If you've been watching Trevor and I's vlogs then you'd know that we recently started a garden on the patio and a worm composting bin. These two things have been my obsession lately. The garden is green and makes the patio look so nice and inviting, and the worms are super good for the environment and crazy fun to take care of.
The Garden
We are currently growing tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, strawberries, and carrots. All of our plants are designed to thrive in pots and grow well on patios. This is the first time that I have ever really tried to grow anything, and I'd say I'm doing pretty good at it. Things are growing well--even if I'm not getting good fruits and veggie I'm having a blast making sure that my little plants continue to shoot up.
The tomatoes are probably the easiest to grow right now. They haven't made any tomatoes yet, but they've really thrived these last couple of weeks. We got the cages to help hold them up and they keep climbing up the side.
The plant that I'm really struggling with is strawberries, so if you've got any tips for me let me know. I have been getting some red ones but they are really tiny. My mom keeps telling me to water, water, water. I feel like I drench them every single day but they stay tiny. I'm not upset about it though. It's still so fun to take care of them even when they aren't producing the best fruits.
The Compost
Finally, the wormies!!! We love these little guys. Trevor has really taken to them and he is the main one to take care of their food supply. With me being a vegetarian we constantly have food scraps that can be given to the worms. We feed them about half a pound a day because there is a pound of Red Wigglers in there. They like things like watermelon rinds, asparagus clippings, brown lettuce, banana peels, coffee grounds, etc.
The dirt in our compost is AMAZING! The worms have been eating and pooping at an alarming rate this month and have made the best, most rich, and the darkest soil I have ever seen. If you have a garden and need fresh dirt then I would highly recommend starting a compost, actually I would recommend this to all people!
Some common questions we get are: Does it stink? No, the worms eat everything before it gets the chance to rot. If your compost is stinky or has bugs then you are feeding the worms more than they can eat. Do you bring it inside? Sometimes. If it gets too cold at night then we bring the tote in to sit right in front of the sliding patio door. It doesn't stink up our house or anything (it just kinda smells like dirt, haha). Do you always have enough food? Yes, actually too much. We could get away with buying another pound of worms and still have enough food. It actaully makes Trevor and I want to buy fresher stuff so we can give the scraps to the worms.
I love my garden and my compost. It is something really fun and not too demanding/time consuming that I can occupy my time with this summer. I like that I have something to take care of and make grow and thrive and change. Feeding the worms and watching them wiggle into the new food is one of my favorite things to do, and I will continue to get more wormies and plant more gardens for a long time.
I dream about the day when I have my own house with a backyard where we can make a corner of the yard my special garden for me to take care of. I want to grow the food, plant some flowers, and maybe accomplish growing something a little challenging. But for now, this works.
