What Is A Wicking Bed
So as you may know, we have recently moved from Washington, the state of perpetual rain to Arizona….. the desert. After being here for just a year I am ready to figure out the best local and eco-friendly gardening methods available for growing vegetables in the desert. Here in Phoenix, we can garden almost year round. The summers do get a little hot (110 degrees plus), even a little toasty for my tomatoes. I didn’t know you could grow sun dried tomatoes on the vine until we moved here :). They are trying to tough it out for another month or so then as it cools they will…
Worm Bin Bedding
Once you purchase or make your worm bin you will need to supply the worms with bedding in which they can hide in and eventually consume. The easiest and most popular form of bedding is cardboard and newspaper (minus the glossy ads and printed with soy based ink, which most papers use today). Another great way to recycle your household waste. The best way we have found to add bedding to the bin is to tear the newspaper and cardboard into 2-3″ strips and separate out the pieces into the bin. Keep adding the material until the bedding is 6-9″ deep. Moisten the bedding Next you can use a spray bottle…
Common Types of Worms for Home Composting
If you are interested in home composting, there is no faster way to turn your food scraps into nutrient-rich compost than by using worms to do your dirty work. Composting worms can eat 50-100% of their body weight a day in scraps. Below is a list of the common types of worms for home composting. Common Types of Worms for Home Composting There are 3 major types of worms for home composting. The Red Wigglers (most common) The European Nightcrawlers The African Nightcrawlers Below is a detailed description of the 3 types of worms for composting. Red Wigglers: Red Wigglers (Eisensia fetida) are the most common type of worms for…
Affordable DIY Patio
Below is a project and write up I completed while living in Washington State. Let me know what you think!!!! Looking for an affordable DIY patio? So was I when I came across an ad in a local online buy/sell/trade website. It was a listing for FREE leftover granite pieces from a local granite business. It turns out, it is cheaper for these businesses to give away the scrap pieces from projects they have finished than to haul the 1000 lb pallets to the local dump. To me the words FREE and DIY are what really get me excited. So I started thinking what could I do with a couple…
Aqua what? Aquaponics!
My love of gardening plus my love of tinkering = a love for trying & building new things. One day the kids and I were home. I was browsing the net looking for new ideas for my Arizona garden… and low and behold.. what did I find. Aquaponics. This is like a tinkerer’s dream come true… build a self-contained system using grow beds, pipes, pumps, (duct tape), and fish to create a sustainable food production super system. So I look at the kids and ask them if they want to get a new pet… or 6. Of course, the answer was yes. So off we went… first to…