What's going on! My name is Rick, I live in Delaware zone 7A, I have around 6 months or 183 growing days for my area. Probably the thing I enjoy the most about gardening is composting. It can be active (hot composting) or lazy (cold composting) both do a great job of turning food scraps and yard waste into a beneficial product that can be used in the garden or lawn. I have 2 indoor worm bins that in all likelihood will be expanding to more. I gardened in ground for many years and now have begun building raised garden beds. They are nice because they are raised a few inches to a few feet off the ground, the growing medium stays loose due to not being stepped on and compacting the soil. I use new and old tools and techniques to help create good healthy food, and a nice lawn. Thank you for stopping by: Recommended Suppliers: The Garden and Worm Lady: www.thegardenandwormlady.com/ Northeast Worms: www.northeastworms.com/
Any Questions send me an email: Barchuckin@gmail.com
Great video. I am new to living here in Virginia. And I really hope this isn't going to be an entirely ridiculous question. But I am planning a new very large cinder block garden bed construction. I recently saw a new (to me) concrete product on the market. That I'm hoping will help make this process a lot easier. So would you happen to know anything about self leveling concrete? Can it be used in an outdoor application like this? If so, wouldn't that make this process so much easier? By using that, instead of painstakingly using all those base blocks to level? Could you just dug out the same base area dimensions. Then simply pour a layer of (appropriately prepared) self leveling concrete to height. Would love anyone's thoughts on if that is in any way possible.
Thanks for the great question. I am not sure about using the self leveling concrete. I would say that would be a great solution to digging and leveling the ground, I just don’t know if anything can leach out of that material. I will have to research it a bit, I will hopefully respond here in about a week. I will reach out to the master gardeners here in Delaware to see if they have any thoughts on it.
Juicer food bomb!! I like it! I'm excited to see how the bigger feedings do for you...I think you'll be surprised how well they do with i!! Excellent video Rick!!🪱🪱🪱
Looking good Rick. With my travels I had to release my worms back into the garden. But it seems there are worms everywhere I go! I was digging in my Moms garden soil the other day here in southern Idaho and I found a worm that was more like a snake - probably over a foot stretched out and very vigorous. I moved him to the tomato raised bed and hope he is happy and multiplying.
@@geekygardens thanks Jack! The worms will be able to figure it out on their own. Hmm not sure what type of worm that could be, did you take a picture or video of it?
And if anyone else wants to follow that link feel free. There's already corn, sunflowers and okra germinating in that bed (which haven't yet made it to a video).
looks like a lasagna on the initial photo,lol. Went to harvest some compost for my CFT bin last week and found jumping worms in it, less than pleased. Now I have to bait out the good worms before I solarize 2, 25 gallon bags of finished compost. Watched a newer University study from Pennsylvania, JW cocoons can wait to hatch for up to 4 years, lovely. Thinking about getting a Mantis tumbler composter, I do not want to spread the JW's with my potting soil. Could buy a lot of crappy compost for $500,00. Can not think of a way to hot compost without contact to the ground, even a concrete slab holds no guarantees. Too old and sore to do what I did for my leaf mold bin, so far that has been bullet proof. It is always something, Lol. Did you ever harvest your awesome Garlic? How do you cure it, bulb up, down or sideways? Stay Well my friend!!!!
@@brianseybert192 I did harvest the garlic and cured it on its side. I have about 6-8 videos recorded just trying to find the time to quickly edit and post. We have a 2 week project at work trying to get weather station locations fixed, we have a technician in town from Texas.
Those pesky pumpkin stems! We put dozens of old jack-o'-lanterns on top of our mulch in all our shrub beds and I'm still finding pumpkin stems! Your brother is going to be your worms' favourite person after that feeding, Rick. ~ Sandra
Last time I squeezed the stem and there was some soft spots. So maybe the next check in the worms will be inside the the stem. But there is no rush to have the pumpkin stem to breakdown. Haha pretty much Sandra, he juices weekly so I can get a big load of scraps every month or so.
@@4oughthooksTx how does the St. Augustine grass grow? Does it grow via rhizomes and stolons (similar to Bermuda grass)? If so I would be careful so that you don’t unintentionally grow grass in your compost and then spread it into vegetable or flower beds. Chopping it very fine and allowing it to dry out my help of adding into compost. If you do add it and grass does begin to grow in the compost you can always add it to the lawn to give the yard a nice boost of nutrients.
Thank you for the video idea Matthew. I will try to get something together. I put castings in a bag and steep it in water, with some molasses and an air bubbler. Then dilute and water the plants.
Looking good Rick, your lighting really picks up on the richness of the dark vermicompost, can almost smell it. Have you ever considered using natural bedding in your tower system? Stay Well my friend!!! Any bowling this weekend?
@@brianseybert192 I probably won’t put leaves in the tower system. But I won’t say I never would. Yup two day tournament, finals on Sunday. A new and different pattern, called BAT. Thanks Brian, have a great weekend!
