Tune in at 11 for ALL the details!
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Back at the end of June I was still trying to find homes for tomato plants residing in smaller pots (in fact, I STILL have two more left!). I knew I had a couple more buckets in my shed – only problem was that they contained bokashi waste materials and had not been opened in more than two years!

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Well, I guess my desire to take care of my tomatoes ended up beating out my fear re: what might be lurking in the buckets (haha), so I ended up opening them up! Me being me, of course I couldn’t resist taking pictures while I was at it – and making a project out of the less-than-pleasant experience!

OK, so it wasn’t THAT bad! I was expecting a lot worse. Still, both buckets did contain a pretty foul mix of anaerobic slop – especially the one that was actually open a crack (pictured above).

I knew I couldn’t expect my worms to consume the material, but I also knew I had to do SOMETHING with it, so I decided to lay out some cardboard and pour the stuff out onto it. My hope was that most of the liquid would slowly drain away, and that the mix would eventually become aerobic.

Of course, I couldn’t just leave it as it was, based on the smell and the unpleasant appearance. I opted to add a layer of straw over top, and recently added a layer of grass clippings as well.

I did all this on June 27, with the hope of seeing Red Worms colonizing the mix at some point (since loads of them near by). Well, the smell has certainly dissipated a fair bit, and a fair amount of liquid seems to have drained away, but there is still no sign of worms (as of Jul 5th). Maggots and other critters have moved in though, so I guess this is “phase I”.

Should be really interesting to see how long it takes before it is “ready” for worms.
I’ll keep everyone posted!
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