Early Earth Day

Several months ago Keith posted this on his blog, and I was inspired. We plan to one day have a garden...once our contractor finally gets the grading completed on the project we began over a year ago. I still have faith. On this gorgeous Saturday afternoon, Steve & Joy joined us on the concrete slab in our back yard that will one day be our square foot garden, and we made worm bins. I picked up the supplies at Lowes Friday during my lunch break and Steve & Joy picked up some worms at our community garden (which you should totally join if you live near-by).

See? There are the worms, in their existing compost. It's pretty yucky.

So first, we cut up a whole bunch of newspaper. Everyone helped with that. Except Sarah, who thought the project was dumb.


Sarah entertained herself by tormenting Lola, who was just trying to lounge in the sun, and drawing with chalk all over her gymnastics outfit. All that ended when the power tools and water squirting commenced. More on that in a moment.


Next, we drilled the holes in our bins. Kate learned how to use power tools! Then she helped her sister.






Then, after we glued screening over all the holes, it was time to lay down the worms' bed of shredded newspaper and moisten it with a spray bottle. The girls primarily enjoyed spraying one another. It was pretty hot on that sun-baked slab of concrete that will one day be our square foot garden, so you can't really blame them.


Next, we piled on lots of old leaves and dirt. Happily, we hadn't cleaned up any portion of our yard since October, so there was plenty of that type of material all around us for the taking. After the dirt and leaves went in, it was time to add worms and some organic material for them eat. Eeeewwwwh.

Hey, check out Kate holding that worm in her bear hand. Remember when she was this kid?



We added more wet, shredded newspaper on top of the worms and their food, and put the lids on. Our bins were complete! Now, to feed them each day, and turn the compost from time to time. It's going to take a good 6 months before it's usable, but that's okay, since our square foot garden is currently a concrete slab. Not that I'm at all irritable or impatient about that. Not at all. Once that fun was completed, Joy planted wild flowers by the driveway with the girls.



We tucked our worm bins away from the drying sun and now...we wait. Wish the worms luck! Not that they have anywhere to go yet, since our square foot garden is currently just a concrete slab. I'm cool with that, though. It's no big deal.