08:05:00.001+08:002011-02-11T02:08:02.832+08:00

Remember my Oregano Thyme?  It was that plant that just never thrived for me (well one of the many plants).   There wasn't much material on the Internet about it, but I eventually found out that it was really a variety of Thyme and not some cross breed between Oregano.  In hindsight, I understand now why it's called such. I have current pictures of a Cuban Oregano, an Italian Oregano and a file

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-42558600589284246732011-02-08T18:07:00.000+08:002011-02-08T18:07:20.575+08:00

This is the view in my backyard these days.  All my Cat's Whiskers are in full bloom!  Look at all the beautiful white flowers.  If  I'm not mistaken, the picture shows about 4-5 potted Cat's Whiskers but it looks a lot more, right? That's because I've been pruning mercilessly in the past months.  As a result, they've all branched out and have bloomed profusely.  This has got to be one of the

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-73102273164143402322011-02-07T19:41:00.000+08:002011-02-07T19:41:03.847+08:00

It's been a couple of months since I found a small Yellow Ginger on my front door.   It seems Jean fancied the plant and wanted me to take care of it.  And so I did.  I read up on it too.  Supposedly it should just take a couple of months before this root crop bears fruit.  And so I waited.  In the 5 months or so that I've had it, my two small original plants are now 6 or so.  These things self

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-34562573035581070172011-02-03T17:47:00.000+08:002011-02-03T17:47:30.631+08:00

Three months ago, I wondered if vermicompost will help cure one my sick Chocolate Mints.  As a background, my mints (all of them!) got hit by some sort of disease that caused them to become leggy at best and dead at worst.  So I thought maybe the good microbes in vermicompost will stem the tide.  Well it's been three months since I shoveled in some vermicompost into the pot (about a shovel-ful

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-69137126469979438692011-02-03T10:35:00.002+08:002011-02-21T07:43:02.140+08:00

I wasn't sure what to call this post.  It's a mix of a lot of things and I'm not sure what the main theme is.  Consider this.  I have tons of paper waste and all my vermicomposting bins are absolutely loaded with them.  I also have a lot of kitchen scraps accumulated throughout the week, but as I said my worm bins are loaded.  I have nowhere to put the green scraps.  I have limited soil and / or

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-56192609319982295762011-02-01T16:54:00.000+08:002011-02-01T16:54:23.812+08:00

Since starting my gardening and worm composting adventures over a year ago, there are persistent terms that keep coming up from seasoned gardeners.  So I decided to finally check them all out. Worm Castings - Worm Poop!  Excellent fertilizer and infinitely gentler than other fertilizers.  Will not cause root burn Cow / Horse Manure - Cow & Horse poop!  Well this one's a no-brainer and I'm sure

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-46510804249971383002011-02-01T10:49:00.001+08:002011-02-02T19:34:23.101+08:00

Have you ever tried vermicomposting in a simple clay pot?  I have. If you ever read DIY articles on making worm bins, you'll never see any suggestions for using clay pots.  It's always a plastic or wooden bin and never something as small as a clay pot (10 inches diameter I think). A couple of months ago, I tried it just to see if it will work. I inadvertently broke a clay pot in two a few months

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-51034634913322170132011-01-31T12:01:00.000+08:002011-01-31T12:01:05.261+08:00

Remember the hydrangea plants that we bought in Tagaytay about two years ago?  Well they're a lot bigger now.  Just look at the leaves on the first one.  It's bigger than my hand I think!  And look at the other one.  It's blooming.  However, two years ago I bought it with bluish flowers.  Now it's blooming pink.  When I read up on this months ago, the color of the blooms is determined by the PH

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-37838143282463265622011-01-18T20:17:00.000+08:002011-01-18T20:17:58.053+08:00

On a positive note, I've finally been able to keep most of my Gotu Kola healthy.  Apparently, you just need to treat them like most other herbs.  Give them lots of sunlight, water and a fertile, well draining soil.  That's it.  It'll send runners on its own.  The negative part though is that some insect or rodent has been eating the leaves.  If you look at the picture to the right, you'll see

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-27950399286902849142011-01-17T12:26:00.000+08:002011-01-17T12:26:03.750+08:00

One of the many joys of vermicomposting is being able to see a worm spaghetti.  Well, maybe you won't want it on the first few days, but after a few months, playing with your worms becomes second nature. On this fork, you see about 50 African Nightcrawlers, mostly adults.  How cool is that?   I wonder how much they weigh.

