Busy time of year, but I finally have a bit of down-time so I thought it might be good to get some updates posted – starting with one for the vermicomposting planter project.
I must say that it was so much nicer having the planter basically ready to go this year – all I had to do was add plants. That’s not to say I didn’t have a late start, but at least mid-June is a lot better than late-July! lol
So what am I growing, you ask?
Well, the only suggestion I received was to try pepper plants, so I’ve dedicated one of the beds to them (need to check the varieties again, but I know there is at least one jalapeno plant). On the other side some sort of cucurbit volunteer plant popped up so I decided to just leave that. I also planted a vining zucchini (have only grown bush varieties before so I’m interested to try this out) and a handful of swiss chard plants.
Things are coming along very nicely in the composting compartment – everything I put in there seems to be getting processed quite rapidly, and there is a nice healthy population of active Red Worms. The level of material is a fair bit lower than in the planter compartments and some soil was starting to fall in, so I decided to add some temporary barriers (using old pieces of wood and cardboard).
Can’t wait to see how things grow in the weeks ahead.
Stay tuned!
😎
So how do these systems work? Is the hope that worms will travel throughout the system and thus spread the castings? Or is it that the roots will grow towards the rich center area? Or is it that rain will spread the nutrients throughout?
It just seems odd to me to have a central zone that is loaded with nutrients and then have two planting zones that are just near the compost.
Thanks for having all the answers 🙂
John W.
Ok Bentley, this is pure genius! I love it. Going to the lumber yard and get started on a couple of these
Great, John! Be sure to keep me posted!
😎
Whoops – missed the comment from our other “John”…lol
JOHN W – I suspect that some worms will indeed move into the planters, but the main idea is for the roots to spread down into the composting zone. Kinda like a vermicomposting trench with a row of plants on either side. Some of the plants out towards the edge might not see the same benefits as the ones closer in, but overall it seems to work well. This year even more so than last year, undoubtedly because the composting zone is much more mature now.