Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Harvey Ussery <boxwood@nelsoncable.com>]

> what are some good sources to learn about vermiculture?  
> All the weblists I've found have been taken over by spam. If some of you have 
> experience with this, I'd like to hear about it.   ~Ralph
>   
> In a snowy-winter climate, I'd be 
> concerned about how to keep the worm boxes 
> protected from the cold for several months.  ~Ralph
>   
> I've tried it in containers four times in the last 35 years.  None were successful, so I wouldn't recommend that.  Harvey Ussery (on this list sometimes, I think), does it in his greenhouse.  He did a story on it, I thought in Mother Earth News (but I can't find it).
>
> E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore

Ralph, I'll be writing a full piece on my vermicomposting operation as 
soon as I can get to it. As Mitch said, my setup is in my greenhouse--no 
dormant period in the winter (here in Zone 6b)--the worms remain active 
and even reproducing. Below are two snippets from pieces I've written 
(one of them the recent Mother Earth piece on my greenhouse that Mitch 
mentioned) which include brief descriptions of my system. It works 
great--I'm really pleased with it. If you don't have a greenhouse, might 
go with a pit dug in the earth and protected from moles (love 
earthworms) and chill in winter. As for info, if you've had problems 
with vermiculture discussion sites, just google "vermiculture" and 
"vermicomposting" and I'm sure you'll get plenty of hits. Also, some of 
the sites that sell earthworms for composting have information pages. 
Mary Apelhof's "Worms Eat My Garbage" is the classic, though geared 
toward pretty small projects. But you can start small and scale up, 
that's what I did. The truth is that you don't need much info, the basic 
principles are few and quite simple.

As said, I plan a complete article on my vermicomposting system, just 
not sure how soon I can get to it. Once it's written I will be glad to 
share.

~Harvey (see quoted material below)

   ***I experimented with a 3x4-ft worm bin for several years. The 
greenhouse renovation was the time to step up to more serious 
vermicomposting. We dug in two courses of 4-inch hollow block for the 
bins, 40 feet right down the center of the greenhouse. Every 8 feet, we 
put a cross wall of block, to give five 4x8-ft bins 16 inches deep, each 
with two 4x4-ft lids made of 3/4-inch plywood on 2x4 framing. When the 
flock is out of the greenhouse over the summer, their two 8x8 pens are 
used for an additional 128 sq ft of vermicomposting bin.

Since I needed access down the center anyway, I didn't lose much growing 
space to the new worm bins. And those substantial 4x4 lids over the bins 
have been a godsend. I routinely roll a fully loaded wheelbarrow over 
them. They are a great place to lay out work projects (the Lady of the 
Manor having forbidden doing so on the front porch since we re-decked 
it). We've even set up a table on them and had a picnic there; and I 
addressed a seated class of sixteen on them one raw March day.

Of course all the kitchen throw-offs that don't go to the flock get fed 
to the worms. But the scale of my operation since the expansion is way 
beyond the ``worms eat my garbage'' scale. I haul in pony poop by the 
pickup load from a neighbor who breeds and boards horses. In the process 
of providing responsible manure management, the worms convert the manure 
into castings (earthworm poop), one of the best of all natural 
fertilizers. Last winter, the populations were finally high enough to 
make regular harvests of earthworms to feed the flock, a nutrient-dense, 
high-protein addition to their diet.

   ***I mentioned vermicomposting above as an excellent way to practice 
responsible manure management, produce fertility for our soil (earthworm 
castings), and even to provide a source of live, nutrient-dense food 
(harvested worms) for poultry (or pigs). Two years ago, I installed 40 
feet of worm bins (4 feet wide, dug 16 inches into the earth), right 
down the center of my greenhouse. Since I needed that center access 
anyway, I didn't lose much growing space to the worm bins. The 
heavy-duty lids over the bins have been a great place to lay out 
construction projects, as well as to set up a table for a winter picnic, 
or benches for a class on a raw March day.

There is no better place to site a vermicomposting operation than in a 
greenhouse---the activity of the busy earthworms, including 
reproduction, continues through winter, without a dormant period.

--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us

"How we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used."  
~Wendell Berry