Natural garden care There are many things we can do in our yard to help reduce the use of chemicals and pesticides and still maintain a beautiful garden or lawn. Using good maintenance practices like watering weekly (rather than more often), using a mulching mower or using compost on the lawn in place of chemical fertilizer are alternate ways of caring for our soil with nature in mind. Worm Composting More than 40 percent of what we send to the landfill is organic waste. Much of this can be composted, taking up less space in landfills, helping improve air quality while providing an excellent soil conditioner. Worm composting is a great way to recycle food waste into a rich, dark, earth-smelling soil conditioner. The great advantage of worm composting is that this can be done indoors and outdoors, thus allowing year round composting. In a nutshell, worm compost is made in a container filled with moistened bedding and redworms. Add your food waste for a period of time, and the worms and micro-organisms will eventually convert the entire contents into rich compost. WORM PROBLEMS? Never feed your worms meat, dairy products, eggs, or oily foods. Don't allow your bin to dry out. If there are enough holes at the bottom, your worms are not likely to drown, but they will die without water. Don't handle worms with your bare hands. The oils from your fingers clog their pores and cause them to suffocate, and can also make the worms sterile. Extremes of temperatures are deadly for worms- about 50 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal. Never place a worm bin in direct sunlight, and don't leave your worms out in the cold. If you live somewhere with sustained frosts, your worms will die. If your bin is kept outdoors, move it into a garage or shed during winter. Don't allow your worm bin to heat up past 90 degrees. You will cook your worms and that is a smell no one should smell. Large amounts of green feeds (grass, alfalfa, etc.) heat up quickly and should be added lightly. Fresh (uncomposted) cow manure contains harmful pathogens and should not be used. As well, it will heat the bin to deadly levels and kill your worms. Powdered limestone will create carbon dioxide in your bins and suffocate your worms. Use sparingly only if absolutely necessary and stir your bin every few days following adding. How To make Worm Compost Kids just love creepy, crawly things, so worm composting makes the perfect project for young gardeners. Here is how to make a worm compost bin that will yield soil-enriching compost and teach children the value of recycling and good agriculture. Bin: recycle something like an old dresser drawer, trunk, or discarded barrel or plastic bin, about one-and-a-half to two feet tall, with holes poked in the sides to allow air to circulate. (used tires work well also) I prefer wood. Strips of newspaper, dipped in water, wrung out and placed in the bottom of the bin.  Worms: The best kind of worms to use are red worms or red wrigglers, which are different from the earthworms that live in your garden. These worms have a voracious appetite, reproduce quickly and don't mind confinement. Look for them in tackle shops, If you feel adventurous, find a horse stable or farmer with a manure pile and collect a bagful of manure with worms or through mail order. The scientific names are Eisenia foetida and Lumbricus rubellus. Worm/Food Ratio: for one pound per day of food waste, use two pounds of worms (roughly 2000). If you don't create that much waste, reduce the number of worms. All Worm Castings Are Not Created Equal! There are no quality controls for what companies bag & ship as castings . Much of what is sold is actually a vermicompost which is not pure castings. Vermicompost is a mixture of unfinished compost and castings. This is still considered a soil amendment, but does not have the nutritional value of pure castings. What are they feeding these little jewels? What goes in must come out. If you make your own worm compost you will know what they are eating.  WORM COMPOST TIPS: Egg shells in your bin increase the calcium content of the compost you produce. Worms also  like to curl up in them. To be most effective, eggshells must be dried out and finely ground (with a morter and pestle or a rolling pin) before their addition to a bin. Use raw eggshells, not cooked. You can throw your coffee grounds, unbleached filters, and used teabags right in the bin. The smaller you chop up/crush the food, the faster the worms will eat it. (And the faster your bin will produce compost.) Although some home-scale worm keepers use blenders to puree food scraps, others believe vermiculture should be a low-carbon-footprint attempt and thus use little or no electricity. If you would like to collect the water (liquid fertilizer) produced by watering your worms, place a tray under the compost bin. Otherwise, the ground under the bin will become terrifically fertile. An elevated bin (either on bricks, or a bin with built-in legs) sitting in a tray of water will also prevent ants and other unwanted critters from getting into the bin. Castings (compost) tea must be brewed to be truly effective! This cannot be stressed enough. You can use an old sock, 5 gallon bucket and fish bubbler. Fill the sock with 2 cups of well eaten compost (no large scraps, preferably sifted) and tie the sock closed. Fill bucket with water and 2 tablespoons of corn syrup. Add the sock and place the plastic tube for the bubbler in the water and plug in the bubbler. *****Remember you are working with electricity, dry your hands before you plug in anything***** Let water and castings bubble (brew) for 24 hours and then use within 48 hours. Remember that a worm bin is a tiny ecosystem. Don't attempt to remove the other critters living in your worm bin, they are helpers. However, do remove centipedes: Centipedes are carnivores, and eat baby worms and worm eggs. Shredded paper, junk mail, egg cartons, cereal boxes, and pizza boxes all make excellent bedding (avoid glossy paper). Always soak household paper waste