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-22059949185651231432011-01-13T18:11:00.003+08:002011-01-13T18:19:22.509+08:00

Have you ever tried rooting herbs in a glass of water? I've tried it with a good number of herbs: sweet basil, cinnamon basil, Thai basil, Swiss mint, chocolate mint, Japanese mint, lemon mint, tarragon, rosemary, stevia, lavender, cat's whiskers and some others. In some cases, it would work. When it does work, I would usually see roots within a week. I don't usually remove a lot of the

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-26553967923614374942011-01-10T19:58:00.001+08:002011-01-11T18:12:17.247+08:00

If you haven't developed an environmental conscience yet, you probably won't appreciate this post. As for me, I am very intrigued with the potential of humanure composting. Basically that means that human feces will be composted and returned to nature as humus. As with other types of organic materials, you can do anaerobic composting, aerobic composting and vermicomposting (or combinations).

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-4509692024456201162011-01-02T07:23:00.000+08:002011-01-02T07:23:41.347+08:00

Remember this picture from two months back?  Well I had this challenge wherein I placed this much material in this 5-gallon container and 10 worms of different sizes and I wanted to see how long it would take for the worms to finish everything.  Well I cut short this challenge because the contents were too wet and it was getting icky.  But before I cut this short though, the contents declined to

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-6199661752215245732010-12-28T22:21:00.000+08:002010-12-28T22:21:34.167+08:00

It's an interesting question.  I've never really been able to definitively answer it.  If you look at most material on the Internet, they'll talk about Red Wigglers, not African Nightcrawlers since the former is more suitable for US and Canada where most of the English sites are.  Red Wigglers supposedly feed on top and leave their castings at the bottom.  That's probably why flow through bins

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-39488100340389839932010-12-25T21:27:00.000+08:002010-12-25T21:27:54.300+08:00

Most articles you would read on the Internet regarding vermicomposting will talk about vermicomposting using plastic or wooden bins / tubs.  But you probably have not read anything about sack vermicomposting.  It's something I tried a few months ago.  Flashback to around two months ago.  I got a sack (the type that breathes).  The consistency of the sack material was like plastic.  I'm not sure

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-69790306076173934672010-12-20T13:19:00.000+08:002010-12-20T13:19:28.020+08:00

For a couple of months now, I've been wondering how to make my African Nightcrawlers reproduce faster. That's what we all want, right?  Mostly, I would see that the conditions have to be right: moisture, air and bedding.  But then I read something new.  Worms need calcium to stimulate reproduction.  Is that proven?  I can't say, but it's something worth trying.  I have been adding crushed

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-50417136829982165712010-12-15T18:11:00.001+08:002010-12-15T18:20:57.483+08:00

Almost two months ago, I created an indoors worm bin made of an old 5-gallon water container.  My objective was to see how long it would take to fully compost a full container with just 10 small African Nightcrawlers.   Well, I'm prematurely ending that experiment.  The contents are starting to look icky.  For some reason, there's so much moisture in the bin already.  I didn't put a catch basin

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-85293897354439724322010-12-12T22:37:00.001+08:002010-12-12T22:43:00.177+08:00

I haven't really taken a lot of pictures lately, so I'll have to describe my updates.   I guess one reason is that I've been getting acquainted with uploading videos on Youtube.  Yes, I'm a little late in the game but it's fun nonetheless.  Anyway, since I mentioned the video already, I'll start with that.  Over the past month or so, I've been able to harvest about a grande cup worth of

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-22289177585232990132010-12-07T00:01:00.000+08:002010-12-07T00:01:04.434+08:00

 Let me start of by saying that I don't know how to gather seeds from my basil plants.  I just basically did what was intuitive.  Two months ago, my basil plants started flowering.  I didn't really want them to go to seed since I've read that the plant dies afterward. However, a very nice person mailed me some herb seeds (Rosemary, Parsley, etc).  I figured it would be fitting if I sent her some

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-87480334125717218452010-11-29T21:30:00.000+08:002010-11-29T21:30:39.401+08:00

Well my worms in Worm Bin 2a are now in the arms of someone else in Novaliches.  Take care of them!  That was a nice bin too.  But I'm not sad at all.  I'm glad that more Pinoys are getting into the worm habit.  I'd gladly be the provider that gives access to vermicomposting hobbyists.  Anyway, I'm also glad someone purchased the bin because I got to create a new one!  And it's such fun making

