I have had the good fortune to attend the first "Permaculture voices" l had been interested in the concept for years. Since then I took a PDC (permaculture design course) now, I am dangerous! I am converting my 40 year old garden into a senior citizen garden with permaculture principals. Wish I had done this 30 years ago when I was young. It is coming along. I started a fledging blog to chronical the journey.

Glad to meet you, Laura; looking forward to getting to know you..
I read about your endeavors here on the 'ALL-THINGS-PLANTS' Forum...
I did jump over to your blog for a brief cursory look, I'm impressed..
Hang in and keep up the good work,
Sam

Welcome. Laura! Its never to late! Im still trying to permaculture-Ize my 3 acres in Alabama.

Laura. I love the swales in your food forest. Really a do-able idea. For man-sized swales you might want to look for Dave's backhoe built trenches --in the Permaculture forum.

Laura, I enjoyed your blog of your journey and you mentioned your worm bin. What is your method for harvesting the vermiculture "gold"? I have 2 metal trough bins ready to harvest and concerned about doing the least harm to my critters. Any pointers?

Is there any way you can install some hardware cloth, (fine mesh wire) in the middle of the troughs? If you go to my blog and put "worm bin" in the search box, a post with pictures of my worm bin will pop up. I hope! Can't quite figure out how to do the complete link. I will try to upload a image, but the post has a lot of info.

www.steps2permaculture.com







Yeah, I got some images up. Right now, I need to finish emptying the old side and re-start it. I need the worms to move so I can harvest more worm compost for my garden.

Nice! I will try splitting the troughs with hardware cloth and coax the little guys to a fresh side. Thanks Laura!

For the outdoor worm bins, do you all use red wigglers or a different type? I realize some of you are in warmer climates so that would make a difference in survival.

Cindy, I just used the worms from my yard. They seem to be doing the job just fine and multiplying. Our winters are mild with only a few days below freezing so they manage just fine outside. One of the bins is protected slightly in an unheated greenhouse.

My dad would use his yard waste compost pile for worm and nightcrawler supply for fishing. He always had plenty.

Need to get the worms to move so I can harvest all those worm castings for the garden plants.
I emptied the one side and started it again. I put in some cow manure, a big scoop of worms from the full side, kitchen waste and top it with leaves and/or shredded paper. Wet it down good and wait until the worms go find the food. It doesn't take them long once they run out of food on the other side.
I discovered some scale on my Meyer Lemon. Gave it the last of the worm castings. It is a miracle. Scale disappears!

Interesting that the worm compost eliminated the scale. And I bet the lemon loved the compost.

The Meyer Lemon has plenty to lemons already set. In fact I have been thining them. And It keeps blooming and setting more. It must be the worm compost. Normally it sets lemons in December and January.
Scale is always a issue with citrus. I know I have had to fight it every year with my lemon. Almost lost it one year when the scale got out of hand. Then I accidently discovered that worm compost got rid of it. Saves a lot of time. I have cleaned every leaf and branch with alcohol in the past.

Do you just top-dress with the compost or work it into the soil? I wonder if worm compost tea sprayed on the plant would have the same effect on the scale?

My understanding is to never spray worm tea on anything edible.

Plant - I had to look that up because it never occurred to me not to use it on edibles. Thanks for the heads up. Learn something new every day.

Backtracking here - Freshly Brewed Aerated Worm Tea may be ok if there is no smell (bad bacteria) but never use just the sludge (Leachate) with water.

I do use the sludge, mixed with water, on non-edibles on the soil under the overhang of the house - that dry, dusty soil along the foundation.