bedding for at least 12 hours before adding it to the bin, and thoroughly squeeze out the water first. Don't shred junk mail envelopes unless you remove the plastic windows! Worms won't eat plastic, and picking hundreds of shredded plastic window panes out of otherwise beautiful compost is a composters nightmare. Pre-composted cow manure is a great food for worms. Just be sure to bury it at least 3 inches deep. Rabbit, sheep, and goat droppings do not require pre-composting and their addition makes outstanding vermicompost. Green food increases nitrogen in your finished compost. Examples are: green grass, beet tops, carrot tops, philodendron leaves, fresh cut clover or alfalfa. Brown food increases carbon and phosphate in your finished product. Examples are: paper, cardboard, wood chips, leaves, bread. If adding fresh lawn grass, be certain chemicals have not been added to the lawn. Lawn chemicals are deadly to the ecosystem in the bin. A balanced diet makes for a healthy bin, healthy worms and a great finished product. Finely ground and moistened grains (flour, oatmeal, etc.) are eaten the fastest, followed by fruits, grass, leaves, cardboard, paperboard (cereal boxes), white paper, cotton products, magazines (slick paper) and wood takes the longest (up to a year or more) Calcium carbonate works well to solve most problems. Be sure to use calcium carbonate and not powdered limestone. Water soluble chloro-tetracycline will solve even the worst afflictions of a worm bin (except mite or centipede infestations) WORMS DYING? Maybe they are not getting enough food, which means you should bury food into the bedding. They may be too dry, in which case you should moisten the box until it is slightly damp. They may be too wet, in which case you should add bedding. The worms may be too hot, in which case you should put the bin in the shade. The bedding is eaten, and it is time to add fresh bedding. BIN SMELLS? If your bin smells rotten and/or attracts flies, there may be three causes. First, it may be that there is not enough air circulation. In this case, add dry bedding under and over the worms, and do not feed them for two weeks. Second, there may be non-compostables present such as meat, pet feces, or greasy food. These should be removed. Third, there may be exposed food in the bin. In this case, secure the lid, cover food scraps with bedding, and cover worms and bedding with a sheet of plastic. WORM COMPOST PROCEEDURE: Place about two pounds of worms (about 1,000) in the bin. Make the bedding with shredded newspaper, straw or leaves, and a handfull of sand, soil or compost. Feed them any daily scraps of bread, cereals, fruits, vegetables, coffee or tea (about four ounces per day). Do not include high-fat items that will spoil, such as meat, oil or bones. Keep the bin in a dry environment, with a constant temperature of about 60 to 80 degrees. Bury the food under the worms so it will not rot in the "open" air. Just wait until the scraps start to spoil; they won't touch food that is perfectly fresh. Once the food rots, the worms will suck out all the bacteria, and the castings they produce from the food will be rich in nutrients.  In about two and a half months composting should be complete. It is important to separate the worms from the finished compost, otherwise the worms will begin to die. Removal of castings? simply move the finished compost over to one side of the bin, place new bedding in the space created, and put food waste in the new bedding. The worms will gradually move over and the finished compost can be skimmed off as needed. If you have the time or want to use all the compost, you can dump the entire contents of the bin onto a large plastic sheet and separate the worms manually. Most children love to help with this process it may be fun for them. Keep and eye out for the tiny lemon-shaped worm cocoons which contain between two to twenty baby worms! By separating the worms from the compost, you save more worms for your next bin. Mix a little of the finished compost in with the new bedding of the next bin, and store the rest in plastic bags for use as required. Conserving Water Mulching is one of the best ways to conserve water. It also reduces erosion and discourages weeds. Spread grass clippings or other mulch materials around the base of plants and shrubs. *note see information under Garden NoNo's - Applying organic matter (such as chips/shredded wood, softwood sawdust, peat moss, leaves and wood or vegetable products) to soil increases its ability to retain water, and improves nutrient content. - Plant waterwise plants. By reducing your garden or by planting drought-tolerant plants that require less water, can help save water during hot, dry summer months. Small leaves, fat leaves, grey leaves, and fuzzy leaves are all indicators of drought-tolerant plants. Stop by the Garden Center for specific plant types. BACKYARD COMPOSTING A simple inexpensive way to reduce your garbage and make great soil conditioner for your garden. Location: Chose a flat, partly sunny area with good drainage Bin: build or buy your compost bin. Ideal size 3'x3' to retain the heat it generates. Base Layer: use straw, leaves or woody brushy material to promote air circulation. Alternate Layers: of green and brown material (see chart). Chop up large materials for faster decomp. Add Food scrap layer: top it off with a layer of brown material. If you only use kitchen scraps (green material) your compost will be wet and break down more slowly. Mix bincontents every week or two. Aerating the materials and heats up the bin again, decomposing faster.  