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-26001940123841571612010-11-23T18:49:00.000+08:002010-11-23T18:49:55.026+08:00

Here's my lavender!  It looks a lot bigger from last month, huh?  I guess it really helps that it's in the sunniest part of the yard.  You'd never know it, but I've been nursing this particular plant for half a year already!   You don't see it clearly in the picture, but the pot looks too small and the soil is fairly limited.  Why is that good?  Lavender likes it sunny and dry!  Even if it rains,

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-64785855898236010302010-11-19T16:45:00.004+08:002010-11-19T22:37:47.128+08:00

Guess what?  My E51 decided to work today.  So I was able to take pictures of my worm bins.  Today, I'll show you Worm Bin 4, which is a 5-gallon Round Container sawed in two.  The pictures will show the bin's content level on Novembers 4, 10 and 19. The series of shots shows a constant but slight decline in the volume.  A lot of it is probably the moist paper compressing, but I'd like to

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-35367996590215539362010-11-19T00:22:00.001+08:002010-11-19T00:24:38.418+08:00

It's been a busy week in the garden but not everything has been positive.  The Lavender that I've been tending to for months has been looking really good.  The plant size to soil ratio has increased.  From what I read, that's a good thing.  Why?  Well Lavender likes it dry.  In fact, repotting the plant can be counter productive because the bigger pot will have more soil and therefore a higher

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-23036074498162189772010-11-10T00:35:00.001+08:002010-11-10T19:07:10.386+08:00

If you're new to worm composting, you might be wondering what worm castings look like.  After all, they're always shown from afar.  Collectively, they look like dark soil.  Right?  So is there any way to distinguish them from soil or from coffee grounds?  I believe so.  I took these pictures earlier.  They're as close as my camera zoom will take me. To totally mess up your sweet tooth, I kinda

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-64301845334752738122010-11-05T17:09:00.000+08:002010-11-05T17:09:29.874+08:00

Well I have to say goodbye to Worm Bin 2.  Someone bought it.  Lucky guy.  It was my best performing bin.  From about 8 worms at the start of October, it was up to 47 as of yesterday.  Talk about population explosion!  The funny thing is that I'm not sure why it performed so well, whereas Worm Bin 3 (Worm Tray) is such a flop.  Sure it had mushrooms, but the population actually dwindled from 8 to

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-60998457378919893962010-11-04T19:46:00.000+08:002010-11-04T19:46:08.163+08:00

In my last Worm Bin 3 update, I talked about mushrooms sprouting in my vermicompost tray (on top and at the bottom).  I wasn't sure if mushrooms were beneficial to the worm bin so I kept cutting of the heads, just to be safe.  But the I found out that lots of other people have observed mushrooms sprouting in compost bins.  Apparently, it's because mushrooms tend to thrive in the same environment

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-66850415330230020632010-11-03T21:36:00.001+08:002010-11-03T21:37:36.084+08:00

Just a week ago, I finished creating my own indoor compost container / vermicompost bin.  As you can see from the edges, I'm not much of a handyman.  ;-)   Just a week later, it was already full. Okay, I may have been a little excited putting in new material from all over (mostly pruned herb leaves).   I also put in food scraps.  However, since it was indoors and since the bin has an air vent (

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-42819125507703676932010-11-02T10:38:00.000+08:002010-11-02T10:38:24.683+08:00

A couple of days ago, while checking on my worm bin / flow through tray, I was surprised to see mushrooms sprouting.  In the morning I saw two.  When I checked back in the afternoon, there were like 3-4 more.  Not being sure if they were good for the worms, I cut off the tops to kill the mushrooms.  Yesterday, this is what I saw.  A lot of new mushrooms sprouted.  I'm not sure what type of

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-1883355011198804552010-11-01T09:52:00.003+08:002010-11-02T10:25:14.711+08:00

Yesterday I decided to gather some vermicompost from my Worm Bin 1.  After sifting, I got some, but not a lot  as you can see from the picture.  It seems my bin is still too wet to allow for efficient vermicast harvesting.  The contents were all clumped together.  From the picture, you'd also see that some worms (African Nightcrawlers) went through the sifter.  I returned them to the bin of

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-37905076097874262042010-10-31T17:14:00.000+08:002010-10-31T17:14:28.425+08:00

Worm bin 2 is a simple, small, rectangular container with a couple of holes on the lid (none at the bottom).  I used the bin at the start of October when I placed 7-8 worms.   Amazingly enough, by October 13, there were already 15 worms in the bin.  As of October 29, I counted about 36 worms already!  Granted, a lot of them were still babies, it's still cool, right? I took a couple of pictures. 

