Down to Earth: Worm farms
Nature’s way of replenishing the soil is made obvious in autumn with the fall of many leaves to the ground. Myriads of soil organisms are involved in converting organic matter into humus, the secret ingredient that makes good soil. We can do this too, by simply making a worm farm/compost at home. To set up a worm farm:
1. Find a suitable container: eg old bath, mussel buoy (cut in half with hole down one end), large dustbin (holes down bottom for drainage) or simple wooden box (use untreated timber) with no top or bottom. You need a lid too that will keep rain out. Or purchase a commercial worm farm from garden centres.
2. Make sure the container is free draining. Collect worm juice if able and use as liquid fertiliser.
3. Put some bedding material in the bottom. Old hay/straw is good, or shredded paper will do. Top with old manure or compost.
4. Get an ice cream container with lots of tiger worms from a friend with a worm farm. Nestle them into the bedding material.
5. Cover with carpet to keep moist.
6. After a few days start feeding with an equal mixture of food scraps and shredded paper.
7. Avoid coloured paper, citrus, any scraps from the onion family (vermicides), grass clippings (they will heat it up too much).
8. Keep moist. Wash out your scrap bucket into worm farm, but avoid overwatering.
9. Add lime or dolomite regularly as they like alkaline conditions.
10. After a while stop feeding one side until it is all black compost material (vermicaste). Then harvest with a fork.
Vermicaste is a valuable rich fertiliser for the garden and container plants, and it’s free.
Fruit care:
· Store summer bounty in cool, dry place. Check for rot.
· Autumn prune trees. Remove diseased wood and fruit.
· Prune out old canes off berryfruits. Select and tie up strongest new canes.
· Harvest grapes and passionfruit.
· Watch out for silverleaf in fruit trees and insert bio-dowels in trunks.
· Replant strawberry patch with young plants. Add lots of compost and mulch thickly with pine needles.
Herb Care:
· Transplant perennial herbs.
· Take cuttings of rosemary, lavender and other semi-woody herbs into coarse sand under cover.
Vegetable Care:
Prepare ground for peas and broad beans. Add lime and compost if you haven’t this season.
· Plant winter crops now, eg broccoli.
· Liquid fertilise weekly with urine or manure on brassicas, and comfrey for fruit crops.
· Sow green crops (eg lupin, mustard, rye, corn) on vacant beds for winter/spring plantings.
· Weed and mulch.
· Stay observant for pests and diseases.
· For caterpillar pests on brassicas (kale, etc) spray Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) every few days.
· Prepare asparagus beds. Mulch established beds with lots of compost and straw.
· Hothouse: Keep ventilated. Manage pests. Keep crops tidy, remove dead/diseased leaves. Plant salads for winter.
· Harvest late potatoes. Store in cool, dry, shady place.
· Keep harvesting beans, zucchinis and tomatoes.
· Harvest pumpkins and melons when stalks and tendril go brown.
· Save seed.
· Do a soil test if you haven’t for a few years to check for deficiencies. Try Hills laboratory (www.hill-laboratories.com).
Sow for transplanting: All seeds 8 April. Leafy greens (winter spinach, lettuce, endive, cabbages, silverbeet/rainbow chard, Chinese cabbage and red onions), broccoli and early cauliflowers. Flowers eg violas.
Sow direct: All seeds 9 April. Radish, beetroot, turnip and swede (also 10 April). Spring onions, salads, silverbeet/chard. Peas (also 6-7 April). Flowers eg stocks.
Plant: Best 31 March. Salad greens, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, silverbeet/rainbow chard and beetroot. Flowers eg daffodil bulbs.
General Garden Care:
· Sow or resow patches of lawn.
· Mow lawns with mulch mower.
· Prune back flowering plants. Shred prunings.
· Collect seed from annual flowers.
· Weed and mulch ornamental areas.
· Create leaf compost ring. Make and turn composts.
Sol Morgan, GroWise Consultancy. Ph 525 9110.
