Wood Worm Farms

Sorry for a long silence. There were two reasons for it. First my camera went for a long trip without me, and second I was busy organizing several new projects.
Following the idea to bring my vermicomposting from the virtual reality to a firm local ground, I was trying to introduce worms into some nearby eco-businesses.
I think the preliminary results are positive.
Another project (following the example of Growing Power) is aquaponics.

(find 11 fish on the picture]
I've built this system myself and it was not too hard. The most problematic part was that the only appropriate lamp was 48" in length. I didn't find anything smaller for a normal price. So the lamp dictated all the stand dimensions.
According to Growing Power's web site, the right fish is Yellow Perch. So I've got some fry, frightened to panic. The main idea was to feed them worms from my bins, but they didn't
touch them. I tried Cichlid pellets, also with no success. I have the fish already for 2 days, but still can't find a food they will eat.
Plant seed are also in place, but still didn't germinate.
Let's wait more...

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Each year I repeatedly try to get my compost hot, but in vane.
This year I decided to turn all my outdoor compost heaps to vermicompost and they all heated up to extreme temperatures... Poor worms. I hope they had time to escape.
Now I know how to heat up compost from grass clippings.
1. Let the neighbors to collect their grass clippings
2. Collect the neighbors' plastic bags.
3. Let the clippings to ferment inside the bags for a week or two, depending how dry is
the grass.
4. Mix the clippings with the last year dead leaves (also collected by neighbors) approximately 1:1 and put on the heap.

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The tray #1 is ready!
After 162 days it came the time to empty it. The total yield was 8lb of compost from combined weight of approximately 9lb of kitchen scrap + bedding material together.
Actually, the compost was ready much earlier. I was just waiting until all the upper trays would get full. Since I have 4 bins now, and the same amount of garbage, it didn't happen soon.

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This year we were lucky. The event was scheduled for 3 days, from
Friday, May 29th to Sunday, May 31st. We participated on Sunday only, and this was the only day when it was not raining.
Our booth was the first on the entry, so all the visitors came crowding to see our worms,
gathering sometimes 20 people near a small table.
This year the question "Will you eat those worms?" was heard only once.
The majority of visitors already knew what is vermicomposting. Some people said, that they have a bin at home. Many asked where to find more information. Environmental awareness
also seems to grow. People are smart, people learn fast, when it is important to them.

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I like lilac. For me it's a symbol of approaching summer and a memory from childhood, with the fragrance of coming school vacations.

This particular plant shows a good improvement in number of blossoms and fragrance since I started to use garden tea. It even survived a hard snowy winter of 2007-2008 in spite being badly damaged by mice and rabbits.
It's difficult to prove that the vermicompost did the job, but since nothing other is changed, the effect if very likely caused by it.

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