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-71212773003630327702010-10-28T22:43:00.003+08:002010-10-29T17:57:41.791+08:00

I'm a big fan of recycling and I'm absolutely thrilled with the concept of composting.  So you may ask, how do you get this old and not be practicing it?  Well, I think I know one person who practices composting.   It's not exactly popular in these parts.  I do have vague memories of digging compost pits in high school, but the exercise didn't ingrain the importance of it.  I just remembered the

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-85411675679104614972010-10-27T14:05:00.000+08:002010-10-27T14:05:51.033+08:00

Did you ever think there was a market for herb bartering?  Until a couple of weeks ago, I didn't know.  As I've often talked about, my Cinnamon Basil plants are thriving in my garden.  From one original pot, I now have about 40-50 (including the ones I've given away).  Is that amazing or what?  Not wanting too much of a good thing, I posted an offer to swap herbs in a local gardening mailing

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-56220798226806714522010-10-25T13:13:00.001+08:002010-10-25T13:16:07.490+08:00

In most How To articles that I've read, I always find that coffee grounds is always on the list of Stuff to Feed Worms.  Well that makes sense I suppose.  Everyone likes Starbucks.  Why shouldn't worms?  Naturally I had to do a little experiment.  I got some months old coffee grounds from the trunk of my car (I've been using it as an air freshener), got a small plastic lid and placed some coffee

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-54816442175291255722010-10-24T19:27:00.001+08:002010-10-24T21:24:15.673+08:00

There are certain kinds of herbs that just won't thrive in my garden.   What's common with Oregano Thyme, Lavender and Rosemary?  These are supposedly the low maintenance plants that you should just leave in one corner of your garden.  Just ignore them and they will thrive or so they say.   These are plots that love hot and dry conditions.  Unfortunately, it's the rainy season.  I try to

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-29387621833546372432010-10-22T22:54:00.001+08:002010-10-22T22:54:52.676+08:00

Well, I've been trying to get some shred of evidence that worms are the voracious eaters that they're reputed to be.  An important tidbit that I've read is that worms don't really eat the food you give them.  They don't have teeth, but they do have a gizzard.  They thus suck parts of rotted organic material to be grounded by the gizzard.  But, they actually get their nutrition from the microbes (

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-85849685381314341972010-10-21T15:12:00.000+08:002010-10-21T15:12:50.388+08:00

Let me start of by saying that the Nokia E51 doesn't have a very good camera.  That's why a lot of my shots are out of focus, especially when I attempt close-up shots.  That said, I had a novel thought about eating baked potato last weekend.  And so that's what happened.  From my last potato adventure with Jean, we found that it was heard to spread stuff on potato quarters.  So this time around,

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-21585627049951780872010-10-19T16:14:00.003+08:002010-10-19T16:56:11.681+08:00

As I mentioned in the previous worm entry, I haven't seen a lot of material about worms eating moss.  It is microscopic, so maybe it fits in the diet.  As far as Internet entries are concerned, I didn't really find anything conclusive.  To me, that's a signal to experiment.  So that's what I did.  I decided to experiment with worm bin 1 since most of my African Night Crawlers are still there (

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-38561698441762557252010-10-18T16:01:00.000+08:002010-10-18T16:01:38.471+08:00

I used to have a fair sized lavender plant (several actually in one pot).  But sometime in the middle of the year, they all started getting discolored as if drying up.  I've long suspected it was some sort of fungus or root rot.  So with only two main plants left, I moved my lavender back to a small pot and put in some very good organic soil.  Unfortunately, one still died.   But not, after what

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-23156087832057124762010-10-17T12:51:00.000+08:002010-10-17T12:51:40.339+08:00

Oh man!  Almost all my mints (Japanese Mint, Chocolate Mint, Lemon Mint, Peppermint and Swiss Mint) are sick across the garden.  Well almost all of them.  My Spearmint (which recently got a vermicompost boost) seems to be the only healthy one.  I think there are two problems.  First of all, the lower leaves of my various mints are drying up.  I'm not certain if it's mint rust.  It looks a little

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-75943800114621915612010-10-16T10:28:00.003+08:002010-10-19T16:56:43.032+08:00