Use an old ski pole or broom handle. Moisture content of the bin should be like a wrung out dish-rag. Only add water if it is very dry after mixing. Balancing the amount of green and brown materials maintains proper moisture. Pile will shrink: Continue to add layers of green and brown materials until bin is almost full. Compost is generally ready to use after 2 - 3 months, however, aging the compost for another 1-2 months is a good idea. Harvest your compost when the compost at the bottom is decomposed, moist and full of healthy worms. Dig out the compost with a shovel, using the door at the bottom of a commercial bin; or if you have built your own, remove the top new layers and dig the compost from the center. Sifting through a mesh will remove large chunks of unfinished composted material. What to compost: Green material (nitrogen-rich) Kitchen Scraps Vegetable peelings and rotting fruit Plant trimmings from your garden Leaves, old flowers, end of season greenery Grass Clippings (fresh) Best used as mulch on your lawn; not from lawns recently treated with pesticides. Coffee grounds and tea leaves Pet manure Used only for grass eaters such as rabbits gerbils, guinea pigs, sheep, horses or cows Large leafy weeds Not once in seed, only when still green. Avoid invasive weeds like morning glory. Rhubarb leaves Safe for composting. Rhubarb contains a natural chemical, oxalate, making leaves (not stems) poisonous to eat in large amounts. Vegetables and fruit Cut into thumb sized pieces for faster composting. NO salad dressing. Brown material (carbon-rich) Leaves Save leaves from the fall in a dry bin.  Oak leaves are good, but they decompose slowly, so use only a few. Newsprint Shred Cardboard Cut some into small pieces to compost. Recycle large pieces. Corn cobs, corn stalks Brown paper bags Shred Grass clippings (Dry)   Straw Excellent carbon source; can use in place of leaves. Paper towels and napkins Other materials Eggshells Rinse and crush Wood ash from a fireplace Can compost but best to add directly to garden Unacceptable materials Grease, cooked food including rice or pasta, oils Attracts rodents and pests.  Composts very slowly. Can cause odor problems Fish, meat, bones Attracts animals and can cause odor problems Dog or cat feces Meat-eating animals can carry disease Barbecue ash, coal Contains chemicals such as sulfur oxide     Dog Waste Compost What do you do with your dog's waste? Bury it - Dog feces can be buried in an area of your garden where you do not grow food, although if you bury too much in one place it may sit longer than is desirable. Use eight inch deep holes filled no more than half way, and top with soil. Adding a carbon source, such as wood chips or fireplace ash, helps with the breakdown and reduces odours. Pet septic system utilizes non-toxic enzymes and bacteria to liquefy the dog waste for ground consumption. It works like a home septic system by using pet waste digester to turn the waste into a ground absorbing liquid that is beneficial to most soils except clay. Disposing the waste is so simple, just drop in the waste and let the digester do the rest.  Check out a Doggey Dooley. Compost End Use - The resulting compost can be used on flowers or shrubs. Or, if you use a Doggy Dooley septic composter, most of the composted feces will merge naturally into the surrounding soil. So don't put that near a stream or your gardens either. Don’t put this type of compost, or a septic-style composter on or near your vegetable garden or near a stream. There is always a chance that e. coli bacteria may be present.     Mycorrhizal Fungi Renewing an Ancient Partnership with plants    Throughout the growing season, landscape plants routinely face numerous natural stresses such as low soil fertility, drought, temperature extremes and adverse soil pH (acidity or alkalinity). Most of today’s landscape environments have been created as part of construction projects that disturb or remove the topsoil where plant roots and these beneficial fungi live.  As a result, the ground has no natural topsoil and is virtually devoid of mycorrhizal fungi, making it much harder for these plants to thrive. Yet forest plants survive an thrive despite these stresses.  To achieve this hardiness, plants in natural settings are allied with specialized fungi.  These beneficial organisms, called MYCORRHIZAL fungi (pronounced “my core rye zul”), live inside plant roots and serve as a secondary root system, extending themselves far out into the soil to extract water and mineral elements for their host plants.  Plants with thriving mycorrhizal root systems are better able to survive and grow in stressful environments because the mycorrhizae are able to absorb, accumulate and transfer water and mineral elements to plants more effectively than roots without mycorrhizae. Millions of years ago a symbiotic partnership developed between plants and mycorrhizal fungi dwelling in the soil among plant roots. Both faced many natural stresses, and to survive each needed something the other could provide. The fungi needed sugars plants could manufacture for them as food. The plants needed greater root reach and numbers to draw in more nutrients so they could grow stronger, and stronger. Mycorrhizal fungi began to serve as a secondary root system, organizing and extending themselves far out into the soil with tubular structures that extract mineral elements and water from soil and transport them to the roots of their host plant. The fungi in turn live off the plant’s sugars transmitted to them by the roots. Trees and plants with thriving “mycorrhizal roots” systems are better able to survive and thrive in stressful environments, such as the nearly biologically sterile soil conditions modern agricultural technologies have created for crops. Mycorrhizal fungi still exist in farm soil, but their numbers have been greatly diminished over decades of tillage, fumigation, chemical applications, fertilization, and too often, drought.     The Mad Planter, now carries a growing line of natural mycorrhizal products for gardening that restore what Mother Nature intended – a healthy soil balance that improves crop root systems, plant health and vigor, and ultimately improves yield and quality.       The Mad Planter, now carries a growing line of natural mycorrhizal products for gardening that restore what Mother Nature intended – a healthy soil balance that improves crop root systems, plant health and vigor, and ultimately improves yield and quality.