We are excited to be setting up our 3rd annual Straw Bale Garden. We have been very excited with how it works for the past two years and are doing it again. This video is a quick demonstration of setting up the garden. This is based off of Joel Karsten's book on Straw Bale Gardens. I am also a certified Straw Bale Garden Instructor, you can visit my profile on the Straw Bale Garden website HERE. In Part 1 I will be setting up the cardboard as an underlayment that serves as a weed block and ten the bales. Part 2 will show setting up the rest of the cardboard, spreading out the straw and getting the bales all ready for the growing season. Enjoy!

In our last blog titled, Worm Hotel Vermicomposting... Composting with Worms I gave several reasons why a gardener would want to have a vermicomposter. The bucket style, or as I call, the 'Worm Hotel' is perfect for the typical backyard gardener that is wanting to create worm castings and make compost tea for their garden.

In this video we take it a whole other level by converting a 55 gallon barrel into a worm trough. I decided this was a better route for a few reasons, 1) this year we plan to really develop our farm. We live on an acre and are only using a small portion of it so far. We could really use a lot more worm compost tea and casting. 2) as we scale up and build out our farm we will begin doing a lot more tours, demonstrations, and classes. With those events happening we will be able to sell worm castings, Worm Hotels,  and compost tea kits.

​To learn more about the power of vermicomposting read this blog.

Some gardeners and farmers know all about vermicomposting yet I still come across many you have never heard of vermicomposting or the incredible benefits of what worm casting and worm compost tea is or can do. Here are a few reasons why you should start a vermicomposting Worm Hotel:

• It’s GREEN. Reduce the amount of waste you are sending to the landfill by instead sending your table scraps to the worm hotel.
• It’s FAST. Waste is converted into compost in days instead of months. If you have a traditional compost bin use this as your breeder to grow more worms to add to your composter.
• It’s ODORLESS. As long as you follow the directions the system is designed to be incredibly aerobic, this means it has lots of air, is very healthy, and smells earthy. Many of our customers keep their worm hotel indoors under a sink or in a closet.
• It’s MULTI-USE. The benefits do not just end at composting. 1) You are able to harvest out the castings to amend to your garden soil as an amazing fertilizer, or 2) even brew it into what the University of Arizona considers one of the best fertilizers on the planet known as ‘compost tea’. Five gallons of this concoction is powerful enough to spread over an entire acre... yet gentle enough to pour on a single plant without ANY fertilizer burn. 3) Use this to grow more worms to add to all your potted plants and garden soil. This is your very own WORM FACTORY & FERTILIZER FACTORY.
• It’s INEXPENSIVE. For the cost of a bottle or two of organic fertilizer you have already paid for the Starter Worm Hotel. Then for the cost of a few lattes, you are purchasing high-rise real estate to allow you to self-harvest the castings as you convert your Hotel into a Worm Tower.
• It’s FUN! Now you can brag to all your friends, “I got worms!” Your kids will love them, they can take them to school for show & tell, and much more. ​