Here's an update on my stackable worm bins experiment.  When I started using this tray for my vermicomposting activities, I taped around the sides so that most of the holes are covered.  I made sure though that there's still plenty of small holes for ventilation.  So I put in 7-8 African Night Crawlers because I wanted to see how fast the worm population will grow.  When I did my worm count last

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-38131941744443286812010-10-15T09:10:00.001+08:002010-10-16T02:49:30.798+08:00

Four months ago, I introduced the Jalapeño to my stable of plants.   Apparently, it was a Habanero.  No big deal, right?  Both have Mexican sounding names.  Until you taste it.  You know, I'm a big Siling Labuyo fan. On my happy trips to Chicken Bacolod, I always use about 3-5 pieces of Siling Labuyo for my sauce.  Pretty hot.   Siling Labuyo rates about 50,000-100,000 in the Scoville scale. 

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-69975950036264092692010-10-15T01:05:00.001+08:002010-10-19T16:57:04.886+08:00

I've been doing a lot of reading and thinking about, as well as experimenting with worm composting bins.   It's exciting!  The last time, I segregated all the worms in worm bin 2 and moved almost all bedding and food to another side, leaving the worms with little food and bedding.  I also poured a generous amount of crushed egg shells.  Did the poor worms die as I feared?  Nope.  Early this

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-86023624154642833542010-10-13T20:55:00.002+08:002010-10-19T16:57:30.307+08:00

Worm Bin 2 is about 3 weeks old.   When I prepared it, I put in about 7-8 worms in the bin.  Pretty small number, right?  Well I just wanted to see if I can make that population grow.  Since I was still really excited then, I fed those worms a lot of big pieces: whole bills, whole weeds, and stems with lots of leaves (mostly basil and malunggay).  You can see that in the picture.   Actually, when

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-59505593577818467692010-10-12T17:28:00.002+08:002010-10-19T16:57:57.880+08:00

Curiosity finally got the better of me (yet again).  I know my worm bin 1 is not quite finished (about 60% processed), but I just had to experience harvesting worm castings.  So, I borrowed one of the unused trays from worm bin 3.  I had two reasons for buying those trays: 1) I wanted to try a flow-through bin; and 2) I wanted a sifter.  I figured, the holes at the bottom of this tray are small

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-66208171442457830332010-10-11T17:16:00.000+08:002010-10-11T17:16:35.114+08:00

Well I admit.  I've been writing about my worms too much that I haven't written about other new denizens in the garden.  Today, let's do a little introduction. First of is an Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus Moench) which Jean raised from seed.  It supposedly only started growing rapidly once it reached my sunny front yard.  Well hello Mr.Okra.  I am sorry to say that I don't eat you.   So keep

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-37011872050591684602010-10-11T08:51:00.004+08:002010-10-19T16:58:26.642+08:00

In worm bin 3, I had hoped to apply the quick lessons I've learned from my other relatively new bins.  As I mentioned before, worm bin 3 is designed to be a stackable, flow-through bin.  I also mentioned that while I have been quite generous with my feeding, I'm certain my worms are still okay.   I haven't seen my worms since I placed them there since I haven't been digging around this bin, but

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-73311130654654530302010-10-09T08:50:00.002+08:002010-10-09T08:52:05.270+08:00

I have two types of Oregano.  The first one I got is the Cuban Oregano.  Interestingly enough, you usually find this in empty lots (like weeds), untended and growing like crazy.  That's where I got mine.  I crudely cut a couple of stems from some vacant lots and placed them in a glass of water.  The funny thing about this particular plant (the one in the picture) is that is rooted in a small

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-15795138709898930922010-10-08T09:15:00.006+08:002010-10-19T16:58:48.207+08:00

Hello fellow vermicomposting enthusiasts! I can hardly wait to provide an update on my worms.  That's me and my addictions.  Anyway, let's first look at worm bin one: the pail.  As you can see, there's a lot of uncomposted material, but the ratio vs. composted one is probably 40:60.   I've stopped feeding this bin for a week now.  I only add water and I mix up the stuff for aeration (and of

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5716743.post-12971380589733395922010-10-07T18:21:00.002+08:002010-10-18T16:03:37.222+08:00

About a month ago, I successfully propagated my Stevia.  It was fairly simple.  I just cut a couple of long branches, placed the cuttings in water, put the cup in an area with some sun and waited for about a week and a half.  Voila!  They all rooted.    The first time I tried rooting Stevia cuttings, it didn't work.  I think it's because my mother plant wasn't healthy enough when I did it. 

Cianoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07450114470669984306noreply@blogger.com0