Vermiculture Revisited with a side on Procyon lotor/update 5/15/12

Gardener’s adventures with red wriggler worms last year….they ate about 520 lbs. of garbage before rain and cold did them in. .


eisenia foetida




They’d have doubtless survived in a proper worm house. Sooo…. This year we created a worm palace--- a conventional  worm house with a spigot at the bottom http://www.homecompostingsolutions.com/wormbincomposters?gclid) enclosed in a , locked , screened  raccoon proof  enclosure.

 Raccoons (procyon lotor) hunt in part by their acute hearing---they can hear the worms crunching away at the compost, and it drives them mad mad mad with worm lust.

                                                image W
Let’s stop for a word from our sponsor here about raccoons. Never underestimate the intelligence, tenacity or daring of an urban raccoon. Once found a mother and 6 kits inside my room eating my cat’s food.

image W

Clapped my hands to shoo them out. Mother R calmly abandoned the kits, 5 of whom escaped out an open window. One kit couldn’t make the leap up to the window sill---too fat. Nothing phased, he shinnied up the wall and out. Not scared of me at all---they just don’t like loud noises---- no doubt due to ears so keen they can hear a worm burrowing underground.

image w

They plan to take over the planet if we continue to mess up. “Raccoons are noted for their intelligence, with studies showing that they are able to remember the solution to tasks up to three years later. (W) In other words these guys have “culture” and teach their off spring where the goodies are to be found.

image W

They are charming  but — désobéissant.  They’ve rid the garden of snails and keep it snail free, despite a snail- breeding border of agapanthas.

 Snails used to eat the dahlias as they emerged from the ground—not any more. If you sense a love/dismay relationship here with the raccoons---that's it .  Used to feed them. Ended up with about 30 showing up every night for the hand out. Nipped my ankles when I was too slow with the food. Quick ending to  raccoon soup kitchen.

Raccons with their Elephant Child curiosity have been known to dig up a dahlia tuber, simply to examine it. (Dahlias are edible—according to Aztec lore--, but resinous, like eating a very strong retzina) . To keep the raccoons away from newly planted bulbs, sprinkle the ground with chili powder (very cheap at Big Boxes in wholesale size jars). Chili gets on the very sensitive raccoon * fingers, and stings— though they hate it, it is non-toxic and non-lethal..

Having raccoon proofed the worm house , and carefully installed the worms according to directions, you are good to go. Almost immediately the worms begin producing worm juice, which you can use at once on your pet plant. Meanwhile the blessed worms are eating your shredded junk mail not to mention banana peels, coffee grounds etc. If worms did nothing but eat junk mail we could love them.

Guards against ID theft. Better than flossing.

So far the new worms, stunningly housed (is Architectural Digest out there? )
are doing exactly what they should be doing----  eating 5  to 10 lbs of garbage a week.

Teenage male raccoons run in gangs—and “cover a territory of 3-20 miles” (W). Does that sound  familiar?

 Raccoon mothers are single parents, like bears and a lot of other ladies. Raccoon domestic life is affectionate ; the mothers purr and chirp to the young , are careful guardians. … until it’s time to make the juveniles  leave home, get out there and fend for themselves This becomes  a horrible, noisy process

 Talk about tough love and 'failure to launch’. The young ones simply can’t believe their cosy, loving mother is throwing them out into the cold cruel world. They  complain bitterly, sounding like aliens from outer Space. Mom snarls back and nips them to get them going. It’s awful for everyone. (Families of raccoons for many years lived nearby in an old tree house—got to witness the whole telenova  several times.)

 Would be worm raisers, raccoons are Public Enemy #1. Those ousted  juveniles are ravenous until they get a new  territory figured out, because Beastly Mean Momma will not let them stay where they were. Plan accordingly.

Update on vermiculture 5/15/12- Worms are creating the most wonderful compost ever seen. Also producing worm juice which our orchids seem to like a lot. All worms survived and multiplied this winter, thanks to worm palace. We could actually use another worm box at this point, but the one we have is a total success.

Haphazard Gardener Reports on Success and Failure

Succulents were almost 100% successful. Highly recommended for haphazard gardeners. Forgiving, hardy and even hail proof. Aloes, like the one above, looked dreadful after a hail storm- the leaves all covered with black spots. But in three months they'd recovered. Black spots faded and the plant bloomed as usual. Here's another very impressive succulent, Canary Island aeonium. It grew to be 2 feet across in a year, from it's original 6 inch size.

Other things that really worked with minimal effort on the part of an often absent-minded or distracted gardener, were terracing the 45 degree slope that is our growing area, and planting the terraces with citrus that had been growing in large pots. Looks good, the plants love it, the terraces get all gray water and hold the water. Highly recommended landscaping, if a slope is your fate as a gardener.

Butterfly gardening: a piece of cake. Plant the plants and they will come!

Mexican Milkweed

Vermiculture. Well--good, until the worms died of cold! Who knew it was going to drop to freezing around here ? For a while there, the worms were chomping down 7 pounds of garbage a week. Moral of this story is impulsive but ditzy effort doesn't work with vermiculture. I promise to reform, read the vermiculture bible "Worms Eat My Garbage" and proceed properly. The worms did fine---the gardener goofed! Takes more consistent effort than perhaps haphazard gardeners are up for. However it's pretty exciting to go out and listen to the worms chomping up the garbage. An experience not to be missed. Evaluation: takes consistent behavior, well worth the trouble.

 Vegetable gardening. O my! You gotta get religion to do this right. Consistent effort, vigilance, and incredibly rewarding. Honestly, you have never really tasted a vegetable until you taste one you grew yourself, then cooked --briefly!  Alice Waters, you are my muse! Vegetable gardening requires real character--- flakes, don't try this at home!