Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[onezero <onezero@ecomail.org>]

All:

  Looks like the solution is a large cold frame with a natural cold sink and
some of that two ply "window board" in frame with cellar type door. Complete
with insulated worm boxes. Water pipes and maybe some solar heated water
circulator for keeping the roots warm. The other solution is to relocate and
take an easier more relaxed approach. 

  Also the help on the "natural ideal" such as a high plateau where the cold
naturally migrates off with a south facing hill side for handling extended
season factors was very enlightening. The local marketing stuff was over the 
top
great. It is great for this small mountain community. It give a great view.  

  Found some great worm boxes, through the worm website, great for the kids to
learn about biology, compost, recycling, green house gases and good quality 
soil! 

  It all gives a little hope for the future external madness that some kids 
will
have to put up with.

  Great list! super knowledge and great practical answers. 

  most amazing, jadwhig.

Quoting Harvey Ussery <huboxwood@earthlink.net>:

>   > We are in a snowy cold Winter here in Colorado and would love some 
> advice on
> > the practical use of worms for compost use.
> > 
> > Some preliminary questions would be :
> > 
> > Can they survive in the pile in Winter?
> > 
> > If you invest in them will they freeze come hard Winter ?
> > 
> > What about the location for a worm bin ? Well house ? 
> > 
> > Can we replace the fish tank and pipe the fumes outside ?
> 
> For those with a greenhouse (or thinking of investing), it is the 
> *ideal* place for vermicomposting. My greenhouse is 20x48 ft. I put five 
> 4x8 ft worm bins down the middle of the g h, dug into the earth 16 
> inches and lined on the perimeters with 4-inch hollow concrete block. 
> Each 8 ft bin has two 4x4 lids (3/4-inch plywood on 2x4 framing), over 
> which I routinely roll a fully-loaded wheelbarrow. Since I need access 
> down the center of the g h anyway, I didn't lose any significant amt of 
> growing space to the worm bins.
> 
> Given this setup (bins dug 16 inches into the earth *inside* a large 
> greenhouse) and my climate (Zone 6b), my happy worms keep working the 
> bedding (pony poop from a neighbor who breeds/boards horses) and 
> reproducing right thru the dead of winter. I'm harvesting worms to feed 
> my chickens, and castings for garden fertility--by the pickup load.
> 
> Next issue of Backyard Poultry will have my article describing my g h in 
> greater detail, complete with pictures. (Will try to get some pix on the 
> website as well. In fact, if there's interest here, I'll make it a 
> priority.)
> 
> ~Harvey in northern VA
> http://themodernhomestead.us/article/Home.html
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> 
> 




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