@@AlmostaGreenAcre-zs5eu Well most of the bulbils/bulblets did grow. They went from the size of a popcorn to the size of clove of garlic (but round). I never had a chance to plant them the next year, which is when they could if developed into a head of garlic. Thanks for checking, I used all of my scapes this year. I will need to try again and make sure they get replanted.
@@GardeningwithBarchuckin Good to know. I was curious as I need to harvest my scapes but thought it would be a great way to increase the size of my garlic bed quickly, but I see it would be a two year process. Nothing wrong with going that route but I will most likely replant this fall for a bigger harvest next year. Thanks for sharing 🙂
@@AlmostaGreenAcre-zs5eu it was neat to try, if you leave one of the scapes on you could give it a try. But definitely easier buying bulbs and just planting the cloves.
Good question, this is Bermuda grass it is a very difficult grass. It has stolons and rhizomes so this grass spreads very easily and can take over the garden bed.
Did you feed the middle tray to have the worms in the top tray migrate to the lower tray for a top tray harvest? The pumpkin stem I put in last year is in about the same condition the one in your bin is. This fall, I will do a couple pumpkin stems again, one I will drill a hole down the center, curious how much faster it may disappear. I put a hard fungal fruiting body in one bin Mid Feb this year, now it is like a sponge. As always, a nice video! Stay Well!!!!
So I take the Patrick (vermicompost learn by doing)approach. The feeding tray was moved to the middle to become the pre harvest tray and not feed. It will be there for a few weeks to help finish off some more bedding and any other larger items still there. The old middle tray (inoculating tray) was moved up to the top and was feed. Once some time goes by I will try to do the aggravation method. Move the middle tray back to the top and shine a light over top and mix them up to get the worms to dive into the feeding tray.
Hey Rick, when I gave a pumpkin stem in one of my bins a squeeze, some worms crawled out! I've never put garlic in a bin, but I know worms love the ends of leeks that I put in quite frequently. Love your consistency of doing this every Wednesday! ~ Sandra
Jersey White and Murasaki are from last year. The yam, a guy at work purchased some and they started sprouting, jackpot for me 😂 I still haven’t had luck with the Okinawan sweet potato purple flesh with white skin. But I will keep trying and I’m not going to pay $20 for a couple slips.
I’m hoping too. I just pulled one that went all the way brown/yellow. It was a little underwhelming but still fresh garlic 🧄😁 the other garlic stems are still green.
Nice illustration of preparing the bed and planting of the sweet potatoes from your homemade slips. The slips without roots will do fine as long as the soil is moist. One thing I do know is sweet potatoes love a loose soil to get lage tubers, your knife went through that bed like a hot knife through butter, awesome. I went through about 14 gallons of vermicompost planting garlic last fall, plus all the spring planting, everything got a good handful. When I plant into my hard clay soil I do mix it into the planting hole, in my beds not so much. Another thing I do is water the plants in with an extract of worm castings/hot compost, gives the planting area a real healthy dose of biology, plus a foliar feeding. Definitely think you will have an outstanding harvest. Stay Well!!!!
Thanks Brian, I did water all of my beds with some of my sourdough starter. I normally give a good soaking and then let the plant go for a few days. But with these I was watering everyday for the first week. Looks like one of the slips with no leaves is gone, plus had something dug a hole and knock one of the sweet potato slips. It is about the size of half a basketball 🏀
I gifted Landon and our sons a hori hori knife after seeing you use one on a video. Very handy tool! The bed looks terrific, Rick. What a great way to add and return nutrients to the soil. ~ Sandra
Glad to hear it Sandra. The hori hori is a great garden tool. I really like using the winter rye as a cover crop. Lots of biomass above and below the soil. Plus it’s very easy to grow: broad cast, rough in (good seed to soil contact), and water, it does the rest😁
Last year I gave away all my garlic scape, not so much this year. I found they are just marvelous in marinades for steaks, shrimp, fish, pork, you name it. Have enough left over to try some garlic scape pesto, never made pesto before. I planted 3 different varieties of garlic, some I started picking scapes a couple weeks ago, picked the last ones yesterday. Have a great week! Stay Well!!!!
Haven’t tried them in a marinade yet. Normally chop them up, sauté and add to tomato sauce for pasta dishes. Have a great week as well. Heat wave starting Tuesday through Sunday.
Hi Rick, hope you’re going to use the scapes in the kitchen. You can leave a few for the bulbils and then plant them but first year is one bulb, replant and then you’ll get a normal bulbing garlic, a way you can increase your planting stock.😊
Yes, in the kitchen I chop up the scapes and sauté them and add to spaghetti sauce (very nice flavor). I tried planting the bulbils and it grew into a clove the first year the following year I never planted them 🤦♂️😂 but it was good to see the process.
@@GardeningwithBarchuckin i actually had soft neck garlic Bulbils form on plant, was strange to me they grow from the middle of the plant,, it’s a rare occurrence but it does happen. I did plant them as they have plenty time to grow in Sydney Australia, waiting for the results.
